Blog - /Personal

Apparently I have a larger than normal head — most headphones just don't feel comfortable. I had a pair of Koss headphones that served me well, but they broke apart today after about a year of use. I tried out a pair of Sony headphones from Walmart, but they did not fit well (and they had a stereo plug rather than a normal headphone plug ... oops).

A trip across town to Best Buy yielded a much wider selection. The only two pairs that would potentially fit me were actually labeled "stereo headsets" which came with microphone. I went with the AHS515 by Altec Lansing. Oddly, while most headphones can be adjusted for width, these have some sort of elastic material instead. I was thinking of returning them as well, but as a last ditch effort, I attached a rubber band at the top to stretch out the elastic part. That made a huge difference, and they are now wearable. [aside: And how exactly is this elastic thing considered to be "adjustable", like the box states?].

That said, this pair has one advantage over my previous pair: the external volume control is much improved. It is a wheel rather than a slider, which is much easier to deal with. Also, the volume control can clip onto surrounding objects, though I haven't found a convenient use for that yet.

I'm not sure whether my needs are getting more eccentric, or whether stores carry less of a selection than they used to. Probably the former.