039: All I Hear is Hissssssss

You haven't touched a computer? What's that about? I'm really kind of shocked by this. Well, I haven't touched a computer at home.

I have touched a computer for work. You know, like I have to get all hands on with those computers. Uh, but at home, like I have an iMac and I have a MacBook that are in, you know, the bedroom. They're on a desk, you know, just kind of sitting there.

And I haven't touched them the entire week until today. So I've been just kind of almost staying away from or not not avoiding doing any work from a computer, because I guess, you know, like you're always close to a computer. Like I still use my phone and, you know, smartphones these days are basically computers and you can do everything the computer needs to do. So, but I haven't touched like an actual, I guess, traditional computer in that sense since, uh, until today.

So basically from the last time we recorded, you know, we stopped recording and I think I did some stuff the next day just because I had to do some financial like banking stuff or whatever. And I did that and then I haven't touched a computer until today. So it's been kind of like, like I said, just a slow, slow week or like an easy week for me. And I haven't felt the need to like sit down and try to get into anything because I know once I do, I'm just going to be in it for a couple hours and I don't want to do that.

So it was kind of like me giving myself, you know, a timeout. Interesting. So quick question. We recorded last week and I edited and your job is to post the show so that it posts to the website.

So did you post using an iPad? OK, this is where it gets a little gray area. I mean, if you want to call this, you know, using the computer, fine. But I was on the couch and I was watching, you know, some TV show or something like that.

And I realized like, yeah, it's almost 12 o'clock. I need to set up the show to post. And I had already done the post. So it was already scheduled.

I just had to add the final track in, which unfortunately from the mobile app on Squarespace, you cannot do for some reason. You can't edit the audio blocks, which kind of sucks. But hey, I understand, you know, like, I mean, it's just a type in a blog and you can't add everything in there. So I actually just VNC it into the iMac and upload it from there.

But I was just doing it for my phone. So I still don't count that like real computer work because I wasn't sitting at a computer. Yeah, I'll give you that. I mean, you were on your phone.

Despite actually like, you know, VNCing to the computer itself, like, you didn't have to touch the computer. So that was your actual quote here in the show notes. So, I mean, if that's your quote, you didn't touch the computer. I'll hold you to that.

You didn't touch the computer. You touched the phone, which went to the computer. There you go. There was that layer of one degree of separation.

Yep, I'll give you that. So in some other news of the week, I think the entire internet has kind of blown up over this one. But have you heard this audio snippet that has been going around the internet, Yanny or Laurel, that everybody, like, based on your hearing, hears a different word out of this snippet of audio? Yeah, I don't subscribe to this fucking bullshit.

This is the garbage, like, junk programming that's on the internet. Like, you know how when you're watching TV late at night and you just get the shitty, like, you know, made-for-TV or, you know, products, whatever, late-night shopping, you know, home shopping network, garbage that's on. Like, this is the garbage part of the internet where something like this just takes off and everyone runs with it and it runs for, you know, like, a whole day and everyone talks about it. I fucking hate it.

I don't like it. So this is very much like the whole, is it blue and black or is it white and gold dress nonsense crap that happened, like, a couple years back and I didn't, you know, participate in that. I didn't participate in the Yanny or Laurel thing either. So, I mean, you can tell me which one you heard, but this is the stuff that I just don't even bother with.

Okay, so it's safe to say you don't even know what you heard or you didn't even... I haven't listened to it. No, hell no. I'm not gonna listen to it.

Like, it ran around for 48 hours, right? And then it stopped. But like, it was, when I saw it, you know, yeah, it came up in the feed and I was like, okay, well, what's this? And everyone's talking about this Yanny Laurel.

I'm like, okay. And then I read like an article that talked about it and I was like, well, this is fucking stupid. I'm not even gonna, you know, click on this link to listen to the original thing because it's very much just like the stupid dress. And I'm like, no, I don't, I don't, it's not me, man.

I've got better things to do with my life than spend, waste three minutes, you know, doing this. And then five minutes talking to other people about it. Like, those are eight minutes that I won't get back. All right, fair enough.

That's interesting to know your views on this. So, um, I hear Yanny for anybody that's out there wondering, but um, it's, it's so funny because this kind of relates back to the show in some ways. And Adam, you know this from, from editing in the sense that you hear things that I don't hear. And um, this week ATP and the guys that are on ATP did, they listened to this and they talked about it on their show, which was, which was interesting and it was on Connected and a bunch of other shows this week too.

And I thought it was kind of funny that all the guys on ATP agreed that they hear Laurel no matter what. And if you can't hear Laurel, then you have terrible hearing or you're just like a complete idiot. And so I thought this was just really funny because from an audio perspective, I mean, I don't think I have amazing headphones, but uh spoiler alert, that's our episode for today. But I have decent headphones and I hear Yanny.

I don't know why I hear Yanny and this doesn't matter. I hear Yanny if I'm in um over-ear headphones, if I'm in, you know, just on my iPhone, I hear Yanny if I'm, if I'm in the car, like I've tried it in a couple of different places. I just don't, I don't even care. Like, I'm sorry, we wasted way too much time on this.

Like I get it. People, and see, that's the problem. Like someone like ATP, you know, with all these guys, you know, they're throwing shit on the fire. They're throwing shit on the sensor fire.

It's like, just stay away from it. Ignore it. It's not worth talking about. It's like people are going to hear different things.

People have different opinions every day or people see different things every day. People see different colors. People see, you know, different details. Like people are different.

It's one of the beautiful things about people is everyone is different. There is no, you know, well, I guess identical twins are really that different, but you know what I mean? Uh, in terms of physical traits, uh, or actual. Yeah, I got you.

It's perspective. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But like I said, it's stupid. Like, cool.

Like this is another thing people will see differently and you can take that and run with it. And I'm not upset, you know, that people like wanted to take this test. I mean, like, that's fine. But the fact that people are saying like, if you don't hear this, you're stupid.

