High-End Headphones = Rip Off?

I am starting to wonder if paying bigger and bigger amounts for headphones is worth it.

I bought some Sennheiser HD570 and I was looking at the HD595 because they are one of the highest class of audiophile headphones without an outrages. Then I started looking it the specifications between the HD515, HD555, and HD595. The only difference other then the stamp on it is the range of sound that it is able to produce. The HD515 and HD555 also have a <0.2%>

HD515 – 14Hz-26,000 Hz
HD555 – 15Hz-28,000 Hz
HD595 – 12Hz-32,500 Hz

Now with that in mind let’s look at the hearing of a human. There are sounds that we can hear and can not due to the level of frequency. The sounds that we can not hear are infrasound and ultrasound, infrasound is too low and ultrasound is too high. So what is the frequency range of a human?

Well there have been many studies on it here are the results of three and then we will average out the findings to have a semi accurate account assuming that the research they did is accurate.

Cutnell, John D. and Kenneth W. Johnson
Physics. 4th ed. New York: Wiley, 1998: 466.

They found that the hearing rage was 20-20,000 Hz

"Ear". Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia. CD-ROM. 2000

States that the level is 15-18,000 Hz

Caldarelli, David D. and Ruth S. Campanella.

Ear. World Book Online Americas Edition. 26 May 2003

State that the level of hearing for a human is in the 20-20,000 Hz range.

So if we average out the three we find that the average lowest frequency is 18 Hz and the highest is 19,333 Hz.

With that in mind lets look back at the at the lowest of the three models its response is 4 Hz lower then human hearing and about 7,000 Hz higher. Thus with their lower model you are getting more then you can hear. So why should you pay more for sounds that you can not hear.

The MSRP for each of the products is

HD515’s $109.95 USD
HD555’s $169.95 USD
HD595’s $289.95 USD

So if the 515’s are already above my hearing then how do they expect me to pay an extra $180 for sounds that I can not hear?

If you know a scientist or a person who works with audio equipment and is well educated that would be able to give me facts about this and lead me in the right direction please let me know.

Aft3rM4th Is Back

Guess who is back, that is right, Aft3rM4th is back. With the switching of computer components I have needed to reinstall and I left best for last and I am reinstalling Counter-Strike Source. I have been playing F.E.A.R for my multiplayer fix of FPS as well as a little Call of Duty 1.

I have to say that F.E.A.R is really fun for the price, and that price was free. It is really fun and it runs really nicely on my computer. The graphics are interesting and for just getting into the game I am almost always in the top rankings on the server that I play on.

However, I want to get some CSS back in, there are things that playing in games brings to the table. You play one game and the skills that you use in the game end up transferring into the other games. So I want to work on putting together COD F.E.A.R and CSS skills. With the fast pace of FEAR and the COD style map strategy mixed together should bring my CSS game up to a new level.

I do however need to re-write all my binds and scripts.

I will post my binds and scripts and more information on how I try and give myself the edge.

Once I get the game going I will do a round, and take a screenshot of my frist round back sence I reinstalled.

Getting the Most Out of Azureus or Other Torrent Clients

To be honest with you I was not totally pleased with my Torrent sharing experience till now. I was always reading about people downloading their “Demos” at speeds of up to 400kbps and that was very high sounding for me considering some of the highest speeds I ever saw for downloading big “Demos” was around the 40-50 maybe 60-70 if I was lucky. So I started doing my research into the subject of P2P and computer settings.

Here is what I am running network wise; a Shaw Cable-Cable line, and with Linksys routers and switches. As it is we have 3 computers on the network two used for gaming which both of us use torrent downloads to get a lot of our files and another machine that is used in the kitchen for sending emails and msn for the less computer savvy people in the family. The network is running 10/100mbits, so there is no bottleneck there.

I am currently using Azureus 2.4.0.2 even though there is a 2.5.0.0 version out currently.

