When it comes to headphones, I think people can get carried away with big brand names.
While watching the pre-match show for the France VS All Blacks test the other night, I was slightly amused to see the majority of players from both teams wearing the latest big-name headphones while they were warming up. Not sure what they were listening to - perhaps nothing at all, but you've got to look as cool as the other guys, right?
I don't care about that stuff. I just want headphones that sound good and don't break.
This is even more true when dealing with earbuds...
The AKG N5005 earbuds (sorry, "In-Ear Headphones") are without doubt the most expensive things I've ever worn in or on my ears. How could anyone possibly justify spending $1629.95 on something you could easily leave in your pants pocket and accidentally put through the wash?
The design ethic would have to be first rate, sound quality unrivaled and you'd expect plenty of extras in the box.
Let's start with what's in the box; 3 different cables, hard carry case, cleaning tool, airplane adapter, charging cable, seven ear-tip options, four pairs of physical EQ filters and of course, the earbuds themselves, available in any colour you want, as long as it's black.
In fact, the ceramic casing is "piano black" - which basically means shiny and attracts fingerprints just like a real piano.
Certainly, first impressions when you open the box are all class. The braided hard-wired cables (2.5mm and 3.5mm options) are an antiquey dark bronze colour and the box itself has molded compartments for every component.
There are certainly enough ear-tip options to ensure a comfortable, secure fit, especially combined with the looped-over-the-ear design of the cables. You can change out the cables easily enough by snapping the earbuds off and on (each side is colour coded so you don't mix up your left and right) This isn't too fiddly for a fumble thumbs like me and after a few goes I was able to change cables pretty quickly.
Comfort-wise, I'd have to rate the N5005's right up there with some of the best earbuds I've ever tried (and I've tried plenty) While I'm not usually a fan of the behind-the-neck connecting cable, especially when it comes to bluetooth options, AKG have done a good job of balancing their cable with a dummy unit on the right-hand side to mirror the control/power unit on the left. They're probably the first earbuds I've ever worn running I didn't have to adjust once for the whole seven k's. I must say, it felt very strange wearing something more expensive than my TV around my neck only to sweat all over it, but they were so comfy, by the end of the run I'd almost forgotten they were there.
In terms of battery life using the bluetooth cable, the AKG website claims around 8 hours and I certainly gave that a good nudge between charges, making these some of the longer lasting bluetooth buds on the market.
I found you don't want to get too active wearing the N5005's though. I've been using them to monitor my radio show at work for a few weeks, and while the fixed cable is just as comfortable, I've had several disconnections due to fast movements, bending down etc... That's to say the earbud has literally unclipped itself from the cable and either left me silent (if using the bluetooth cable, one disconnected earbud turns both off) or even worse, resulted in the disconnected earbud tumbling across the desk or floor.
This is a major design flaw and I expected a far more secure connection.
While clipping and unclipping the earbuds from the cables isn't too complicated, dealing with the sound filters is quite a different story. Amazingly, these are tiny caps that screw onto the speakers themselves. You can choose between Bass Boost, Reference Sound, Mid High or High Boost, depending on your preference. They all come screwed into their own metal mounting plate, so to change them, you need to unscrew the new ones from that plate, remove the ear-tips, unscrew the filters you're currently using, replace them with the new ones, then replace the ear-tip.
Remember, these things are small enough to fit inside the things that fit inside the things that fit inside your ears. They're tiny. I dropped at least one of the four involved every time I changed them over. So much for my fine motor skills. Oh, and don't get them mixed up, for god's sake. They're supposed to be colour coded, but on my set the Mid High and High Boost options are both grey, so it can get pretty confusing pretty quickly.
Does it make a difference? Well, yes - although I really think the Bass Boost and High Boost options are slightly mislabeled, as of course they can't really boost anything - they're just blocking out other frequencies. I guess High Block and Bass Block doesn't quite have the same ring.
