Earthly Judgment: Fischer Audio DBA-02

It may seem ridiculous that I am reviewing relatively expensive headphones just after posting that last entry, but I can't help it.

Fischer Audio is a relative newcomer to the headphone audiophile scene. That in itself is uncommon, since most new headphone companies just ignore the audiophile market, rebrand random junk, and paint cute stars and HARD-RAWKIN skulls on them. While new, Fischer Audio has quickly risen to the top by providing incredible sound quality at extremely low prices. Some of their products have been hailed as the best headphones money can buy at their price ranges. As a budget-conscious audio hobbyist, I can only agree.

I purchased my first Fischer product, the Fischer Audio Eterna, early last year. I was truly impressed by the instrument separation, the warmth and tightness of the mids, the thundering bass, and the overall "fun" sound delivery. I did not expect that from an in-ear monitor (IEM, from now on). The best part, though, was the price. It retailed for SGD 85 at the time, around P3,600! While it may not seem cheap, the price is extremely low in comparison to some other headphones with comparable sound quality. It's been said that the Eterna comes in second after the top-of-the-line Sennheiser IE8, which sell for USD 400 (THAT'S CLOSE TO TWENTY THOUSAND PESOS). With the Eterna, Fischer Audio easily gained my trust.

With the release of the DBA-02, Fischer Audio was in good position to take more of my money, as well. The reviews were all positive (I seriously could not find one negative review, but I didn't try too hard), and it was priced well at SGD200, so I took the plunge.

Besides, I was having severe Gear Acquisition Syndrome (GAS) attacks at the time. My options were:

1) Electronic drum kit

2.) Android tablet

3.) Nexus One

4.) DBA-02

All of these options were hilariously stupid. I had to choose the cheapest stupid option, because I knew it would cure my GAS regardless.

A few weeks later, the DBA-02 arrived in a silly little cardboard box. You think they'd be able to pack it better considering it costs so much.

Is that a clever pun I see in the corner? Nah. It's probably just Engrish.

The accessories are quite comprehensive, however. It comes with five pairs of tips, a pair of cable guides for the ears, and a tiny pouch. Honestly, I would have preferred the Eterna's pouch, but there's little I can do about that.

The test setup for the DBA-02 is in the following photo.

For those who want to know, that's a JDLabs Surgeon's Amp with

a silver 3.5mm cable and an Encore ENMAB.

Also pictured: nerdy mousepad.

And here's the star of the show:

I use different tips for each ear because my right ear canal is smaller than my left.

It looks OK, I guess. It's definitely more on the geek side of things, but at least it's something you can wear in public. Unlike these. (WARNING: LAME LEVEL HAS BEEN FOUND TO MELT BRAINS.)

I took the DBA-02 for a test run on a few tracks of different genres using VLC and varying bitrates. I never went below 256kbps for any of these. I will try to avoid using silly adjectives, such as "musical" or "liquid".

Death - Crystal Mountain

The drums sound incredible! Very well defined, and clearly separated from each other, as well as the other instruments. The bass is just big enough to be heard, but not loud enough to drown everything else.

Foo Fighters - Everlong

I love this song. It rapes me in Rock Band. Anyway, whoa. The distorted guitar chord that comes in at 0:10 isn't one continuous, consistent sound after all. I can hear all the pitch changes in the distortion @_@

Behemoth - Ov Fire and the Void

This is by FAR the most complex song in this list, and I was wondering how the DBA-02 would handle it. Being TR00LY BR00TAL KVLT DEATH METAL, many headphones just dissolve the song into an unintelligible mess, but I've found that the DBA-02 presents it very well. The DBA-02 simply excels at instrument separation, and I could easily tell the instruments apart even at the song's worst wall-of-sound moments.

The Sundays - When I'm Thinking About You

OK holy crap. Vocals are much more interesting to listen to when the headphones can reveal the intricacies of a voice. It's a very, very different experience.

Dio - Don't Talk To Strangers

From the first second onwards, this song shines with the DBA-02. The intro guitars sound crisp and detailed. I can hear the strings vibrating. Even the echo behind the vocals is distinguishable. The bass guitar is actually audible!

JUDGMENT

Pros:

- Clean, neutral sound

- Extreme detail

- Tight, controlled bass. I REALLY hate boomy fart bass, and I'm glad the DBA-02 doesn't have it.

- Great sound positioning, especially for an IEM

- Effective noise canceling

- Lots of accessories

- Excellent price!

Cons:

- CRAPPY CABLE. It literally failed within two weeks. The right ear IEM stopped playing anything. I'm lucky I can solder. Oh, and the cable looks a little weird.

