Do You Hear What I Don't?

October of last year, or somewhere thereabouts, I purchased a pair of Bose Triport earbuds. I noticed a huge difference. I discovered bass. One month later, some cold weather came into town. It was my first chance to break out my new Diesel cargo jacket. The jacket has no side pockets, only front ones, pockets that place an earphone jack at a strenuous angle. Fast forward yet another month. Getting ready to walk from The Last Drop back to Fairmount, I cued up Fizheuer Ziheuer for what I thought was going to be the best walk of my life. I hit the play button. The sound out of one channel crapped out. Amazing how the best can instantly change to the worst. I didn't care how long I had to wait for the 48, I wasn't walking anywhere on that day. Keep in mind that this happened during the time of the year when I was flat broke. There was no way I could afford another set of headphones. Luckily enough, Bose fully stood by the product and gave me a replacement set without any hassle, that or they didn't want to look like schmucks in front of all the holiday shoppers whom I made sure were present when I attempted the return. An amazingly bitter cold gripped Philly from the end of January through the beginning of April-- cargo jacket weather. Fast forward to two weeks ago. With the casing around the jack already worn away, the wires finally succumbed to gravity and severed. I vowed to never spend $100 on a set of earphones again. I thought the product should last much longer. I decided to return to using the earphones that had lasted me for a year, the Apple jobs.

It's funny how you're always going to learn lessons about which things you can and can't skimp on. Earphones, it turns out, are one of the things which you can't cut any corners with. Why? Bass. You can not fuck around when it comes to bass. This incident again reminded me that bass is not only the best instrument ever, but also the key component to an enjoyable listening experience. When it's right, it enriches the experience tenfold. E.g. Beyonce's "Freakum Dress." I can totally understand how people that only hear this song on TV speakers or shitty earphones can think it's not the best song ever. On my Bose buds that bass awakened something in my soul, a 1-2 juggernaut. Any song with sub bass was turned into a automatic winner, except of course blog house songs or B-more house, come to think of it the quality of the earphones actually enhanced that stuff's egregiousness.

Who needs sound that good? I do because I care about this shit, electronic music that is. So much of the music employs and actually depends on the sub bass that you could probably dismiss almost the entire genre as overly cheery and cheesy without it. The instrument is so in your face and it carries the gravitas that makes electronic the genre of both today and tomorrow. Goddamn, I hope I was wrong about these Apple earbuds lasting a year. Maybe I knocked over one of the fourteen unfinished bottles of Deer Park water on my desk, where the earphones are also presently, and they shorted out while I was writing this. Then all I'll have to do is spend $500 on a new Diesel winter coat, one with side pockets for sure, so that my $100 dollar earphones can last longer than five months. And there's nothing wrong with that.