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Well, just in case you weren’t: A. at the condo the day I bought them (JasonC) or B. demanding a live update (teewee), the new item was in fact, the Cinema 220s. The name of the press event was originally chosen for the mac reference in an attempt to divert attention, but anyhow, the clues all kinda pointed to the speakers. Anyway, without further ado, the Paradigm Cinema 220 L/C/R speaker.

Right out of the box, with bad placement and no configuring at all, they sound rather tinny. This was a far cry from being blown away by Michael Buble’s Everything at the store. I had an idea of how they should sound and this wasn’t it. This wasn’t even close. This was like playing some KOSS computer speakers with the “DOUBLE BASS” button on the front, the button being off. I chalked it up to needing to “break in”, or “burn in” the speakers as we are so often led to believe. After a day of burning them in (which an audioholics article has actually proven to be useless) they weren’t much better.

I read more articles about setting up systems, speaker frequency response and crossover settings (oh my!), and it turns out that I was putting too much of the audio load on the 220s and not enough on the subwoofer. Now, with the size of these speakers (especially compared to the computer speaker size that we’re pretty used to), I was under the impression that they would carry most of the load and the sub would just be there for LFE (low-frequency effect). I was wrong, it turns out that these Paradigms have even less frequency response than the original Onkyos’ (claimed response) and so need even more help from the subwoofer.

The 220s frequency response is rated at 115Hz-20kHz +/- 2dB. The Onkyos are rated 60-50kHz without a dB rating or somesuch nonsense. I originally had the receiver’s crossover set to 80 Hz, which meant that I was actually sending the 80-115Hz range of frequencies to the Paradigms, which they couldn’t reproduce (or at least not well). After learning this, I set the receiver crossover to 120Hz and now the sound is a lot more full, and fairly tolerable.

However, due to not having an Audyssey microphone for the automatic speaker calibration that the Onkyo receiver is capable of, and also no real idea on how to set the equalizer manually.. I’m stuck with a sound which has the range, but sounds pretty flat and not rounded and “warm”, if you would. They’re far and away better than the Onkyos, especially off axis, but I’m fairly confident they haven’t reached their true potential as of yet.

My next step is to somehow get a hold of an audyssey microphone and calibrate the system properly. While first impressions of the 220s leave me happy with the purchase, or more accurately, the potential of the purchase, I have to reserve my full judgment until after the calibration.

The downside so far? The speakers have only too clearly revealed the weaknesses in the rest of the system.. which usually leads to one thing. Or many.

So on the sad note, the Canada Post delivery notice I received was not the contact lenses I’ve been waiting for (for two weeks) but on a happy note it’s a geeky new toy, in the La Crosse Technology BC-900 battery charger.

First impressions:

This thing looks cheap.. but it has lots of information on display so its forgiveable.. and it comes with batteries and a bag.. and some adapters so you can use AA batteries in your C and D cell equipment (didn’t know you could do that!).

Anyhow, last night I plopped in 4 of my oldest NiMH batteries (rated 2300mAH) and set it to Test mode. It fills up the batteries to full, then drains them, then fills them up again and reports the capacity.

If I had placed these batteries into my old charger.. it would have charged until one battery was full then stopped for all of them or done something like that. Little did I know that the four batteries started at pretty varied voltages. I set it to charge at 500mAH (5hrs to fill 2300mAH) and then discharge at 250mAH (10 hrs to empty). Two of the batteries were filled in about 3 hours.. but the other two took another 2-3 hours. (basically empty). They finished at varying voltages, from 1.46v to 1.51v.. and then they started to discharge at 250mAH.

When I woke this morning.. 3 were done.. and as I was writing down their reported capacities.. the 4th (batt#4, the one which hit the highest voltage during the initial charge) finished. The results I got were pretty surprising.. but fairly in line with what the initial charging peak voltages implied.

Two of the batteries (which finished charging with relatively low voltages last night) only reported 1470mAH and 1480mAH as max capacity! Batt#1 reported 1550mAH and batt#4 topped out at about 1880mAH. Talk about a difference! Anyway.. currently all 4 batteries are going through a discharge/charge cycle at 350mAH/700mAH. I’ll report on the capacities tonight, and then set them to “refresh” mode and see if these batteries are too old to increase their capacity again.

Seeing as we know electronics only function until the weakest battery dies.. that would mean I could have been putting 1470mAH batteries into a flash. yikes. And that would be assuming I could even get them fully charged.

So yeah I have been playing with my camera for a few days, pretty happy about it, though there isn’t much to “wow” about – I did play with Phil’s camera for quite a bit so I know my way around most of the controls. But regardless I do intend to read the manual :P.

Heh the night I got my camera jon told me to take a few shots to make sure the camera works… it didn’t really cross my mind that the camera wouldn’t work, so I dug out my old CF card just to try… and the first shot I took was complete black *gasp*. Freaked me out a bit, until I realize my settings were all off (and the room was pretty dark).

Anyhow the 17-85 is no impressive sharp L lens but I think it gives me a lot of room to play with for now. So no impressive sharp pictures, but monkey is happy.

