Monitor Reviews

These are the most accurate, cleanest sounding headphones I've tried yet. They fit well and have great range. But I have 2 major complaints:
1) They are so good, that I can hear my ipod. The ipod makes a buzzing noise that I can on all soft music or on pause. I don't need to hear the defects of my equipment, I just want to listen to music.

2) They are worthless for exercising. I guess it is the nature of an in-ear monitor, but any movement in the cord is translated into sound. Just moving your head while sitting is annoying and transmits a loud rustling sound. These are pretty much only useful while stationary -- but if I am sitting, I would just use speakers!

CX-300 is one of the latest products in Sennheiser's wide line of headphones. Its raison d'etre is 'ambient noise attenuation' in Sennheiser's words. Of course they are meant to be used with portable devices and do just fine at that.

Exactly how good is the noise attenuation?
Sennheiser says 'excellent', but surely you would want a more unbiased opinion. The noise attenuation is certainly good enough. I have tried them in the Athens Underground Railway (Metro). It is so noisy when the train moves, that with common closed headphones, it is impossible to hear the music at a volume that won't impair your hearing. With the CX-300 a lot of the noise is shut out, so you can enjoy your music at a reasonable volume. Another measure of comparison is that you can't hear a person that is near you speak, unless they shout. That is what these headphones were meant to do.
If you don't want or simply don't need noise reduction, you can buy just as good or even better headphones at a cheaper price. For example Sennheiser's PX and HD series, and AKG's K24 and K26.

Obviously for this price you can't buy high fidelity. The sound quality is up to Sennheiser's standards of course. I am using these with my Sony HD-5 mp3 player and haven't got any complaints. When I am not in the subway I usually go with Sennheiser's PX-200. I haven't made a real head to head comparison, but I think they are more or less a match on sound quality. So obviously, you can get better sound at home with quality speakers or quality bulky headphones.

These headpones don't silence everything. If you want that you can try 'active noise reduction' headphones (Bose, Sennheiser, AKG), but the active noise reduction process introduces artificial artifacts into the sound and the headphone are a bit expensive. You can also try Shure's or Etymotics passive noise reduction headphones which are a 'professional' choice (you can remove the quotation marks for Shure);they were (initially) meant for artists on stage. But you have to pay a hefty price tag for those.

So to sum up, if you want something which 1)shuts out unwanted noise 2)gives quite good sound quality, and 3) doesn't feel like wearing a helmet, these are an excellent choice at their price.
If you can pay more, you can get more in at least two of the three criteria.

Sennheiser CX 300 series was formerly launch into the professional musician market as Sennheiser IE4 In-Ear Monitor.

Sennheiser IE4 sold at ~150 US Dollar (Suggested Retail Price). As a competitor of Etymotic Er6 and Shure E3c.

Following the product's success in the professional market now it is time to harvest from the vast consumer market.

So the marketing description of this product now change from "the high accuracy reproducing of the sound" into the new hype "the bass driven sound".
Very common marketing trick. :-)

Sennheiser IE4 was a rebranding of the highly acclaim "Sharp MD33".
Sharp MD33 is one of the most succesfull IEM in the world.
It also described as a "giant killer".

After it got wide reputation around the world Sharp MD 33 was rebranded into Creative ep630 (which can be found in Asia) and Sennheiser IE4 (which goes directly to the most demanding professional musicians market.

Sound of this Sennheiser/ Sharp/ Creative IEM is solid and very clear.
Bass is decent, mid and high are details.

It need less maintenance comparing with Etymotic or Shure since it cleverly use metal grills instead of direct filter.
Once a month scrap your earwax out of the metal grill is enough to keep this decent IEM working for years.

Silicone ear tips are interchangeable with Sony's ex series ear tips.
If you want to do some experiment you can try Shure's ear tip on them.
Even somebody have suggested Shure's Ultra Soft Flex Sleeve (PA749M) on this IEM but I would like to suggest Shure's PA757M Flex Sleeves instead. (Please change the size according to your ear size)

With Shure PA757M Flex Sleeve this Sharp/ Creative/ Sennheiser IEM sounds as if the sound stage become expanded without deterioration in sound quality.

If you live in US this Sennheiser IEM is worth your money. And sound quality is much better than many expensive IEM.

