WEBLOG:
My Westone 3’s finally arrived (noise-canceling in-ear headphones). After testing it out, here is my review of it.
If you don’t want to read the detailed review, I’ll simply say that the Westone 3’s sound very warm–too warm for certain genres of music that require very articulate clarity in the high and low frequency ranges. The Westone 3’s have the treble rolled off and the bass hyped, and it takes away much of the compelling detail such as the articulate snap of a double bass, the sizzle of cymbals on a drum set, the buzzing blast of the brass section, or the highest harmonics of a string section. I can EQ the Westone 3’s to sound fairly neutral (which is my ultimate goal when shopping for any audio reproduction equipment–that the equipment become invisible and do not color the sound of the original recordings), but that drains the battery on my MP3 player faster. If I end up exchanging the Westone 3’s I’ll have to research some more to see which brand/model on the market is the most neutral.
By the way, this is what the Westone 3’s look like, and retails for about $399 USD (though I got mine for $291 from an authorized dealer in China):
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Quickie movie reviews:
Last King of Scotland – One of the better films I’ve seen in a while. Completely absorbing from beginning to end, and an outstanding performance from Forest Whitaker.
The Lives of Others – Another excellent film–one that has a rarely seen ending that’s bittersweet and very satisfying at the same time. Definitely deserves all the awards it has won. After the film I commented to Elena that it must be a really surreal feeling to be able to sit down and read the files that the secret police had kept on you, knowing these very files could have meant your certain death or at the very least ruined the rest of your life. Then I think about the fact that we’re now living in China and in many ways, the government here is still operating in a similar manner as the old East Germany secret police. People still disappear in the middle of the night here. Maybe one day China will finally realize that’s not how a modern and civilized country should behave.
Revolutionary Road – I was somewhat underwhelmed by this film. I’ve enjoyed all of Sam Mendes’s previous films (American Beauty is one of my favorite films of all time), and this one while was good, just felt a little bit vacant. In some ways I keep feeling like I’ve seen this film in a different form before–the young idealist couple trapped in a suburban environment where dreams wither and die under the weight of oppressive mundane reality. I have never read the original novel so I have no idea how different or similar it is to the film. Some people online joked that if Jack from the Titanic had lived and married Rose, this is what might’ve happened to them. That would be the ultimate anti-climax, wouldn’t it?