- WTF packaging. A cardboard box? Really?

- No bumps to indicate left / right IEM. I know, it's a nitpick, but it's quite hard to read the L/R signs below the clear plastic case. Besides, those bumps are useful in the dark.

If you have SGD 200 to spend on anything, you should consider this. It WILL show you sounds that your current headphones hide from your favorite songs. Come to think of it, it's a great price for something that will most likely make your listening time a lot better. Just make sure you know someone who can solder. :S

How To Get Better Sound Without Spending Too Much

If you're like most people, you're probably unaware of how bad your headphones are compared to others at similar prices. I was like that in the past, happily using my stock iRiver earbuds, and replacing them with Philips earbuds as soon as they broke. They broke easily, and often, and in a year's time I ended up buying 5 pairs at around P300 each. I didn't care, because I thought spending more than P300 on headphones seemed extravagant, even though I had already spent a total of P1500 on junk.

Eventually, I ended up trying (and, shortly after, buying) a Grado SR-60. The Grado SR-60 really changed the way I appreciated music. I could hear details I never noticed before. Nuances in voices were much clearer and instrument separation and positioning were actually discernible. Simply put, the SR-60 played my music properly, and it was a HUGE difference.

Later on, I found out about other headphones, headphone amplifiers, DACs, and other geeky audio gear that can improve sound quality. I paid particular attention to the budget level of headphone gear, because the quality-per-peso ratio is much higher. I have tried most of the available budget audio options available in the Philippines, and I have come to my own conclusions. The objective of this post is to share these conclusions with you in a very simple way.

1.) Headphones

This is the most important part of your setup. By spending a just little on headphones, your listening experience will improve dramatically. Headphones affect the sound quality the most, so make sure you get good headphones before the other stuff in this post.

To my knowledge, there are only a few headphones in the Philippines that sound good, cost little, and are easy to find.

JVC Flats

JVC Marshmallows

SoundMagic PL11

All of these headphones cost around P1000. They all sound much better than everything else at this price. If you've only listened to crap headphones before, these will blow you away. Most people will find these adequate for their needs, and may not want to upgrade for the rest of their lives. The Marshmallows and PL11 are both in-ear headphones, which means they sit inside your ear canal, blocking much of the sound outside. This is convenient for noisy environments, but may not be appropriate for situations when you need to hear other people. The Flats are closed headphones. They do not block much outside noise, but they will ruin your super cool hairdo. I recommend the PL11 because it comes with 5 pairs of tips. The different tips will make sure you find a comfortable fit.

The Marshmallows and Flats are available at Datablitz, while the PL11 is available at Peeps Gameshop, gogadgets.multiply.com, or fiiophils at tipidpc. Fiiophils will do meetups for listening tests and purchases. Gogadgets ships quickly and accepts different forms of payment.

2.) Amplifiers

Yes, headphone amplifiers exist. I won't pretend to know how or why they work, but they do. They can definitely improve your sound, but in most cases, they're just way too expensive for the improvement they make. If you really like your headphones, but still want better sound from them, then an amplifier is the next step. There are a few budget options available in the Philippines.

Fiio E1

Fiio E5

The E1 connects directly to any iPod's bottom connector, so it will only work with devices with those connections. The E5 connects to anything with a headphone jack, so it's much more flexible.

The E5 is easily the best choice because it sounds better than the rest, and it has an internal battery that charges through USB. The E1 and E5 both cost around P1000. They can be bought from the same places as the Soundmagic PL11.

Your mileage with these may vary. A friend of mine has reported a great improvement with a Samsung Champ + E5, while I don't get much with my iPod Video 5.5gen + E5.

3.) DACs

Digital-to-Analog Converters, or DACs, are devices that read your MP3 files and turn them into to signals that your headphones can play. These devices can only read digital files, which means they can rarely be used with anything that isn't a computer.

As far as I know, there is only one easy-to-find DAC that doesn't suck major balls, and that is the Encore USB sound box, available at your unfriendly neighborhood CDR-King. It costs P1080.

It has a ton of different features aside from simply improving sound quality. There's an optical input jack for SPDIF, two microphone inputs for recording, a Line In jack that acts as a headphone amplifier in itself, and surround output for cheap PC surround speakers. Aside from that, this DAC has better sound quality than the Fiio E7, which costs four times as much!

4.) Other stuff

Just a few more things:

- If you don't think your headphones are pulling their weight in cash, try going back to crappy stock headphones after a few weeks. Your ears will go "bleccchhhhh".

- Use good song rips. Don't go below 256kbps for MP3s.

- JVC Flats and Marshmallows can be modified very easily for free sound improvements.

