Showing posts with label westone headphones. Show all posts
Showing posts with label westone headphones. Show all posts

Sennheiser EH2200 Professional HiFi Studio Headphones

Sennheiser  EH2200 Professional HiFi Studio Headphones
Customer Ratings: 4 stars
List Price: Price Unavailable
Sale Price: Price Unavailable
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  • Closed stereo headphones designed for hi-fi systems and portable stereos
  • Dynamic circumaural design delivers detailed sound with powerful bass response--ideal for DJ monitoring
  • Duofol technology reduces ambient noise levels and feedback sensitivity
  • 10-foot detachable, Kevlar-reinforced OFC cable
  • Lightweight, comfortable, ergonomic fit fosters extended use; fully modular design with replaceable parts and 2-year warranty

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I bought these to replace my 8-year-old Sony MDR-V600 headphones. After listening to the Sennheiser EH2200 headphones for a few days, I'd say they are a more-than-adequate replacement, and for about half the price.

The EH2200's have very good sound. Saying they have excellent bass response is an understatement. If you like rap, you'll be in for a VERY pleasant surprise--you'll hear low notes you've never heard before. However, these headphones do not sound quite as detailed as they could, perhaps because they seem to fall off slightly on the high-end. Cymbals in particular tend to get lost. Turning up the "treble" control on your stereo very slightly or boosting frequencies above 10KHz a few decibels with an equalizer will help flatten the response. That's not to say they sound bad, they just sound a bit better with more treble.

Although I would classify them as slightly "dull" rather than "bright," this is perhaps to their advantage, as you will find that you can listen to them for a long time continuously without fatigue on your ears.

Physically, these headphones are very comfortable, and very light, almost to the point of being excessively so. They weigh less than a baseball cap. Unfortunately they look and feel like a set of toy headphones, but don't let that fool you. Once you have them on and properly adjusted, they are so light that it's easy to forget that you are wearing them.

One bad point is that the cord is not coiled. It is very long and in my case in particular I've found that as it lies on the floor it has a tendency to get caught up in the wheels of my desk chair. However, the cord is detachable so at least it would separate from the headphones instead of breaking them.

The earcups swing around so that you can listen with just one ear if you want to use them for recording sessions. These headphones do not fold up for storage.

When worn normally, they do a very good job of blocking out outside noises, perhaps too good of a job: I had to turn up the ringer volume on my telephone because I kept missing phone calls when I was listening to them, a problem I've never had with headphones. If they only folded for storage, they would be great for airplane trips.

One word of caution: Out of the box these headphones did not sound very good, the sound was extremely muddy. However, instead of immediately returning them, I tried "breaking them in" as was recommended on many audiophile web sites. Initially I didn't place much stock in that suggestion, but it actually made a tremendous difference. (I played "white noise" on them for eight hours by tuning my FM receiver between stations, at moderate volume.) If you find they don't sound as good as you had hoped, try "breaking them in" overnight.

I would recommend these headphones to almost anyone looking for good sound at a decent price.

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For ..., I think these are an excellent valuea good way for non-audiophiles to upgrade to better phones.

The sound is crisp and clear, and compares very well to more expensive phones I've heard in stores. Bass response is good, so much so that I don't use the Megabass as much on my portable.

Speaking of portables, these will work adequately with a portable player (max volume just a tad bit low), unlike many premium headphones. Of course, you will get best results playing these with a regular stereo.

They are very comfortable and lightweight, so you don't notice them too much. The light weight also helps a little in the portability factor.

One noteHeadphones sound a lot better after you break them in for at least a few hours. This one is no different-

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I purchased these headphones for general home and office use; at home, they are used for listening to music and/or playing games on the computer once the girlfriend has gone to bed (small apartment, and the computer is in the bedroom). I've also used the adapter to plug them into my Onkyo TX-DS474, which is an aging but good mid-end receiver. The sound is incredible, especially on DVDs.

The only downside is that these headphones do not do surround, but again, that's pretty hard to do and usually doesn't turn out that great in headphones anyway. I also use these at work for listening to music while I program, and they are extremely comfortable. I wear them upwards of 3 hours at a time, and while I never forget that I'm wearing them, they never become obtrusive or uncomfortable. One other thing to note is that these phones do a great job of blocking outside noises. I've had people come over to talk to me who had to give me a good shake because I couldn't hear them... :)

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I purchased these headphones right before heading out on a trip that included travel via train and airplane, and these have served me well.

First off, the sound quality is amazing for the price. Everything sounds great, and it does especially well with bass. I have not had headphones that work this well before.

Secondly, they are incredibly comfortable. They weigh practically nothing and after a few minutes you forget that you are even wearing them. The padding is also very nice.

