BACKGROUND MUSIC FOR FASHION SHOW

Living in Asia and traveling frequently makes it desirable for one to be able to take one's lifestyle "on the road" with them. Of course, the flatscreen TV and stereo are still at home, but unlike the times when I still lived in the US, I spend more time listening to music here while traveling rather than sitting at home.

Even in the ancient days of cassettes, I had always been a stickler for quality music. Why listen to music if the sound quality is crap? Therefore, I have acquired a travel kit of premium musical gear.

PMP

Believe me, I would love to use an IPOD Touch. The design and the quality of the physical device is the cutting-edge standard. However, two things keep me from using the IPOD/iPhone. Number one is the sound quality. Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch have always been cutting-edge in terms of the user interface, materials, and video quality. However, the sound quality of the IPOD and iPhones is only average to below-average. Just Google the topic and you will see users bitching about the sound quality (but being Apple fanboys, they also apologize for Apple - "oh, maybe they will fix it in the next release").

The IPOD does not even have a graphic equalizer....just presets for ROCK, JAZZ, etc. The DSP chips are old and the sound quality shows it.

The other reason for passing on the IPOD is that piece of horrid software known as iTunes. I have thousands of CDs so I don't need to download crappy 128K music from the iTunes store, and I don't want to have to use this software every time I want to update the music in my player. With almost any other device, one can copy music and any other files back and forth from the device as if it was an external disk.

As an IT professional, I disdain the "control freakism" of Apple and its products. I know that their products are popular, but so is Hepatitis B. Sorry.

Thus, I have been using Korean PMPs from iRiver and lately, Cowon. The Cowon D3 (shown here) is an Android-based media player. Firmware updates are available on the Internet and are easily installable. And unlike the IPOD, I don't have to ask Mr.Steve Jobs for permission to use the product that I just purchased.

The interface is slow and terrible. The screen is AMOLED and is superb. Built-in memory is 32GB and I add a 32GB Class10 microSD card to bring total memory up to 64GB.

The sound quality is just stunning. The D3 has a parametric equalizer (this is a pro feature that audiophiles lust after) but to be honest, I have been using the presets. The Cowon has its own digital enhancement called "BBE" which comes in several "flavors", including 3 for headphone use. Using my Phillips earbuds, I have bass frequencies rocking in my head as if I was wearing full-sized headphones. With my Grado's, I hear new details in songs that I have listened to for 10 years....I can hear Springsteen taking a breath in the beginning of "Candy's room".

I rip CD's or FLAC files at 320Kbps.

When in the hotel, the new flat screen TVs that are in most Asian hotels that I stay (seems like Samsung has provided new TVs to hotels throughout SE Asia !) have USB and HDMI ports so that I can connect the D3 directly to the TV and listen to music in my room using the TV's sound system. Typically, there is an application in the TV for playing music, with the menu and album cover art displayed on the TV screen.

I also store movies on the D3 for playback on the long plane flights. I rip movies from DVD's at 2 Mbps into MP4 files or download files in the new MKV container format. The typical movie file is 1.5 to 2 GB in size. I can watch the movie on the player, or connect the player to a flat screen TV using the HDMI interface. The quality on the TV screen looks almost the same as DVD quality.

HEADPHONES

Headphones are the next link in the audio chain. The crappy white earbuds that typically come with an MP3 device should be donated to the garbage can ASAP.

Most of the time I use a set of Phillips SHE9800 earbuds. I discovered these by accident after reading glowing reviews on the Internet. I've never been a fan of Phillips, but these are great. I had been using IEM (in-ear monitors) from Shure and Ultimate Ears (used by Madonna, Bono, etc...who cares?) but I grew to dislike the fact that these phones have to be jammed into your ear canal in order to get the proper sound isolation. The SHE9800's also "close up" your ear canal to external noise, but they are not sitting 2mm from your eardrums like the IEM's. They consist of two parts: A high-frequency driver that sits inside your ear, and a low-frequency driver that resides outside the ear canal. You get tons of bass compared to typical earbuds, and less chance of hearing damage. They retail here in Bangkok for about US $90...probably cheaper elsewhere. Sony makes a version that has a similar design, and sounds about the same. Unfortunately, Phillips has discontinued this model. Like most things

this is just really really quick experimental sketch, basically just trying out my new bamboo :)
(thats a graphics tablet btw and this was done on paint - haven't had a chance to download the proper software)