Recently, after watching the latest Hey Ash, I decided to see what it's writer/co-star has to say for himself, being all curious at the wrong time. Here's what I found - we're both very much on the same page about quite a lot of the big mechanical, social and cultural quandaries of gaming. Quad Erat Demonstratum : Games as Art. Say hello to Reverend Anthony Burch. His rants are insightful, and to be honest I can't disagree with him, even with my lack of philosophical sophistication, it still harmonised well with my sensibilities about both morality, and game design.
http://www.destructoid.com/rev-rant-fun-isn-t-enough-142052.phtml
There's a link, I recommend combing through previous rants as well, they're good for the grey matter.
My view on the whole thing is more on less what he says, but in my opinion what's needed is a transition period. I believe we're beginning to see that start to happen, but it's a massive ball to roll so it just needs more behind it. Also, I don't think art and fun have to be mutually exclusive. Especially transitioning, you have to put a mix down of the both, because swaying the masses aren't going to go intellectual overnight.
Now onto the meat and gravy- a Review.
Tonight, I Review my HEAHPONES.
TDK ST-PR400.
They're all wrong. aaaaall wrong. Okay not all wrong, but certainly not worth MONEY for any forseeable market. If you're thinking of buying these, take 70 bucks, and just set fire to it, because this is the effect that these headphones are w
orth. Still, I said I'd review them, not just give insult, I must follow through with a proper criticism of them. Where to start?Cable/Jack- This I believe is one of the the few things they've done right. It's a proper thick cable, coated with proper rubber of some sort. Gold Tipped Jack, "oxygen-free" cord. And it's Coiled and springy, which is GREAT, they make them seem serious business. This is where the end of the purely fault free material ends.
Supports/Arch/Frame - Flimsy, Cheap feeling.
The actual muff supports swivel 90 degrees forward, supposedly because DJs like having an ear off or something. However, if you're a DJ, surely you like having a solid locking mechanism. The ones on these are Flimsy as all hell, they don't lock forward securely, nor do they lock to the normal position that easily.
The padding on top below the arch, where it rests on your head, usually there's some padding. On this , nothing. What,that little bump with the nylon mesh over the top? that's nothing,and it hurts my scalp if I slick my headphones in the normal way. The rest of the construction is molded plastic and pinning screws, which in my books, ALWAYS results in the headphones having a life of less than 12 months due to breakages, or stripping screws (this is what bad craftsmanship+my mediocre handling of headphones does.
On the plus side, it's clear that the designers actually allowed for boofs like me with BIG heads, because the arch is one of the widest spanning ones I've ever used.This is great for adding a little comfort to the packet.
The Cans themselves/Drivers- 50mm drivers(drivers being the speakers, not device drivers)) with an 20-20000hz response range. This isn't too bad, it actually is a slightly bigger response range than My old Sennheiser HD 202s, however, presentation of the range is at BEST sloppy. Now, these are marketed as "DJ Headphones", which is really odd. You'd expect DJ's would want some level of audio fidelity. Instead, you get nothing. Flat undersupported Bass, flat(seemingly clipped) treble, only the midrange seems to get any SOLID coverage. That isn't fidelity, it's sticking cheap portable radio speakers in headphone covers and calling it a day. It's unacceptably poor listening, particularly with these thing's tendency to ignore the Sound Pressure Level for the pain threshold (which it has NO objection going over if you want to hurt your ears and go deaf). I've heard better from noname brand earbuds, original generation iPod bugs, BUDGET sennheiser buds (coincidentally, they're less than HALF the price of these things).. Hell, even TDK's budget in-ear buds are better hear than these things(and those were cheaper than the sennheiser buds).
Further groans about the drivers, I have to really keep the volume down on these, because if I crank the volume up just a bit above what I've got them on, I get three major driver issues - Rattling, metallic ringing after peaks, and noise over the line. These could be a QC issue, but it could also be a fundamental design flaw (metal on metal bracing without insulation, washer-less fixture (or PLASTIC))
Drivers aside, nice padding, effing huge can widths. Great sound insulation on the padding. eliminates most of all audible noise from the headphones just with the two cans light pressed together.These headphones really are designed for big heads.
All in all,
Pros-
Great for big heads
Coiled cable with good insulation = win.
Plays the SHIT out of midrange and lower treble
Cons-
Unbalanced audio output.
Driver issues
Patchy supports
Feels flimsy
Overpriced
Does not like you
All in all,they're fucking terrible. I mean REALLY terrible. Still better than a set of Audiosonic or whatever EA sell at budget prices, but if you want to take the step up from them, I'd just advise to ignore the hell out of the impressive packaging these have, save the extra 30/50 bucks for Sennheiser or.. well any other brand. Sennheiser are just a good bet in that introductory Audiophile/Amateur Audio Scene price range. Point is, save the extra ducketts, get something better.
