Richard Hart

Something @ Somewhere • Kent, UK

  • Corda 2Move & CMoy headphone Amps

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    4 min read

    While doing my research into decent headphones, I stumbled upon quite a few references to “Headphone Amplifiers”. Curiosity got the better of me and I started to dig a little deeper. I was impressed with the cheap DIY CMoy amps people were making and pretty shocked at the sight of desktop amps costing over £500.

    As with anything “technological”, there’s always a lot more to things then you ever think possible. One of those things was the need for properly driving a set of headphones. I had assumed (reminder to self; never assume anything) that headphones and their connections were a set standard; that there would be no real difference between the headphone socket on my computer, my mp3 player or my TV or the level of input expected by the headphones themselves. It would seem that there is and that headphones all want/expect differing levels of drive to perform to the best of their abilities (this becomes more and more true the higher up the headphone quality ladder you go). This is where headphone amplifiers come into play. By increasing the amount of power available to headphones, especiallly those with higher ohm ratings, they really start to shine and the music starts to come alive.

    Even with the piles and piles and piles of positive ratings of most amps, I was still skeptical about spending too much on one and as so many people swore by the cheap CMoy amp setups, that fit snuggly inside an altoids tine, that seemed like the logical place to start. I’m too lazy to assemble one myself so I scoured EBay and found a seller who made them to order. I paid my £25 and waited for it to arrive. Five days later my homemade CMoy amp arrived, encased in nice silver Altoids tin. I didn’t hold my breath for anything spectacular but just like the moment I first tried on my SR80s, I was again floored. Everything sounded so much more well defined. Everything felt ever more crisper and the bass felt a hell of a lot more tighter. I was sold on headphone amps for sure. Nothing had ever sounded so good.

    My initial plan had been to try out the CMoy at home first and then look into getting another or something better as its replacement so that I could use the CMoy at work. One of the things, I consider a flaw (while some will disagree) of my CMoy amp is that you take a signal from the existing headphone output, pipe it into the amp and then pipe it out to your headphones. What you want is a digital input, so that you don’t lose any quality between the source and the amplifier. When I had been first doing my research into amps, a lot had been said about the Headroom Total Bithead, which has it’s own built in DAC. Connect it up to your PC via USB and comes up as it’s own soundcard, allowing you to bypass the internal soundcard completely and get a “purer” signal. On top of that, it powers itself through the USB connection, no need for a batteries or an extra power adaptor. I sent a couple of emails to headphones.com asking about shipping to the UK but received no reply, and soon resigned myself to the idea that I wasn’t going to get one. Then I came across the Corda 2Move, made by Meier Audio in Germany. It was about the double the price of the Bithead alone, but that included shipping, and seeing as I had no way of finding out how much shipping of the Bithead would be, I fired off an email to check on availability. I received a reply pretty much straight away, so I paid my money, and a few days later it was sitting on my desk at work.

    The Corda 2Move is a beautiful piece of kit and sounds absolutly stunning. I gave it it’s initial test run with my Etymotics 4ps and the difference was huge. Even with the Grados at home there was a big difference between it and the CMoy amp. The in-built crossfeed also goes a way to giving a better impression of sounds. It smooths out the channel seperation just enough to take of the harshness on really far mixed tracks.

    I can’t recommend either of these two amps enough. If you’re willing to spend the money, then the Corda is the way to go, but the CMoy is still phenomenal considering what it costs. If you’re serious about your listening pleasure, you’ll want an amp to go with your headphones. Turn ’em up and rock on.

  • Apple employees unite!

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    1 min read

    Although when you do compare employee head counts between Microsoft (91,000) and Apple (21,000), it’s essential to note that at least half of Apple’s employees work in its retail stores.

    Daring Fireball

    How does Apple seemingly achieve so much more then Microsoft with only a ninth of the workforce? That Reality Distortion Field must be one strong mo’fo.

    UPDATE: I just read that Nokia has over 114000 employees. Which makes the market shattering iPhone even more impressive.