The first thing that I have noticed that effects my download speed is my upload setting, it turns out that some clients are able to set the maximum you speed you are allowed to download off them based off of the speed of your upload, so having your upload bigger actually is better; however to do not want to have it too high as it will effect the overall net performance of your download as well, from all of the articles I have read it seems to be that 80% of your maximum upload is the magic number. To get your max speed, test it with a bandwidth tester. I myself use http://www.speedtest.net/ as it is easy on the eyes and almost anyone can use it.

The next big thing that effects your upload speed is the availability of your computer to the net, by this I mean that your computers ports that Azureus is using need to be open and ready to use. For people that are not running off a router and are going directly into your internet line you have nothing to worry about. However if you are running off of a router or some type of hardware firewall you will need to check to make sure that your “NAT/Server Port” is open. With Azureus you do these by clicking “Tools>Nat Firewall Test> Check” if the test comes back that it is open and working then great then you are ready to go, but if not then you need to change your hardware firewall to forward that port to you. There are many guides on the net for doing this I am not going to write any down as there are a vast variety of different firewalls and different ways of dealing with each.

Now for settings; let’s start with the transfer settings since they are the ones that will affect your transfer speeds. My currents settings are as follows.

Max Global Upload Speed: 25
Alternate Rate for Seeding [ ]
Max Global Download Speed: 0

Max Number Upload Slots per Torrent: 2

Alternate Default for seeding: [x] 4

The rest of the settings on that tab are set to 0, or unchecked.

Another big speed increase, and I can not stress this one enough, it is where I saw my biggest boost is with changing your TCPIP.SYS, no you do not have to do it yourself there is a tool that does it for you. What happened is with Service Pack 2 they have changed the number of Max TCPIP connections to 10, which means that you will only be able to download from 10 clients at a time per port. The address can be found at the bottom of this article.

I did a test to see how much of a difference this made; I put the setting back to the stock 10 with the same settings, restarted my computer and turned on a torrent. It was downloading at an average of 40 KBPS, what I was used to seeing. So I switched the setting to 100 max connections, restarted and waited a wile for the torrent to level off and it levelled off at about 140KBPS that is a 3X increase.

So I hope with some of these things the less advanced users of torrents can start experiencing torrents at the way it was meant to be experienced.

http://www.lvllord.de/?lang=en&url=downloads – TCPIP.SYS utility.

Snakes on a Plane

When a young man witnesses a brutal mob murder, it falls to FBI agent Neville Flynn to escort his charge safely from Hawaii to Los Angeles to testify. But in an act of self-preservation, the crime bos...(read more )s facing prison smuggles hundreds of poisonous snakes onto the commercial aircraft in a crate timed to release its deadly cargo halfway over the Pacific. Flynn, along with a frightened flight crew and passengers, must then band together in a desperate attempt to survive.

- Flixster Synopsis

Man, not only does the trailer tell me that it is going to be very repetitive. “AHHH, there is a snake over there!”; “AHHH, there is another snake in another location. We are all going to die!.” But they could have come up with a different title like Venom Plane, or Plane of endless snakes with no storyline that is going to be boring as hell.

Till the next time something comes up. I’m Logging Off.

CY4

My PC Overclock

Ok, I know it isn't the best system, but I am only 16 years old so don't get me down.




CPU: AMD Barton Mobile 2500+ OCed My settings for CPU are: (12.5x200(For a true 2500))
Memory: 2x512 Corsair 3200 DDR400 running in Dual channel
Video Card: Sapphire X800 Pro VIVO (Bios Flashed to XT PE for 16 Pipes) (OCed running at 520 core 560 memory)
Motherboard: Asus A7N8X















Till the next time something comes up. I’m Logging Off.

CY4

What, PS3 to Take Sale Title in 2011?

