Why do all these bowl games and the World Series and the March Madness games all have to be so late at night? I mean, if you are trying to cultivate the next generation of audience, shouldn’t your games be at a time that kids will still be up to watch? Makes no sense.
*** Update ***
BTW- I need some new earphones. I had the Bose QuietComforts and they were ok, but felt fragile and eventually died on me. I don’t want to spend a lot of money (I have to buy a fucking car one of these days), but would like an over the ear headphone that is comfortable, provides a good sound, and is somewhat durable.
madmommy
I can barely stay up for the end of these games, and I’m an old. How is a kid who is supposed to catch the bus at 6:30 am supposed to stay awake?
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
That argument has been around for awhile, at least as long as night games for the World Series, which were going to lose all the young fans who couldn’t stay up late.
/OLDZ COMMENT/ had a male teacher in elementary school (rare at the time) who brought a radio in so we could all listen to the Yanks/Pirates in 1960, when the Series was day games.
ETA: Re-reading this, I expect he brought the radio in so *he* could listen to the games. Duh.
Omnes Omnibus
There are multiple time zones. It’s not that late for everyone. And because of multiple time zones they need to start the games late enough that most people have made it home from work or school. They go late at night for the east coast and start awfully early on the west coast. Possibly hitting a sweet spot in the Central and Mountain time zones.
madmommy
@Omnes Omnibus:
I did love it when I lived in California-football started at 10 am, night game championships were usually over well before the news came on. Not nearly as nice here in Central Time, and even worse for East Coasters.
Aji
1) For Teh Kidz, this is their natural habitat. Their internal clocks are programmed to function well late at night and suck in the morning, which is why the fact that school operates on a schedule for us old types sucks so bad for them.
2) They’re also not the target market. They don’t have the disposable income to be the target market. The NCAA and BCS want people and institutions with deep pockets, and prime-time/late-night ratings that can be enlisted in the eternal chase for endowments and other funding streams.
Violet
Central Time rocks.
Omnes Omnibus
Headphone-wise, if you are looking for something for your computer, I have a Logitech USB H540 headset that works reasonably well and cost only about $80.
Aji
@Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason: Wait, what? It took you more than half a century to figure this out?
Even as a 6-year-old, when my fundy father periodically banned all TV on grounds of its being evil and immoral and so forth, I understood that every time he “relented” (allegedly for my sake) it was actually because the World Series was in the offing and he wanted to be able to watch it.
jl
Hard to believe an old fart like Cole is younger than I am.
wasabi gasp
Audio-Technica ATH-M50s
Those are the straight cable model. They’re also available with a coiled cable.
jl
Theezh dang premature geezers tiddee! Hell, they ain’t worth nuthin’. When I was a boy, we was still out raisin’ hill at hiz age dammit, so we could scold about it later. Yessher.
ranchandsyrup
You can get these Sony mdr7506 Around $100
WereBear
@ranchandsyrup: Nice padded headband!
I get along with a pair of SkullCandys; but I just use them for editing my podcasts. Don’t know how they would feel if I wore them all day, and that’s voice, not music.
danielx
John, take a look at Koss. They have casual user headphones from 249.99 to 19.99; I’ve got some full size ones with great sound that I’ve been very happy with.
Tom Levenson
I really enjoy these Grado SR 80i phones bought at the suggestion of an audiophile friend of mine. $99 and very good sound.
Tbone
Listen to the guy who recommended the Sony MDR-7506’s. As long as you can stand the look, you’ll be hard pressed to find better phones for the price.
Comrade Luke
Hey John, check out The Wirecutter. They recently had some reviews of headphones, based on several factors like in-ear/over ear, cost, etc.
Article is here. Good luck!
Lolis
I have great skull candy headphones that have a very durable cord. I got them for super cheap on clearance so not sure what the regular price is like.
Belafon
I have never smoked anything or tried any kind of drug that was not built by a company, and I never will, and personally don’t think anyone should, because they’re a waste of time and money. Having said that, I personally will rejoice when all marijuana laws are ended, the people convicted under them are cleared, and we start acting more rationally as a country.
