2006-01-30

Second thoughts on that headphone amp

A while back I said that this summer, my gift to myself for interning at Google would be a headphone amp for my computer and iPod. After thinking about it, I am starting to have second thoughts. While I have been accused of having good hearing (but ask my mother and she might say I can't hear squat, but that is more from being overly focused and blocking the world out =) and I can definitely tell the difference between the various headhpones I have owned over the years, I am not sure if I really need to spend $600 just to up the sound quality for myself.

The thing that sparked this thinking was the equalizer on iTunes. I never set it. I actually just discovered someone had it set to "flat". If I don't bother to play with the equalizer to get a more rich sound or the sound I want out of a song, why should I bother with a headphone amp? I think I should learn to work with what I have better before I heap on more equipment to try to up the experience.

But do not fret, my friends, for I have something else to lust after. I have discovered that my laptop can actually use a 30" LCD. =) Now that would be nice to work on. Forget dual monitor needs; that thing's resolution is so good I would not need to use the screen on my laptop for anything. And watching movies on that thing would be amazing! But I can always step down to a 24" LCD and increase my resolution by 20%. But more than doubling my monitor resolution would be rather nice. =)

And this is not totally insane. Getting a new LCD would allow me to one of two things. One is to turn my current 19" into a TV. Since it has S-video input I can take my Klipsch speakers and set up a decent home theatre setup instantly. The other option is bringing the 19" LCD to the lab so that I have an even nicer LCD at home. We will see what happens after interning at Google. Working on dual 24" LCDs last summer nearly killed me in terms of working at home. Who knows, maybe they will switch over to 30" LCDs when I get there and I really will have issues. =)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I am using 3 19" LCDs right now at work, which is more than enough but dude, those new dell 30" LCDs are gorgeous!! I am saving money for a next gen console though, since I figure I'll probably buy one after E3 (just not sure which one yet:P) 30" will just have to wait unless my boss decides to buy one for me ;)