Who's the lucky company? Despite widespread unhappiness with the PlayStation 3's high price, the Yankee Group predicts that Sony will come out on top. "Microsoft is off to a fast start, launching the Xbox 360 nearly 12 months before the PlayStation 3," the company said in a statement. "However, by the time third-generation consoles reach market maturity in 2011, the PlayStation 3 will once again be the market leader."
- GameSpot’s Tor Thorsen

I personally do not think that the PS3 will kill the Xbox 360 that much. Lets take one game as an example; Oblivion. The people at Bethesda Softworks said that it will only be coming out for the Xbox 360 and PC due to the computing power that is required to run the game. Well if the PS3 is going to be better then the Xbox 360 then wouldn’t we expect to see this awesome title coming out for PS3 as well? You really have to ask yourselves this question.

Till the next time something comes up. I’m Logging Off.

CY4

Firefox 2 Delayed

According to an article on TechWeb Firefox 2 is getting postponed till October this is ok, I was just hoping that I would be able to use the new one sooner.

Till the next time something comes up. I’m Logging Off.

CY4

TechWeb Article
http://www.techweb.com/showArticle.jhtml?
articleID=192100053&cid=RSSfeed_TechWeb

Phantom Overhauled

Originally, the Phantom was announced as a console that would bring the PC experience to the living room. After several delays and much mocking from the gaming community, the company rebranded its product as the "Phantom Game Service." While it still involved a special box hooked up to the TV, management emphasized that it was developing a subscription offering for streaming games and was not a competitor for Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo.

- Quote from GameSpot Editor Brendan Sinclair

They have also change the site up. What it looks like is they have officially switched to selling a special keyboard and a service to play games if you already own a computer. But let’s think about this one for a minute. You are going too basically try and start running your PC system as a console for $129.99 American. So that you can play with PC games that you have bought and use their fancy system. But Wait; if you already own a PC and you are playing PC games, then why would you need to spend close to $130 to play the same games, when you can play them without the Phantom Gaming Service. The idea of downloading games off the net has already been used by Direct2Dive created by GameSpy so the only thing that would possibly interest me is their keyboard with the mouse pad. It is a very neat idea. Me personally however already own a good mouse and am getting away from wireless. I own a MX700 and a Logitech Wireless Keyboard if I wanted to use wireless, but I am switching to the G15 and I already own a G5.

Any smart gamer is going to see the Phantom Gaming Service and burst out laughing right away, well that is if they got two brain cells to rub together.

Till the next time something comes up. I’m Logging Off.

CY4

New Phantom Website
http://www.phantom.net/home.html

Direct2Drive Website
http://www.direct2drive.com/

Why Two Copies of New Games?

What I am having a problem with is a game company coming out with the same game but then making an add-on calling it by a different name and charging you the extra fee. Neverwinter Nights 2 is coming out with the standard version of the game and the limited edition of the game. With the limited edition of the game you are going to get some extras such as a cloth map, and the art book. Then on top of paying 60 dollars for that you can get an extra add-on that adds some features to the game for only an extra 10 dollars. Don’t get me wrong if they want to do this then I guess that there is nothing that me as the consumer can do other then complain.

The message that I get from them is that they want to charge us for something extra that should have come with the game. So if the going price for this game is going to be 70 American if you want to have it the way that they wanted you to play it then I am going to be stuck with paying approximately $100 Canadian for a game that I do not even know if I will like just because I think it will be nice to have some extra things that at even $60 they should have already thrown in.

Again don’t get me wrong I love Neverwinter Nights with the expansions however I do not think that off the launch I should be paying extra for a package that they have already come out with and could have easily added into the game so that it does not cost me extra.

Another great example of what I am talking about is with Need for Speed Most Wanted and Need for Speed Most Wanted Black Edition. I personally got the Black Edition for the fact that I thought that I could go cruising with a 68 Camaro however it didn’t mention that the only time I got to drive one of my most favorite muscle cars was when I was either getting chassed by the most annoying of the pursuit modes or if I was racing. However since both editions of the game came out at launch why didn’t they just come out with only one, I can see them coming out with the first one and then waiting till half-way between the launch of there new one and the old one coming out with an expansion pack to give the people that love the game something new to do with it then I can see myself paying the extra money for it.

Till the next time something comes up. I’m Logging Off.

CY4