So something slightly off topic but related. My sis works for Harmon Kardon and someone in her group needed some SoundSticks for a conference or trade show, and they were back ordered throughout the entire company. Since I just got a set, I loaned them out. Couple weeks later they returned them and threw me a pair of these headphones: http://www.head-fi.org/t/636439/akg-k167-ti-sto-discussion-i... I pretty much spent all weekend next to my stereo listening to music on these. It blew my mind how good everything sounded. The last time I had an actual set of cans over my ears was probably when I was 6 or 7 years old listening to Sesame Street records on my dad's stereo. In this age of crappy ear-buds that come with phones and shitty MP3 formats, I was just blown away at how good music could sound. If you haven't tried a pair on (or have not in a while), I highly recommend doing so. It completely transforms the sound. Also, it was pretty interesting diving into the headphone subculture on the net. These AKGs had a thread talking about them over 100 pages long. That's just this particular model. Really cool. Edit: But here is a song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMQJ3HXeKG4
I was very fortunate in that the speakers were a Christmas gift from my sis (which she got at about a 70% discount off retail), and the headphones Harmon tossed in were unexpected and no charge to anybody. I'm definitely not Mr. Moneybags :) On a side note, I got to see her company intranet page where employees log in to get their discounts on products. It is INSANE how much of a markdown they get. I was imagining something like 30-40%. It's actually closer to 60-70% across the board. They must be making some serious margin in the audio electronics market, unless they are giving them to their employees at a loss, which I wouldn't imagine they'd do.
Well the point was how incredible music sounds through a pair of over-the-ear headphones as opposed to speakers or earbuds. If you love listening to music, it really improves the sound immensely...by almost a shocking amount. Some people might be into that.