Headphones...

[carlfoxmarten]

This is crazy.
The headphone market here in BC's Lower Mainland in absolutely terrible!

I've been buying some behind-the-head headphones for a while now, and have been quite happy with them.

Then the store stops stocking them!

This has forced me to look further afield for anything similar, and I'm finding that nobody is stocking mid-priced headphones, just cheap ones and expensive ones ($5 - $15 for the cheap ones, and $25-$80 for the expensive ones).
The cheap kinds don't last, and the expensive ones are too bulky, and most of them don't have in-line volume controls, either.

[rant type="side"]
MP3-player security dictates that you leave your MP3 player in your pocket so nobody knows what kind you have (or if you actually have one).
Some albums have quiet songs and some louder songs, and other songs you want louder.
Plus, some songs have sections that are too loud for the rest of the song.

This requires access to a volume control.
But you're supposed to leave your MP3 player in your pocket!
Plus, my MP3 player takes one second to unlock before you can do anything with it, including change the volume!

This means that you need an in-line volume control on your headphones or earbuds.

However, the vast majority of the headphones and earbuds do NOT have any volume controls on them, so I'm kind of stuck with this terrible selection.
[/rant]

I've checked out Zellers, Future Shop, Best Buy, London Drugs, Staples, and The Real Canadian Superstore, and everyone has basically the same bad selection of products.

I bought a set of earbuds from Superstore on Tuesday, and already one side was dead on Saturday!
Needless to say, I'm going to return them next time I'm out and try something else...

This shouldn't be that hard!

Comments

[marmoe.livejournal.com]

You can buy inline-volume-controls on their own. HTH

Examples:

http://www.ccrane.com/radios/radio-accessories/inline-volume-control.aspx
http://www.amazon.com/Koss-155954-VC20-Volume-Control/dp/B00001P4XH

[carlfoxmarten]

I've been trying to avoid buying two separate items to do the job one item should be doing, mostly out of the hope that it would be cheaper that way.

As this doesn't seem to be the case, I probably will get a separate volume control...

[torakiyoshi.livejournal.com]

Waiwaiwait... you're in lower British Colimbia? How come I never knew this?

-=TK

[carlfoxmarten]

Odd, I thought I'd mentioned it before...
(I might have mentioned that I live in Surrey before, it's the BC one, not the one in England. Particularly when talking about the transit system here being mostly ignored in preference to Vancouver's)

[torakiyoshi.livejournal.com]

It's probably come up and been forgotten. I will be in Vancouver for Memorial Day Weekend (last weekend in May) visiting a German friend who's doing some work there. It'd be neat to put a face to your screen name.

-=TK

[carlfoxmarten]

Hmm, sounds interesting!

I'd be interested in taking you up on that.
(Sunday might be a squeeze as it's my Mom's birthday, though I'm available otherwise)

[torakiyoshi.livejournal.com]

Cool. Plans are slowly shaping up, so I'll let you know what they look like, soon. Send me an email, my username at gmail.com to make it easier. :)

-=TK

[carlfoxmarten]

Have you received my email yet?
I can't tell if it got through...
(it's from my username minus the last three letters of my first name at inbox dot com)

[torakiyoshi.livejournal.com]

I searched my inbox and don't have anything. It looks like it didn't come through. :( Maybe a PM in the fora?

-=TK

[carlfoxmarten]

Hmm, that's odd.

I've sent you a copy of the email through the TAC boards, along with my email address so we can chat that way.