The flash on this camera broke after < 2 months. Sent back to Konica-Minolta for warranty service was told that repair takes 2 months. 3 1/2 mos go by and no word from manufacturer. I called, found out they are awaiting parts from Japan and would take another month. I called again after 6 weeks and was told that the parts are no longer being made as camera is discontinued. They will send me a "REFURBED" replacement as my only recourse. Since I had no choice, I took that. The refurb broke after 2 months as well - autofocus no longer focuses, and the metal ring around the tip of the lens fell off. No wonder Konica-Minolta is now out of the digital camera business. Buy a Canon or Nikon instead.

I have had this camera about 6 months and have had to return it twice so far for the same repair, without any explanation or recourse of requesting a replacement. I use the camera for my work so two to three weeks per repair is pretty disruptive to my schedule. Quick shots are out of the question since the camera is ultra sensitive to any tremor, and I must always use a tripod.

Good points:
1. The price is magnificent...you can get it for about $244.00 for 6Megapixels!(as of Jul-11-2005);
2. The quality of the pictures is excellent;
3. Battery Life is fairly good (about 280 flash pictures);
4. Takes BOTH SD and MemoryStick memory types;
5. Optical Zoom at 3X is about normal and works fine;
6. On-Off system is nice and simple;
7. FAST shutter speed (time from moment you press button to picture actually being taken); Canon is awful at this.
8. Very FAST Flash recovery time (picture-to-picture): about 1.5 seconds.

The problems are few, but very real:
1. Video is really limited to 30seconds - no matter how much memory you have or what resolution you choose;
2. Doing anything other than taking pictures is a MESS...you have to go through the menus and the complicated button sequences...forget about my MOM using it for anything other than taking pictures;
3. Even VIEWING the pictures you took is a mess...having to go through the menus. If you're a gadget freak or a techie, you'll be just fine...but if it's for your mom or dad and they can't program their VCR, then look for a user-friendly camera (not this one, sorry!); they WILL end up erasing pictures they're trying to see...
4. The USB transfer cable is NOT standard...good luck if you travel and leave it at home (better have lots of memory and not lose the camera while traveling or you'll lose your memories before you get to transfer them!!);
5. Zoom controls could be better located.

Summary:
If you are a techie and don't need videos longer than 30seconds, this camera is great.

Attractive, affordable, crystal clear resolution, compact, excellent controls and built-in speakers. Can't ask for much more.

I finally got rid of my CRT monitor, which took up most of my deskspace. I am really digging the integrated speakers. I am very satisfied with it.

just bought this tv. I should have spend a little more for the panasonic or sony .I shopped this tv every where . Best place to buy circiut city $526.00 . new in box .You have to ask for this t.v Not on display I don't why they do that , maybe to get the internet shoppers in the store .

I had bought a 13" for my bedroom a few months back and knew that the Sharp Aquos is one of the best LCD around so I bought this 20" and the only thing that I was dissappointed about was the lack of video inputs, only 2 normal inputs. But otherwise great tv.

This is my first LCD TV so you might take my opinions with a grain of salt. It has a very bright display with rich, saturated colors. I am very pleased with the picture quality, even though I don't have an HDTV setup. I have it in my bedroom so the size, while not huge, is appropriate for the room. I deliberatly chose the 4:3 aspect ratio because I am fond of watching old movie serials and old TV DVD's and it is perfect for that. Otherwise I might have gone for a widescreen. Should I ever be in the market for a larger screen TV, Sharp would be at the top of my list of considerations.

Whatever you have read in the previous reviews is right. Installing this card is a bit tricky, but once you get it all right, it is defintely worth the effort and the money you put into this card. It took me 6 hours to get this card and the software working. I have included some very important points I noted while installing is card. Please take note of them so that you can install the card in a much shorter time.

(BTW, I have a custom build PIII 800MHz PC with 320 MB memory, Win 2K and a good old AGP 2X/4X ATI Rage Mobility card previously installed.)

1. First of all, NEVER forget to remove the previous display drivers !! Use the uninstall program that came bundled with the software for the previous display driver (EASIEST method). In my case, I had no uninstall software to remove the previous display driver. So, I used regedit to clear the registry entries for that driver and used the safe mode to remove the DLL files corresponding to that driver (NOT recommended except for a last ditch effort).

Remove the previous card (hardware) and install this card ONLY AFTER thoroughly removing the display drivers of the previous card.

2. When you reboot the system (in NORMAL mode) after hardware installation, Windows will display a "New Hardware Found" message. Allow it to install the Windows standard VGA driver (it will only display the 640 x 480 mode). Check the display properties to make sure it displays something like "standard VGA" or something related. (If it still shows the name of the previous display driver, go back and try removing the previous driver, until you get Windows to use the standard VGA driver).

