My Precious ～LW

YAY!!

I'm getting back my livewires today from Jaben.

Will post the remolded earphones pictures later :D

Off i go to pick up my baby.

CNY countdown in 8 DAYS!!!

新年要到了，新衣服买了吗？

Unfortunately XD no new clothes for me this year. Just can't be bothered anymore as i'm fine wearing my current batch of clothes. Anyway this year, i'll be spending CNY with my parents and one of my aunts in Singapore. We have no relatives here, just one family friends who live very near us so no need to spend time to 拜年. Instead as usual we will have a big steamboat dinner for our 团圆饭, with big crabs, prawns and fish yummy (●⌒∇⌒●) わーい

On the other hand, i'm beginning to plunge into the world of headphone and i just got one Grado SR80 online. Thank you buy.com for your ever cheap prices and support ｷﾀ(ﾟ∀ﾟ)ｯ!! Will do a review on it when it reaches next week. Now i will have to worry about Amps, USB DACs for my headphone.. oh headphone stand $$$$

8 more days !!!

CNY 2008 Horoscope

Wah according to next year's chinese horoscope, mine is quite hong kan 工エェェェ━━━Σ(о・Д・о)━━━ェェェエエエ工

Taken from http://www.jmine.com/ if you want to see an outlook of next year.

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Piggies

General

For those who are born in the year of the Pig, though you have moved away from the unstable year of 2007, this year is not going to be easy for you too. Your health will be one of your top concerns this year. You are more prone to falling ill. It is more important to conserve your energy. Though you may have very outstanding performances in your career, you need to be very selective in who your allies are because there tends to be more power struggles this year. You will find that there are not many people who can help you. It is important to keep positive thoughts and surround yourself with positive people.

Career

On the career front, there are many power struggles. Office politics and unhealthy competition does not help matters. You need to be careful in who you choose to be your allies and also be careful of not getting involved in unnecessary matters. You will need to put your foot down where necessary. Do not let others push you into a corner. This is the time that you need to revise and implement your political skills. Focus your energy on doing your work well and you will find that you are able to produce excellent results. If you are in business, you will be able to stabilize your business this year. However, do not act aggressively. Go slow and steady and you will be able to achieve more in the long run.

Office politics orz ＿|￣|○

Never mind, slow and steady win the race

Wealth

Money matters could be quite tight this year. Avoid investments.

Does this means no more singapore pools outing? orz ＿|￣|○

Relationship

If you are in a relationship, you will have a loving year. You will get the support from your spouse or partner through these unstable days. If you are single, you will have a high chance of finding the love of your life this year.

This year is the chance !! And the only good point for piggies this year

Health

Not good. You will be more prone to fall ill because your immune system is especially low this year. Due to a lack of rest and spreading yourself too thin, you will increase your risk of being accident-prone. Please pay extra attention to your health in terms of having a healthy diet, keep your stress levels in check and do exercises regularly.

must.... live.... thru.... this.... year

People

People could be quite nasty to you this year. You need to focus on what you want to accomplish and keep your eyes focused on your goals. Do not get distracted by gossip and power struggles. Remember to be calm and adopt your diplomatic skills.

maybe people from the 3 guo community?

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Ultimate Ears and Etymotics Earphones

Hi People, currently i am selling these earphones in my free time. If anyone of you know any friends who are looking for earphones from these 2 brands can refer them to me. It is definetely much cheaper than local retail price XD

Ultimate Ears

Super.fi3 Studio (White, Clear, Black, Red) For SGD115

Super.fi4 vi (for iPhone users) For SGD240

Super.fi5 Extended Bass (Black) For SGD250

Super.fi5 Extended Bass (White) For SGD250

Super.fi5 Pro (Black) For SGD300

Super.fi5 Pro (White) For SGD300

Super.fi5 Pro (Clear) For SGD300

Etymotics

Etymotics ER6i For SGD145

Etymotics ER4P For SGD305

Etymotics ER4S For SGD 325

Grado

SR60 Headphones For SGD125

SR80 Headphones For SGD170

SR125 Headphones For SGD275

Pelican Cases

1010 size pelican boxes with foam set for SGD50

Different sizes and colours available

Pelican boxes are watertight, auto pressure adjustment storage compartments. You can store your electronic equipments in them to prevent moisture from damaging them during travelling. It can also withstand knocks very well as it has a crush proof, poly carbonate body. I'm personally using it to store my ipods, earphones, handphones during travelling.

