Dave Jansen » Music

Brought my record player to work.. ;-)

Dave — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 06:41:42 +0000

Lizzy's first response is about the same as anyone else that has visited my home to listen to a record or two; sheer amazement. It's interesting to see how most seem to remember their parents owning LPs, but not remembering playing them. It's fun to see them respond when I explain how to control the player and where the beginning and end is, most seem to at first assume the beginning is at the center of the record. The record playing here is Sigor Rós' Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust or, to put it in terms we can actually understand/read; The album with the naked folk running.

Sennheiser HD555 “soundstage” modification.

Dave — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 16:09:31 +0000

For a while now I've been meaning to try to modify my Sennheiser HD555, after reading in a few forum topics this modification would drastically improve the audio quality of the headphones. I bought these headphones about 5 years ago now at some local electronics store in Holland. With music playing in the background, I spent all of one minute listening to some god-awful poppy song before I decided to purchase them. I had little knowledge regarding what to look for in headphones, and mostly let the brand and the price-tag of the headphones tell me how good they really were. I ended up with the open-can HD555 headphones. They're not bad, but they spit out awfully murky sounds, almost as if you're listening to your music through a wall. Definitely not all that pleasant. It became increasingly apparent I disliked the sound they produced way too much, especially after I started wearing several other portable headphones for at work or during my daily commutes. It's a bit of a problem when your $50 portable headphone produces sounds far better than your $160 "at home" headphones. As time went by, the HD555s ended up tucked away in the corner of my closet, unused. I brought them with me when I moved to Korea, but still did not use them. I later ended up with the Sennheiser HD 380 Pros, closed-can headphones that I use every day in the office. Today I finally started and completed the "open stage" modification, which involves cutting out the plastic mid-section of the headphones, which in turn gives the headphones more breathing space. I first did one ear, just to try it out. I put everything back together and put them on, not remembering which ear I did the modification on. I turned on Lester Bowie's Great Pretender, and from the very first second of the track the difference was more than apparent. Whereas before the murky sounds would cover up most details, I felt like the sponge that used to be between me and the music was no more. So, I immediately took the headphones apart again and modified the other side as-well. I used a box cutter to cut through the plastic, then used a file to smoothen the surface. There was a thin layer of cloth glued tightly to the plastic I removed, so I used a cigarette lighter to smoothen the left-over edges and avoid tiny pieces from sticking out. I also took my time to make sure all little cracks and fallen apart pieces of the headphones would be fixed. Because of it's age the plastic shell had a few cracks here and there, and the glued-together soft padding separated from the shell. I used some simple glue I picked up at a local store to fix all these. In the case of the plastic cracks, I used the glue as a layer on top of the crack to hopefully avoid it getting any worse. The end-result is worth all the trouble (it actually wasn't even all that much work). From The Shins' New Slang to Talk Talk's Spirit / Eden / Desire to Lester Bowie's Great Pretender, each and every sound sounds much better than before. While I do enjoy my HD 380 Pro more in general still, mid-way through The Great Pretender I started to question that very feeling, with the modified 555s sounding so open and comfortable, it felt like the music was all around me in the room. It looks bloody gorgeous as-well, if I do say so myself:

A Musical Sunday.

Dave — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 15:08:50 +0000

Music on the go.

Dave — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 17:09:12 +0000

I've been using my iPad for listening to music while on the road for a long while now. I'm not sure how I made the switch from my trusty old iPod Touch, it sort of happened without me noticing it I guess. I carry my iPad with me every day, so it makes sense I use it for music as-well. I most often watch videos on my way, though, so with both music and movies on there space becomes an issue rather quickly. Today I decided to (finally) upgrade my iPad to iOS5 (to the just-released 5.0.1 beta, actually), and with this clean my iPad from all music, giving me a lot more space for movies and TV shows. I've also refreshed the content on my iPod Touch, although I still only put lossless files on there, mostly as a test. I've also decided to give my D10 Cobra a spin on the road. Before I kept using my other AMP, but the Cobra sounds better, so why the hell not, right? I'll be using my trusty Etymotic HF5 earphones with this "music bomb". Also, I bought these new and awfully cute orange hair bands to hold the iPod and AMP together. Doesn't it look cute? Aw..

Lester Bowie – The Great Pretender

Dave — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 06:35:12 +0000

Today I received what should've been a vinyl copy of Lester Bowie's The Great Pretender, but instead turned out to be a normal CD copy. I missed the part where they mentioned it had a "LP cover", instead of it just being a, you know, LP. Lesson learned, no more vinyl shopping over Gmarket ;-). Fortunately, though, I could now rip my own lossless version of this album. I only had a decent quality mp3 version, but this album really benefits from the added space, even to my non-audiophile ears the difference is tremendous. Here's the first track of the album (And by far the very best), found on YouTube. I did not upload this one. Give it a whirl, it's a wonderful track:

My new record player.

Dave — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 05:24:11 +0000

Finally went out and bought another record player. The one I've been using so far wasn't really meant for casual listening (it's a portable turntable with pre-amp and amp built in - it's biggest problem in a living room setup, really). I now have the record player hooked up to my amplifier using the DJPreII phono amplifier. My speakers, amp and record player are all from Inkel, a Korean brand apparently rather famous locally, at least to those a few generations older (it seems nowadays they only really do some studio audio stuff). The album playing is Nat "King" Cole's Just One Of Those Things. Wonderful album!

My new records.

