Feels like when you remember there are somehow still basically pre humans that exist in very very small numbers in extremely isolated geographic pockets on earth.
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Like... The state of New York? Is suing the Bellevue, WA gaming company Valve?
Scratches head
...In 2026?
AI music has entered the chat
And this is why legacy media is legacy media.
I read it as Romulans and was very confused for a short while
- Hell yeah.
- (Awaiting...)
I maxed out the length haha. But seeing as we're several comment levels deep already, i doubt anybody's going to read this far. If you have any questions now or forever, don't be afraid to message me or add to this comment chain, and I'll answer them if i can. I'm curious what you end up going with and why.
IEMs? Are we talking just earbuds or full-on custom ear canal casts?
First off, stop buying Razer products, at all, full stop. Razer is a hella sexist misogynist company.
Secondly, Razer is known and only got famous for making high performance gaming mice, particularly their optical sensors and mouse-click switches (yes, I know they had a ball mouse but that's not what really made them famous/big/successful). Everything else on top of that is literally just branded garbage, ESPECIALLY their shitty headphones.
Headphone clamp pressure really is a thing, and ranges from too low all the way to too high. I wish I could answer all these questions and infodump at you in person, because there's really a lot to go over on this subject.
So, broadly, there are some big categories of headphones in this context: on-ear vs over-ear, and closed-back vs open-back.
In general, on-ear is cheap crap, just skip that design entirely. It's bad, cheap, uncomfortable, and inferior. It's marketed as compact and trendy, but in reality it's just cheaper to manufacture and has higher margins. I'm sorry Grado and fans. It's just kind of a weird, outdated design. Instead of the part of the earcups that actually touch you being wider and sitting/touching you actually on your skull AROUND your ear, they sit directly on the ear.
Over-ear, in comparison, doesn't (shouldn't) compress the actual ear and just covers your ear.
Then you have the next two: closed or open. This is where shit starts to get a little more complex to fully explain. I'm inclined to start by explaining how sound is vibrations in the air and how the cochlea works and psychoacoustics and all that, but to keep this not monstrously long and overly complex, just know that with speakers, you're hearing a lot of the actual room, as well as the speaker itself. And so with headphones, you don't hear a room, since the headphone is basically directly on your ear and is very close to directly transducing air motion into your ear canal.
Except... That there is a room. Or, more precisely, an acoustic space that matters. The shapes of both your ear and your ear canal, the resonances (along with a ton of other stuff) of those spaces and materials all matter! Think about how much you notice something seemingly so small as even your fingertips lightly touching your headphones when they're on your head - the scale of things that matter has shrunk, and seemingly small differences are QUITE noticeable.
So, for closed-back vs open-back, the physical difference is that, literally, the back of the headphone, behind the cone/driver is either a closed space or open to the room/space that you're in. It's very much like if you hold your cupped hand and cover your ear. In both types of headphones, you obviously have a headphone housing and some sort of driver covering your ear, but with open-backed headphones, the opposing side to your ear is open.
Why does this matter? Well, because the headphone driver is essentially acting as an electric pump that's going back and forth really fucking fast, doing its best to recreate recorded or synthesized sound. It's transducing (like alchemy) alternating current into air vibrations, and thus sounds. Electric motors do the same thing, but instead of with the goal being air vibrations, the goal is the kinetic motion itself, usually with the purpose of controlled, powerful rotation. Speakers and headphones (and in reverse order, microphones!) are just electric motors.
Sorry, tangent!
Okay, so, now we know what the driver in the headphone is doing. But, now you have to account for getting that air pressure into the ear canal to affect the cochlea so that you can hear it!
And as most of us can intuit, air pressure that relatively small can diffuse quite easily, and does. So the first idea would be to basically run a sealed pipe or tube directly into the ear. But have to ever actually listened to a tube? Of course you have! That's what brass instruments like trumpets and wind instruments like clarinets are! And then the obvious issue with that is, tubes have a sound all their own, and we don't want everything to sound like it's coming through a tube, we want it to sound natural, like the listener hears natural, unrecorded sound.
