• 7/19
• 7/26
• 8/9
• 8/16
• 8/23

And not to be left out, here is last night’s show.

Sorry for the delay!

So, this week I bring you new tunes from Bexxie, Donnie Dubson and quite a few more as well.  I can’t say that I had any highlights to the show, but overall it was a good time.

Producers: please remember that you can find me on AIM at CycleDubs, or SoundCloud.com/spinn if you have tracks that you’d like for me to play.

Oh!  Keep your ears open, by the way.  Saejma and I are going to be doing a show together again soon.  Nothing is finalized yet, but it was a blast to have her here the last time, so I’m really looking forward to it.

• I get frustrated at the neighbors because they live too close.
• We get some great new music.
• I use the term “where my dogs at”.

Clearly, this is high quality family entertainment, at its finest.

As such, I got to run through a bunch of new tracks, including stuff from Scro, Logistics and Mage.  The Scro track is good, but needs some work.  Regardless, I think he’s got a lot of potential and I look forward to seeing him more in the future.

So here’s this week’s show.  Download, listen, enjoy.

Don’t forget to update your RSS reader.  I’ve heard that some people have had issues with my transition over to Feedburner, so you might check to make sure that you’re still connected.

After an incredibly long day of listening to Steve Jobs talk about the iPhone 4, I was relieved to be able to hop on and play some great new music.  I finally got permission to play some tracks from B-Complex that I had been sitting on for a while.

So give a listen, or give a download.  Either way you’ll finally get to hear the VIP of B-Complex’s Beautiful Lies, plus a collaboration with Diane Charlemagne.

We’ll do it again next week, 9pm to 11pm Central so make sure to tune in!

Image via Wikipedia

Yeah, so I’ve fallen behind, once again.  Shame on me, eh?

But, I’m not one to leave you hanging once I finally have time to catch up, so here goes.  First off, here’s the set from this past Monday’s show.  Now, as for the rest?  Here’s some links for you:

2010-05-24

2010-05-17

2010-05-10

Moving forward, I promise to keep a better track of things.  Now that I’m working from home again, writing for The Next Web, I have considerably more time to handle this blog as well.

Cheers, and I hope you enjoy the archives!

My thanks to all of you who tune in.  I honestly do appreciate it more than you’ll ever know.  I’m just a guy, playing drum & bass from his living room.  I’m glad to know that other people enjoy it.

This time, we have the Aerial 7 Tank headphones.  From the Aerial 7 Site:

“Designed for sonic domination, the TANK allows you to explore the full spectrum of sound from low rumbling bass grooves and consistent mids to crisp highs. Ultra-thick cushions cocoon your ears, while the wide adjustable headband guarantees a perfect fit.”

More photos and the rest of the review after the jump.

I contacted Aerial 7, and they were kind enough to send me a pair for review.  I have to give points to the Aerial 7 customer service folks.  They were very quick to respond and easily accommodating.

Unboxing

The Tanks arrived packaged in the retail box, with full accessories.

My first impression, of course, was a “whoa”.  My guess is that the Graffiti model isn’t selling well, thus why I ended up with them.  Nevertheless, I am considerably more concerned with build quality and sound than I am with appearance.

Unboxing the Tanks, I was somewhat confused to find a very short main cord, then 3 accessory cords.  The Tanks are billed as MP3 player headphones, but they are a physical identical twin to Sony’s MDR-V700 DJ models.  The 3 cords give you the choice between a coiled cord (like the Sony model), a short cord presumably for an MP3 player or cell phone connection and then a split cord that attaches to the shorter one, allowing for mic/headphone computer connection.

Also included in the box is a drawstring pouch, for storing your Tanks and their included cords when not in use.  What is, shockingly, not included in the box is any sort of documentation.  Granted, these are headphones and should be plug and play, but with a myriad of cords it might have helped.

To be fair, the website does give a rundown of the included cords and adapters:

• Includes two cables: 1) thick coiled cable for standard music players, 2) thin straight cable with microphone for iPhone®, BlackBerry® and other cell phones.
• 3.5mm – 6.3mm (1/4″) adapter
• 3.5mm iPhone® – Skype™ adapter

Headphone Testing

My test platform was audio, both mp3 and analogue, routed through an Allen & Heath Xone 464 mixer.  I started with some drum & bass, then moved into rock and finally classical.