They do a good job of blocking outside noise also, worked great on the train, and a lot of the engine drone on the plane was stopped as well. However, they are not noise cancelling so don't expect too much on a noisy plane.

The only downsides I would note are, the cord is not coiled, so it can get tangled eaiser, but thats a minor downside. The cord is removable so you could switch to a coiled one if you really wanted to. Also, since they are non-folding, they are a little hard to carry with you, but I just put them in my backpack/carry on thing and I was fine. The minor downsides do not take away from everything that is good about the product.

I definitely suggest these headphones, if you are looking for a good pair for a good price.

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I've been slowly upgrading the head phones I own usually because the headphones break. Not what one usually assumes to be the functional part, just the cheap plastic parts that hold the important bits to your head. I have three headphones now, one a new Sennheiser EH2200, the other two held together by duct tape.

My first reaction to the Sennheiser EH2200 when I got it was "Oh no, more cheap plastic." I was a little underwhelmed by the not so sturdy construction. But who knows, maybe they'll hold up. They are comfortable to wear. Other head phones begin to hurt the top of my head for some reason. These haven't.

But how do they sound?!? Okay. I wasn't bowled over. I think somehow I expected to be wowed, but I wasn't. They're a little heavy on the low end which seems to overwhelm the mid range at least listening to rock-n-roll. So far I've mostly listed to mp3's but generally the sound is crisp and clean. I think with these headphones I notice much more than before the differences between different recordings. This is good, I want to hear the music not my headphones interpretation of it.

I am definitely happy with these headphones and consider them to be a step up from my previous $50 Optimus (probably make by Koss) headphones.

IK Multimedia StealthPlug + AmpliTube 2 Live

IK Multimedia StealthPlug + AmpliTube 2 Live
Customer Ratings: 3.5 stars
List Price: $129.99
Sale Price: $77.49
Today's Bonus: 40% Off
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  • Includes AmpliTube 2 Live plug-in and standalone.
  • Low-latency ASIO and CoreAudio drivers.
  • Headphone/Amp/Powered Speaker OUT.
  • High-quality direct Guitar/Bass IN.
  • Compact 1/4" jack to USB audio interface cable.

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This is a rather convoluted review, because it involves a long back story.

I bought this thing early this year (2007) after being burned by the M-Audio Fast Track USB device. The M-Audio thing, I was told, wouldn't work with XP Media Center Edition. So, before I bought this Stealth Plug, I called them and specifically asked if it would work with XP MCE and the sales people assured me it would.

So I get it home and guess what? It didn't work! I went round and round with their tech support and never got a definitive answer of what was wrong.

Jump forward eight months to November. I wiped out my hard drive and installed XP Pro so I could use music hardware and software that I couldn't under MCE. Anxious to actually hear my Stealth Plug through the Amplitube software that came with it, I installed it and guess what? It did exactly the same thing as before!

I contacted Tech Support and got nothing at all from them. I called, left messages and nothing. Pissed off now, I did some deep research. That is when I found out that this product does NOT work with Windows, at least not like it's supposed to. It was only because of a review posted in December 2007 that I found out that though Amplitube is supposed to be able to be played stand-alone, the only way to get it to play through a PC is to plug your computer speakers into the headphone output of the plug, or run a patch cord from the headphone output to the microphone input of your sound card!

What kind of crap is that? How can it be stand-alone when it won't play through the sound card without a patch cord? Of course, it took a lot of tweaking to get it to sound right in my sound card since the headphone to microphone impedances are not quite a match. I haven't tried plugging directly into my speakers yet, but don't like reaching around behind the computer and messing with the jacks all the time.

It turns out, the ONLY way to configure Amplitube so it will work, is with the ASIO Stealth plug as the input AND output. There is no option to make the input the Stealth, and the output your internal sound card. Supposedly, Windows will not allow that. Is that dumb or what?

I was at Guitar center the other day, and the guy told me he heard rumors that IK was coming out with a major fix for this problem sometime in January, yet it that's true, nobody is saying anything about it at IK Multimedia.

So, what does it sound like? Well, after much tweaking to get a clean sound out of my sound card, I was able to play around with Amplitube. It has clean American, British, and Bass amps. The simulations are pretty good and you can tweak the knobs and get different sounds. There is also a variety of stomp boxes including distortion (of which there's enough already just from the sound card), phaser, phlanger, etc. The stomp box that doesn't make much sense to me is the wah. How are you supposed to play and manipulate the wah pedal with the mouse at the same time? There is auto-wah, but that gives little control.

So, it seems this system is designed for MAC's because in the PC world, Mr. Gates and crew do not allow multiple ASIO sound devices.