WANTED !!

Need Help!!

Searching for the below arcade game that has been getting scarcer by the day in Singapore.

To be precise, i'm looking for the first 3 games listed there, KOV, KOV plus and KOV Super Heroes. If anyone knows which arcade has them, please tell me okay !

IEM Reviews

I started paying interests to In Ear Monitors (IEMs, read definition below) when i chanced upon one that my friend wore in 2005. It was a Shure e4c andmy first impression was that it looked cool because of the design and the way you wear it over your ears unlike ordinary earphones. I was unimpressed though with the amount of money i need to spend to get it as i felt it was unnecessary. I mean how different could the sound be coming out from a SGD20 earphones and a SGD200 earphones.

Few years down the road, i am now an owner of 6 IEMs and they all have a special place in my "ear". Since i have the time to do it now, i will give some reviews about the IEMs that i own. Will start slowly from the basic IEMs to those outrageously priced ones for easy reference to noobs.

Panasonic RP-HJE50 (SGD50)


This was my first ever IEMs and earphones that costed me more than SGD50 and i remember buying it at the Best Denki store in Takashimaya in December 2005. I didn't really pay attention to the different types of earphone and just took this and payed for it. The sound is decent as you get a good seal by pushing it deep into your ears, as such bass was present but standard. However there was always a problem of tangled wires when i chucked it into my bag as the cable is very long if you use the extension. Eventually one side of the driver spoilt due to constant tugs and unfortunately it embarked me on an expensive hobby.

Ultimate Ears Super.Fi3 Studio (SGD159)


I bought this online just because it had a super big discount off the retail price even after factoring in the shipping cost from US. Honestly, i've never been a fan of UE's IEMs as it just doesn't fit as well as the rest available in the market. Rather than placing it inside the ear canal, the UE's were designed (i presumed) to just block off the entrance of the ear canal. Therefore you still can hear external sounds even when the music is playing. But this also meant that if you can get it to fit, it should be more comfortable if wearing for long hours as it does not irritate the ear canal. Ultimate i sold this off after a few weeks because i didn't really like the way it fits in my ear, though the sound is great for the price. It had enough bass, mids and highs and for the built of the earphones and superb customer service of UE, this has to be the earphone to beat for the price.

Westone UM 1 (SGD179)


The westone UM1 was the IEM that i bought right after my HJE-50 died on me in 2006. It was after long hours of reading threads in audiophiles forum that i decided this is what i needed. And i wasn't far off, the Westone shines in the way it reproduces out machine recorded voices back as how it would be when you have the singer singing directly infront of you. Their sound IMHO is the most non-mechanical i've heard from each company's IEMs. To top it off, the fit was excellent and comfortable with the soft comply tips. I could hear with it all day and not complain of tiredness in the canals. Till now i'm still occasionally listening with the UM1s, definetely a classic to me.

Ultimate Ears Super.Fi5 Extra Bass (SGD250)


I was actually deciding between the SF5 EB and SF5 Pro until Amazon decided it for me by reducing the price of the EBs by almost half. From there it was easy to decide as quality per dollar definetely sided with the former. AND i'm glad i picked the EBs as the bass was mind blowing. All along i've really loved the Westone's sound signature for its great clarity but the EBs introduced bass like i've never listened to before. Genres that are especially great with the EBs are acoustic, jazz and musicals as they have a lot of hidden bass that only the EBs bring out. But on the other hand, it can be quite noisy for already bassy rock songs. Also since it is louder, we have to take care of the level of the volume as you may get a headache if listening to songs at high volume. The EBs is like a best supporting actor(ress) and therefore is great only as a 2nd pair of IEMs if you want to listen to your music with a different sound.

