Hackjob

Here's a comparison I'm sure that nobody has pondered in recent years: two once very expensive pairs of celebrity branded headphones from a little over a decade ago; one from Sony, and the other from Beats. At the time, I couldn't afford them, but now that everything is wireless and people want jack shit to do with cables these days, these junk drawer specials now seem like a pretty enticing bargain. But which pair of cans actually lives up to their supposed pedigree? And are they still worth a look?

Speakerlab probably isn't a name that rings any bells for most people outside of the Pacific Northwest, which makes it even more weird that I found a pair of their speakers sitting in a Goodwill in the middle of Texas. Initially not knowing what the hell these things were, the Speakerlab 7s quickly stole my heart, and ruined every other speaker in the house for me. But, being close to fifty years old, they could use a little TLC, and perhaps a few upgrades while we're at it.

Once again, I'm tearing into my old Area 51 R2 to perform yet another round of completely impractical upgrades. This time, it's cramming arguably one of the most insane GPUs to ever grace the market into a tower that now has absolutely zero space for it... at least on the inside. Armed with my 3D printer, my rotary tool, and optimism about as questionable as this entire project, I set off to work.

Back in the early to mid-eighties Technics began revising their core consumer turntable lineup, creating the MK2 series of SL turntables. These were, and often still are, regarded some of the highest quality and most feature rich turntables ever built. While the lineup has largely been overshadowed the monumental success of the MK2 SL-1200, there's one model that's held in nearly as high of regard: the MK2 SL-1600. Here's how I got along with one.

I recently came into the possession of a vintage Pioneer turntable. Specifically the semi-automatic, direct drive PL-518, one of their most venerable turntables of the late 1970s. Despite it's initial, relatively innocent appearance however, this deck was a long way from spinning LPs again thanks to the horrors of unchecked humidity. Unfortunately for me, the rust and rot was just the tip of the iceberg.

  Transparent electronics seem to be all the rage again and having lived through the twilight years of things like candy colored transparent Game Boys and PlayStation 2s, I'm welcoming this revival with open arms. What better way to hop back onto the bandwagon by giving my handheld gaming weapon of choice; the Steam Deck a 90s and early-2000s inspired makeover?

It's safe to say I was feeling pretty burned by my experience with the Technics AZ-60 earbuds. While they sounded great, they just didn't perform reliably enough for me to recommend them over virtually any other options. That brought me right back to Bose, who I've had plenty of experience with having used their SoundSport Free buds for several years. This is their latest and greatest offering in the wireless earbuds space: the QuietComfort Earbuds II. Let's see if they can carry the torch.