Author: eastoncrafter

Audio is one of those things that I treasure.

Here’s my favorite audio gear, which I’ll bring with me almost everywhere.

Over Ear champion

Long term travel, or bustling cities: Sony WH1000-XM4’s

I originally started my audio journey with a pair of Utaxo UT-BH001’s. My great grandma Betty (❤️ miss you Grandma) got me them for a birthday or Christmas sometime around 2015. They were my everything. Me, my Core i7-6700k tower PC and these in our family’s basement, exposing myself to YouTube, new music, videogames like fortnite, it even introduced me to tech in a way. I spent a week figuring out why using them sounded so bad (Bluetooth microphones suck). Fast forward about a year, maybe less, and the hinge broke. Duct tape to the rescue. That lasted a few more months, but eventually, my mother bought me a new pair from Walmart. The company that made them didn’t anymore, and some Walmart seller was the only source left. The new pair lasted about the same amount of time but eventually broke in the same way. Add to it that my head started to not fit in them anymore, and that leads to the XM4.

I got my xm4 as a birthday gift in 2023, and holy crap what a difference. Suffice to say I’m an amateur home theater and audiophile nerd now. These headphones have traveled over the United States, through sleepovers, lan parties, and more.

Travel with them

These headphones have been through the gauntlet. 5 hour plane rides across the USA, past New York, and they’re so good they are my daily drivers for my computer (ryzen 5 3600). Their noise canceling is nothing short of earplugs for me. I use them lawn mowing too. They are perfect. They also fold down wonderfully for their carrying case, perfect for a backpack.

My 2 complaints are the battery life:
Every now and then I’ll find that they are dead when I want to use them, and

every time I turn them ON, they need to go through a 3 button push sequence to get out of noise cancelling mode. FIX YOUR F*CKING FIRMWARE SONY

The King of the Party

Shokz OpenFit.

If I need something breathable and open back, my go to is the Shokz OpenFit. This is the best true wireless on earbud I’ve ever seen. The sit very comfortably on my ears, and stand even tough exercise like jogging with no fus. Their sound quality is incredible, punchy bass and clear vocals with a good rhythm, assisted by their open back nature. I forget they are there after only a few minutes, and they provide an amazing main character soundtrack experience. Listening to halo music while doing chores and hearing your environment is incredible. Their battery lasts for ages on their own and with their carrying case, millennia. The carrying case LED gives plenty of warning for when to charge, basically saying “at your convenience, please charge me, probably within a week, k?”

These go with me everywhere, and are basically edc for me at this point. Like with the xm4s, I have 2 complaints. 1: I wish the touch controls were better. The lack of customizability means I can only pause play and adjust volume directly, and need to pull out my phone for anything else. Also, any water will set off the buttons. Speaking of water, #2: Any use in the rain or submersion will render each earbud useless until dry. They aren’t damaged, but the speakers will get clogged with water. My solution to this has been to run a water purge sound through them at max volume, while shaking them to purge. (Search water eject sound on YouTube) Also wish they had wireless charging but USB c so doesn’t really matter.

In summary, a perfect audio experience.

Jabra elite 3s

All around amazing earbuds, fit very well, sound quite good, at least on the energy eq setting. Quite compact too.

Stupid galaxy buds 2, who TF thought glossy earbuds was a good idea???

Unspeakable, Papa Jake, Popular MMO’s (pat+jen lucky block races anyone?)

Will finish later

I’m old enough to remember the good years from around 2014-2018. Years of light speed technology growth, culture, economies, music; everything around that age was new, the world felt like it was going places.

Music.

Popular Music today all sounds the same. With notable exceptions, from the likes of Indie animation (Hazbin hotel I’m looking at you), and a few choice artists making less than mainstream music, everything just doesn’t sound as good as it used to.

As a homeschooler, I attend dances every year. Something I notice is how almost all the songs people dance to are favorites from the 14-18 age.

Not sure where I’m going with this, but if you like most music but can’t find new stuff, check out the older popular:

Some recent notable exceptions for popular music

Any Indie animation seemingly

Kpop demon hunters???

Comment what else

If you’re interested in my music taste, check out my stats: My stats

As someone whose taken a spin through the American school system , I can say first hand that is absolutely sucks. Rampant bullying, and corrupt administration is just part of the problem when at the core the idea of the modern grade system, college included, has major flaws.

Well that went over the top! Don’t get me wrong I have strong ideas about school, being an American, but that’s for another day. I’ll post that later.

Assassination classroom is going on my list of top animes. It’s animation style is peek, and it’s storyline is a masterpiece.

Koro-sensi. The best teacher — in the world. He cares for his students, more than himself, he gives his all, all the time

Will update more later

So. Finally found out about it, this game is incredible! I don’t usually find too many games interesting, but this is on another level!!

I find myself always looking forward to playing this game at the end of a long day. It’s a form of pure *relax* that I don’t find in many places, especially none as interactive as this! (My usual go-to’s are tv, social media, and other misc time wasters…)

Heck, even their OST is incredible! After our nightly session gets cut off (My friend’s internet is time restricted), I find myself just sitting on the disconnect screen listening to the orchestra playing on loop in the background! I’ve only ever done that with Minecraft!

Çólàbóràtíóñ!!