IEMs attempt this. If you shove the driver wayyyy into your ear, you attempt to eliminate as many variables as you can. Generally, IEMs for performance also are Isolating, meaning they are designed to isolate the intended signal (the music coming out of them) from whatever sounds are happening in real life, usually an audience and all kinds of noise. And they generally do a great job.
The issue with IEMs, however, are many. Right off the bat, they are relatively expensive because they're hard to make. The expensive nice ones literally involve somebody CASTING YOUR EAR CANAL. Yes, this is as unpleasant as it sounds, no pun intended. Also, as the IEM name implies: they are monitors and generally not optimal for enjoyment listening. Each time you put them on or take them off, your ear canal is getting clapped and soaked by a very deep plug. Some people like this, but I suppose ymmv.
Also, now that you've stuck the driver way in to the side of your head, you've bypassed a good part of your ear canal, but the entire external part of your ear. And if you remember, tubes have sound; your own unique ears and ear canals have unique acoustic sounds that you subtly but definitely use to hear space and identify sounds. IEMs do not sound perfectly natural. This isn't the end of the world, but it is an effect inherent to the design.
Earbuds (the less deep, more consumery - less professionally versions, cheaper, and thus not really IEM (In Ear Monitors)), avoid some of these issues, but have all their own issues... From cost, to wireless security, to lifespans due to unreplaceable batteries, to cost efficiencies because you're now buying radios and software and support and tiny batteries and durable comfortable plastics that touch the insides of your ears, etc. They're undeniably convenient, but several times more expensive AND non-durable and basically disposable.
So, what does all of this have to do with open-backed and close-backed headphones, and why did I feel the need to tangent on it, especially when I'm trying to make this not monstrously long?
Yes, I'm doing my best to keep this short? But in order to explain all of this and not make assumptions on what you and whoever reads this might know, certain topics and definitions have to be at least conceptualized.
Open-back headphones generally attempt to bring you both your own ear canal and your own external ear, and do it all in a way that is balanced and robust. Sound reproduction is by no means a solved cluster of technology or principles in much the same way that visual display technologies isn't.
In sound and physics, there is a principle called the "proximity effect". It affects speakers, headphones, microphones, and normal real sounds, such as talking. Put very simply, the closer something is, the more bass it has. This has to do with the way energy is diffused, but in-context you can observe it by playing some music on your headphones and them lifting them off of your ears. You will still hear the treble/higher frequencies, but the bass will get quieter more than the treble will get quieter.
Oversimplifying, it's because the air is leaking out. With speakers, it's why small speakers generally sound small, and why big speakers sound big. So, for headphones, small drivers need to be close and have a air-sealed space (I'm sorry, I'm accelerating here because I have to wrap this up somehow), or you can create big drivers for headphones and just control for distance to be consistent.
So closed back, you'll get more bass but it'll be less accurate and less natural but the headphones will basically require them to be sealed to your head (stickier/wetter feeling earpads and more clamping force) and the drivers will be closer.
And open back will be bigger drivers with more velvet-like earcups.
Generally. None of this is hard rule, but that's an idea of the concepts and limits.
Some open back headphones (such as the Sennheiser hd-598, which i think is out of production and has been replaced several times over by its successor the hd-599) have such low clamping force that people complain they don't stay on your head. The 599 isn't as much like this, but because of the larger earcups (and deeper! For more ear space) and the soft velvety earpads (not pleather coated), it's a WAY more comfortable experience.
I cannot express how pissed I am at Razer (I've preferred their mice since like 2001) for making such shitty headphones and how much they sell them for. You're being had. Paying more for a worse experience.
If you're 42, depending on your hobbies, you should save up and invest in a $200-500 pair of open backs, get a dac and an amp and spend like 200-400, and have a much nicer experience while playing games and not have your shit break on you. It's not a small amount of money and I don't know your financial or life situation. But going off your games and music you like, I've made some inferences and can tell you this is the pricepoint to save up and try to hit for yourself. It's the happy medium point.