As I was typing this, I finally got a return call from IK Multimedia! The service tech confirmed the problem with the PC. He also said there is no fix coming because the problem is a Windows problem and they have no control over it.

So, this is not just a plug and play device like it's implied. And nowhere in the instructions does it say you have to run the headphone jack directly to your speakers or the microphone input of the sound card. Or, if it does, it is not very well stated. Tonight, I'm going to go back and read the instructions again, just to make sure.

Though there is a workaround for the PC, this thing should be advertised as a MAC device, as far as I'm concerned. Yes, you can get it to work, and Amplitube does a good amp simulation, but it is NOT just plug and play. After I try recording with it, I'll edit this review with the results. This device has a lot of potential, it just doesn't live up to it, yet...

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First off, the StealthPlug requires the correct drivers to function properly. You have to take into consideration wether you are using a 32-bit or a 64-bit system. I tried installing the drivers that came in the cd, and the installation kept failing under a Windows 7 64-bit system. After reading the documentation I went ahead and completed the registration for the product, which allowed me to enter the user area in their website (ikmultemedia.com) and download the most recent updates for the product. They offer updates to make the StealthPlug compatible with Windows XP/Vista/7 operating systems in both 32 and 64 bit configurations.

It is essential that you complete the registration for the product in order to view and download the most recent updates. Once you get the correct drivers it's smooth sailing. The product is amazing considering what you get for the price. I was able to get the StealthPlug/Amplitude 2 combo for 65 USD (Included shipping). Like another user mentioned, there is a slight static hiss from the input line, but with minor tweaking you can produce a clean sound. Overall I am happy with the sound this produces, especially when using it with my Ovation Acoustic/Electric guitar. For those having problems with the product, I recommend reading all support material first before leaving negative feedback. The product works and sounds amazing.

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I bought this as part of the Jimi Hendrix kit in October 2009. The stealth plug driver installation doesn't work and the product installation aborts. The IK Multimedia web site suggests going to their download section to download a 64 bit driver. Guess, what you can download product brochures and all sorts of other useless documentation but no drivers. It you want to make any contact with them, there are about twenty fields to fill out. If you are considering this product, I suggest you do a Google search on it first with search terms such as "stealth" "install" "Windows 7" or Vista for that matter. You'll likely bring back a lot of tales of woe around this product if your search yields the same results that mine did. I found a whole raft of problems people were having with this product in about 10 minutes on google. It's a shame that the tech support people at IK Multimedia don't do the same and fix up their product installation process or provide more support and better access on their web site. I've got the Line 6 Guitar Port which actually works and is a great product. This stealth plug and the Jimi Hendrix Amplitude pack looked very promising. It's a shame that it's a total disaster.

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I planned on using this equipment instead of carrying around an amp while traveling. The stealthplug itself works fine. Has a little hiss to it. But the software that comes with it does not work. I have tried several whys to fix it including tech support. The drivers do not seem to be Vista compatable. In short, if you are wanting to use the effects advertised, be wary.

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I bought the StealthPlug to use with my laptop (Windoze 7/64, you bet I'd rather have a mac!)while spending a couple months in a rehab facility after surgery. Figured I might get some recording in.

Fortunately, I'd read the other reviews here and knew the install was going to be a bit more involved than just a quick driver download. I set up my account with IK and downloaded Amplitube 3 and SampleTank 2.5 and the updated

drivers. These work fine.

Tracktion 2 refuses to co-operate with registration as does SampleTank 2LE--only one serial number was provided, which went for Amplitube 2. Good thing I knew about Reaper.

The unit itself does well, a little noisy, but I'm using a Telecaster, lol.

AT8439 by Audio-Technica

AT8439 by Audio-Technica
Customer Ratings: 4.5 stars
List Price: Price Unavailable
Sale Price: $12.53
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  • Audio Technica Microphones
  • Model Number: AT8439

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Hi,

I wear my Sansa Clip+ on my bike & motorcycle, as well as hiking, and wanted to secure the cord of the headphones.

This clip works well, it's a bit big, but for my big hands it's great.

Strong spring, good bite with the "teeth" to keep it in place.

The small clip to route the cord through it good as well, I route the 2 small cords coming off the earbuds before they merge into one.

I also bought a smaller one from a different company, but it was too small and difficult to use, this one works much better for my needs.

If you like to keep you headphone cord where you want it, and are tired of it catching on things, this clip works very well, and it's only a few bucks.

peace,

ss

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I read reviews here stating that the alligator spring strength was excellent, and that's all I cared about. As far as the cord-holder slippage issue went, it was a non-issue for me because I generally customize things anyway. Besides, I was doubtful that the cord clip would be able to handle the wide gauge of the Grado SR80i -and I was correct. Moreover I didn't want my lines crimped, so even if the clip was adequate I planned on a DIY job that would be kind to my lines.