Or if you don't hear this, like you have the worst hearing. Like, okay guys, like that is throwing shit on the fire. Like, why are you fueling this? You know, like you heard what you heard.

It's funny to disagree about it, but you don't have to like thrust opinions saying if you don't hear this, you're, you're stupid. Or if you don't hear this, it's because you have bad hearing. And that's the thing that just gets me upset. I can totally understand that, you know, that, that, that totally makes sense to me.

Ooh, I'm feisty tonight. I'm sorry. It's just, I did not want to talk about this. And I saw it when you put it in the show notes and I was like, I don't wanna talk about this because I knew what it was, but I just like, nope, moving on.

To another topic that I don't care about. I'm not surprised you actually don't care about the next one, but I had to ask, you know, like, it's really funny to me that, you know, all of America is pretty much captivated by the royal wedding and uh that all happened today. So uh I assume, judging by you already saying another topic you don't care about, you didn't watch it at all. You didn't DVR it.

You didn't do anything in this, in this realm? Dude, it was like, catch it at 4pm or 4am Eastern time, like 4am Eastern time. I'm not gonna get up at one in the morning my time to watch this, this person get married. Like, I get Like many right now, that's running in a Docker container.

So I know we talked about that. So if you want me to send you that YAML file, I totally can. You know, I think I'm going to pass on the Docker container for Minecraft servers. And, you know, or the YAML file.

You know, I don't really find myself playing the Minecraft much. Hey, now this is going to earn me major dad points too, because if, you know, they can go to their kids and say like, Hey, my dad made his own Minecraft server. So like, we can jump on there anytime and play. Yeah, now I'm the cool dad.

Yeah, but that's totally true. I can see the brownie points there. Right, man. I give in your kids a safe place to play Minecraft.

So the other thing I guess in follow up is, and this is like a long time follow up is that we still got to figure out a show name, right? Yeah, I don't know. I don't remember when we brought this up, but it's been a long time in the making and talk about, you know, the lack of creativity on one person's behalf. Yeah, that would be me on the lack of creativity here.

And let's just say we're, we're under a deadline, so we got to do this anyway. There's a due date and I'll let me focus. There is the due date is set and it's flagged too. Oh, so did I tell you I started messing with Omnifocus 3?

I don't think that's even in here, but I started messing with Omnifocus 3. Well, I kind of figured as much when you sent me a bug report. You wanted me to report this week. Hey man, just like you want me to write Docker containers for you.

I would rather you file bug for me, you know. Yeah, I love that you sent me that too. I was like, wait, you're sending me a bug report to file for an app that you actually have access to. So I'm super confused right now, but okay, cool.

I can file it for you, I guess. I guess I just assumed that you already had the app too. Yeah, it was kind of funny that you sent me that, but hey, you know, I did it. So we'll see if anything changes.

I think they fixed it already. Well, cool. There you go. Problem solved.

All right. So this week, this is kind of funny because this is, I don't want to say this is follow up, but you totally came to me and said, hey, what should we talk about? And I realized like in the last couple episodes, I think we've we've talked about headphones a couple of times. And so I said, we should probably visit headphones.

And we really haven't done a discussion of headphones other than in our daily carry episode, we briefly talked about, you know, kind of headphones we carry with us. But that certainly doesn't encompass everything, I think. So I guess the first thing on the docket here is what daily carry headphones do you carry with you, Adam? I mean, what is what is your normal daily carry and then where do you go from there in terms of what else is in the in the the bag that isn't the daily carry?

So as far as headphones that I wear every day, all I have on me are the AirPods. Like I think I've I've moved over to only having AirPods that I carry with me. So when I wake up in the morning, when I get ready and I pick up everything, AirPods go in my pocket. And then once I get on the bus, AirPods go in the ear.

And then once I get to work, AirPods will either stay in the ears or they'll come out. Right. But those are the only things that I carry on me. There's a pair of wired headphones that I have just in case, but the AirPods are definitely the only ones that I carry with me every day.

If you want to get into all of the the zones that I have, I have headphones for like every zone in the house. So every station that I'll be set up at basically has their own dedicated headphones. So if you want me to talk about that, I will willingly talk about that. OK, so daily carry, you carry just AirPods with you.

You have one set of wired headphones as a backup with you and then there's a bunch of other headphones. OK, so let me let me briefly fill in my daily carry and then I'll let you kind of go go ham because I know you're going to need to go ham on all the all the headphones that are around the house. So my daily carry, I guess I would say on me is I carry a pair of Beats X that are pretty much around my neck all the time from the moment I leave the house to the moment I come home and go to bed, they are on my neck. That's the exact same phrasing you used in last episode.

I only know because I just finished listening to it. But funny déjà vu. Hey man, you know, I did say this was my daily carry, right? So I'm I'm definitely just reinforcing that here.

As far as other headphones that are with me, I definitely have backups. The backup headphones are AirPods, which that's kind of funny. I know that the backups are AirPods. I carry AirPods in the backpack and then I carry one pair of 3.5 millimeter headphones, which don't really do me much good for for my iPhone anymore because my iPhone doesn't have a pair of a headphone jack on them.

But you know, it's it's just kind of like the universal headphone. It'll still plug into the iPad and the Mac. And I figure I might as well have one pair with me and I don't even remember exactly what brand those are. Those are just gonna, you know, the universal ones that can go anywhere with me.

So that's my like daily carry is those three headphones. But I'm kind of curious, Adam, I'm gonna let you just start to go ham on all your stations. So tell me where are the headphones are in the house and what the headphone is that's there. And I guess I'd also without getting into just a whole like soliloquy here.

Why those headphones at that station? All right, so I put in here just kind of a preface is like, don't don't slut shame me for having all these headphones because each one serves a purpose. I'll kind of, like I said, I'll detail that. So we talked about like my out and about headphones are definitely AirPods and the wired for backup.