Resources for research are the headphones subreddit (fuck spez), headfi, the now retired Tyll Hertsens (that's his name) and his gone-website but still existing old videos on YouTube innerfidelity, Zeos from his yt channel and subreddit zreviews (he's uhh.. well... you'll see). There's a market of hype and elitism in this hobby/field, be ready. If your budget is actually only ever this exact 200, there's really only a few great options for you, the sony mdr 7506 is (still) very much a go-to, but not perfect for anybody. It is, however, a robust tried and true actual studio monitor headphones from the 1990s that's stil in use
Oooo, I didn't know that. That's fancy
What about the gene splicing is inherently for "male" only? Because we're getting into that sexist ignorance territory pretty immediately.
If you say "there has to be a Y chromosome, that is, outrageously silly and makes very little sense. But even if so, there are plenty of men who don't have a Y chromosome and plenty of women who don't.
If you say they become a clone of the emperor's clones, it's pretty easy to have a cross sex clone. It's kind of how real life offspring take on genes from their parents and all kinds of outcomes occur, and offspring are still very much basically clones with minor mutations of their parents, with variations. Like if you said they were EXACT clones, like in Star wars, then sure. But they really aren't, to my limited knowledge.
This just really feels like there not being enough representation in the same way in the 80s how "he" was the default pronoun for a subject. But a lot of people are like NUH UHH THAT MEANS THERE WERE ONLY WHITE MEN AND NO FEMALE AUTHORITY FIGURES which is insane. Like, imagine believing skin color in the vast universe meant anything. Or like throughout the countless planets and solar systems that only XY men of scandanavian descent that lived in similar UV and dietary and other stressor ecosystems were the strongest. Like, if anything, it would be people who settled and evolved in the harshest, and most competitive environments and ecosystems, not warm weather tall people who recently migrated to become pale and unhealthy but then became well fed.
It's far more likely that to become a Space Marine, it's not limited to any specific demographic, and it's the best that whatever planet puts forth. And likely it's like some other variation of brown skin, post-human evolution, a la every earth-human demographic breeding together and then 40,000 years later looking nothing like us.
Also, the battle sisters are about as token as an all black army. It's fucked up.
It's honestly likely similar to the custodes and just... Burly massive people who probably don't even have any sort of genitals anymore because that doesn't matter. Like imagine 40,000 years of breeding humans with og-batman bane levels of steroids. Like it just doesn't matter anymore at that point.
I own several pairs of much nicer headphones and have used many different headphones and amps for all kinds of different purposes and genres and sources of music and audio and stuff. I daily drive those sony's (with software eq) directly out from my interface headphone monitor out, and it's more than fine. I really like the audeze tech and what they output, but for whatever reason, these relatively cheaper 7506's just... They hit that midground for me where I have zero guilt using them and leaving them out and all that, and also like the sound signature. Nothing about them is perfect and nothing about them is deeply flawed. Honestly, the closest things I can come up with to be serious flaws are that their earcups aren't very big or deep, and that they have about an inch of (tiny) very exposed wires on either side that run from the band to the actual earcup, but somehow they never seem to fail.
I use SoundID Reference (software eq program in Windows) to eq them, but you can easily use an oratory1990 eq preset https://www.reddit.com/r/oratory1990/ on whatever eq might be available on Linux. EQ isn't perfect and doesn't really solve problems, but it can make appreciable and remarkable differences.
Actually, and this question is to anybody who might know: is there a good Equalizer APO equivalent (with a good gui) on Linux?
Any group that idolizes something so much is definitely going to have sexual desires around it too.
Recently I've been considering learning about Warhammer 40k. I think the deep lore is cool and space marines are a neat concept. But apparently there's this big issue about whether or not women can serve as space marines.
So I briefly looked into it and whether or not the issue is sexism based or lore based, and it seems to be somewhere in the middle, but definitely meta perpetuated by casual sexism. It feels very much like this comic.
Also feels like seeing an interesting box, looking in excitedly, realizing what's inside and having my enthusiasm sucked out of the airlock, and just... Letting the box lid close and then walk away.