Dave — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 14:31:07 +0000

A few more to further my tiny collection. This time I went for a few jazzy records, a truly great genre for vinyl listening. Big names like Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Nat King Cole, and the (very) odd man out; John Denver. I picked that one up mostly for the memories I have, my parents enjoy his voice quite a bit. (Recorded with my mobile phone, hence the shitty quality. Apologies for that.)

Back Home Again.

Dave — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 14:29:50 +0000

One of newest additions to my ever-so-slowly growing record collection. Memories!

My New Living Room Speakers.

Dave — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 09:16:15 +0000

I finally found some nice speakers for in my living room. So far I used my Soundstick IIs connected to my iMac which is not bad at all, but especially when I want to put up a record is a major hassle. I have to lug around my turntable and change cables and what-not. These are Inkel –a Korean brand– speakers with an amplifier of the same brand. The amp is bit overkill for my needs (with two microphone inputs in the front and a battery of sound-tweaking knobs, it's designed for a karaoke room more than living room), but it works, so I'm happy. The song I played on my iTouch for some quick testing was Carry Me Ohio, from Sun Kil Moon. Great track!

Music Is My Life.

Dave — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 08:05:08 +0000

Yesterday, on my way home late from the office, I was listening to a sort of collection album called Haydn - Three Favourite Concertos, with songs played by Yo-Yo Ma, Wynton Marsallis and Cho-Liang Lin. When Yo-Yo Ma first appeared on this album, playing Concerto In D Major For Cello And Orchestra, Op. 101 - 1 - Allegro Moderato (I just cannot cat used to classical music's way of giving awful "titles" to their music, just give it some names already), I couldn't help but enjoy the moment, ignoring the world around me for a short ten or so minutes, and letting the music gently overtake my mind. It's small moments like that that keep me exploring the world of music. While some might not see the reason for spending time and money finding portable amplifiers or a new pair of headphones or speakers, I do. I don't particularly like the exploration (too many options, too much confusion – same goes for PC components by the way), I like the result said journey takes me to. I have an ever-growing love for music. Finding a set of speakers for my living room is just a means to find yet another way to soak up the beauty that is music. Like my newly started (tiny) LP collection, and whatever new way of musical bliss I'll stumble upon next.

For Emma, Forever Ago.

Dave — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 14:58:00 +0000

Finally got myself a record player! It's a tiny one, but it's a great start. There's just something about the sound of LPs..

Bon Iver.

Dave — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 05:57:36 +0000

Today I received my order from SC Distribution. I ordered this so long ago, I almost forgot I even did. It's Bon Iver's latest album, released a few days ago. It had been leaked out all over the internets, and I had the hardest time not giving it a sneak-peek listen before I got my copy. But I survived. Woo! With his new album I also bought his previous For Emma, Forever Ago and Blood Bank. I decided to get the vinyl versions of both, because I want to listen to more vinyls again (Again?). All I have to do is find a place here in Seoul where I can pick up a cheap but decent vinyl player, and I'll be able to enjoy these beautiful albums. I also have Electric President's The Violent Blue on vinyl that I'm dying to try out. Here are a few photos I made of the package contents. I got a poster (two, actually) and a Greetings From Bon Iver, Bon Iver T-shirt, but this is probably not going to fit me all that well. Last time I ordered a large size that ended up being so large I could rent out space in it, so I figured medium would work.. not really. Guess this one is going to the girlfriend. (Note: apologies for the noisy background, I should've put my stuff aside first. Ah well.)

Music Is Life.

Dave — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 02:31:45 +0000

The beauty of music is that not only is the music fantastic, the instruments themselves look mesmerizing, too.

Jazz.

Dave — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 06:03:34 +0000

Earl Klugh

Dave — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 05:33:03 +0000

Earl Clugh was recommended to me today, so I've been listening to his music. It's very mellow, definitely not something I should listen to at work too much, it instantly cools my brain down and I just sit back dreamily wiggling on the musical tunes..

Meet me by the water.

Dave — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 03:48:07 +0000

I've recently been listening to Rachael Yamagata again. It's been ages since I last did, but I stumbled upon her while randomly playing music at home and instantly fell in love again. One song in particular sounded lovely, and made me reminisce about easier times, where black was black, white was white and I had no clue about any of the shades of grey in-between. Good times.

My endless love for Music..

Dave — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 02:29:33 +0000

As you might know, I've got an ever-growing love for music. It's the one thing that helped me get through everything so far, and without it I honest-to-god wouldn't know how to live. I'm always trying to find something new to further let me sink into this endless ocean of musical goodness, and last week I ended up buying a new DAC/AMP on a whim, recommended by a friend. It's the iBasso D10 Cobra. Fancy name eh? I already have an AMP, but missed the DAC part (A Digital-to-analog converter. I tend to call it 'a sound card'. Yeah, I'm that technical). My work PC's sound card is painfully bad (there's a constant 'wheeeeeeeeee' sound, drives me nuts), and the VAIO could use a boost too. So I figured I'd upgrade, and sell my still pretty much brand new AMP (The Little Dot MK1, in case you were wondering). I'll spare you with the geek talk, and instead show some photos. Still geeky, though less so. Bon Iver has never sounded this amazing..

Winter Song (by Rain Machine)

Dave — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 05:00:48 +0000

A little over ten minutes long, and literally all over the place, but oh-so nice. Download (via AllThingsRock), and buy via Amazon or the like.