At work, I have a pair of Beats Studio wireless from Beats Studio 3 wireless headphones. And the main reason those are at work is because they are over ear and they have noise canceling, which is great for just eliminating kind of like, just background noise. If I ever need to like focus or if I'm ever in like a louder environment or if I go outside and, you know, want to work out there, that's why I have those. And so those are the only headphones that I have with noise canceling on them.

So the Beats Studio wireless, those are the ones that stay at work. And the main reason they're there is for the noise canceling. So going from there, that's the pair that I use. And then when I come home and I'm sitting at the iMac or the desktop here, I have a pair of wired VOH6s, which are over ear headphones from Bang & Olufsen.

And those ones are here just mainly because they were my reference headphones. They're very just kind of clean sounding headphones. They don't have a lot of base response. They're not like overweighted in any area.

So they're kind of, they're decent for a pair of reference headphones, but they're also fun when you, you know, you crank up the sound and you can actually get some decent, you know, sound out of them. They are closed back headphones too. So it's kind of nice if I'm ever here and have to edit. And since they are over ear, that eliminates a lot of the noise.

So that's why they're at the iMac because I route everything through the DAC that I have, which is an Apogee Duet. So I have that here. That's just the headphones that are always plugged into that guy. So that's why I have the H6s at the iMac.

If we go over to the living room, I do have a wireless pair of Bluetooth headphones that are hooked up to the Apple TV that's out there. So I have a pair of VO Play H7. So another pair of Bang & Olufsen, but the wireless version of the H6s. So they're basically the exact same headphones.

They just have a wireless. So those are paired with Bluetooth and those are only paired to the Apple TV. So if I ever want to watch a movie late at night and I don't want to disturb anybody, but I still want like a decent sound, I'll have those. The big thing with the BOs is they don't have any noise canceling and I'm not a big fan of noise canceling, which we'll talk about in a little bit here.

But like I said, they're just like the H6s, great over-ear headphones, not overweighted in terms of base and not underpowered in terms of like highs and mids. So they're pretty good in terms of being like a neutral listening experience with the headphones. So those are what I have on the living room. And lastly, I have a pair of Bose Soundsports, which are kind of like a just neck buzz, but Bluetooth sport headphones essentially for working out.

So usually those are what I'll put in there. And the main reason I have the Bose Soundsports is because they have the, I forgot what they call their eartips, but they have these ear hooks in them and there's a certain patented Those are just my recording headphones for home. Other than that, there's really not anything I use. And those are, again, something that gets used once a week.

They're not really used any other time than that. I don't ever go out with them or go on a walk with them or anything like that. They are specifically used pretty much at home for recording and that's it. I think that pretty much rounds out my headphones.

So I guess I'm one shy of you. But I think the second two that I have here that are not my daily carry are used probably way less than your other three that are at home. It sounds like you use them a little bit more. Yeah, I'd say any given day, I probably use, I mean, at least use three of these headphones.

Definitely the ones that we're working out because I work out every day. And definitely the AirPods. I mean, there are some days at work where I won't actually even put on the studios. It really just depends for me.

But I think the difference between you and I is I have definitely kind of run the gamut in terms of trying headphones. So I will get a pair of headphones and try to replace them in one place, right? Or I'll try them in one place. And then if I like them, they'll stay.

And if I don't like them, they'll leave. And they'll get handed to someone else to use. So I think just in that sense, I've probably gone through, oh, geez, at least 50 pairs of headphones. And I'll say in the last probably three to four years, I've gone through that many just in terms of trying them and liking or keeping what I liked and sending back what I didn't like.

And I've tried so many headphones because it's hard for me to find something that I really like. I mean, headphones are one of the things where you have to kind of use them a couple days to really understand how you're going to not respond, I guess, but how they're going to fit into your lifestyle. And I think that kind of brings us into like the next topic is, is what your preference is, right? Like, I know in terms of my listening habits, really depending on what I'm doing, I'll have a preference of the type of headphone that I get.

But there are definitely qualities that I look for in headphones. And that's why I kind of try so many of them. And it's not like you in the sense where once I find one that I like, I get three pairs of them. It's like, all right, cool.

Like, this is what I'm going to use for this location. And then when something better comes out, I'll try it and see if it's better. But I don't know, like I have a very particular set of like criteria that headphones have to meet for me to even consider them. But I'm curious, like, if you have a preference between the different types of headphones.

So I know we have like earbuds, there's the neck buds, there's on-ear, there's over-ear. Do you have a preference in terms of what you kind of go to? Yeah, for convenience sake, I definitely stay away from the on-ear and over-ear in terms of like my daily go-to headphones. But the neck buds versus the earbuds, that's kind of like a very fine line because the Beats X are something that's kind of new to me.

And those are definitely in the neck buds category. But, you know, I guess I would say I'm a buds fan. I don't really have a preference between earbuds versus neck buds, but I don't want to jumping on too much here. But I am a fan of wireless, so it doesn't really matter whether they're earbuds or neck buds.

As long as they're wireless, I think that's the big criteria for me. Gotcha. Yeah, you're all about convenience. I mean, since you can't really hear the difference anyway, it doesn't really matter to you.

I like that shot across the bow there. That was good. A little. So, okay, so you're more of a neck buds person, it sounds like, right?

You like the in-ear. So in terms of on-ear or over-ear, what do you prefer? Because I think that's usually another place where people are like, they either swear by on-ear headphones or they swear by over-ear headphones or they don't really care. Like, do you have a preference between on-ear or over-ear?

Yeah, I definitely do. If I'm going to go in this category at all, I'm hands down going over-ear. I don't want them on my ear at all. Why?

Personally, I just think they're way more comfortable to wear long-term. I've had on-ear and generally my thing with, if I'm listening to a headphone of that style where I've got some sort of bulkier set of headphones on, I'm usually listening for a longer period of time. I'm going to be with them for, you know, hours or more. And when I'm in that sort of setup of the on-ears, man, they just, one, first things first, where I got introduced to these primarily would have been like flying.