  • A month with the mac

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    4 min read

    It’s been pretty much exactly one month since I got the iMac and still when I sit at work I day dream of getting home using it. Since then, Apple fanboy level has reached factor 11 for sure. The main factor for switching when I did was the release of the 3.06Ghz iMac. I really didn’t want to “downgrade” from my PC to a slower machine. So with the release of the latest iMac there was no excuse not to. I ummed and arrrred for quite a while before just sucking it up and getting the thing, but from the moment I heared the startup chime, I haven’t looked back once, not even for a nanosecond. Ok, that’s a bit of a lie, because I did look back… I looked back and laughed.

    When I initially made the decision to switch I was prepared to put up with niggles or annoyances to see if OSX was really that good and without hesitation, I believe it really is. There was a time when I would mock Apple advocates. I mean come on, Apple mice have one button! I remember the first time I used one back in ’97 and having to maintain a few of them in the office. Yeah they looked great, but back then I wasn’t interested in the atheistic side of stuff so much. They seemed to cause more problems then it was worth back then. Windows 95 and Mandrake Linux were enough to satisfy me. Fast forward to a few years ago when I started taking an interest in conceptual and coding elegance, clean and simple UIs and above all else usability being the core of any product. After years of make doing with the clunkiness of MS interfaces, I longed to feel good about the tools I was using. Using a computer shouldn’t be a chore, it should be a delight.

    So it all began with those pesky Rails videos…

    I don’t care what anyone says about scalability or whether it’s “enterprise” ready, but Rails rocks, if not simply for the fact that it opened my eyes to how coding should be. After years of living the code -> compile -> test endless loop, Rails was like a fresh of breath air. I’m a neat freak and Rails was the cure to my itch for a cleanly defined standard to creating a webapp. These bits go here, those bits go there and here’s your finished web app. Tasks took a fraction of the time to achieve in Rails compared to Java and Struts. It was earth shattering. And that’s where the videos came in; I would watch videocasts and everyone was using Macs, and the more I watched the more I’d get a glimpse into the life of a Mac user. It felt like everyone doing all the cool stuff was at an Apple party and I wasn’t invited. Then the more I looked into OSX and its applications the more I saw that the people developing on it and for it really cared about the stuff that mattered, the kind of stuff taken for granted on other platforms. Apple people are the sort of people who care if the corner of a bevel isn’t rendered properly. Anal? Yeah of course, but it’s that attention to detail that makes OSX such a pleasure to use.

    I know I annoy people with my fanboyism and I feel the urge to defend Apple at every opportunity, but the same people who like to point they can get a better spec machine for the amount I paid are the same who like to poke jibes at Rails but don’t have the guts to try either. I just smile and day dream of getting home to my iMac.

  • Everglide Titan vs Razer Goliathus

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    2 min read

    My Ikea desk has a slightly rough surface, so I’ve been trying out a couple of mouse mats. I picked up an Everglide Titan Mini-Mat first. I didn’t think I’d have space for the huge one (more on that after) and it ended up not being big enough, and to be honest I was pretty shocked at how poor it was overall. When I used to play CS I tried loads of mats before settling on the Func pad which rocked big ones, but the Everglide felt just like the mats you get given for free when you visit trade shows (fraying edges included). I just don’t know how anyone could claim this was in anyway a “gamers” mat. So I ordered the Razer Goliathus Alpha Control Mat. Unlike the Alpha Speed Mat this is meant to be more suited towards finer control. Measuring in at a huge 444mm x 355mm, the extra space a blessing and as in the photo above, when placed under my second monitor makes up a really nice mouse area. There is a huge difference in quality and size between the Titan and the Goliathus, and when you consider the Razer is only £5 more, you end up getting a lot more mat for your smack (bang for your buck).

    I was really dubious of getting another cloth mat after using the Everglide and actually had no idea that the Razer was also a cloth mat when I ordered it, but the quality of the Razer has me sold on them. There is just the right amount of friction and a real constant feel across the whole surface. I haven’t had a chance to try it in any games yet (I’ll load up WoW later), but in Photoshop or InDesign it really gives a great feeling of fine control over the pointer. I can’t recommend the Razer Goliathus enough for gamers and creative people alike.

  • Career Advice

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    1 min read

    Don’t know know what the hell you’re doing with your career? Read The Adventures of Johnny Bunko. Career advice in the form of a manga. Should only take you about 20 minutes to read (More if you’re slow like me).