Simply took two small plastic zip ties -one loop around the cord clip and the second snugly wrapped around the cord after interlacing the first zip tie. Snip off the tails, and now it's a perfectly adequate cord clip for my heavy can cords. If it's not immediately obvious why two zip tie loops were needed, just visualize looping a zip through the cord clip gap pictured in the product photo. the line would only be able to run parallel to the alligator jaws; therefore, a second loop around the first loop and the cord is needed for a line to run perpendicular. Using black zip ties, it's hardly noticeable. Very simple mod -the jaws on this clip are good for thick cords like you'd find on any audiophile-level on-ear or circumaural cans, and the zip tie is just loose enough not to crimp the cord, and yet tight enough to prevent slippage.

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After my Plantronics clothing clip failed (after just a month of usage), I thought I'd try this one.

Trust me: It's a complete joke. Not only is it incredibly difficult to squeeze the alligator-style clip open (as there's absolutely nothing to grip on the squeezy-ends, so it keeps slipping out of your finger-tips), but the part that's supposed to hold the headphone cables is WOEFULLY inefficient, and it just lets the wires slide right through.

The clipping portion is ridiculously strong, though! I can't see it coming unsecured at all. BUT WHAT'S THE POINT IF IT DOESN'T SECURE THE HEADPHONE WIRES?

I think I'm upgrading to some bluetooth headphones, as these bouncing headphone wires are driving me nuts on my jog.

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This clips is very strong & with good quality material, only we need to take care when we put the cable, is a little hard to do it, but not a big problem.

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I recently purchased new PureGear in-ear headsets with a tangle-free flat cord. Great sounding headset EXCEPT for the cord noisewhen the cord pretty much touches anything, the mechanical noise from the cord will be transmitted to your ears. It is distracting and annoying.

The key to eliminating cord noise is to isolate the cord between your ears and a fixed point (usually an article of clothing) using a clip so that this section of cord won't touch anything. (The cord from the clip to your player/phone won't transmit the noise to your ears.) But flat cords limits the clip choices out there because most clips are designed for round cords. The Audio-Technica AT8439 can accommodate both flat and round cords, has a STRONG clip to attach to a shirt or a thick coat. It takes care of this problem nicely, and is cheap.

CharterOak SP1 Studio Phone I Acoustically Closed Headphone for Studio and Music Production

CharterOak SP1 Studio Phone I Acoustically Closed Headphone for Studio and Music Production
Customer Ratings: 4 stars
List Price: $1,000.00
Sale Price: $481.31
Today's Bonus: 52% Off
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  • Closed Headphones
  • 2 x 300 Ohms
  • 14 Hz - 24.1 kHz

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These are a rebranded version of the German Maestro GMP 450 PRO Headphones.

German Maestro GMP 450 PRO Headphones

So if you are looking to pay 50 extra dollars to get a tree etched into the side you've come to the right place.

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Yamaha ARIUS YDP-181 Electronic Piano with Bench ,Rosewood

Yamaha ARIUS YDP-181 Electronic Piano with Bench ,Rosewood
Customer Ratings: 5 stars
List Price: $2,199.00
Sale Price: $1,699.99
Today's Bonus: 23% Off
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  • 88-key GH(Graded Hammer) weighted action keyboard
  • Dynamic Stereo Sampling AWM piano with 128-note polyphony
  • 2-track, 3-song recorder
  • USB TO DEVICE port
  • LED Display

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A digital piano will not completely replace a real acoustic, but it comes closer and closer as years go by. I think enormous progress has been made and the YDP-181 demonstrates how much. It used to be that keyboards had springy keys and metallic sound.

1) The box

The box is LARGE. If you buy it from a store, unless you have an SUV you will have to open it and put the parts in the trunk after folding the rear seats. It is HEAVY too. At 110 pounds, you need to help to move it around.

2) Assembly

I found assembly straightforward. If you have assembled IKEA furniture, it is not more difficult than that. Again, because of the weight, you will need someone to help you lift the action so that it rests on the sides. After that, you tighten the screws, connect the pedal cord, the power supply, and you are ready to go.

3) The build

The included bench feels a bit tinny. It is not that wide and large, but unless you weigh 300 pounds, I think it will do the job fine. I am not expecting you would use it to play duets with someone else, it is not wide enough.

The console itself feels reasonably solid. The pedals have an adjuster screw that rests on the floor so that you don't bend everything while pressing the pedals. The back board feels a bit flimsy. It is very thin, and I am not sure it has any structural reason being there.

Obviously, it's not the same sturdiness as an upright, nor is it as shiny, but it doesn't feel too cheap either. There is a sliding key cover to protect the keys from dust and other things.