Livewires - LW (SGD450)


*WINNER*

I've got nothing bad to say about these babies as they are right now, the best IEMs i've ever owned or listened to. 1 big reason is because the LW is a custom IEM done according to each and everyone's ear impression. The result you should get is super comfort, isolation and detailed music because it fits perfect. You can wear it to sleep even, as you wear it flushed so there is nothing jutting out. You can even use it as an ear blocker (or whatever it is called) to block almost faint external noise even without music on it. The bass though is not as thumping as what users expected but i felt it was good enough to complement most songs. And i've got myself a SF5eb anyway if i suddenly feel like a bass head.

Oh i had the mylars X3 as well but uh... let's not review it, its just not my type.

* IEM (In Ear Monitor) is different from normal earphones in a way that its driver tip is usually protruded to allow the tip to enter the ear canal and create a seal to block out external noise. This way you can actually hear more details in a song and experience a new way of how your music sound. On top of that, since it extends into the ear canal, you are now able to reduce the volume thus protecting your ears and at the same time less annoying to people around you.

Competition... Does it exist in Singapore?

Competition means 2 or more parties (companies) acting INDEPENDENTLY to secure the business of a third party (customers) by offering the most favorable terms.

So by definition companies should actually try their best, offering their best prepositions for us (customers) to choose but is this what is happening in Singapore. Their decisions to price their offers should not be affected by other companies offer BUT should be in the best interest of the customers. Or at least i personally think it does not happen the way it should be. So are we getting the best offer for what we are paying for or what we elected for?

We see a lot of examples, for example the telecommunication industry. It used to be only Singtel in the past (10?15? years back) offering customers telephony and internet service. Then few years back, the government decides to deregulate the industry to "increase" competition and up sprang M1 and Starhub to challenge Singtel. At the start it was good, we had more services (incoming call free??) offered to us and different way of charging (per second billing) that made our bill lower. Therefore Singtel had no choice but to come up with better offers and that is what competition does.

But after a few years, the competition suddenly became stagnant. Companies started to offer the same price plans and service and price them at almost exactly the same price as their competitors. YES we occasionally get "upgrades" but actually those are just paper upgrades as we still get the same shitty service.

Let me offer another example that has been making quite a lot of hoo-haa recently. Taxis used to be provided by Comfort and Yellow Top Cab only in the past. Only until a few years back then we see Premier, SMRT, etc coming in to "increase" the competition. But in view of the current raise in taxi charges, we once again see that competition does not exist.

When comfort adjusted taxi charges to "solve" taxis supply and demand, instead of taking this opportunity to show us that they will offer us something better, the other companies decided to follow with the adjustment and left us the customers to fend for ourselves. They gave us quite a few reasons such as increasing cost, the need to reduce subsidies etc. This even after they continue to post healthy profits year after year. This is definetely wrong.

It is sad to point out that these companies behave more like a cartel instead, signing a peace treaty to control market prices and thus limiting the need for competition among each other.

I don't even understand why many singapore brands/services are labelled as world class when they have a lack of competition domestically to even prove they are one. The only

あけまして、おめでとうございます！

Phew... Time really pass by so quickly, i didn't even realise that this is my first entry for 2008.

Looking back, 2007 has been really good to me in terms of wealth, health and relationships (with friends and families that is...) ☆☆ For 2008, I'm really looking forward to this year as this may be the last full year i'll be spending in Singapore. As some of you may know, I should be leaving Singapore for good at the end of the year, back to my home country. I really hope to spend more time with friends, especially those who have been with me from Secondary or Polytechnic till now. They are the only reason why i have not returned much earler.

2008 will also be the year that my 2nd sis will be getting married. Talks will be held during CNY 2008 between the parents to set an auspicious date. This also means that i will be spending CNY here !! WAI !! (●⌒∇⌒●) わーい Anyway i won't be getting Ang Pao anymore at this age so, no reason for me to spend money on air ticket to travel back just for 3(?) days.

As for myself, i'm not in a rush to look for the special one although i don't mind meeting one anytime soon. Would be great if she was Japanese nom nom Zzz(´ｰ｀)ヾ(・・｀ < ......... WHAT !! Can't i dream?