Are you just looking for headphones, or do you need a mic on it, too? Because you get get away with a pair of sony mdr-7506's and a modmic for that. I generally think a boom arm and a real mic is better than 2-in-1 headsets in a lot of cases, but I also recognize the utility that committing to a microphone attached brings to the table. Those headphones are 80-90 bucks msrp, but everything's been going up in price so ymmv. And if you attach a modmic to them, your options, value, and repairability open way up. Those headphones are great all rounders and punch way above their weight, don't require an amp to get 90% of the oomph from them, but still have options later down the line if you so choose. And they're closed back.
IF you want open back, buy a pair of massdrop 6xx for 200$. Those have even higher value:price ratio. But those generally do require an amp to open up. Not a great amp, but an extra 200$ to step into a schiit stack would be minimum imo. I've bought too many little dac+amp combos and I just don't like them; the initial value is by far higher, but there's no upgrade path, they're usually shitty and don't have the wattage to drive authoritatively, and are aimed at basically kids and are questionably robust at best. Keep in mind, this option is both more expensive and doesn't net you a mic - but, it is a proper path if you want great quality stuff that you won't buy and soon after consider regretting. The sony mdr 7506 is great, but it is a cheap pair of headphones.
Friendly neighbor headphones that you might want to take a look at are the audio technica m40x. I don't like beyerdynamic because they have pretty high distortion. Counter strike players like them because they're bright as shit to hear footsteps, but I got that you like listening to music more and play rpgs; Deadlock is still too much of a wildcard at this point.
Also, Stray was really good but relatively short with basically no replayability.
I have an ex who really found herself with mushrooms. Not my thing at all, but I'm happy she is able to understand herself well that way.
And for adhd, they generally prescribe stimulants.
I know a lot of autists also find solace in cannabis or even alcohol.
You gotta be careful with this stuff though. Addiction is fucking real, and it can really ruin your entire life and people around you. I don't know what you're really like, so I can't responsibly give you any safe advice on this topic other than to take the risks seriously.
Feelings can be really hard, period. Then if you're neurodivergent it's harder. And then if you're depressed or something else, that's even more difficult. And if you're younger, you're basically still new to being a human, like running the tutorial trying to figure out the controls and hud system of the game.
So try not to feel bad about that.
Sometimes you can kind of infer your own feelings based on an analysis of your situation. It's not 100% accurate and can definitely mislead you sometimes, since everybody isn't the same. Some people feel at home in a garbage heap or cozy when things are cluttered. I'm a bit of that second one since I'm adhd and like things to be immediately available and not put away wrongly, but get overwhelmed and I'm also a bit avoidant.
A lot of this stuff is trial and error, unfortunately. Try to maybe figure out the basic "good feeling" and "bad feeling" feelings, and if maybe try to figure out if you're feeling closer to one or the other. A good way to do this is to try to break down feelings into a THIS or THAT question. Like, if you wake up in the morning and something's different, you can ask yourself, "do I feel closer to good? Or bad?" Sometimes it can help to try to envision the feeling from memory to see if it feels similar.
And once you can put yourself nearer to one than the other, and maybe even by how much, you can work out further details from there.
But, one step at a time.
I really think that understanding yourself is very important.
You could also go watch autistic YouTubers or whatever to see if anything they talk about resonates with you.
I like https://youtube.com/@genericartdad, but again, everybody is different, especially when it comes to this sort of stuff.
Try not to get sucked into his depressing political topics. That shit will 100% drag you down and make you feel not good. I suggest just sticking to the autism stuff he talks about. He has a playlist of it. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfRRWDptN6Nuau-Gm6ApWdK90TpvJWZyr
In Sync, I only see the first picture of the post until I see the full contents of the post..
I looked at the picture and thought "what the fuck are they playing?" Lmao
Figure out what's eating you and deal with it. There's always something. There's always a path forwards out of every bind you can get in, you just have to find it by knowing yourself. I don't know what flavor of autism you are, but a lot of artists I know have issue feeling their feelings, which is the first step to unclogging yourself.
Only one way to normalize stuff....