Due to the light weight compared to an upright, you can move it around a room easily. On carpet you can move it one side at a time by yourself, but on hardwood, I would get help to avoid scratching the floor.

I found the pedals require a bit of force to operate. To avoid damage to the unit, you need to make sure the adjuster makes contact with the floor.

4) The action

I was surprised how close the action felt to my upright. Except for the "let-off" (right before the hammer takes off, you feel some resistance on the key) which you won't feel on a digital, the feel is really good. I would say it is lighter than an upright, but I am not sure it is lighter than a grand. So if you move from this digital to an upright, you will need more force, but if you move to a grand, it will likely be similar.

The keys are sensitive to velocity and again here, I am surprised how good it is. You can press very lightly and get a pp or press fast and you will get a ff. It feels easier to control the dynamics than on an acoustic (where it is probably not as linear, I guess), thus when moving to an acoustic, you will need some adjustment. Playing pianissimo on acoustics is one of the difficult things to do.

On an acoustic, you can miss a key by not hitting it fast enough. The hammer barely moves and doesn't strike the strings. On this model, you can miss a key as well, if you hit below a minimum velocity it will not produce any sound. As with a real piano too, the sound is only produced when you reach the bottom of the key.

There are 3 key sensitivity settings. I liked to set it to "hard" so it feels a bit like my upright and allows for more expressive control.

5) The sound

I really liked the sound of the "piano 1" voice. Of course, it is a digital piano, so you will not get the full richness and amplitude of a real piano, and on the upper registers, there is a bit of an "electronic" feel to the sound. Damper resonance also adds another bit of electronic feel to the upper notes, though with chords on the lower registers, it sounds pretty good. It actually sounds better than my upright (crisper sound, and always in tune) and I have seen a couple of uprights in my family that just sound horrible. The 2 speakers have a power of 40 W and they are loud enough so that you won't need to push the volume to the maximum.

Piano 2 sounds more "muffled" than Piano 1. You can adjust how bright you want the piano to be, between "mellow" and a few degrees up to "bright".

I found the soft pedal effect a bit light by default, but this can be changed in the settings to get a more pronounced effect. The middle pedal is "sostenuto" introduced by Steinway a while back, which I think is some gimmick since most repertoire comes from Europe.

The sustain pedal retains notes shorter than a typical upright (which would retain for something like 15-20 seconds). I measured 15 seconds on the leftmost note and 10 seconds for the middle C. This brings a clearer and less muddled sound, but on the other hand, you lose a bit of amplitude with that. I couldn't find an advanced setting. It would have been nice if Yamaha provided it, especially since the settings system based on sections and sub sections allows for adding settings without extra buttons on the unit.

6) The fun

It's always nice to have a few more voices, like organ and harpsichord. You can play Bach the way it sounded when he was alive, or imagine yourself in a church playing the organ. I care less about the "strings" voice, the "guitar" or the "choir" though.

One of the more interesting aspects of a digital piano is the ability to instantly record and play. The keyboard has memory for 3 user songs, and you can plug in a USB drive to store up to 100 songs on it. You can transfer songs back and forth between the user memory and the USB drive.

For practicing, you can record one hand, then listen to it and play the other hand. Or, you can record the "piano 1" part of a 2 piano piece, have the digital piano play it for you while you play the "piano 2" part along. During playback, you can adjust tempo so that you can practice slowly and increase the speed as you feel more comfortable. I find this increasingly useful for working on 2 piano pieces, piano duets, or working with one hand at a time.

I can imagine a whole lot of possibilities with educational software using MIDI. I am sure the software could record yourself, measure your accuracy, compare your playing against a reference, and ask you to practice various exercises.

Another bonus is the ability to play silently and use headphones. You need a 1/4" headphone jack. If your headphone has a 1/8' jack, you can buy a 1/8" to 1/4" converter.

The unit comes with 50 preloaded songs, as well as a sheet music book for these songs. They range from beginner (a few) to intermediate and advanced. Yamaha included many classics: Arabesque No 1 by Debussy, some Chopin Etudes, the Raindrop Prelude, the Moonlight Sonata. They will keep you busy for quite a while.

7) Playback and the pedal

The pedal gets recorded for each part independently (recorded songs can have "left" and "right" parts), and at playback it almost behaves like I have two pianos. I can play along with the pedal, and the pedal only applies to what I am playing, not to what the digital piano plays back. Damper resonance on the other hand applies to everything that is being played. I have yet to see how this behaves with piano software on the PC. I am guessing the pedal changes from the separate parts will get merged by the software. Or, I would have to use a MIDI editor to extract the left and right tracks, play them separately and then merge the resulting wave files so that it feels like there are 2 pianos playing.