And on-ear, you can't turn right or left or put your head on anything. And if you do, it's just really annoying because you feel the pressure on your ear. And two, I don't really like the, when there's active noise canceling or any kind of noise canceling or processing going on, dude, your ears get, like, hot, and I don't know, I just don't like that feeling. It's a feeling thing for me mostly more than anything.

Whereas that cushy layer of foam that happens to be with the over-ears, way more my fan or my style. All right, so I can agree with you on the over-ear. It's like definitely over-ear headphones. And I like it for the same reasons you do is it's nice because you don't have that pressure.

They're more comfortable to wear long-term. The only complaint I have is that some of them get hot, right? Like your ears will get hot with over-ear, more so than they will with on-ear, because on-ear gives you a little bit more. But my main goal in a lot of this is to filter out background noise in a clean way or a more natural way.

And we'll get into, like I said, the noise canceling a little bit here. But I definitely agree with the over-ear just because if I'm wearing over-ear headphones or if I'm putting those on, like, I'm probably going to be doing something for a little while. Like, I'm sitting down for a two-hour movie or I'm sitting, you know, down at the computer. Like I said, I stayed away from a computer because if I sit down, I'm going to be there for a couple hours.

That's just kind of the nature of how it works. Like, oh, okay, maybe I'll start going through this or I'll open things and look at something that I need to do, you know, two weeks down the road and I'll start trying to get a jump on it now. But as far as, like, earbuds and neck buds, I know they have, like, AirPods kind of brought out the truly wireless earbuds kind of trend. And I can sing praises about AirPods all day long just because of the convenience factor.

Talk about, like, the charging case being really nice. And I usually wasn't a fan of, like, how earbuds fit in my ear, like, just the earbud design. But AirPods, they don't seem to, I don't really have a problem with them in terms of, like, hurting my ears or fitting correctly in my ears. And it's the little things that make them really nice in terms of, like, the controls, very simple, right?

There's not a lot to them, but skipping tracks and stuff like that, it's very nice to be able to double-tap and do those things. Siri, it's great to have on there. But the single-handed best feature of AirPods is when you take one of them out of your ear, having the stuff auto-pause. Oh, my God, that is the best thing ever.

Because normally when someone comes up to you and they want to talk to you, I'm going to take a headphone out of my ear just so I can hear that person. And the fact that I don't have to worry about pausing anything, clicking a button, all I have to do is take one AirPod out of my ear and it auto-pauses it. Oh, it's the best thing ever. Like, single-handedly, that's why I carry them every day.

Because the amount of times that that happens that I'm interrupted, it's perfect to just take an AirPod out. Everything pauses. You can carry on a conversation. I put it back in my ear and it resumes.

Oh, man, like genius. Genius design. Yeah, I can't really disagree with you there. I mean, the AirPods, like, what they do is, it's magical.

Let's just put it that way. And it was really a huge leap forward in headphones in a lot of ways. And, you know, I'm sure we'll continue to see them get better over the coming years. But I really hope some of this technology starts to come to the rest of, you know, headphones that are out there.

And, you know, I think, obviously, it's possible to be done. And there's such a convenience between that and the other big win for me, of course, is the ability that when you pair these headphones to, you know, with the custom chip that they're using to, you know, any of your iOS devices, it pairs to everything else. That is magic to me. That hands down just wins in every department.

The multi-pairing is pretty awesome, right? Like, okay, let's just throw the key on how to pair these with, you know, iCloud. And we'll just pair everything with iCloud and have the So all of my headphones that I mentioned are closed-back headphones. And a lot of that is just because of, I want to say, like a courtesy to those around me, because open-back headphones, you know, you're definitely going to get a lot of noise coming out of those.

And where I'm at just in my lifestyle, right? Like, the office that we have, like the desk that we have is in the bedroom, so if Alex is sleeping, if I'm actually sleeping, like I'm not going to disturb her by putting on, you know, a pair of open-back headphones. That being said, I do have some open-back headphones in my shopping cart right now, a pair of Sennheisers that I want to get at some point just for, like, I don't know, like that good listening section that you want to get, right? Like, I want a pair of open-back headphones for when I really want to just listen to music and I kind of want to leave my ears open to the rest of the world, you know, or still have that natural reverberation of sound and not kind of, I don't know, that isolating feeling that you kind of get when you put on closed-back headphones.

So, I'm a big closed-back fan, but I want to give more into the open-back. And like I said, I have a pair that I want to test out, so we'll see how that goes, because knowing me, it's like, I'll get it, and I'll spend a bunch of money on it. I'll have it for a couple of months, and I'll use it, and I'll be like, oh, this is either going to replace one of my headphones, and like I said, due to my circumstances, it probably won't, and then I'll have to try to sell it. And that's always a fun experience.

Lightly used headphones, like-new headphones. You want to buy some like-new headphones, Lou? No, I'm good. Although I can honestly say, I've never even tried open-back headphones, so I really feel like I'm at a loss on this one, because I can't even tell you.

All the headphones I have are closed-back, so I, while I've heard great things about open-back headphones, and I guess I would be less concerned about the privacy stuff because, or just, I guess I shouldn't say privacy, but like disturbing those around me. Most of the places I'm listening to music or doing anything like that, I really shouldn't be worried about that. There really isn't a need to, you know, keep it quiet. It's just like, I don't know, man, I haven't ever, like, gotten to the point where I'm like, yeah, I'm gonna do that.

And it's been a long time since I've been like, hey, I'm gonna spend, you know, $300, $400, $500 on a pair of headphones. And I just think audio quality's come a long way for that, like, $1 to $200 price range, and you can get some really great stuff at that price range. So the open-back stuff is generally pretty expensive, I feel like, and I just haven't, haven't gone that way. And like I said, also with the convenience of things like AirPods and stuff, it's like, man, there's, there's so many, like, high barriers and hurdles to overcome that I'm just like, ugh, I don't even want to go there.