MattR
DId anyone else watch the end of the Orange Bowl? Did Ohio State really have two timeouts left and decided not to use them to get the ball back one more time with a few seconds left?
KG
It’s 930 and the games are wrapping up, what are you complaining about?
Omnes Omnibus
@KG: The concept of time zones is difficult for West Virginians.
KG
@MattR: 45 second ply clock in college. Once they got under a minute with a first down, The Ohio State couldn’t stop the clock enough to get it back
Sir Laffs-a-lot
Becuase you live in the Eastern Time Zone, Cole; they start EARLY in the PST Zone.
Suffern ACE
@Omnes Omnibus: is it heliocentric solar system or the round earth that’s hard to grasp, or a combination of the two?
JoyfulA
@Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason: That World Series game was on the loudspeaker in the girls’ locker room after hockey practice!
MattR
@KG: Clemson had a stupid unsportsmanlike conduct penalty so it was 2nd and 28 with 31 seconds left and the clock stopped until the ball was snapped. Clemson took a knee on second down. Ohio State could have taken their second timeout to stop the clock with it being 3rd and 30 with about 28 seconds to go. As long as they did not give up the first down, Ohio State could have used their last timeout to stop the clock after 3rd down with about 20 seconds to go and forced Clemson to punt.
gwangung
You know…there are LOTS of people who live on the West Coast.
Millions, even.
KG
@MattR: ah, not sure then, after the first down I flipped over to the Cotton Bowl and the Laker game
Suffern ACE
@gwangung: yes, but they’re so laid back out there, I hear their offices close at 1:30 on game days. It’s not like the east where we’re expected to work all day.
Omnes Omnibus
@Suffern ACE: I have spent little time in West Virginia and most of that at Snowshoe, so I can’t really delve into the specifics. What knowledge I have comes from having spent too much time in Ohio.
MattR
@KG: I was flipping as well and did not pay close attention. I assume the ESPN graphic was incorrect and Ohio State had only one timeout left.
Steve
Tip on the headphones: Get a set of Peltor Hearing Protectors (I have the “Ultimate 10s”, twenty bucks from Amazon). Wear them over your favorite bud earphones. Voila! Way more effective than noise cancelling and much cheaper, if a bit more bulky.
BD of MN
Does Sennheiser still make decent headphones? Somewhere in my garage i have a pair that i was planning on repairing, the cord shorted out about 20 years ago… i seem to recall that they sounded really nice…
Sayne
Sennheiser HD 280s. Excellent sound quality, sit over the ear and are quite comfortable to play games on for hours and hours and hours. Trust me. The bass isn’t too thumping, not bad, but not gimmicky Bose bass.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826106328
They’re made for professionals, but by damn do they work for everything else.
? Martin
@gwangung: These games always seem to be on so early to me…
jl
@Suffern ACE:
” It’s not like the east where we’re expected to work all day. ”
Not our problem if certain regions of the country are chumped
(but they brag about ‘high energy”)
eemom
@Omnes Omnibus:
OT, but I watched the George C. Scott version of A Christmas Carol again twice over this godforsaken holiday season, and….well….surely you will not continue to insist that it wasn’t awesome? Surely, I may atone for past Clash-related errors, by an altered life…?
MikeJ
@gwangung:
They’re just hallucinations. I know you are anyway. I’ve met you and you’re certainly a hallucination.
KG
I got some Bose noise canceling headphones for Christmas, they’re a bit of a revelation after years of the standard apple headphones.
Back to sports: I really don’t know what to make of the Lakers this year. I think everyone has missed games because of injury, and they are looking like they’ll head to the lottery (where I expect
Vince McMahon David SternAdam Silver to (cough cough) do the right thing (cough cough). But they’ve been fairly fun to watch, if only because I love watching Nick Young not understanding the whole “you’re allowed to pass the ball to the guys in the same color jersey as you” thingOmnes Omnibus
@eemom: Okay. I have a soft spot for Scott since I went to college with two of his kids, but his version of A Christmas Carol is adequate at best. The 1938 and 1951 versions are the best. Tiny Tim* in the 1938 version is creepy but Tiny Tim in the 1951 version seems too healthy. As a result, neither version is perfect.
