The Mind of Game.com has moved! Well, actually, I wouldn’t call it so much of a move. It’s more like demolishing your house and building a bigger, better house in its place. Same address, new look.
Anyway, if you’ve somehow managed to find this webpage with its default wordpress-given url, point your browser to The Mind of Game (http://www.themindofgame.com)
I hope to see you there!
Before I get into this editorial/rant, let me set the record straight. I absolutely, positively do not hate Sony itself or the PlayStation brand. I do not blame Sony for the actions of the people who have chosen to stand behind them. I have nothing against the PlayStation brand and I honestly believe that Sony is doing great things with their stable of consoles and handhelds.
Their fanboys on the other hand? They are among the most illogical, irrational, arrogant and all around idiotic group of people I have ever come across. In the past five years of going to various forums and just being in tune with the internet in general as it relates to gaming, I’ve come across just about every type of fanboy you can think of. Microsoft fanboys, Nintendo fanboys, Apple fanboys, even Sega fanboys and none of them, without exception, can compare to Sony fanboys in terms of sheer annoyance.
Introduction
Altec Lansing has a long history of making a wide range of audio equipment and has built something of a reputation for themselves as a manufacturer. In the audiophile community, particularly with the IEM subsection, they’re relatively unknown and unnoticed. Their “upgrader” line of IEMs seek to change that, offering people a number of options when looking to upgrade from the cheap stock earbuds that shipped with whatever MP3 player they may be carrying.
The Backbeat Pros are among their top-tier offerings, offering single balanced armature speakers as opposed to the traditional dynamic drivers and pledging to offer “reference quality” sonic reproduction of your favorite music. Do the Altec Lansing Backbeat Pros live up to that highly ambitious claim or do they come up short? Read on to find out.
When does a game become more than just a game? When can a game invoke the same emotional response from a player that cinema can from viewers or a piece of music can from its listeners? In this humble reviewer’s opinion, it takes a great deal of effort to create a truly transcendent experience in a game that plays with your emotions and keeps you hooked from the moment you power the game on until you’ve reached its conclusion. Mass Effect 2 is one of those games. It combines some of the best third person shooting and RPG mechanics with a fantastically dark narrative, a remarkable cast of characters, sharp writing, well-directed cutscenes and an epic soundtrack to create an experience that is more than just a game. It’s an amazing cinematic event, and one that’s among the best of its kind.
Introduction
Shortly after I received my RE0s, I happened to be browsing eBay for a new pair of Bass-Freq earbuds because as much as I liked my RE0s, I wanted to replace my outgoing Bass-Freq earbuds because I liked their bass response when listening to certain music. During that time, I came across an auction for a pair of V-Moda Vibe IEMs for $30 (open-box) and I jokingly asked my father if he’d like to split the price with me. To my surprise, he said yes and I went ahead and ordered them. Having prior experience with V-Moda’s products, I was curious to see how the big brothers to the inexpensive Bass-Freq earbuds sounded in comparison.
Headphone amps are pretty much standard equipment in the setups of audiophiles everywhere. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been doing a lot of research on headphone amps and come across a number of different amps in all shapes and sizes but the one type of amp that piqued my interest was the “CMoy” amp. This type of amp, designed years ago by Chu Moy is an unconventional but powerful amp design that can be made by anyone with the right parts and a soldering iron. Well, I don’t consider myself one of the handiest of guys with a soldering iron at the moment so, instead of taking a chance and trying to build one myself, I decided to buy one that had been pre-made from a company called JDS Labs. After a few hours of listening, I’m impressed.
Since I got my RE0s and I started going to Head-Fi, I’ve been…experimenting with a number of different headphones/earphones and listening to the various sound signatures these devices create. In the short time since I received my RE0s, I’ve heard (of course) the RE0s the V-Moda Vibes, MEElectronics M9Ps, Koss KSC75s (with some light modifications) and one of the only things I haven’t yet heard is an IEM with a balanced armature speaker. Well, a few nights ago, I happened to be browsing eBay for some reason and in that time, I came across the Altec Lansing Backbeat Pro IEMs.
The auction I happened upon was open-box and on sale for about $16. I did some research on them and saw that the MSRP was about $100 but they were retailing at most online retailers I saw for about $30. Apparently, Altec Lansing has a number of IEMs on the market and many of them are simply rebranded versions of IEMs from Ultimate Ears with the Backbeat Pros being Altec Lansing’s version of the Super.fi 4 IEMs from Ultimate Ears. After doing a little more research into the sound quality, I said “what the heck” and ordered them. Shipping was strangely fast for USPS and I received them early Saturday and went about putting them through their paces after watching a movie (The Hurt Locker, great film by the way).
My name is Justin McBride and I’m a guy who enjoys writing, playing games and writing about playing games. Sound lame enough yet? Well, I have other interests as well such as hanging out with friends, watching TV, going to the movies from time to time, surfing the internet, listen to good music, drive at speeds I shouldn’t be driving at and so on. The problem is, that’s all stuff everyone likes to do, so why write about it?
Oh wait, seems I just did. Oops.
The Old Mind of Game 