Comments on: iPods are turning everyone into zombies

By: Dave Zatz

Dave Zatz — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 16:17:29 +0000

I’m surprised the well-compensated Bay Area residents haven’t upgraded to Shures, Etymotic or eqiv. Guess the housing prices have impacted audio fidelity. Or conspicuous consumption prevails over quality. FYI I find people texting or emailing from their mobiles (like me) is more of a pedestrian annoyance.

By: James

James — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 12:12:57 +0000

I’ve seen the same phenomenon in the the Washington, DC area and I’m (somewhat) part of it.

For what it’s worth, I listen to my iPod on the bus (at low volume) to provide a soothing background noise to focus on my book, work, or nap. It wouldn’t be so necessary if other people weren’t talking, listening to their own music too loudly, or refusing to blow their nose when I can clearly hear the congestion with each wheezing breath.

That being said, I have no problem walking down the street without being plugged in. It’s just like the over use of cell phones in public spaces - too many people don’t understand that there’s a time and place for everything.

By: Jim

Jim — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 05:38:10 +0000

Oh… and chalk me up as yet another old school Karma user.

By: Jim

Jim — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 05:37:41 +0000

Ironic timing on the post JT. I recently began working in San Francisco (I am moving from the dreaded 408) and had to walk from the office to my bank at lunch. I was amazed at the number of people sporting white ear buds and thought how strange the “walking around crowd” in SF was compared to the crowd around my old Mountain View digs (and our offices were surrounded by Google, so a pretty big walking around crowd).

Looks like this could be a regional issue at some level…

By: g$

g$ — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 22:03:40 +0000

congrats! you are officially a curmudgeon!

By: Peter Redmer

Peter Redmer — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 21:23:27 +0000

Cheers to a fellow (past?) Rio Karma user. Unfortunately, the HDD blew up in mine, and I haven’t been up to Hack-A-Day’s replacement directions. But I loved that player.

Alright audio geeks - call me crazy, lambast me by saying I don’t have the nitty-gritty technical information, do whatever you want - but I strongly believe that it just sounded better, especially in my car.

The 5-band parametric equalizer was golden. Whatever happened to putting a real EQ in an MP3 player? (Although I love my iPod, I think the EQ’s need improvement.) I feel it gave me the flexibility to tune it more closely to the environment in my car. I also appreciated the OGG and FLAC support, definitely a nod to the open source crowd.

And I agree wholeheartedly about the “zombie” principle. I think we’re starting to get just a little crazy these days - obsessed with being constantly entertained - and feeling uneasy, nervous, and extremely bored when we’re not. I know that it happens to me often… sometimes, I can’t sit still for more than a few seconds without whipping out my phone and messing around on the net - I know, guilty as charged…

Maybe someday we’ll be able to maintain a healthy balance with our beloved gadgets!