  • Grado SR80 Headphones – Aural bliss

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    2 min read

    I didn’t think that headphones could sound much better then my Etymotic ER-4Ps (One up from my ER-6s), but it would seem that you can and by a big margin.

    How I had managed for so many years with my el-cheapo Technics RP-F350s at home, I don’t know. I never used the etymotics at home, but after trying them once on my iMac I realised I’m really missing out when it came to listening to music at home. And considering I spent more time infront of my machine here at home then anywhere else, it made sense to get myself a good pair of “cans” for home use only. After some research, the Grado SR80s headphones seemed like the way to go. A bit more then the SR60s (but well worth it from what I read) and more convinent then the SR125s as they had a 1/4″ connector rather then the 3.5mm one needed for my iMac or iPhone. I tracked a pair down on Tottenham Court Road and sat down to give them a try.

    My jaw literally hit the floor the moment the first few notes came through and no matter what I threw at them, they just sounded more and more amazing. I swapped between a few headphones to make sure I wasn’t dreaming it and boy, I sure wasn’t. This is pure audio bliss. Everything, and I mean everything, is perfectly defined. It feels like instruments are floating in space and that you’re really there listening to everyone playing their part. No muddiness or distortion, just clarity. Bass feels tight and deep, the highs never too sharp or piercing and just such a vast expanse throughout the whole range. I read that many people found the headphones too uncomfortable to wear for more then an hour or so, but I’ve had no problems what-so-ever. I can easily wear them for 4,5,6 hours at a time without bother. The only real flaw is the open back design, unlike closed back headphones, sound leaks a lot (this is what probably gives them the spacious sound) so you can’t wear them out in public as you’ll piss a lot of people off. Thankfully this doesn’t really effect me as that is what my Etymotics are for.

  • Switching to Mac

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    1 min read

    After months and months and months of talking about Macs and OSX, I finally switched. Up until now I’ve held back as the thought of moving to a slower machine never sat right, but now with 3ghz iMacs with 8800gs cards, there is no excuse not to switch. It’s been a week now and I am totally convinced that OSX is far far far far superior to Vista. Using OSX is an experience. It’s like a breath of fresh air in comparison to Vista. The OS feels more polished and applications feel like a lot more care has gone into producing them. One of the features I was looking forward to using was Spaces, but with dual 24″ monitors there is really no need. I have Vista running as a VM incase I need any apps but I haven’t needed it once so far.

  • Quotes: Lazarus Long

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    1 min read

    “Always listen to experts. They’ll tell you what can’t be done, and why. Then do it.” – Lazarus Long

  • Quotes: Douglas Adams

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    1 min read

    “I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.” – Douglas Adams

  • Quotes: Seneca

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    1 min read

    “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” – Seneca

  • Vista + POP3 = Fail

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    1 min read

    My windows install became b0rked a few days ago (from now on, I’m imaging my drive every couple of weeks) and now on my fresh install POP3 doesn’t work. I know I had exactly the same problem before but can’t for the life of me remember what I did to fix it. Ball ache…

    UPDATE: Turns out it’s not a Vista problem at all. I should have been logging into my mailbox with the full domain on my username rather then just my username. D’oh.

  • No One

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    1 min read

    Now that Flickr lets you upload videos, I thought I’d try and create some slideshows of our Amsterdam trip. I uploaded the videos to Facebook as well and thought it was awesome that in the “In this video” section it just said “No one”. I think that sums up the photos perfectly.

  • Taking care of business

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    1 min read

    When you run a company that develops software, it makes little to no sense to lump your developers with sub-standard machines and tiny monitors. Managers who wouldn’t bat an eyelid at buying a new Visual Studio (Thank God I’m a Java/Groovy developer) license, gasp in horror and say there’s no budget when you ask for a faster machine or a bigger/dual monitor setup. Those minutes you save every day doing tasks add up to hours over a week, which add up to days over a month, which add up to maybe even a whole month over a year (in your dreams!). Personally, I’d just use that extra time to browse YouTube.

  • Quotes: Jim Rohn

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    1 min read

    “People don’t have the attitude of learning because they don’t love what they do enough to want to be the best at it.” Jim Rohn

  • Quotes: D.O. Flynn

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    1 min read

    “The haves and have-nots can often be traced back to the dids and did-nots.” D.O. Flynn