Physical filters aside, the most important question for any headphones is simply, how do they sound? If you're shelling out more than $1600 for the N5005's, they'd better sound pretty damn good.
They do...
...and yet...
Don't get me wrong, everything's there. Clear highs without being sibilant. Warm mids without muddiness. Powerful bass tones that defy the small size of these speakers. When listening to music, you can pick out every element and get the most of every effect. If you're a podcast listener like me, you're transported into the room or studio it was recorded in - you can almost imagine the dimensions of the space around the performers.
Trouble is, it's not loud enough.
I used the N5005's with a large list of different devices, from phones, to sound desks to TV's. I know it sounds crazy, but even with the volume turned to maximum on many of these (especially the phones) I simply couldn't get the sound loud enough.
Now I know we're not supposed to listen to things too loudly because it's bad for our hearing - but what if we want to? There's no point in blasting out Shihad on medium. I want Jon Toogood yelling at me at just below my pain threshold! When I'm listening to the Dollop podcast while running, I still need to be able to hear it if the wind gets up at the top of the hill, or a truck passes by.
It didn't matter if I was using the fixed or bluetooth cable options, there were too many times I reached for the volume-up button only to discover it was already all the way up.
Maybe I'm just a deaf old geezer, but I own other earbuds that pack the audio punch I'm looking for.
I understand there's a market for premium products like these, but given I'm not the type of guy who goes around telling people how much I paid for my earwear, I'm just not convinced the N5005's justify their high-end price tag.
They certainly look amazing, and the design ideas are innovative and unique.
I just need AKG to turn it up a bit.
Click here for more information and pricing on the AKG N5005 In-Ear Headphones
Once upon a time, a simple RAM upgrade was the key to transforming a slow, clogged-up PC into a half-decent performer.
These days, a really tricked-out gaming machine is more than just lots of RAM - it'll be based around the latest CPU, solid state memory cards to give yet more of a speed boost and various cooling systems will be installed to let you push all these things to their maximum overclocking limits.
But we're not all mega-gaming geeks who feel confident enough to attack their motherboard with a set of precision screwdrivers...
Replacing your RAM modules has never been easier - most late-model motherboards and PC cabinets make the RAM slots about the most accessible bits on your computer. So there's no excuse not to do it.
The real question is, how much RAM do you need? If you're a serious gamer, you already know the answer to that and you've taken the appropriate steps. If, like me, you just want a really cool computer that keeps running smoothly, 16GB of Tactical Tracer RAM from Ballistix will probably do the trick.
For anything more taxing than checking your emails, these days 4GB is nowhere near enough and as image and video editing software becomes more user-friendly, it also becomes more memory-intensive so even 8GB of RAM may no longer be enough to keep several programs running smoothly and simultaneously.
It's been a while since I poked around inside my PC, so I set aside a bit of time to replace my existing 2X4GB modules with the 2X8GB Tactical Tracers.
It took me about two and a half minutes.
Almost disappointingly straight-forward.
What actually was disappointing, was when I fired the computer up, I didn't notice any difference in boot time. Start times for memory-hogging games like Fortnite and Sims 4 didn't really change either. This is because operations like these rely more on how fast the memory works, rather than how much memory is available and it turns out, the memory I was replacing was already pretty quick.
The real improvements became more evident once I started to actually use my machine instead of just sitting there watching it. Firstly, reports from my resident gaming expert (14 year-old Monster #2) assured me her experience was now completely lag-free, consistently running at at least 60FPS. I don't really know what this means, but she seemed very pleased.
Editing video using Adobe Premiere Pro has previously been slightly fraught - fiddling about with large video files on a home PC often seems to lead to freezes and crashes, especially if you work too fast or if you've forgotten to save your project thereby causing you to lose all your cool edits and to lose your cool generally.
The extra RAM cleaned all that up straight away.
As you'd expect.
There are other, smaller improvements I've noticed too; swapping between users for example - something that has to happen regularly on a communal family machine like ours, thanks to the extra 8GB - this all now happens instantly. Not a biggie, but a pleasurable improvement none-the-less.
