Why nothing can beat my iPod classic

I have been an iPod owner ever since the first few iPod's were released. I have always also only owned the iPod classics. I did buy a lot of the Nano s, Touches and the like for my siblings but could never get around to buying it for myself. Why?

• The classic is like my one source of music, where ever I go - Running, Car, Home Audio System
• It has ample space to house all my music. 160 GB of space!
• I use smart play lists to manage my music and ensure I can listen to songs depending on my mood.
• Music on my iPod is more updated than anywhere else and hence I need to backup my iPOD often
• I have the needed accessories for my Car, My Run and the hard-disk has never failed me as yet

What I wish the classic had:

• I wish that with space becoming commodity, Apple does invest in a lighter smaller player which can offer as much space
• I can update and create a new playlist and type a little on the go.
• I can get rid of the display as it is really of not much value. No one really watches videos or movies on the player any more.

Any ways, this is one of my most dearest assets and I love Steve Jobs for he has truly made me a slave of his device!

Roland V-Drums HD1

In case you want to read the product specifications please click on the following: Roland Specifications

What kind of a drummer am I?

I have been drumming for ever and love percussion. Not officially trained, but I do have a strong sense of rhythm and have played in a few bands back in college. For the pas few years, I had stopped practising due to lack of a  drum kit, space and time. I completely get the difference in good vs bad sounds and clarity and finer details matter a whole lot.

Why did I pick the Roland HD1? 

I had a new apartment which was not sound proofed and I wanted to get back to drumming. I live in India where trying out electronic drums are not easy. I had a trip to the US lined up and wanted to save some money and bring back my drums from there. I did a lot of reading on the web and decided that if it was not an acoustic drum kit, I should atleast get a basic electronic one which felt like a drum kit.
Key considerations:

• Playing at home - no sound proofing
• Size as I had to ship it back from the US
• Cost
• Mesh Snares
• Roland since the hardware is known to be much better than the others
• Ability to plug in songs and play, ability to send the output to a computer was necessary
• Ease of use

What has my experience been?

Pluses

• This is a basic drum kit, easy to fix, easy to move around and store
• The mesh snare helps in giving you the feeling of playing on a real snare
• I can easily plug in iPod and play with it with a simple aux cable
• I can connect it to my amp and listen to it loud and play along when others are singing
• Cleaning is easy and I have not had any problems with it so far
• Space is not at all an issue.

Minuses

• The base is rather weak and does not really give you the sense of what drumming feels like with a pedal.
• I just heard the higher end pads and trust me the output of HD1 feels rather weak in comparison. 
• The Yamaha sounded better especially in the base for a lesser price
• The size of the Toms and the hi-hat feels a bit small when you want to practice some fast movements
• I have not tried the midi and mixing capabilities as yet due to lack of the necessary wiring.
• The sound on the head phone is far better than the sound on the amp
• The Aux out seems a bit lose and hence does shake a lot when playing sometimes leading to distortion.
• I have not tried the midi and mixing capabilities as yet due to lack of the necessary wiring.
• The sound on the head phone is far better than the sound on the amp
• The pedal and detailing of the hi-hat is surely not up to the mark. Gets a little clunky
• You cannot alter the distance around the pedals as they are in-built

Final Verdict:

• This kit is expensive and buy this if you are a learner and never intending to becoming a pro
• For every drummer, I would recommend playing on the acoustic at some point before fully getting used to any particular electronic drum kit. Else one never gets the feel and the control needed when playing on a real beast.
• This is value for money if you practice indoors. 
• If you do a lot of recording and want to mix different sounds. The basic from the kit is not amazing. However, if you have a midi out and can connect to a computer you can try interesting things.
• In retrospect, because I bought this in the US and got a good price on it, I dont regret buying this kit. However, now I do want to get rid of it and move on to bigger and more close to real drum kits (if electronic)

What will I buy next?

• I moved to London and tried out the Rolad TD-9X series and it was awesome. I will spend a lot more on my next kit since I realized that I play a lot
• I will invest in a good acoustic drum kit and probably will sound proof my house as that is what will allow me to learn better
• In the meanwhile, I will continue to enjoy the HD1

Hope this review was useful.

Perfumes I love

I believe I was a dog in my previous life time and I can truly close my eyes, sniff a person and fall in love! Having said that, I have had a strange fetish for perfumes all my life and have graduated from some v cliched, cheap only available options to slightly more expensive and exquisite ones.