Considering that the Tanks are also billed as DJ headphones, and they are priced nearly identical to the Sony MDR-V700′s, I will use the Sony model as my apples to apples comparison.

Sadly, it didn’t take long to see the issues with the Tanks.  As is common in lower-end headphones and earbuds, midrange frequencies were artificially boosted.  Generally this is done to increase overall volume.  What I don’t understand though, are two things.

First – The Tanks are not lower-end priced headphones.  They are upper mid-range headphones, billed toward DJ’s.  They are $79 all over the Internet.  That is a comparable price to the Sony models ($87, shipped, from Amazon) and the quality is nowhere near on par.

Second – These are not ear buds.  They have full range, 57mm drivers.  These should be plenty capable of reproducing accurate sounds across a wide spectrum.  Though frequency response is billed at 5-20KHz, none of that range matters if the sound is not accurate for each frequency.  A 100 hz test tone sounded…muddy.  There should be no coloring of the sound, and these headphones simply do.

But I digress.

Boosted midrange aside, the rest of the frequency response was a bit off as well.  Highs tended toward the muddy and muffled, with a slight resemblance to being played through a tin can before reaching your ears.

The lower end of the spectrum fared a bit better.  Again, however, we have an issue with boosted response.  The bass sounded artificial across all musical types.  Though electronic did sound decent, as it fares well with boosted lower end response, at higher volumes the artificially boosted mids and highs were too painful to listen to and the decent low end becomes a moot point.

Microphone Testing

Generally I wouldn’t put a microphone testing section into a review of headphones.  It just wouldn’t make sense.  However, since there is a microphone included on the uncoiled cord, I might as well tell you about it.

Sadly, the microphone (which is an inline piece that sits high, and has an included mute button) was the shining star of these headphones.  The sound quality was surprisingly good, and it would make a fair headset for Skype or Ventrilo.  Though the background sound was a bit distracting, it was nothing that couldn’t be dealt with in most circumstances.  I wouldn’t recommend using the inline microphone with your cell phone, however, as I think that any background or wind noise would be hugely distracting since there doesn’t seem to be any sort of active noise cancellation.

Build Quality

As I said, the Tanks are a near identical twin to the Sony MDR-V700 DJs.  In fact, screw placement is exactly the same across the board.  However, the Aerial 7′s have a rubberized texture over the entire molded portion.  Aerial 7 says that this is a “soft touch finish” for a “premium look and feel”, but I found the finish to cheapen the overall feel of the headphones.

The overall weight of the Aerial 7 model is considerably lighter than the Sony doppleganger, which some will find pleasing.  However, I think that it is safe to say that the weight decrease comes from using lesser quality materials in the build.

The hinges are spring loaded, and snap back into place quite nicely.  The ear cups are very comfortable, and appear to be of reasonable quality for the price.  The included coiled cord and screw-on adapter seem to be of good quality as well.  I did not hear any added noise when using any of the adapaters, which is surprising considering that the Skype adapter adds 2 connections to the line.

Conclusion

When reviewing products, the first question that I ask is this – What else is available, at a similar price point.

Sadly, for the Aerial 7 Tanks, this is the only question that I have to ask.

If the Sony MDR’s never existed, or still had a price point of $200 as they did when they were new, then the Tank would be a decent (if not great) option.  They aren’t the best sounding headphone that you will wear, but they are also moderately priced.  The modular cord system, for sake of argument, should be looked at as a value-added feature and not something that makes your decision.

Given the $79 price point, there are simply better options both for DJ/Remix/mp3 player headphones and also for computer/cell phone headsets.  At $29 they’d be a steal.  At $49 they would be worth considering.  Sadly, the extra $30 puts them into a price league where quality becomes an issue.

Overall, I will rate the Aerial 7 Tank headphones/set as a solid 4/10.  The value-added features and moderate sound make them acceptable, just don’t expect to be amazed.

Image via Wikipedia

Why didn’t someone tell me I forgot to do this?  Oops!

What we have here, ladies and gentlemen, is a failure to post.  I forgot to give you guys podcasts for the past TWO week!  So I’m rectifying that right now.

I’ll do one today, then one tomorrow, to get you back on track without freaking out your iTunes.

With that said, here’s The Cycle Podcast from 15 March.  Enjoy!