Yeah. Anyway, so in this next category, this is one that's really interesting, and I honestly, I have put this in my cart and actually really considered this, even though, like, hey, like you, like we were just saying, you know, like high hurdles and lots of stuff to overcome, this, this is not solving any of those problems, but a bone conduction headphones. So these are the whole like idea that, you know, it's like something that, like, essentially, like, vibrates the, the bone, right, right around your ear, I think. And the idea is like, you, you hear it in your ear canal and, and it's kind of nuts and magical and weird all at the same time, it seems like.

But I'm kind of curious, have you ever tried bone conduction headphones? And if so, uh, did you like them or is this something you've even given thought to adding to your collection? Yeah, so I've definitely tried them, mainly because, like, I tried Google Glass for a little bit. Like I got to try a pair of those for a hot 15 minutes, which had bone conduction, and it works, right?

You're able to hear these things and it, you know, translate into, into actual, like, sound waves that you can hear. And I've tried the Aftershocks, which is the brand everyone talks about, right? If you listen to a podcast in the last, you know, six months, then you've definitely heard of Aftershocks. Uh, so I have tried those and I just tried them in, like, a, what's, what's a Brookstone.

I was at a Brookstone, I think when we were traveling just in between airports, right? So we had a little layover. And uh I was like, oh, I'll just walk around, you know. So there was a Brookstone and we walked in there and tried on some, some Aftershocks and kind of messed with those.

And I can see the appeal, especially if you want to, you know, like, be totally open to the outside world and, you know, be able to, to walk around and still listen to something but not block out the rest of the world. Uh, and in terms of not having anything in your ear as well, like, I see all the uh the pros on it, but they don't sound great. They're not like the best sounding headphones by any stretch of the imagination. So if I was listening to like books on tape or if I was just listening to podcasts, and let's say I was gonna go for a walk, a nice quiet walk around, you know, the lake, or if I was going on a hike, let's say, and I just had a bunch of podcasts or an audiobook that I wanted to tear through, I think this, these would be awesome in that scenario, but the fact that I already have to say, like, well, it would only be great if I was going here or here or here, and only be great if I was listening to this or this or this, right?

I think they serve such a small kind of niche market that I don't think it's going to be as much of a listening experience more as a utility. So I see people like, hey, you know what, especially when AR comes around and you put on a pair of like AR glasses, like, hey, these just have bone conduction, so it's, it's mixing your reality, right? These, these are great for that arena, but not for anything else, right? Anytime where you're listening to a medium that, you know, is meant to be focused on, like, 100%, like, hey, when you listen to an album, right, a lot of people put on as background noise, but when, when they made it, right, it was, it was a thing to stand on its own, right, it wasn't meant to accompany anything else that you were doing, the album was supposed to stand by itself.

And when you listen to it, you, you should be appreciating that. But something like AR or someone talking to you or an assistant or whatever it is, like, dude, that can be bone conduction all day long and someone can like whisper in my ear, you know, or just have this bone conduction going on. But I don't think for listening that they're gonna have a big application. I really see them taking off the mixed reality though, so I think that's the important thing to look for.

Okay, that's interesting. I mean, so I have to think what you say and, and kind of like filter it through my, my listening. And so this sounds actually really lucrative to me. You actually kind of make it sound good for me because you say that there's almost like some fidelity, it sounds like that's lost in them and that they're not the highest quality, but at the same time we've already established I can't hear most of the fidelity that probably comes with the higher-end headphones anyway.

So these might be something I should consider in years to come. But, uh, I don't know if they're at approachable at an approachable price, I might consider them. But I, I think I would, I don't know, it's, it's so hard to overcome some of the, the pleasures that come with the, you know, the wireless stuff today, the auto pairing and all that. I just, I really have a hard time stepping away from that stuff.

So, anyway, so noise canceling, I know this is uh something that uh we've, we've kind of hit on a few times already. So uh what is your, what is your thought on noise canceling specifically passive, active, all that good jazz? I don't like it. I don't like noise canceling.

Active noise canceling, I do not like at all. Passive noise canceling? Sure, right? Like you put on over your headphones, like you've got some noise canceling there.

But anything doing active noise canceling, all I hear is a hiss. That's all I hear no matter what. Like, there are a lot of times where I'll put on headphones, you know, and just before something or before I turn anything on, if they have the active noise canceling, that's all I hear is just the hiss. And I hate it.

I hate it so much. But that's why most of all of my headphones do, do not have active noise canceling, is because while I, I see the utility, actually, no, I lied. My Beats Studio They definitely win in my book. OK, that's that's interesting.

And I guess not terribly surprising to me because they are kind of like a all-around best headphones. So I can understand that perspective. So I think for me, the, the ones that are my favorite are definitely my, my daily driver, my, my use all the time kind of thing. Because if I think about how much I spend a week listening to headphones, it's probably like, you know, 30 hours a week or something like that with headphones and probably all but like 20, you know, all but like five hours of the week are, are spent, you know, using, you know, just those BTECs.

So those are probably my, my favorite headphones. Um I think those at least are right now. There was a hot period where AirPods were it, and I think AirPods are a really close second for me. Um there's just a couple of things that are tough with the AirPods, mainly for me around, um, sitting in my ears.

They're not 100% perfect. And, and so that's my, uh, my slight gripe with them where I, I sometimes struggle depending on what I'm doing or how I'm moving to keep them in my ears. So if man, if, if I could get them to stick perfectly every time, it would, it would be the AirPods for sure. But I'm going to say the BTECs are it for now.

Cool. I, I like those headphones because I definitely had them for a little bit and I enjoyed them. They were, they were fun headphones to kind of have on. Like you got a decent sound out of them.

They're pretty comfortable to wear once you had, you know, the right um earbuds in there. My complaint is that the, uh, the stay tip wings that they had on there, those are super uncomfortable. Like I could never get those to fit right in my ear. They totally are.