So although I was expecting more speed, what I actually achieved was better reliability - a computer that does what I want it too when I want it too - more direct control if you like.
But I'm perhaps I'm missing the most important feature of the Ballistix Tactical Tracer RAM module; RGB.
Yes, you know you're becoming a true gamer when you want your computer to light up.
Personally, I hate things that light up, but my resident gaming expert currently has a dazzling rainbow flashing across the very keyboard I'm using to type this, so I'm thinking she's kind of attached to the idea.
Lucky for her, the Ballistix Tactical Tracer RAM modules can do that too. Freakily, they'll glow whatever colour the rest of your PC is set to by default, but you can download the M.O.D. Utility from the Ballistix website which lets you take full control of the colour scheme and patterns. Admittedly, pretty cool if you have a viewing panel in the side of your PC's cabinet like I do.
What's more, you can download 3D printing files to create your own customised lighting bar. Yes, my RAM modules could light up the name "glennzb" in bright red if I wanted them to. (Not sure my resident gaming expert would be quite so impressed with that)
The M.O.D. Utility isn't just for show, it also let's you monitor the temperature, speed and performance of your ram if you do decide to try some overclocking tweaks. You can even activate a semi-transparent widget to display running temperatures while you're gaming if that's what you're into.
At about $365, 16GB of Tactical Tracer RAM isn't the cheapest thing you can do to upgrade your box, but it's in the same price range as other manufacturers' options and only a handful of those offer those groovy RGB lighting effects.
Next time Photoshop freezes on you, it might be worth a look.
Click here for more information and pricing on the16GB Ballistix Tactical Tracer DDR4 RGB RAM upgrade
How's your Wi-Fi?
We all have to be connected all the time. We may not think we have to be. But we do.
I thought I could take or leave my connectivity... until I didn't have it.
I went on holiday last week. It was tropical. It was remote. The Wi-Fi was terrible. At first, it was relaxing. Then it was frustrating. Eventually, I wanted to kill.
There's no point pretending we're not all part of the Matrix, so we may as well do a good job of it, especially in our own homes...
D-Link now offers two new "mesh"-style options when it comes to shedding some brighter Wi-Fi connectivity on your home's dark spots.
Firstly, let's check out the DAP-1860. It looks like one of D-Link's more conventional range extenders... on steroids...
The difference here is two-fold - or even four-fold; four fold-out, high-power antennae and mesh capability. The antennae obviously improve the range of this device dramatically and indeed, I found the DAP-1860 to be an extremely effective, instant solution to getting some more oomph into the lower storey of my house (my source modem/router is upstairs)
The real revelation here is, for the first time, I was able to take advantage "Whole Home Wi-Fi Ready" feature. This means instead of my devices having to switch between two different networks (by default, most extenders just add an "EXT" to your network name when connected) both my router and the DAP-1860 share the same name, with your devices seamlessly connecting to whichever is broadcasting the stronger signal.
This is what's known as a "mesh" Wi-Fi system - similar to the setup you might connect to if you work in a large office building.
At just $299.99, the DAP-1860 genuinely offers "Whole Home" coverage. As it is one of the new generation of MU-MIMO enabled devices, it handles multiple devices with ease - be they phones, laptops or TVs. Although the DAP-1860 is only a dual band device, I rarely experienced my connection being choked up and weirdly, when I conducted speed tests my upload speeds often outperformed my download speeds.
While the DAP-1860 was pretty much perfect once it was up and running, getting it going was tricky, for two reasons. Firstly, this thing is large, much bigger than more traditional wall-plug extenders. While those are usually about the size of a double plug, the DAP-1860 is nearly twice as long, yet still plugs straight into the wall socket. This is a bit of a design flaw, because it's almost too heavy to be held up by its own plug and if you're plugging into a dual wall socket, you can pretty much forget about accessing the other one.
