This is long because i'm a long winded person and won't change.. hahahaha.. Hope this doesn't come off as excessive during a recession, hahaha - lots of gift cards, returns (items kept = *), and just moved so justified on making some purchases for the home.
Sony XM4 headphones (Gift)* - My God, I love these headphones. I lived the lie that my $60 tribits were "80%" the experience of the $300-500 pairs. The noise reduction works so well I sometimes just turn it on for some peace and quite, with no music playing. The default sound is hip hop crap but there are some EQ "templates" out there and the end result of some tweaking is a clear yet powerful "impactful" sound. I have some very good open ear $50-150 over ears prior (grados, some well regarded phillips i love, senn) and the advantage is the bass presence, not just the boom but the chest feed. Listening to classical with the bass turned down proved so impressive I started to hate my other headphones and donated most of them to the kids. Hence my IEM and smart speaker search that follows
IEM true wireless search. I was so frustrated going through the below brands and all of them had flaws from connections that randomly go out to the biggest problem - AWFUL fit. I was blaming myself that i have weird ears but when I got some apple airpod clones: it's not that i have weird ears, it's that companies like apple (and i'm sure others) did the time to research that fit is a very particular thing, and the stem format is the most universal. This realization is leading to a very expensive Apple fanboy awakening (new laptop being researched now after wifi just stopped on my windows for zero reason)
iems with awful bordering on painful fit for my shape of ear: senhesser (Sp?), creative labs (ouch!), bose kept on falling out, MAster and dynamic i so wanted to love but the left but kept losing connection
iems with more "universal fit: apple airpod pros* and soundcore liberty air* (old version on clearance)*
i was in total nirvana with the airpod pros but had I got the liberty airs first I would have been quite pleased and stopped there. Fantastic bang for buck and I believe they should be comfortable for most people.
Airpod pro positives: not the biggest or best sound but the most "don't have to fuck with." I could tweak better sound out of most of the other pairs but would need to make adjustments genre to genre. the airpods on flat were better than "good enough" - it was the most ... consistent. ISOLATION is fantastic, their transparency mode knocks the sony's very good one out of the park. THe sony's sound like everything around you is being amplified. Very cool if you want to eaves drop hahahahaa. the Apples sound like someone pulled your earphones out. they literally sound like the room. i don't want to use the work magic. but .. but.. ok.. very impressive.
ok so I was happy with my headphones but just like magic my bathroom google home and kitchen sonos stopped taking voice commands. I 100% know the culprit is moisture, my bad.
SO i did some research and after much praise about the ATMOS "magical" immersive sound and rich audio of the Echo Studio I bit. and Man, the WORST FUCKING tech purchase I've made. The sound was always ALMOST there that I was always tweaking settings, always moving it because placement matters A LOT for bass, always reading how to bring out mid how to bring out bass all the time not just for hip hop.. i *HATED* how that even though they advertise IMMERSIVE sound I could tell EXACTLY where the sound was coming from. It was boxed in not big sounding (and it's a big speaker, bigger than my sonos which sounded vastly better and bigger). So I was going crazy and added to the online cart an echo sub for the low and and 2 echos for left and right for the boxed in feeling AFTER agreeing to pay something like $15 a MONTH for "atmos 3d high bitrate music streaming) .. i was about to buy in $750 into an echo system for a small desktop radio when all the gear would be bigger than my high fi when I finally snapped - hit return item. garbage.. i hope people find this on google to be frank....
Garbage garbage insulting garbage purchase number 2- echo mini. my god have i never been more insulted. the fake reviews say "wow, such great sound for the price" i ordered it to be a left and rich for the studio. thought - how good do they have to be? 100% full honesty, your am clock radio in college sounded better. unless it was a box of tissues of course.
so i returned everything echo (i spit on your grave) and was high on the apple and sony kool aid already so gave a homepod a try (the big guy). I'll save the hyperbole and just say the same day I ordered a mini beacuse I was so pissed at myself for fucking up the sonos (it can get airplay 2 but voice commands are a no go). the apple products are moisture resistant (proof, don't know). see apple thought of that. I love that i never have to futz with settings and full house audio is an absoulte treat and cheap to add ($25 used airport per room). The whole house can listen to music but it's like a museum not a frat house - it's not echoy and PERFECTLY in sync, the music follows you not overwhelms the house. it's very hard to explain but so slick that I'm 100 in. my wife asked for the mini immedietly when i showed off hand off - nfc and the thing glows like the eye of Soron and plays what's on your phone. I'm sure others do it but nfc never worked on my samsungs etc. 100% of the time.
After futzing with such half baked tech and a chromebook that's splitting at the seems literally, i respect apples "just works" that a lot more these days than when I was a hobbyist.. i swear none of this was paid for by apple. saving the pennies now for a macbook, i wasted so much time on trying to work with a bootleg laptop that i'm honestly screwing myself of opportunity - focus on working, not maintaining a janky ass $300 dell refurb. . proof i'm not a paid hack, the lenovo that just aged out thinkpad carbon X1 has an eternal place in my heart. everytime i pick up a samsung an old samsung bluetooth refuses to connect on it, no idea why and nearly 75% of the time.
happy accident - i love the Homepod max (the mini was great functionally and kinda hott with taht fireball but a very "great for the size" not just great. sonos for the size sounds fantastic. i lovved the homepod but it just didn't have that presence of my old bookshelves, that fill the room (though the homepod is great). i dug up some old pioneers i had and got a $25 amp and $50 "tube buffer" and let me tell you. i got emotional listening to classical music for $75 out of pocket and some spare speakers. nothing still matches that, it embarasses the homepod