*Tiny Tim is the worst thing in the story. That little fucker annoys me. I like Fred.
ETA: Tiny Tim is the Dickensian Jar-Jar Binks.
Hill Dweller
@KG:
Shaqtin’ A Fool
fleeting expletive
I’m offering another entry in the incomprehensible movies category tonight. Salvation Boulevard. And I second Cloud Atlas.
Yatsuno
@MikeJ: You still haven’t proven you’re real yet to me either. Challah loaf or no challah loaf.
MC Simon Milligan
Sony MDR-V150s. Cheap. Sound great. Mine are almost 3 years old; Ragged out a bit but still functional and comfortable.
And… proper football. Then you’ll be dragging your ass out of bed at 7:30 in the AM on a Saturday for a highly probable beatdown of Rovers at the hands of the ManCs.
Amir Khalid
@Tom Levenson:
Someday, I always tell myself, someday I’ll upgrade from my model SR60i ‘phones…
Suzanne
I have to go back to work on Monday. I am filled with dread about it, and I am trying to determine if it is the typical feeling one has about not wanting to go back to work after a vacation, or if I really hate my job. I had a talk with my boss about my stress and general miserable workload before I left. We’ll see if anything got sorted out while I was gone. Considering that I got multiple emails while I was out asking me to do things as small as sending out meeting invites when THEY COULD HAVE SENT THE MEETING INVITE IN THE TIME IT TOOK TO COMPOSE THE EMAIL ASKING ME TO SEND OUT THE MEETING INVITE. Deep breath. What part of “Suzanne is on vacation” does not work for you, coworkers?!
Omnes Omnibus
@MC Simon Milligan: Look, sport, football has changed since 1823 when William Webb Ellis who with a fine disregard for the rules of football as played in his time first took the ball in his arms and ran with it.
Yatsuno
@Suzanne: Look at it this way: one more test then you can get in with the GSA. You’ll probably make less money but the bennies are really fucking sweet.
muricafukyea
Sennheiser HDR 170. Best headphones I have ever owned and even though they are wireless there is no compromise just because they are wireless. I have never ran out the batteries so I have no idea how long they will last. At least 8 hours at moderate to high volume.
Cheapest deals seem to be on Ebay.
Suzanne
@Yatsuno: I am fairly sure that I would not make less money. I have thought about the GSA for a while. We shall see.
I have been so stressed out at work for the last four to six months that I am dreading going back. They guilt-tripped me about taking this long of a vacation, but fuck it. If these projects can’t move forward without my involvement, then I expect some dramatic improvement in my compensation.
Villago Delenda Est
Exqueeze me? Thinking ahead more than the end of the current fiscal quarter?
What planet are you posting from, Cole? It’s certainly not 21st Century Earth!
Bill E Pilgrim
I can’t imagine living without the Bose QC 15s, but I travel a lot. Not just for flying though, one place I stayed had basically a disco on the floor below me, unbearably loud, and these things didn’t just lessen the sound, they removed it. They don’t feel fragile at all to me, I actually wore them to sleep in that place some nights.
When I first saw them I could never imagine spending that much on headphones, but the minute I tried them on, in a big electronics place, lots of music playing, crowd noises, etc and I put these on and the store sounds just disappeared — I was hooked.
eemom
@Omnes Omnibus:
Fun Fred Fact: Same actor played Bingley in the mid-1980s BBC Pride and Prejudice, which was the best adaptation of literature in the history of everything.
Not so fun Fred fact: Later I saw him in an Invasion of the Body Snatchers remake….and he’d aged horribly.
God bless us all every one.
srv
You get what you pay for.
Planar magnetic, Hifiman HE-400. $399. Better than Bose, Grado, Senn, whatever. You can’t get close to it for that price.
vhh
John-The best value by far in over the ear headphones are the USA-made Grado SR-60s or 80s for 70 to 90 bucks (often avail on ebay for a bit less). They are open design, so the dog or cat next to you can hear to some degree what you are hearing, but you laugh at their misfortunes, so what do you care?