3. If you have the software for the motherboard drivers, re-install the one for the AGP. (one of the recommendations on the ATI website, in case you get a blank or garbled screen after you install the new drivers).

4. In my case, the software that came on the CD never worked !! I ended up getting either a garbled screen, or the computer hangs at a blank screen. So, I went to the ATI website, downloaded the latest drivers, and viola !! everything worked perfect !! (Note: for some people, the CD-version of the display driver seem to work fine. Try the internet version if you have trouble getting the CD-version to work).

Everything else from here is a no-brainer. I installed all the accompanying software from the CDs (of course, all software EXCEPT for the CD-version of the display driver: choose custom setup during installation). I connected the cable TV co-ax to the CATV input and I got TV on my computer ! Better yet, you can preview all the channels (in the form of thumbnails) and click on one of them to watch it (how cool can this be !).

The remote worked just fine, though I still keep thinking that it an unnessary excess. Make sure that the USB receiver for the remote is taped to a wall or some open space to get better reception, instead of just letting it lay beside the metal enclosure of your computer.

I played the trial version of Age of Mythology, and I was impressed by the 3D acceleration features of this card. I am yet to try other games though.

Overall, this card is awesome !! If you somehow get through the process of installing it and getting it to work, you'll be definetely in for a surprise.

......yes very decent. Doesn't do well in the current games tho, and DON'T expect to be able to run future gamer's with this graphics card. It performs quite well though, it layed it's cards tougher than I expected. It beats out the NVIDIA GeForce 2 GTS, even the 64mb version. This is a worth it card for older games, but you can tweak out the setting's in today's 3-D games to have a good trade off between graphics and frame rates. But really? Frame rates? Who needs them? I got a better frame rate in half-life than I did with the ATI Radeon 9700 Pro I tested! This card isn't bad. It can just use more power and features. That's all. Gaining nearly 20-27fps in unreal tournament 2003 with high details enabled and at a decently low to medium resolution.(such as 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768). Really, theyre isn't any urge to upgrade to a advanced 3-D accelerator graphics card with mighty power without having to spend a big buck on a budget, do everyhing card pratically, or top of the line high-end. Todays' games only require a HW T & L enabled graphics card with multi texturing and single pass capabitliesi that's somewhat directx8.1 compatible. So what the radeon 7500 doens't feature programmalbe shaders, 3-D textures, and stuff like that, and doesn't feature fast budget, or high-end acceleration graphics quality, as long as you can play today's games at a playable frame rate with good visual quality and tweak out the settings, there's nothing wrong with this graphics card!!

It is east to use and install best ever really and really good price...

I have had great success with this unit. The GPS has never failed once. The key is to position the face of the device pointing straight up. The antenna is under the GARMIN name and only has reception in a 180 deg hemisphere. If the unit is worn like most people wear a wrist watch, the antenna faces horizontal. Half of the sky is not visible to the antenna, and if a building, wall, or other obstruction falls in the visible side, too few satellites will be visible for the unit to calculate position. I wear the unit on the side of my wrist directly inline with my thumb. I run under some large trees and never lost signal. When I mountain bike, I wear it like a wrist watch since my hands are mostly palms down.
I had two glitches with the heart rate monitor when I work a synthetic shirt. The manual says the static electricity causes false readings. I am very happy with this unit.

The Garmin Forerunner 301 has an easy to read, intuitive interface, loads of features and a very accurate HRM. I did days of research before purchasing this item: look no further. I dunked it in a little ocean water the other day by accident - don't do that. I won't hesitate to get a second one.

I have the Forerunner 201 and liked it very much. Combined it with my Polar S810 and Sportsim software and was able to coordinate the heartrate info plus minus Ok.

The 301 solves that. Garmin's Training Center software (2.3.3 beta) is a vast improvement over the previous "Logbook" software. In particular the graphing function is quite useful. No, the software is not perfect and I have several things that I think should be changed but it works well for me when it comes down to analyzing the run. I also use Topofusion 2.51 (also beta-earlier versions can't read 301 data accurately) and am able to view runs on USGS satelite maps including landsat images. It also has some nice analysis features and allows Digital Elevation Map data to correct elevation data.