I, I 100% agree with you. The stay tip wings that they, they ship with them are like almost like molded plastic and not like silicone. And so it is, ugh, it is garbage. Yeah, so it's plastic that you put against your ear and they have a little cutout for like the cable that goes on there and they don't stay on.

That's one thing, right? Like they come off pretty easy, which is kind of annoying. A also like they scraped the inside of my ear, man, because that, that plastic wasn't like rounded or, you know, since there wasn't an actual edge to it, like I just felt like it was scraping on my ear the whole time. Also, they make the headphones a little bit bigger, right?

Because you're adding this, you know, thin layer of plastic. So you increase the size by like a millimeter, which for some people with small ears, me, right? I have tiny ears. So putting anything bigger in there is like, Oh, it just, it was painful.

I, I ended up getting a pair of like the little hooks. Right. The little silicone hooks. But since they're not made for the, the headphones, they're kind of like a kludgy workaround for it.

Right. Like they, they don't fit perfectly and you have to adjust them every once in a while, but they're more comfortable than the ones that came with it. But Oh, like, yeah, I not a fan of that and not having those, those stay tips in there means that every once in a while, like eventually your seal will like come loose and readjusting headphones is not a game that I like to play. Yeah, that's totally understandable.

No one wants to die. I mean, you just want it to work every time, all the time. So yeah, I, I mean, I agree. I, I really, the, the wingtip design that Bose has is, is hands down the best one, but I understand it's really hard to not step on those patents.

So what can you do? So anyway, uh, dream headphones, Adam, what, what is, if, if you could throw money at this problem, what would, what would you get? So if I could throw money at the problem, I would get a pair of custom molded, uh, ultimate ears monitors, like in-ear monitors that are molded to your ear. So you go and you get a 3D scan done of the uh your ear and your ear canal, and you basically get a pair of custom molded earphones that will completely block out all sound and put a speaker, a driver just right in your ear.

Um, so this is something that if, if I wanted to throw money at something, this is the next thing I would throw money at because um I would, I, I love the idea of having just like, you know, headphones that are made for you. And you'll see like a lot of, you know, professional artists use these, especially when you're, you know, like in live performances, all, all the monitors that they have are all custom molded in-ear monitors. So getting a pair of these, even just the cheapest pair, just for, you know, listening, uh, day to day, they are wired. So, you know, kind of have to run that.

I think you can get a wireless adapter, but if I'm paying this much for, you know, headphones, I would want a wired experience. But this would kind of be my like, Hey, I don't want to put on like big bulky headphones. I want something that I can kind of carry with me. And then if I'm in an area that is a little more noisy or I want to, you know, just like kind of crank some music and have a really good listening experience, these are what I would get.

But looking at the lowest end, you know, that's $500 and I've got more important things than to throw $500 at these headphones. But that would be my dream pair of headphones is to get a, a great pair of custom molded in-ear monitors. Interesting. So like I've definitely seen these other things before and I kind of always have just relegated them to like, Hey, I'm not an artist.

I wouldn't buy these. But I've never thought about throwing money at them just for your everyday headphones. So that's a really interesting take and one that, I mean, it makes total sense now that you kind of explain it like that. But it's just one, one way I never thought of solving this problem.

Yeah. I mean, everyone swears by them, right? So any, you know, anyone who listens to audio for a long period of time or people who play live, they, they swear by these. And yeah, playing them live is one thing and they have ones that are tuned for live, but they also have ones that are kind of tuned just for listening, right?

You can kind of take that whole experience and move it to a day by day thing. So I think, you know, I said the low end, right. would be $499, but I think for getting ones that are actually like meant for, for listening just to music, you know, covering like a decent portion of the frequency and not cutting out all the low end, you know, and not only preferencing or preferring the high end or prioritizing the high end and being very like high heavy. Um, those ones are like 700 bucks.

So yeah, you know, just went up a little bit more, but you know. All right. So that's cool. I guess this is funny because I'm not going to reach nearly probably as high, but I would say, um, my dream headphones would be something like the uh the H7s, but with um if, if I was going to put that little extra magic sauce in there, I would say I would want like that uh like custom chip that Apple makes to be available to them.

Um so sort of H7s with uh AirPod style uh wireless pairing and all that uh mesh in would be like my dream. And so I know that doesn't 100% exist, so I could just say H7s for now, but um that, that is kind of the, the land I would love to live in in an ideal world. I have a pair of uh H3s, I wanna say that I'm trying to get rid of. If you want those, I mean, you can buy those from me.

Pretty close, you know. Are you, are you trying to get rid of them or are you trying to sell them? Because that's two different things. Well, let's just say for you, there'll be a different price than they will for everyone else.

All right, we'll talk after the show. All right. All right. So uh anything else you uh you wanna say before we, uh, you know, wrap up headphones?

And I wanna point out here, I didn't really slut shame you ever. So you should, I should feel. I was gonna say, I was gonna say the one thing I wanna say is thank you for not like berating me for having so many headphones. I, I actually, I did appreciate that.

So thank you. I know you're probably trying a little hard not to like damn, so many headphones, man. Like what's wrong with you? You can't stay with, you know, 11 choice.

Like you got a fear of commitment. So thank you for, for not going that road. I appreciate it. Yeah, I, I almost did when you said you'd bought 50 in the last like four years.

I was like, Oh man, that, that, that hurts. I was like, I was like, well, and I started counting and I was like in my head, I'm like, well, it's probably close to 50. I'm like, Oh geez, this is bad. I you know, to find like the charity aspect of things.

So that's, that's why I like them. They're nice. I'll get you some for your birthday. When's your birthday, Lou?

I'll get you some. I don't know that I need to be a hippie, but we'll discuss that. I don't know, man. You're, if I look at it, you know, a couple of lines in the follow-up here or in the wrap-up, like you're getting there.

You're taking the beginner steps. Yeah, that's true, but we'll talk about that in a second. So the next thing in here is vertical videos, specifically Taylor Swift vertical videos. So what's this about?

