Pre-blog: Great balls of sound!

The best sounding speaker under P2000, and under 100g! A bit larger than a ping-pong ball, the X-Mini 2 is a great successor to the original X-Mini, and X-Mini Max.

Decent size, price, sound, and battery life... this is a great accessory to have for anyone who enjoys listening to music. Having tried all the other XMI products, I have to say, that you can't really go wrong with any of them, but my personal choice would be the X-Mini 2 over the original or the Max.

The Original is smaller, and cheaper, so go for that if the size is an absolute priority, or if you don't really care for the additional sound quality of the 2. The Max is stereo, but it's larger and has a lot more wires to consider a portable solution. The Max is nice for laptop users looking for an acceptable solution for presentation work.

Specs state a 100Hz cut-off but realistically, it sounds closer to 130-50Hz, but again, for the price, and size, it's great. I haven't heard anything this small, sound this good...period. It won't replace great earphones, but it sounds way better than a lot of generic desktop computer speakers. And even sounds better than a lot of the entry-level JBL On-Stage products.

To get the best audio quality from this speaker, turn the volume on the X-Mini to the max, then half a turn back. Then set your volume on your music player to about 60-70%. This keeps distortion to a minimum, while maximizing bass response... the X-Mini 2 driver is strong enough that anything louder makes this tiny speaker rattle around your desk whenever bass notes are strong.

Go to: http://x-mini.com/ for more info.

I bought mine from http://silienation.com/ Great site, lots of nice accessories, and quick delivery via Air21

Pre-blog: Bose Sounddock Portable

The best sounding iPod dock/portable speaker system in it's SIZE & PORTABILITY category.

Mind you, size was my primary criteria for choosing the new SoundDock Portable. It's louder than the original SoundDock, rechargeable, and can now accept Aux-In sources. Unfortunately, the carry-bag is optional (typical Bose)

The Bose SoundDock Portable (like most of their products) fits a very specific need for me ... for people who want to have a battery-powered, portable speaker system, that fits inside a small/medium sized messenger bag, light enough to bring everyday, and sounds decent.

The Bose is extremely small for the volume of sound it can give out, even outdoors. It's good enough for small get-togethers with friends... about 6 people or so.

The battery lasts about 3-4 hours at high volume, but I wouldn't recommend it since any sound system doesn't really sound its best at it's higher volume capabilities. At moderate levels, I've gotten a good 6 hours from one charge. Not bad at all.

The wall-adapter is worth special mention since it's SOOOOO F***IN HUGE!!! Geez... you'd think you've seen 'em all... this thing is like 2 Apple Macbook adapters stacked!!! At least it's 110/220v and has a cord winder similar to Apple's adapters.

The SoundDock Portable is worth the premium if size/weight/portability are your primary concerns for an iPod dock or portable personal sound system.

The iPod docking cradle also retracts into the speaker system for transport or when using the Aux-in port so the system looks sleeker.

The included remote works on all current iPod models except the iPod Shuffle.

The SoundDock also recharges your iPod whether it's running from AC or DC power.

Click here for more info on the Bose SoundDock Portable

**Important Note** This is NOT the best SOUNDING portable iPod dock I've heard. That title goes to Harman/Kardon's Go+Play sound system. It's a lot cheaper than Bose's offering, runs of regular D-cell batteries, has video-out, and storage for it's remote...but, it's about 4x bigger than the Bose SoundDock Portable.

If size/weight wasn't an issue, I would've chosen the Harman/Kardon Go+Play hands-down. But the Harman Go+Play doesn't fit in my bag. For something that you won't be lugging around everyday (like occasional trips to the beach, or a friend's condo), the Harman is a much better choice, better treble extension, and better accuracy. Not to mention it's about P10k cheaper than the Bose SoundDock Portable. The Harman also runs 8 D-cell batteries which makes it a lot heavier, but cheaper to run on battery mode.

Click here for more info on the Harman/Kardon Go+Play

**Update August 2012, the rechargeable battery on my Bose Sounddock Portable died. Time for a replacement. A four-year operating life for the Li-Ion battery sounds about right.**

Pre-blog: Gorillapod

Although it won't replace a full-size tripod... the Gorillapod allows you to use whatever it can grab hold of as a tripod. It's very light, and easy to carry. It comees in 3 variants, the original, SLR, and the SLR-ZOOM (holds cameras up to 3kgs)

...yes, that's my cam taking a self-portrait of itself... hahahaha...

For more info, visit Gorillapod

Pre-blog: Boom! Boom! Boom!

Very, very useful studio boom.

Quite compact when collapsed... it can be raised up to a height of 8' while the boom arm reaches 7'.

Collapses quite quickly and very easy to roll around.

It is very heavy though, but required to make it stable when fully extended.

Made by Quiklok, it's solidly built, and well engineered.

Pre-blog: Speak Into The Mic Please!

I originally purchased a pair of Shure KSM109s... which BOTH turned out to be defective... since there were no more KSM109s in stock, I opted to try out an Audio Technica AT3032. Slightly more expensive than the Shure's I originally purchased, but more than worth it!

Transient response is much better as is frequency response! The KSMs had a slight bass roll-off, the ATs don't. ATs also capture highs much better than the 109s did (when they weren't crackling)

I do wish I had a chance to try the KSMs in their full working glory... but I'm glad I gave the Audio Technicas a chance.