The device is nearly identical in appearance - buttons are a little easier to use, has USB instead of serial interface. Does not have WAAS and still is plus minus 30 feet accurate although I think it has improved algorithms. Device software has been improved mostly with addition of multisport options and workouts.

Multisport isn't well supported (IMHO) particulary within Garmin's Training Center, but I think it is still considered beta software.

Workouts are very nicely done and I have used the Training Center software to setup workouts that are uploaded to the device and then executed when you run. These are intuitive and straightforward to use and I have found them to be quite useful, especially with the HR monitor.

No real problems. Some have complained that the instantaneous accuracy of the device is variable and this is probably true but overall the real time data is accurate in my experience (over a year with the 201 and 3 months with the 301). Compared to measuring distances with my car's odometer and then guessing pace based on a stopwatch - what do we want? Once uploaded to the computer data looks pretty accurate. Occasional track points are obviously erroneous - if you use Topofusion you can edit the track to correct these. I have a 4 mile route that I run frequently - 2 miles out and back. Distance variance is about 1/10th mile and the tracks line up well - errors do occur but over about 10 seperate runs they are pretty consistent - not perfect, consistent.

I have had no problems linking to satelites or losing signal using the device in south Texas, Salt Lake, Park City, Maine, New Hampshire, Oklahoma and in airplanes between. This applies to both the 201 and 301.

Heart rate data analysis has been exciting. Never could accurately line up the data points using my Polar monitor and the 201. I have actually discovered helpful correlations using the HR and speed/elevation data graphs from this device that weren't possible before.

Overall, quite pleased with the device. Training Center software is acceptable and for me actually useful. If you are willing to utilize other software (Topofusion, Sportsim) you can get quite a bit out of this device.

this is a great camera for traveling, it is small enough to fit into your top pocket, so it can go anywhere. the only problem that i have is that there is no underwater housing for it, if there was i would have given it a 5*.

We really like this camera! It's a WHOLE lot better than our previous one, which ran off 4 AA batteries, and ran THROUGH so many AA batteries so quickly that we can't even guess how many $$ that wasted. This Optio camera uses very nice rechargable batteries that cost $5 each through Ebay (don't buy them here on Amazon... ouch!) We've got 3 batteries and are getting two more so that we never even have to worry about power while on a long trip. (The really handy travel charger is also awesome... get it on Ebay for just a few bucks.)

The startup time and shutter speed are very fast, so catching quick pictures is finally possible for us. (My wife no longer threatens to go back to film after using this camera!) Our last camera would take so long to focus that we never got the candid shots we wanted.

The one and only thing that's even a slight problem with this camera is the power button being next to the shutter button. (What clueless engineer thought THAT would be good??) However, now that we've used it a lot, we never hit the button by accident.

All other features of the camera are great. With a 1 GB memory card, we've never ever run out of memory space, even with taking lots of short videos and many many pictures on medium quality.

Great camera, worth every cent. Buy the accessories on Ebay and you'll find that getting everything you need is not very expensive at all. (Actually, we bought the camera on Ebay too, but these reviews are great here on Amazon. Thanks, Amazon!)

I have been through 6 cameras in the past 3 years, of all different kinds of brands and price. I have changed so many times because they get stolen or broken...this little pentax optio was surprising though! 3 months after having it around, i brought it to the desert and i guess didn't treat it too carefully in the sand, and it stopped working. so i took it back to the shop and they fized it. you know that it fits in an altoid box? well keeping it in there is a good idea, but if you're the type to carry your camera EVERYWHERE, i'd keep it in something more secure.
guess what happened to mine. i was on a balcony and by misguard the camera fell on the floor, and when i picked it up, no more camera in the box!!! i look over the ledge...and the camera is down there, 3 floors down, on the concrete floor. oohhh nooo...wha'ts my dad going to say! not another camera that i brake! how could this happen to me???
well just as i was about to go down and get it, a car starts backing out and rolls onto the camera!! nooooo!!!!!
anyway, a guy who's helping the driver backout notices it and i shout to him it's mine!! he brings it up to me...i don't know how to react, the 6th camera in 3 years!! come on!
anyway, he gives it to me, i turn it on and...IT WORKS! no way this is impossible!! but yes, it worked perfectly well and still works to this day, 3 months later! nothing was damaged, not the screen, not the lens, not the flash. it just got cracked a bit and twisted, and the battery/memory card cover is completely damaged, but it still works like it should!
so that was one of the happiest days for me, finally i was lucky with a camera!