Cliff in NH
Loading the fireplace, -18 are you f’n kidding me?!!?
Anne Laurie
@Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason:
Heck, during the 1969 World Series, some of the nuns in our parochial school smuggled in transistors — but that was in the Bronx!
Viva BrisVegas
@Cliff in NH:
Pity we can’t set up an interdimensional wormhole from your place to mine.
The thermometer on my back verandah got to 112 today.
Cliff in NH
ps, thanks to whoever it was who posted about the cider, Thanks for reminding me how cheap it can be… (the store had the best raw pasteurized stuff 30% off when that post was up – $4.70 12 packs bottled)
The Nottingham yeast cider is quite yummy on these cold nights
Bill E Pilgrim
@Anne Laurie: Funny, I misread that as “translators” on the first pass. You did say the Bronx, after all.
“Okay, he’s serving up the first pitch”
“Okay, he’s soiving up….”
Cliff in NH
@Viva BrisVegas:
between the fireplace blowing on high, cider and a hot doggie on top of a down comforter I’m good.
Not looking forward to the morning walk however.
Amir Khalid
@Viva BrisVegas:
Ouch. That’s Fahrenheit, I hope. We’re having an overcast sky in Kuala Lumpur this afternoon, with temps in the mid-70s F(mid-20s in C).
Glocksman
Another vote for Sennheiser here.
Failing that, try Koss.
I had a set of these years ago, and I still regret selling them.
Emerald
@BD of MN: Sennheiser is the top of the line headphone company. They are comfortable, go over the whole ear, light, and with the very best sound available.
Sennheiser is what the audio professionals use, but they’re available for anyone who wants them.
Cliff in NH
just hook up a real receiver and tv to your computer I don’t know why you haven’t yet. Forget the headphones. Crank it up! (umm, not budget I realize.. just think how surround sound can help the gaming or something..)
Viva BrisVegas
@Amir Khalid:
Definitely Fahrenheit. I always try to translate for a non-metric audience.
It was 44.8C on the verandah about 2 hours ago.
Global warming is a crock. It’s not global, it’s in my backyard.
A.J.
Costco is selling some great noise-cancelling Sony headphones right now. Can’t remember model info but I bought them a few trans-Atlantic flights ago and I’m delighted.
Seems like way better value for money than the Bose.
PurpleGirl
@Suzanne: Back when I still working, I let it be known that either I was going out of town for vacation and hence was not available by phone or e-mail, or I was staying home and still not available by phone or e-mail. Basically I felt that if I was expected to still available, they could either pay me for my time which I would keep track of or add that time to the time on vacation. They did not like this but they accepted it.
PurpleGirl
@PurpleGirl: And I began this when I was the field staff secretary and continued it through when I was the desktop publisher and then the administrative assistant for fundraising. Fifteen years later, when I was let go, it was still in force.
ETA: Going to bed now, finally tired enough.
NotMax
Still have a pair of David Clark headphones purchased over 40 years ago, and they work just as well, sound just as good, and I like them just as much (which is a lot) today as the day they were bought.
Steeplejack (tablet)
Got up a while ago to feed the housecat and saw that it is 9° here in my little corner of NoVa. I am content to read in bed for a while, under the toasty down comforter. Housecat has assumed the meatloaf position on my lap and is absorbing body heat.
StonyPillow
The JVC HA-V570 is a serviceable, reasonably comfortable pair of over the ear 32 ohm headphones. They’ve got a bit of a plasticky feel to them, but they seem rugged enough. Fair tonal balance, good bass. The headphone cable is 3 meters long, just like old tymes, but takes some getting used to after having phones that only reach from the iWhatever on your belt to your ears. I’ve used mine for a few years with no ill effects. $20 retail, going for $8.99 on Amazon.
If you’re not an audiophile and don’t need noise cancelling voodoo, these are a good value at the proletarian price point.
pablo
Dammit!! Bowl games belong on New Years Day!!!