- Use Line Out connections with amplifiers. When connecting them to computers, choose "speakers" instead of "headphones".

- When going for sound quality on the road, only in-ear headphones are truly viable. Headphones allow too much noise into your ears, drowning out the details.

- Contrary to popular opinion and marketing technique, Skullcandys do not sound good. Although expensive, they cannot be considered upgrades from the three headphones above. I know this because I have tried them. In fact, there is one lying around in my room. If you do not believe me, just borrow one and put it against any of the three headphones. Test, compare, and laugh.

There. That's it. That's a simple rundown of the best bang-for-the-buck headphone equipment available in the Philippines. Again, get headphones first, and everything else later. Happy listening, and I hope you don't get audiophilia after this!

Why I Use Ubuntu

It's no secret that I love Linux. Ubuntu, in particular. I've been using it on a newbie level without any programming knowledge for around three years now. I thought it was easy to use when I first installed it, and I think it's become a LOT better and easier since then. Ubuntu 10.04 was just released, and it clearly continues the tradition of steady improvement, hardware support, and feature additions. I've been so happy with it that I've decided to post an overview of sorts for people who have yet to try it.

I've stuck with Ubuntu for the last three years and I never want to go back to a Windows-only system. I can honestly say that it's an excellent operating system for the average computer user, and I'm going to share a few reasons why I think so.

IT WORKS

It works. It just does. Upon installation, it detects and configures all of the computer's parts and makes them usable instantly. It also comes with a billion and a half preinstalled programs. There's a torrent program, media players, a video editor, office programs, a photo viewer, a messenger program, a social networking program, a web browser, and even a dictionary! There's a lot more to be found in a typical Ubuntu system, and it wouldn't be a longshot to say that it's got everything most people will ever want to use.

IT'S EASY

Yep. It's easy. It's easier than Windows. There. I said it. This is contrary to popular opinion, I know, but in this case popular opinion is just plain wrong.

Setting up a system is easy, especially because it comes with a ton of programs and drivers preinstalled. As long as the user has supported hardware, it's a breeze. And trust me, the list of supported hardware is incredibly long, and it's still growing!

Notable compatible devices include 3G Modems like SmartBro and Globe Tattoo dongles, iPhones and iTouch units, Bluetooth dongles, generic webcams, and intel graphics (most laptops and netbooks use these). More specific hardware, like uncommon wifi devices, can be installed with a few clicks and the password.

Installing programs is also really, really easy. All a user has to do is open the Software Center from the main menu, look for programs (they even have descriptions), click install on each of them, and enter the password. Ezpz. The Software Center will queue the installations automatically. No more looking for junk all over the internet.

As a testament to Ubuntu's ease, I've installed several versions of Ubuntu on many computers with non-geek users. I've installed Ubuntu Netbook Remix 9.10 on my girlfriend's EEEPC, Crunchbang Linux 9.04.1 on my Aunt's old laptop, Ubuntu 8.04 on a computer that two TOTAL NOOBS are using, and Linux Mint 8 on my brother's HP tablet notebook. All of them are doing quite fine on their machines, and none of them have ever had to face the dreaded command line (aka the black screen with text).

I'm convinced that only the close-minded and change-resistant will find Ubuntu difficult. It's really not – it's just a little unfamiliar.

IT'S SAFE

Windows viruses don't affect Ubuntu at all. They're harmless and irrelevant to Ubuntu users. It's difficult to illustrate how much better this has made me feel about using my computers. The ability to just stick in any USB device without fear, or browsing the web without getting worms just lifts a whole lot of weight off my shoulders. This is EXCELLENT for me, because I'm always the guy who's forced to install systems and fix them when they turn stupid. This is made even more EXCELLENT by the fact that users don't have to buy antivirus software at all.

It's also very safe against people who mess up their computers by changing settings and deleting system files. Random users can't change the vital system files and settings without the administrator password, so there's a lot less to worry about.

IT'S FREE

Free as in beer. Ubuntu users don't have to pay a single cent to use it and all the programs available from the Software Center.

Ubuntu also offers the freedom of choice. It has many, many different variations for more specific uses. Edubuntu, for one, is a variation that is meant for school use, both for teachers and students at varying levels of education. Mythbuntu is meant for home theater PCs. Ubuntu Studio is used for audio and video production. There are so many other versions of Ubuntu (and so many other versions of Linux!) that it's easy to find one that will fit a user's needs perfectly.

I really just enjoy using Ubuntu. It's a very different and liberating experience. I hope that didn't sound preachy or anything, because I just wanted to write about how I feel about it. I always choose Ubuntu over other operating systems, and I am sure much of the world would if they tried it.

