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