StonyPillow
One weird trick that headphone manufacturers hate:
In days of yore real headphones had long, thick, coiled cables that would give you plenty of warning before you walked away from your boat anchor receiver and accidentally tore the headphones off your ears. Today’s headphones are plugged in to a laptop or other lightweight device with a stereo cable more delicate than gossamer thread. And since it’s not coiled, you get precisely zero warning before the damage is done. Your odds of yanking your laptop off the desk are just about the same as your odds of breaking the gossamer threads that pass for wires in these cable.
Make or buy a 1 foot long 3.5mm stereo male to female extension cable, and keep it at the plug end of your headphones. If you accidentally walk away or yank the cable, the headphone plug will just pop out of your extension cable, saving you the price of a new set of headphones or a new laptop. Since I made some of these for my daughters a few years back, they’ve stopped having to buy new headphones every few months, and have stopped borrowing mine.
Amazon also has these. Search the phrase, “3.5 mm Male/Female Stereo Audio Extension Cable Black, 1.5 feet/0.45 Meters”. They’re $1.99 each. And BTW, use the Balloon Juice link.
Cassidy
Buy a $10 pair from Walmart. They’re going to die. $10 dying is better than $200+ dying.
the antibob
I’ve had good luck with sennheiserover the years, but those grado’s look interesting. The lightweight padding is great if you’re going to wear them a lot. My last pair of sennheisers had light cushions but they don’t make that model anymore.
the antibob
Also, I think the Bose radios sound incredible for their size, but Bose headphones and media speakers are way overpriced.
sp6960
Grado SR60i. Ask any audiophile. Best cheap headphone in existence.
mick
sennheiser hd380, fully enclosed, fold up for travel. great sound!
sennheiser hd 555 sound better and are more comfy in my opinion, but are open, and not good for travel unless you want to disturb your seatmates.
i traveled with the Bose too, and they are too delicate. thin little leads tear out of the earpieces right away.
BretH
Another vote for Grado SR-60. I have had a pair for about 10 years now. You do, however, look a little like a WWII bomber pilot when wearing them.
T.R. Donoghue
Sony MDR 7506 headphones. Should set you back about $100. Found in studios all over the world
doug r
The TV shows are on too late. Waah waah. Talk about your First World East Coast problems.
The Golux
I have the Klipsch Image One headphones (http://goo.gl/g8yE70), about $90; the Gen 2 version is cheaper for some reason (~$55). Very nice sound (lots of bass), but I can’t necessarily vouch for their durability, as I haven’t abused them much.
cleek
i have a pair of Koss TD65s that have gone through multiple foam pads. they wear out every few years, i complain to Koss, and they send me a new set of pads for free.
yay Koss!
Freemark
Headphone decision is simple: AKG K240 $99 or less.
They sound great, can be worn in 8 hour stretches, and are durable. I’ve been using mine since 1988. Yes 1988. They have been dropped 67 times. Sat on by a 200 lb man at least 10 times and thoroughly soaked in a flood once. The cord is finally starting to fray but the newer models have a replaceable cord. My set doesn’t.
Bonnie
Solution to game time problem: Move to the west coast.
darms
Behringer @ American Musical Supply. ~ $20.00 & they are really good….
smike
For earphones, consider something sold in the skymall mag. I forget the name right now, but they are wireless earphones that cost about $40. I have used them often, and they are quite decent.
Vlad
I’m a bit late to the party, but since you asked for inexpensive and a lot of the recommendations are coming in too close to $100 for my comfort:
A pair of old-school Koss PortaPro headphones will set you back about $30. (Try K-Mart, of all places – they often go on sale there.) PortaPros have very good sound quality for the money (as good as, if not better than, a lot of stuff 2X or 3X as expensive), they fold down into a little bag for travel, and like most Koss gear they come with a lifetime replacement guarantee (you pay shipping). They’re also an interesting-looking minimalist design, very unlike most cans on the market today, which is kind of fun.
Their mix is a little heavy on the bass, but given the sort of stuff you listen to, I don’t think that’d be too much of a problem.