So I don't think we've ever discussed my disdain for vertical videos and how vertical videos are horrible and should never be a thing, but they are a thing. Can I just say, I agree. I agree wholeheartedly. Yeah, I mean, what TV is meant for vertical video?

The answer is none of them. And if you want me to watch this on my phone, I get it. But the beautiful thing about my phone is I can turn it sideways and it turns into the same form factor as a TV. Like, ugh.

Yeah, the thing that kills me is like, I mean, the thing that made vertical video a thing, I think is Instagram. And don't get me wrong, I like Instagram. It's a pretty cool platform, but ugh, ugh, vertical video is a no-no. Yeah, so it's a bad thing.

I don't like it. So my one and only, my favorite, Taylor Swift, she released a new music video to her song Delicate, but it's in the vertical edition. So it's basically just a vertical video of her, you know, lip syncing to her song Delicate, spinning around in circles and making you dizzy. And I, I was, I was a little sad.

I'm like, Taylor, you're better than this. And I get this probably only took you, you know, like, 10 minutes on a Thursday, you know, just to kind of, you know, do this whole video. And you're going to get, you know, so many millions of views for it, you know, because people will watch it and people watch it on their phones where the vertical video is not a problem. But, ah, just why people?

Like, we need to stop. There's a, there's a glove and boots, which is just a YouTube channel. I don't think they're still active anymore, but they had a PSA for vertical video and they talked about vertical, you know, videos. And Katy Perry's mentioned in that video, so I think you'd probably like it.

I'll have to dig it out for you. But they talk about how bad it is and how vertical video shouldn't be a thing. And they're like, and if, you know, we start using vertical video everywhere, movie theaters will have to adapt to, you know, having vertical video. People's necks will strain from, you know, looking up too much.

Interesting. Yeah. Oh man. I really hope it's just a phase we're all going through and then society returns to the norm.

Yeah. Vertical video is bad. I just put the link in the show notes to that glove and boots video. So you should take a look at it because it's pretty good.

I like it. I'll watch it just for you a little later. Thank you. Thank you.

All right. So the other thing that came up this week is Twitter announced like pricing for their API changes. So I think this is a little funny because you may remember like the whole internet literally like went crazy a couple, like, I don't know, it's probably a month or two ago when, you know, they announced like, oh, their deadline's coming up and all these third-party clients are not going to work. And long story short, they are going to work to a degree.

It's just going to be all kind of delayed. But I was kind of curious. I thought it was just like hilarious that their pricing is basically at about $10 a user per month. And that they think they can charge this because I think long-term, you know, it's, that would be completely unrealistic.

And I know they see this as a revenue stream, but like, holy heck, revenue stream, I don't think they're doing the math. Their finance department needs a little help, I think. So wait, so I kind of missed this. So you're saying that they announced pricing for just to have access to Twitter?

Yeah, so all the third-party apps that are out there, so like, you know, the Icon Factory's Twitterific and TweetBot and all that, their API that they use that does streaming of tweets and does like DM notifications and likes and retweets and notifications, it's going away. It's been deprecated and they're replacing it with a new API, but the new API won't allow streaming. It only does a fetch every like couple of minutes. And I think DMs are supported, but will be delayed.

So they won't be real-time and likes and retweet notifications are just gone altogether. You just won't ever get them. And they're going to charge those independent companies that want to use this API on a monthly basis per user. And they never announced this week the enterprise level, you know, pricing, but the highest level they did announce was for 250 users, it was something like $2,800 a month.

So essentially that works out to what, like $10 a user. And, you know, so all these like icon factories and they're like, oh God, now we have a bill to use the Twitter API that is going to be like, you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars a month all to just continue to use this. And we have to find a way to monetize this. So, you know, I'm just laughing a little bit inside that Twitter thinks that their platform has that much value and that they're trying to drive people clearly back to their main app, which I don't know how successful that will be, but it's a, it's an interesting idea.

And I don't, man, I don't, I don't know if they're going to find it very successful or if the world is just kind of going to be like, okay, cool. Well, I guess I'll continue to use my third party Twitter app and things will just be a few minutes later. I just won't see it in quite as real time. It'll be like two minutes behind.

Oh, well, well, this is, this is Twitter's problem, right? Their whole problem was monetizing. They have a great platform and their platform is used by hundreds and hundreds of millions of people, right? Tons and tons of people, billions of people.

So when you have a platform like that and you're not selling anything, well, how are you going to make money? And well, the answer there is advertising. Like, okay, well then how do you meaningfully serve ads to, to customers? Well, when you control the entire experience, you can definitely do that.

But when a third party app comes in, you know, well, how do you serve that when users, they can basically avoid the ads altogether, right? How do you serve ads to those people? So there were ways to do that, right? They, they switched the API a long time ago to a token system, right?

Where you can only have so many tokens and token access was different. So all these, you know, third party sort of clients had to kind of get up and do that. And meanwhile, like you said, Twitter is refining their ad strategy because that's the only way that they're going to make money, right? They went through all this funding to get themselves off the ground and they still don't have a way to be like cashflow positive.

I know that they have been for the last couple of quarters, but they've actually made a decent amount in revenue, but it's all from advertising. And the only way they're going to serve ads is by pushing people to their, their experience. So in a way, this is kind of like strong arming, you know, a premium experience out of the, the third party apps. So like you said, you're going to miss out on certain features, right?

You have to pay to get, to get access to these notifications or this stream or whatever. So a lot of the features that these third party, you know, providers kind of strive for and pride themselves on, they're not going to be able to, to provide. They're going to give you kind of like the light version of Twitter, right? The third party experience of Twitter.

And if you want the full version, you've got to go through Twitter and that's where you get like all the ads and that's where Twitter will make its money. So I understand it, but it just feels kind of like, you know, you're, you're trying to force people a certain way. You're trying to coerce them to go to your platform by punishing others, you know, and making their products inferior, which I feel is kind of a slimy business move, but Twitter's always been like this. And I mean, the writing's been on the wall.