It's not pretty either - it's a big, rectangle grey and white box with sticky-out bits, so you're not going to want it anywhere super visible.
My way round these challenges was to plug it into an extension cord and hide it under a cupboard, where it still works brilliantly.
The other setup issue was the same problem I seem to face with many D-Link extenders. The box and manual promise 3 ways to connect, one touch WPS, via the D-Link W-Fi app or through the web-based wizard.
Well, I tried the first two to no avail. It wasn't until I reset the device completely and logged in via a web browser that I was able to connect to my router. Frustrating, but worth it in the end. Like I say, this is the $300 Wi-Fi power-up any large home deserves.
So you'd think I'd learned my lesson, but...
...I found the COVR-1203 system equally impossible to install.
Admittedly that was mostly my fault and just confirms, once and for all, that I'm an idiot.
My first mistake was to think the one-touch WPS buttons were for setup - they definitely aren't. Use those for connecting devices once you've got your COVR network up and running.
That leaves the app and the webpage setup. Oddly, they're basically the same thing, as the app is really only a step-by-step walkthrough of how to set up your COVR network using the webpage.
When all else fails, follow the instructions, right?
I think what confused me most is I thought I'd be able to use the COVR-1203 system to add to my existing network. This doesn't seem to be the case. I also got myself into a bit of a tangle trying to set up each unit individually - the extenders are already paired to the base unit straight out of the box, so my extra fluffing around was unnecessary and counter-productive.
The D-Link COVR-1203 system consists of a base unit and two extenders which are, without question, the most subtle, modern-looking, decor-blending Wi-Fi devices I've ever seen. To look at, basically the exact opposite of the behemouth DAP-1860 we were just discussing. If the pink-gold colour plates the units come fitted with aren't quite your style, you can swap these out for the blue or gold ones included in the box.
Each unit is pretty tiny too - not much bigger than a computer mouse. They each have their own separate power supply which connects via USB Type-C.
My inexperience working with mesh systems like these showed through again when it came to positioning the extenders; for some reason I thought I could just keep extending my network further and further away, like telephone poles. This is not the case. Ideally, with a three-storey house like mine, you'd have the base unit connected on the middle storey and have one extender above and one below - either that or spread out across-ways for a more horizontal home.
Good news is, like the DAP-1860, the mesh system means one network name over all three access points - seamless connectivity wherever you are.
Less power and no ugly antennae means less range for each unit, but because there are more of them, you can certainly cover a very large home no problem. I found both down and upload speeds to be very similar to the DAP-1860 and I was able to stream HD video with no problems whatsoever.
All in all, the COVR-1203 system is another effective Wi-Fi solution - and this one looks great too. In fact, it's pretty much invisible with one small niggle; there's an LED display on the top of each unit that shines solid white when you're connected, or blinks if the connection is a bit weak. That's fine for setup, but once you're all go, this light is insanely bright. You can disable this LED via the web-page access, but I could only do this for the base router - no matter how hard I tried I couldn't log into the extenders individually to access this feature. So in the end I just took the cover plates off and unplugged the LED module (probably don't try this at home)
The other nice feature of this system (if you're a parent) is you can choose when certain devices are allowed to connect. So if you're teen keeps secretly binge-watching Stranger Things till 1AM, you can schedule their Wi-Fi access to shut off at bedtime.
I'm sure that won't cause any arguments.
As you'd expect, the COVR-1203 system is more expensive than the DAP-1860, at $549.99 and if I had to choose between the two (and assuming you already have a "Whole Home Wi-Fi Ready" router like me) the DAP-1860 should supply all the extra Wi-Fi you need.
Geez it's ugly though. So if you're starting your mesh network from scratch and you want a pretty one, the COVR-1203 system is the way to go. Either way, there's no longer any excuse for those Wi-Fi dead zones.
Click here for more information and pricing on the D-Link DAP-1860 Range Extender
Click here for more information and pricing on the D-Link COVR-C1203 Mesh WiFi System