8) Other considerations

Unlike an acoustic piano, where you can get a tuner to come by to your house, open the panels, and tune it, voice it, regulate it, etc. on site, for a digital piano, in case of problems, you would need to ship it to Yamaha. The manufacturer's warranty for this model is a 3 year limited parts and labor warranty, according to Yamaha's web site. Stores may offer an extended warranty which covers shipping. Considering the weight of the item and how much it might cost to ship, this might not be a bad idea.

Another consideration is reliability. Since this model just appeared on the market a year ago, I cannot have a record of how it will deal with use and abuse, repeated use of the pedal, hitting some chords hard, plugging/unplugging the headphone jack many times. I trust Japanese products and I am hoping the quality is there.

9) MIDI

There are 2 MIDI connectors, one for in, one for out. There are quite a few options available to configure MIDI, the channels, the control mode, and so forth.

You should use only the Yamaha UX-16 USB to MIDI interface. I tried the Roland UM-One and it skipped notes. The Yamaha USB to MIDI cable works flawlessly. It may be more expensive than other cables but at least you know that it will work because it is from the same brand. Of course, MIDI should be a standard, but I don't know whether the problem is with Roland or Yamaha not being totally compliant with the MIDI specification.

10) The verdict

I hope this review will be useful as I have been quite frustrated with the lack of real reviews on this product on this Internet. Most information I found is the same description, likely translated from Japanese, that says things like "for the beginner and the experienced player alike, this piano will provide playing pleasure, blah blah ...", pretty much copied/pasted everywhere. Obviously this is an expensive product sold in limited numbers, so that plays a factor in the lack of reviews.

Although I am giving it a very favorable review, in the end you should try it out for yourself in a real store before buying online. Feel the touch, listen if you like the sound, bring to the store a flash drive and record on it, then play the resulting MIDI file on a PC, etc.

The good

Crisp, clear sound, good volume

Strong bass

Two kinds of pianos, plus organ, harpsichord, and other goodies (choir, guitar, anyone?)

Action feels similar to real piano, not too springy

Good control over dynamics (key sensitivity)

Half pedal capability

Ability to use headphones for practicing at night

Ability to record and replay, on internal memory or using USB flash drive

Ability to transfer MIDI songs to PC and replay with high quality virtual piano software

50 songs to listen to, plus the sheet music for these

The bad

Bench is narrow

Music rest is a bit narrow too, makes it a bit clumsy to keep an "accordeon" style sheet music in place (I do that for pieces up to 6 pages)

Back panel is very thin

Wish there was a real screen like the more expensive Clavinovas

On the upper registers, the sound feels a bit "electronic", especially with damper resonance enabled

Wish there was a bit more volume on the upper registers

Pedals a bit tough to operate (but it's like a new car, you get used to it pretty quickly)

Might be expensive to repair with shipping

Buy Yamaha ARIUS YDP-181 Electronic Piano with Bench ,Rosewood Now

After comparing many Roland, Casio and Yamaha models, this is the one I settled on and couldn't be happier about it. I played the piano from about age 6 through high school and I wanted to get back into it.

Of all the Roland/Casio/Yamaha models I tested in person, this Yamaha in particular had the best "feel" of a real piano. It lacks some of the electronic/midi compatibility of the Casio AP620, but in terms of the build quality and the feel of a real piano, the YDP-181 is the clear winner.

It is more sturdily built than both the 161 and the 141, and the key action of the 181 is also better than both the 161 and 141. I'd highly recommend spending the few hundred extra dollars if you can afford it.

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In case anyone is interested in more information about the bench that is included... The piano and bench come together in one box, and the bench is Yamaha BC-100DR.

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First off, you are paying for the cabinet here in the price. For what you get, it is arguably a good deal, but remember you can pick up a P-155 with identical key feel, GHE (Which is the same as GH per the Yamaha website), and AWM sound. It is less money, and portable.

If you are looking for an authentic feel and sound you will not go wrong here, it is an amazing value if you need the cabinet with touch/sound, but check out the P-155 as well!

"I am a Piano Teacher and Performer Check me out on YouTube Jonathan Bobal"

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This is the perfect piano! I actually like it better than a "real" traditional piano.......It's very easy to put together; I put it together by myself in about an hour (5'5" female). The sound is great and I'm delighted that I purchased this piano.