It's like, you knew they were going to have to do something to get people to, to force people onto their platform almost. And this is how they do it. Yeah, it's interesting. It's a, I mean, I mean, I get that like, look, they got to make money.

The server costs are high and all that is there and they have investors and all that. So I get it. And I get that advertising wise, I don't know what the breakeven is, you know, like what they make per user at all or anything, but I mean, it's, it's just probably nowhere near the $10 to $12 a month that this, you know, API is saying that it's going to cost So, I don't know, I like having a beard for me, mainly because like, keeps my face from getting sunburned, which is, you know, just a thing for me. So, oh, look at you.

The picture just came through. It's starting, man. That looked good on you. I think you look okay with it, with the goatee.

It's a start. I've had to actually, you know, invest in some beard oil because that's going to be a thing, you know. It's not really like a super big thing right now, but it's like it longer, it's going to get itchy, all that's going to happen. So, it's a.

Yeah, I don't subscribe to any of that stuff, like the beard oil, like I don't do that. I just have a nice little brush for mine, and that's all I need. I do have a brush, so I have that too. Yeah, if you have a good pair of like clippers, like that's nice, you know, to kind of clean up around it, especially when it starts getting longer, right?

Like the ones that have the adjustable like guards or the guides. Like, I just have a lithium ion one. I'll send you a link to the one that I have. It's a remington, so it's a lithium ion, so, you know, the problem is like you the nickel metal hydride ones, right?

Or whatever the NMH stands for, I forget. But those ones, right? Like you can't run them down to zero and you're supposed to, you know, not keep them, you know, fully charged, and they have a bunch of, you know, stipulations just to keep those batteries healthy. But lithium ion ones, right?

Like we're all used to lithium ion batteries. So the ones that I have, I really like, and I have two pairs because I dropped one of them and it broke the guard. So the guard doesn't adjust anymore. So now I have two.

And uh they're great. It's only like $40 or something like that. I swear by it. So I'll send you a link to that.

Oh man, I'm excited. You're like doing grown-up stuff. Yeah, we'll see where it goes in a few weeks. I mean, I'm not promising this is going to be here long term, but I can tell you this much.

I will, uh, I will at least, you know, let it go a few weeks and see what it looks like and uh go from there. How funny. Well, good job, man. Like I think you've always looked the same ever since I met you.

Like you don't do anything different with your haircut. You don't do really anything different with the way you dress. Like you're a man of utility, I think is what you've, uh, the way you've phrased it. Um, so trying something new is definitely good.

Uh, but I do like how you said, you know, when you go in for a haircut, it's like, hey, you do haircuts. I don't do haircuts. I don't know what to do. Make it look good.

It's totally how I live most of my life. I'm like, yeah, you do this for a living, right? I don't do this for a living. Do me a favor.

Do what you do for a living for me because it's just, it totally makes sense to me to do it that way. I, look, I go to, you know, like, I don't know, any random thing I go to in my life. I'm like, I'm gonna go to a vacuum guy. I'm not gonna lecture him on how to repair my vacuum.

I'm gonna be like, dude, just do my vacuum. Like, do whatever you need to do to make it do vacuum things, you know? If I think of hairdressers and, you know, beard trimmers, and, you know, all these people is that way. I'm like, okay, just do your thing.

Like, I'm just gonna stay here. And so, uh, It's really funny too because like, I'm the same way. Like I, I avoid getting haircuts for the longest time. Like, my hair right now is probably too long.

I should probably get it cut. Um, but basically when I go in there, they're like, well, it's been a long time since you've been. I'm like, yeah, I don't like coming. I'm like, it's not that I don't like coming.

It's just that I don't wanna have to think about it. Like, I don't know what to say. Like, because every time I go, like I usually go to like a different place, you know? And sometimes I never go to like the one hairdresser.

I don't like set appointments for it. I just, I just walk in, man. Like I just, I just want a haircut. And most of the time you're like, you know, like, whatever.

And they'll ask me a question. I'm like, dealer's choice, like pick your poison. Like, my head is a canvas and you are an artist. Like, go to town, you know?

Okay, so that's really funny that you say that because that was almost exactly my words to this guy. I was like, look, um, you know, artistic expression. Have fun with my face, pretty much. Like, like do what you want with it.

Um, but like different than you with haircuts, man, I can't stand long hair. I get really angry when it's long. So I'm like, I'm in there like every four weeks, no matter what. But I do go to the same place.

I don't have the same person cut my hair. I just walk in and I'm like, dude, look, there's like whatever, five girls and two guys here or something like that. And I'm like, whatever, whoever's available next. It's fine.

You know, you really can't mess it up that bad. You're gonna cut it with some guards on the side and I don't remember the exact number it is, but it's like, you know, I can run my fingers through it length and it's, you know, long enough that I can spike my hair a little bit on the top. So whatever the hell that means to you, have fun with it. Go.

Hey man, what's the difference between a good haircut and a bad haircut or a bad haircut and a good haircut? Time. Two weeks. Yeah, it's like two weeks.

Exactly. Yeah, man, I'm the same way. That's hilarious. It can all be fixed with time.

It can all be fixed with time. So anyway, all right, man. I guess I'll talk to you again next week about backpacks maybe. Can we like wait a week before we talk about backpacks?

I don't want two weeks. I'm like, I don't know, man, something about like talking about just products. Like, I feel like I have to say a lot more to justify like what I have. It's easier to have conversations about how passwords are broken or email is broken, but we'll get to it, I'm sure.

There's some things, like I don't want to spend time on or I don't want to worry about. And that's one of the things, right? And there are sometimes, like, I get shitty haircuts, like really bad haircuts, and I don't care. The $846s are how much?

Only 500 bucks? Yeah. Holy crap. Yeah.

They're not custom molded, but.