For those who are interested, there are many easy ways to try Ubuntu without changing anything on your computer. The simplest among these is downloading it from ubuntu.com and burning it onto a CD. After that, you can just pop the CD into your drive and reboot the computer. It should load Ubuntu after a while, and you'll be free to test drive it from there. Have fun, and I hope you like it!

COLD NORTHERN MOUNTAINS

This entry is late. Very, very, very late. It's almost been a month since these events occurred, but, yeah, better late than never. I don't remember the timing of events, so this will be a mess.

I was in Baguio with my family for the new year. I think Baguio is awesome right now, no matter what the purists and haters say. They can all kiss my ass while I enjoy sitting around the COLD NORTHERN MOUNTAINS.

I spent quite a lot of time being bored and lame at SM. I know. Malling in a place like Baguio is pretty stupid, but I couldn't really go anywhere else. Our lodge was booked so we couldn't sit around there, and the lodge WE booked wasn't very comfortable. It was really really cold in Baguio that time, too, and the wind was brutal (at least for a tropical-island dweller like me), so walking around was a bad idea. “Hey, I could try their coffee. That's always fun.” I thought to myself.

My brother found this little coffee shop called Saint Cafe somewhere on the second floor or so. He and my dad thought it would be a good idea to have some caffeine, and asked me to join them. I did, of course, because I cannot resist caffeine, especially when it comes from little-known coffee shops like these. Unfortunately, their coffee was utter garbage. It was really, really bad. If you need a comparison, I'll give you one: it was worse than Starbucks. Coffee fail aside, my dad was playing Tekken on the PSP, so I was at least laughing my ass off. That was both surreal and retarded, but definitely more retarded than surreal.

Mocha Blends used to be my fallback option in case I accidentally consumed bad coffee (which happens quite often in Baguio, unfortunately), but both branches have been closed! Lame. Figaro coffee, though not quite to my taste, was still readily available. Better than nothing, I guess.

A little later in the after noon, I was once again left with nothing to do at the mall, so I decided to read a book with a large Figaro capp to drink.

The keen observers among you may have noticed that I READ A BOOK. This very rarely happens, and the fact that I was reading the second book in a series made me question my identity. (It was The Subtle Knife, second book of the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman, by the way.)

And the coffee was surprisingly horrible. I didn't think Figaro's capps were very good to begin with, but they weren't exactly bad either. This cup, however, was just awful. Baguio's coffee must be cursed or something.

Disappointed and annoyed, my brother and I walked down session road to try to find Sunshine Lunch, a chinese restaurant that supposedly served great siopao, among other things. It was about 8 or 9pm. We couldn't find it with the directions I took from the internet, so we decided to walk down to Rose Bowl to try that place instead.

As we were about to turn left to Rose Bowl, I spotted Sunshine Lunch to our right. WTF? Weird. It was closed, anyway, so we had no choice but to continue towards Rose Bowl.

Rose Bowl is a three-story restaurant at the bottom of Session Road. It's a THREE-STORY RESTAURANT. No one builds a three-story restaurant. It must have slowly expanded into its current gargantuan state by earning so much, so I assumed the food was good. When I stepped in, the first thing I noticed was the fact that all of the round tables were large enough to accommodate ten people. That wasn't much of a problem, really, but it didn't make any sense until I saw the menu. They only had huge servings for sharing, and nothing to offer often-solitary diners like me. What the fail. We ended up choosing some soup and fried dumplings, which were the only things offered in serving sizes that we could actually finish. The food was pretty good. Not made of win and gold or anything, but pretty good. Our waiter, whose hairstyle role model was obviously Mr. Clean, was emotionless and robotic. “Oo. Hindi. Marami yan, 15 pieces. OK. OK.” This is precisely the kind of service I'd come back for. /sarcasm

I've forgotten what happened next, but I believe it involved large amounts of going home and sleeping.

The next day was pretty much the same thing, except that we bought some stuff to eat and drink for New Year's Eve. It was the eve of a new decade! That felt so weird. It made me want to do something epic the next day, something that I would never forget. Of course, I didn't even get anywhere close to doing something like that, but at least the next morning was funny.

My dad formed a childish tantrum within hours of waking up, completely obliterating any hopes we had of having fun on the first day of the year. He does this very often, and I'm so used to it that I can find sadistic humor where everyone else finds fear and frustration. However, the comedy of watching him damage his car twice during that tantrum was hilarious and somewhat satisfying.

That's the only thing I remember about the first day of the decade. Pretty shitty way to spend it, I know, and I'll be 34 by the time the world gets another one of these. Thanks, dad. :S