Hartke A-Series 35 Watt Bass Combo Amp

Hartke A-Series 35 Watt Bass Combo Amp
Customer Ratings: 4 stars
List Price: $269.99
Sale Price: $219.99
Today's Bonus: 19% Off
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  • 10-Inch aluminum cone driver, 35 watts of output power, 4-band equalization
  • Line level effects loop send and return jacks, Dedicated CD/MP3 input, Headphone output
  • Dual-position (flat or kickback) cabinet design
  • Rugged construction for supreme durability
  • Dimensions: 429mm/16.9" (H) x 381mm/15" (W) x 320mm/12.6" (D), Weight: 17kg/37.4 lbs
  • 10 inch aluminum driver, 35 Watts

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This is a tough light weight punchy little amp. I'm surprised by how much it can put out. It's fabulous for personal practice and has a beautifuly crisp sound. I've also used it as a keyboard amp in the symphony orchestra in which I play. It serves wonderfully to accurately produce a harp sound with a synth. You can't beat the value of this amp.

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I play in a church band in Illinois and occasionally in Omaha, NE and this amp is perfect. I bought one for each location. Because of the XLR output, I can use the amp as my personal monitor and also pump the signal right into the sound system so it can be mixed with the other instruments and voices. No additional direct box needed. That was the feature that sold me on this one.

It's also lightweight and has all the other features (or more) of similarly priced bass amps. I highly recommend it.

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Great amp, kick back, with music inputs (from CD's etc....) headphone capable. Nice sound. It will not rock a club, but that is not the intension. In fact if you had a couple of guitars, a sax, keyboards and drums you probably would be hard pressed to be heard... if your working low volume with some acoustic guitarists and a singer or two it handles that with no problem. Nice tones. I like it. AND it's VERY portable, but don't be misled, it is not a featherweight amp it does have some mass.

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When I plugged in this amp with my Fender P-bass, I cranked the volume on my bass all the way up and put the volume on the amp at 5 (as recommend by the owner's manual). Then I started to play, and there was an awful rattling coming from somewhere in the cabinet, sounded like the speaker cone itself. This caused me to turn down the volume on the amp to around 2.5-3, the rattling still occurred. I decided then to try turning on the limiter all the way, which helped a little, but the rattling was still there and rather evident. Thinking then that it might be my crap cord that was causing it, I switched to a Vox cable that I knew was good. Same problem. As I was intending to use this amp for small gigs, that simply won't do, and I plan on returning it.

Bass Rockers Slim Folding Xplode Headphones (Green)

Bass Rockers Slim Folding Xplode Headphones
Customer Ratings: 5 stars
List Price: Price Unavailable
Sale Price: Price Unavailable
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I was looking for some everyday headphones that look and sound decently.

These headphones are very very affordable yet they look pretty good and sound very good as well!

They fit perfectly(not too much pressure on your ears)and are very comfy for long listening periods...

The sound is very good indeed! Highs are pretty extended, clear and detailed.

Mids are clean, natural and realistic. Human voices are beautiful on these

Midbass and bass are both strong, tight and fast.

I could not believe my ears. They actually sound better than my $50 name brand headphones from my local retail chain store!

Do not pass these cans because they are inexpensive.

They are the real deal!!!

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Alesis iO4 Four-Channel, 24-Bit Recording Interface

Alesis iO4 Four-Channel, 24-Bit Recording Interface
Customer Ratings: 3 stars
List Price: $199.00
Sale Price: $149.00
Today's Bonus: 25% Off
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  • Four-channel computer audio-recording interface
  • Record up to 24-bit, 48 kHz audio into virtually any software
  • Monitor sessions with balanced studio monitor and headphone outputs

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I recently picked this up for the sole purpose of podcasting. After doing some research I found out that this recording interface works over USB 2.0 . Because of that, the iO4 can record four 16-bit mono tracks simultaneously (or two 24-bit stereo tracks). In the event of a microphone going on the fritz for a period of time or someone sneezing into the mic, you can easily mute/delete that sound portion from that one microphone rather than mute/delete the entire podcast. This helps post-production tremendously.

In terms of sound quality, the iO4 delivers. I would recommend taking advantage of your recording software's "mute frequencies below 10hz" option as this helps any low hum you may hear. However, it is hardly detectable without the mute. I have an Audio Technica AT2020 as well as a Shure SM58 and the recording device's mic preamps do great.

There are two things that are somewhat bothersome with this recording device. The first is the dB gain. In order for your microphone to even register on the dB scale, it has to be set at about 70% or greater on my condenser mic (AT2020). For the dynamic mic (Shure SM58), I have to turn it up to 85% or greater. This doesn't give you a lot of room to mess around with the volume. The slightest movements of the knobs in this range can drastically alter your volume levels.

The other issue I have is the power cable. It is a mere 4'5' long. If you have this on top of a desk, this isn't a problem. However, plugging into a wall outlet and moving the device to the center of the room will result in the cable being fully extended. As a result, this leaves the iO4 to potentially be knocked off whatever you have it resting on every time someone walks by.