On my list of perfumes are:

Coco Chanel Madmosile: This does last forever, might come across as something that will be worn by not teenage girls but women. Infact I typically use it when I am amidst slightly older, more sophisticated folk. The fragrance lasts for hours and infact sometimes for days on my pillow.  It is oriental. The bottle has nothing really to talk about but is an addiction hard to resist. You can buy this in the US for about 150 Dollars

BVLGARI: One of the brands I have consistently never been disappointed by. Every perfume is amazing. However, there are a few where one can smell the chemicals if used in excess. The two that I own and truly love are:
Amethyst! Not only is the bottle elegant, but the smell is soft subtle and truly lingers. The bottle however can be tricky if it is not used correctly and needs a good balancing act to stay still on dressing cabinets. I usually use this in parties where you want people to turn back after you have walked past, because it hits you from a distance and very subtly.

Another one is

iPod Dock

Context: 
I am very finicky about sound. I listen to Jazz, Classical and more than base, treble does it for me. I prefer listening to songs in low volume but high clarity. I invest in sound. I left home and a nice upcoming studio of mine in Bangalore and moved to London for a year. I have an iPod classic 160 GB  which has my music, my playlists. I moved into a small apartment in London and needed something to play my music on.

What did I want from my iPod Dock?

• Budget: Wanted to spend not more than 100 Pounds.
• Clarity: I primarily cared about the speaker quality
• Features: I just wanted the basic. I was not looking at extending this dock and running multiple devices at home. Nor did I care about integrating this with my comp or streaming things from my comp. I had music on my iPOD and I wanted to be able to play out of it at home.

My choices: I was debating between a Logitech S715i and a Klisch iGroove HG/SXT
What did I buy? - Klipsch iGroove HG

Why?  I could not audition any of the players. I had faith in Klipsch and was looking for sound vs features.
My experience: Loving it this far. It is small, not great looking because of the gloss finish. Does not have anything beyond a simple power, volume and next button. Has an extension for Aux in. But for its size, the bass is amazing. My classical songs sound amazing at medium volume. Plays high volumes and can fill a room for a party. However it does it begins to reverberate and sound distorted at higher volumes.
Recommendation: Buy it if you are looking for quality of sound and not extending this device to other areas
What is good? Excellent sound even the bass. Amazing size and very much a budget player
What is not good? Should have allowed for a clock and a radio. Could have done with a better remote and slightly more controls. Lastly a matt finish would have been better than gloss.
Where did I buy it? Amazon as the prices were most competent there. Picked it for 102 GBP

WD TV

This was one of my random unplanned buys on one particular trip to the US.

Why a WD Player?

I mostly had my content on a hard drive and had HD content in mkv formats. I also bought a new HD TV and realized there was no easy way of streaming my content to my TV via my laptop. Also, the AV receiver I had did not support a USB to drive video. What I wanted was a simple, easy to use device which would take stream out via a HD output all the content I had stored on my hard drives. The price point of a 100 dollars and the size of this device was my compelling reason to pick it up. Besides I am a complete black gadget person to keep up with the theme of my apartment and so the colour surely helped.

What is good about this?

• It is small and sleek.
• It supports most formats and has firmware releases frequently.
• There are also a few other firmwares available which allow you to play around a little more.
• It has a remote to manage and control your device.
• It also supports regular AUX outputs. 
• It has two USB ports and this can be extended via a hub.
• It is ideal for an entertainment room where you do not want a big fat server.

What could have been better?

• The interface is just average and could have been a lot better.
  Music stats and some intelligence such as recently played and favorites would have helped
• The navigation is so slow and can get frustrating
• It takes a while to move in and out of Video to Music or Photo Mode.
• Photo support is very poor in terms of slide shows but is manageable
• The version I picked up did not support an ethernet port and that was a huge set back. However, there are firmwares where you can add a USB wireless device. Also the new version has an Ethernet port. (Yay!!)

Recommendation:

• I would strongly suggest you buy this if your primary source of content is on your hard drives. 
• If you have not invested in a DVD player and already have an Amp, then this is ideal. 
• If you have not got an amp and intend to do more in terms of support, take a look at media servers.
• No issues this far in firmware upgrades or device conking out. 
• I own this and have been using this for over 2 years now.

Why this blog?

I have often sought help from various blogs when I added to my materialistic world. Decided to hence write back about my experiences and tips for others who might find it useful.

My interests in the material world range from

• Audio
• Video
• Instruments
• Cars
• Cameras
• Gadgets
• Computers
• Perfumes

Hope these posts help you in your quest some day.