Kali Sikaran - video relocating, please stand by

Our Kali Sikaran exhibition from "Kampsportsgalan i Skellefteå" 2007 can now be viewed on YouTube, and below for that matter. Enjoy.

Unrelated link; Urban explorer Navi visits an abandoned Detroit police station.



"[...] fuck all this stuff about casual gaming. I think people still want games that are groundbreaking."

*SOLD* Apartment up for grabs *SOLD*

A public service announcement - my old apartment in Skellefteå (Myntgatan) is for sale. Click any image for a link to Fastighetsbyran.se.

All These Things I Hate (Revolve Around This Music)

MP3: A Scientific Attempt To Create Most Annoying Song Ever from the blog Wired tells the tale of Komar & Melamid and [sic] David Soldier which, believe it or not, set out to create the most annoying music of all time, created with the most annoying/hated instruments of all time (tubas, accordions, banjos, bagpipes and so forth).



"The most unwanted subjects for lyrics are cowboys and holidays, and the most unwanted listening circumstances are involuntary exposure to commericals and elevator music. Therefore, it can be shown that if there is no covariance—someone who dislikes bagpipes is as likely to hate elevator music as someone who despises the organ, for example—fewer than 200 individuals of the world's total population would enjoy this piece". Here's a direct link to the horrifying hilarity or you could visit Wired and stream the song. I laughed while brewing a dark hatred inside which will keep me warm for several cold winters to come - but God damned it, somehow it's so bad it's actually funny.

//And as usual Blogger fucks with the colors of the links, it looks OK as I edit the text but somehow along the way Blogger still manages to fuck things up when published. And what the hell is up with the font size, all you can choose between is "Smallest" through"Largest" which means that at some point Blogger arbitrarily decided that it's users were all complete idiots and not smart enough to understand the world standard of point sizing.

Note to self; use stairs

"Elevator Demolished"

Temporary accommodation

Well, at least it's in Stockholm and close to work. I rented a room from an acquaintance and now I temporarily reside in a suburb to Stockholm, described as a "very bad suburb" if Wikipedia is to be believed. And quite frankly that pretty much sums it up. I'm not complaining, I guess it could be worse - but I am actively searching for an apartment of my own, bidding will start in the near future. One of the early apartments I looked at was rather old, rather worn, with creaking floor and claustrophobic combined (almost ad-hoc) bathroom/shower. The entire area was 32m² which is kind of small, but the monthly rent was low. Now for the kicker; not only was there a gas stove, but there were no exhaust fan above. Lovely... But since the apartment was in close proximity to central Stockholm the price sky-rocketed. It wasn't even that nice of an apartment anyways and I couldn't help noticing the obvious photoshop work in the brochure - almost every image was stretched into the center, skewing the perspective. The small kitchen looked like a long hallway. And of course all the same old tricks, fresh fruit, new carpets (I could swear I saw the same carpet in several different apartments), scent candles all that crap - but I guess it has to pay off. One of the apartments smelled like someone had taken a baseball bat to a cosmetics store, but I don't think that was the broker's idea - they are usually just barely above pulling something that obvious.

It's pretty much summer down here
(photo taken on the 11:th of April).









Unrelated link; Photos from inside the now abandoned Beckomberga hospital (Swedish psychiatric hospital)

AKG K240 Studio review

In short (taken from AKG.com)
Semi-open, dynamic headphones
Varimotion xxl speakers for ultimate accuracy. Crisp sound even at high volume levels
Single, plug-in, easily replaceable cable with mini-XLR connector
Proven akg self-adjusting headband and gimbal suspension for excellent comfort
Unbreakable metal arches
Frequency range: 15hz to 25khz

In a rather early celebration of my new job I've been shopping. First up, brand new headphones - AKG K240 Studio, bought from an actual shop in Skelleftea believe it or not. The shop had a number of headphones available for costumers to try out. The clerk informed me that due to the connections and mish-mash of multiple headphones and amps the audio clarity will be less then ideal, and he wasn't kidding. A very audible hiss was a constant background nuisance, however it did not increase with volume so I managed to overlook the phenomenon. The clerk recommended the K240 so I tried them first. I'm not sure what songs I was listening to, but the K240 did sound very nice - much more vivid then my old Sennheiser yet with great clarity and a good "drive" (probably due to the 55 ohms impedance). I've never been much into bass heavy headphones (or God forbid - EQ enhancement), they usually have a deep but uncontrolled bass at the cost of clarity and resolution - but the first thing that actually struck me with the K240 was the rich and tightly controlled bass. On top of that, the higher pitched notes were really detailed and sharp which gave the K240 a reference-like sound. Reference headphones play music as close as possible to the original recording, not trying to warp or enhance low or high frequencies. As for the K240 some argue that the sound is fuller then the original recording, and hence not a true reference model but most agree that it is well within an acceptable limit.

As with most headphones you need to test different models with the same music player in order to really nail the differences in sound. I did some test with the AKG and the old Sennheiser using .wav rips from the CD Holy Diver by Dio. The recording quality of the Holy Diver CD from 1983 is not particularly good (I guess no one was surprised by the 2005 remastering - which still sucked unfortunately), there are a few glitches in some of the tracks but nothing major (the grain in "Invisible" and "Rainbow in the dark" for instance). Unfortunately (well, kind of) high end headphones are very unforgiving when it comes to recording quality. Good headphones produces such high detail and resolution that any minor sound or imperfection unfortunate enough to make it onto the recording will be noticed. Low end headphones simply does not have the required resolution in audio quality to reproduce minor imperfections which makes the system smooth out the edges - and also makes the sound less detailed and more "meh".

Anyways, I listened to the intro of "Straight through the heart" to compare the headphones. The K240 did an admirable job, deep and exact bass in the background with clear guitar riffs up front and drums somewhere in the middle. Very good indeed. Switching to the HD 215:s the difference was staggering, the HD's most notable feature in the intro was the rampid bass line. Left
uncontrolled, the bass lingered in a slithering echo to the paper flat guitar riffs over a grainy soundscape. I was amazed at the difference, I mean the HD 215 isn't exactly Sennheisers flagship
but in comparison to the K240 they really sounded like crap. The 215 does have a lower impedance which probably explains the lack of drive to the sound but that also makes them play louder then higher impedance models at the same volume setting from the source player.

The K240 sounds great and due to it's constant level of competence it's easy to take the incredible sound for granted. There are however songs that produce that "wow" sensation every time. One of which is "Feel for you" by Nightwish (.wav rip). The song starts with a heavy bass track, sounds deep and beefy through the K240, which contrasts nicely to the crystal clear and sharp sound of the strings which follows. The bass plays in the background as the strings takes over and the song takes off.

As for the construction the ear-cups are connected through the two wires which holds the sound cables and by the headband. This makes the headphones very flexible and unlikely to break. There are two strings on each ear-cup, connected between the headband and the ear-cup, which in turn is mounted on springs (or something similar) which puts the strings under tension. This makes the headband self adjusting, just put the headphones on your head and place the ear-cups over your ears. Very smart and very comfortable.

In summation I really like the AKG K240 Studio headphones. Unfortunately you'll need a high quality music player coupled with a high quality recording, otherwise all the minor imperfections just might drive you mad. Since these are semi-open headphones the noise of the outside world is not as reduced as with closed 'phones and the outside world will also hear more of your music - but then again, it's better then with open headphones (for best quality open headphones is the way to go, but due to the lack of isolation open headphones require a quiet environment). I highly recommend the K240's and considering the price range, it's an absolute bargain.