However, neither of these are enough of a deterrent to not recommend this device. If you are looking into podcasting on the cheap, this is a good place to start.

EDIT: One item to note is that the dB gain isn't enough to push a mic such as the Shure SM7B. In the event you have more expensive microphones, you might not be able to pinch pennies when it comes to your mixer.

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If you've done computer based recording, you know what a difference drivers can make. In my opinion, a company's continued commit to solid drivers makes all the difference in how well a unit like this functions. Unfortunately, Alesis doesn't even develop a driver for this unit at all. Instead, they rely on default operating system drivers and a third party driver calls ASIO4All. Those drivers don't cut it for professional purposes. I couldn't get it below 20 milliseconds of latency with out dropouts. In comparison, I plugged in an old Native Instruments (NI) interface and achieved 5 milliseconds. NI still updates their drivers for this discontinued product to ensure that they continue to work well and work on new operating systems. It doesn't look like Alesis is even interested in writing a driver in the first place, and certainly is not going to support a driver for this unit in the future.

In short, products from some companies will not work well without good drivers, or will turn into expensive doorstops when they stop supporting the product for the latest operating system. My advice: Choose a company that stands behind their products by writing and maintaining good drivers.

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First of all, this interface doesn't include ASIO drivers. Instead, it ask you to download ASIO4ALL.

24 bits only if two channels used (well, you already know this before purchasing).

Mine came with a noisy preamp, when raising the gain more 75%, the noise is noticeable. So, if you want a really clean recording it won't do, else, it will be ok.

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I'm a diy musician and I used to use a usb condensor mic to record pretty much everything from vocals to guitars and bass. But after I got this I could do so much more. It has a 16 bit and 24 bit mode and mono and stereo modes too for different types of recordings like micing an acoustic guitar with two mics. It also works really good for micing drums (2 overheads, a kick, and snare mic) and like the other reviewer that you have to use a lot of gain, you do have to turn it up quite a bit but not so much that you're not able to use certain microphones

I haven't recorded guitar and bass directly through this because i usually end up mic'ing an amp when it comes to those but if you use garageband or logic you could use this to plug in your guitar and use the amps that are built in to the software

I haven't had any problems with this but the monitoring could be a little tricky when you first get it but it's nothing you won't get used to after the first few minutes of using this and it isn't the most expensive thing you could get so it is plastic so if you have a problem with dropping things you might wanna save up for something with a hard case and the preamps aren't the highest quality but if you're an at home this is a really good piece of equipment for anyone that's starting out recording. This is perfect for podcasting too.

I'd say this is a 5 star product especially for the price. There are other interfaces like MBoxes and the Apogee Duet but if you're on a budget or if you don't know too much about recording you should definitely get this!

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the io4 is ok, i'm lucky to avail of the low-price offer of the time... but the power supply got busted after only three days. The real bad news is that you'll surely have a hard time to get a replacement (power supply) under warranty from Alesis. I will not recommend the product because Alesis wouldn't replace your power supply whenever it got busted after only 3 days of use. Especially if you are a buyer-user from places other than U.S. It's a real bad experience. They'd just insist you're not covered of the warranty. Read the warranty notice carefully and you'll see what I mean. So if you are not in the U.S. I tell you be aware. They must clearly state that the product is only intended to be sold in the U.S.

IDANCE SEDJ-500 DJ Headphones

IDANCE SEDJ-500 DJ Headphones
Customer Ratings: 4 stars
List Price: $69.00
Sale Price: $29.00
Today's Bonus: 58% Off
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  • Large 4mm driver unit. Tightly sealed acoustic design for high level of sound isolation and booming bass sound. Power handling capacity: 1,000mW
  • Ultra Thick pressure relieving earpads cushion your ears for unbeatable supreme comfort. Durable and lightweight flat cord (1.8m)
  • Frequency response: 15. 20,000Hz. Sensitivity: 108 dB/mW
  • Impedance 32. Plug: Gold Plated L - Shaped stereo mini plug
  • Pack includes 1 headphone. 1/8 Inch adaptor. Free Mufin Player included

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This is the best headphones I have ever tried I have a pair of dre the studio ones and I bought a pair of these,ok so the dre's do look classy and all but the quality of these cant even compare. These headphones are SO good there clear, also block out the sound and there not so much money can't be happier.

Anyone looking to buy headphones should buy these there really awesome.

Thank you.

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the best headphones in the world better then dr dre by far & much cheaper make sure you buy it before price goes higher

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These are a cheap rip off of the Sony MDR-XB500's. Buy those instead. These are nothing in comparison, and for anyone who thinks they're the same, read the specifications.