Oh and I definitely need to get used to taking off and putting back on the lens cap =p

So I went to Henry’s Photo Show last Friday at the International Center, and it was surprisingly crowded for a Friday showing (can’t imagine how it’ll be like for the weekend). There are some deals, but not a lot… and I’m glad I got in for free (thanks jon). There were a number of interestingly titled seminar and workshops but unfortunately none of them turned out amazing. I think I forget that a) not everyone at the show are computer savvy geeks; and b) maybe half the people at the show only own a P&S so the audience isn’t strictly SLR people.

Anyhow the first seminar I went to (most of these seminars are held by Henry’s School of Imaging, and it is like a condensed preview of the course that they offer at their school) was on Flash & Lighting Fundamentals, and oddly what it taught was basically identical to what I read the night before online at some how to use a flash tutorial site. And then I went to some Stage Presentations that seemed promising – “Portrait Lighting” sounded pretty hardcore… but ended up being too hardcore – they were demoing how to setup those studio lights and softboxes and umbrellas etc. And then I went to another stage presentation that also sounded promising – “Exposure and White Balance Techniques” – but it turned out pretty disappointing. I recorded this stage presentation and just randomly cut out a clip below as an example, and hopefully you’ll see why its disappointing.

Anyhow at least the guy gave out his website which introduces some tools and gadgets he finds nifty. (Anyone know what Lensbabies are?)

And yes some of the stage presentations are more like marketing shows, like one for the Quik Pod – which is like a very tiny monopod that you hold with your hand so you can get the camera away from you to take a shot at yourself :S.

Then I spent most of my time loitering at the Canon booth looking at different SLR and lenses, but it seems like… the people there weren’t very helpful, at least to my questions (maybe my questions were just too… hard). But then I thought my questions are pretty normal, like I asked, what’s the diff between a XTi and a 30D… and the answer was….. “XTi has 10MP compared to 8MP; but 30D has a better light metering system and a better build…. but they are pretty similar”. At least I walked away from the Canon booth with a pretty Spring 2007 catalog with lots of pictures of goodies.

Then I went back to check out some more seminars – stopped by a Digital Darkroom seminar (also by Henry’s) which taught some stuff on PS Elements, and then I went to the Wedding and Event Photography Workflow seminar by Apple, which was by far (no competition whatsoever) the best seminar of the day. Hehe I really think Apple must have some amazing public speaking training program cuz the guy can present really well. The seminar was showcasing Aperture and how it can save you time and make your wedding photo workflow more efficient – and even though it wasn’t selling Aperture per se, comparing this seminar to PS Elements I think I’ll prefer to use Aperture any day.

Anyhow before leaving I picked up the ballhead for jon and the ___ for myself so at least I didn’t leave empty handed =P. Probably wouldn’t go again next year unless there’s something you’re looking for AND there’s a deal on it.

Second impression: I tried them last night side by side with the Grados powered by the Powerbook. Wow! It was very very different than here at work. Which is strange, cause I used a G4 tower here at work so I assumed the quality would be pretty good.

The 7506’s are quite astounding, far and away better than the PX100’s when listened to on the powerbook. Much easier to compare with the SR80s and while distinctively different sounds, you can instantly tell they’re in the same ballpark.

The SR80’s, due to their openness, definitely have the edge on a bigger soundstage. For my initial rough comparison using only two songs, I found the SR80’s had more presence, a brighter high end and tighter low end. The presence really brings the music to you and it’s more intense and in your face.

The 7506s I would describe as smooth, the bass is definitely more prominent than in the SR80’s (which I thought wouldn’t be the case after trying them at work). The detail is all there, you don’t miss any high end detail, but it’s much less in your face. Like all the reviews read, it’s very much flat and nothing very prominent.

This comparison was done with a flat EQ in iTunes.

Very initial impression: These are not your regular cans. I can’t tell if they suck or if they’re really good.

One thing I can say is, these are not your typical headphones. I only have the PX100s to compare to (since I’m at work) but one thing I can say is they have a very different sound from anything I’ve listened to. I don’t know if I would use these for regular casual listening.

At first it seemed like there was no bass, and very sterile, but afterwards I realize the sound is better described as flat. These cans seem ridiculously brutal. You can hear everything. Nothing is over-emphasized. It also responds very well to EQ settings. I think this is what “studio” and “reference” are all about. If you want bass, you turn up the lower range on your EQ. You can turn up anywhere on the EQ and none of it sounds bad.. it just sounds “honest”. The bass isn’t in your face, but you can hear all the bass detail quite easily.

If I could make a preliminary comparison to the Grados, I’d say they have more emphasis on the mid-range than the SR80s’ more V-shaped sound (deep bass and crisp highs). I think the Grados sound better, but in regards to the production side of it I would say that if you can get your mix sounding good in the 7506, it’ll for sure sound good in the SR80s. Rather than monitoring it in the SR80s and then having it sound not so great in the 7506’s.

They definitely take getting used to.. after all the bass-heavy speakers and headphones. Music doesn’t sound as in-your-face with these. I’m listening to You are Good right now and I can hear everything across the range but it doesn’t feel as “intense” as when listening in the px100’s.