i took advantage of a credit card offer -- apply, spend some money, and get free bose headphones. i was shocked they arrived in time for my flights over the holiday - but so glad they did. i would never pay $300 for these toys, but oh my, the glee... the screaming baby across the aisle appeared to be hundreds of feet away. and yes, just like the nice lady in the photo, users of these headphones are legally required to wear a smug "i can't hear you" smirk at all times whilst wearing these bad boys.
as i enjoyed them today, i found an article on the dangers of such things. an interesting passage --
Most discussions of the transformation of music by digital technology focus on the production end. But headphones transform sound for the consumer too. Headphones are packed with technology. When an audio current passes through the device’s voice coil, it creates an alternating magnetic field that moves a stiff, light diaphragm. This produces sound. If you think about all the recordings, production tricks, conversions and compressions required to turn human voices and acoustic instruments into MP3 signals, and then add the coil-magnet-diaphragm magic in our headphones, it’s amazing that the intensely engineered frankensounds that hit our eardrums when we listen to iPhones are still called music.
the author explains how the pervasive use of earbuds to blast the latest justin bieber into our brains is making us deaf. turn it down, baby baby
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