Tokyo Jihen - 'Sports'

Title: Sports (スポーツ)
Artist: Tokyo Jihen (東京事変)
Date: 2010
Genre: Jazz Rock, J-Pop

Total length: 47 minutes, 13 tracks
Top Chart position: 48 (yearly Oricon album charts)

Main personnel:
Ringo Shiina (椎名・林檎): Vocals
Ukigumo (浮雲): Guitar, backing vocals
Ichizo Izawa (伊澤・一葉): Keyboard
Seiji Kameda (亀田・誠治): Bass
Toshiki Hata (畑・利樹): Drums


Rating: 8/10 - Very Good
Tokyo Jihen never stayed in one place, three years after the unorganized Goraku comes this well-structured concept album. This album has been my introduction to the entire world of J-pop, and I was oh-so-wrong to assume it was representative of the humongous Japanese pop-scene. Like TJ's previous albums and Shiina's solo works, this one doesn't quite fit in with the conventional J-pop scene. 

The Beatles - 'Revolver'

Title: Revolver
Artist: The Beatles
Date: 1966
Genre: Psychedelic Rock

Total length: 35 minutes, 14 tracks

Main personnel:
John Lennon: Vocals, guitar
Paul McCartney: Vocals, guitar, bass
George Harrison: Vocals, guitar, bass
Ringo Starr: Drums, vocals





Rating: 10/10 - Masterpiece
For quite some time I have been a big fan of the Beatles. At first, I liked their catchy tunes as I was just getting into music a couple years back. As I started listening more, I discovered something new with each listen. Something clever about the lyrics, or perhaps how a certain bass line creates a perfect harmony. And to be honest, I haven't quite stopped discovering yet; It's like a journey without end. 
Today I felt like dedicating some of my time on what is perhaps their greatest piece -- Revolver. I haven't written a decent review for quite some time now, so please bear with me as I try to express why I think everyone should listen to this album.

Repairing a pair of HD 205's

A friend of mine pushed a pair of broken HD 205's in my hand. When I inquired what's wrong with them, he stated that I should give them a listen. I promptly found out that the mids were completely gone - usually a result of faulty wiring. He then gave them to me for free, so naturally I couldn't refuse the challenge to try and fix them.

The building of a Beta22 part 1

Somewhere in October I decided to build a 2-channel Beta22. It has been almost five months since then, and a lot of money. Currently I have spent about  €540 ($725) and about 50-60 hours on this project.
The best part is: I'm not even done yet.

In this blog post I will describe what I have done up until now, including the painfully long hours of troubleshooting.

Repairing a pair of Beats by Dr. Dre Studio

Someone recently came up to me asking whether I could repair his headphones. I was expecting it to be the typical bad connection on the jack, but it turned out to be something more difficult.
Thrilled by the challenge I accepted the offer of repairing his headphones and I took them home.

The problem turned out to be more difficult to solve than I anticipated, but I did end up solving the initial problem. However after came to the conclusion that the right driver is messed up, most likely irreparably.

10 of the greatest anime Openings/Endings

Let's stretch the definition of a music and audio blog a bit to accomodate for my third passion: anime (and manga). In particular the openings and endings of anime, which are practically just music videos almost always 1:30 in length. It seems strange, but a good opening and ending can make or break an anime in my opinion. Kanon (second version) for example is an excellent anime, but the horrible OP/ED ruined it for me.

How to recognize pretentious audiophiles

I'm personally of the opinion that audiophilia is a good hobby to spent your free time (and money) on. However I can't help but be sickened by the people who take this hobby one step too far. This hobby should be about science, and not about pursuing psuedoscientific myths as some people think. The problem is however that most professional audiophile magazines and websites claim that things such as $1,000 cables really do make a difference. Novice audiophiles then also start believing this kind of rubbish, as they believe such authority figures don't lie. The couldn't be more wrong.