Edwood

Happy Birthday, Peter!

Headphone BDSM!

And practically added both their sales prices together as well.

Really loving the Pagani Zonda Cinque. The Lexus LFA, not so much. Been crashing into a lot of walls with that massive understeering machine. Did not expect that one. Bastard just doesn't want to into the corners. Plus I love the banshee scream of the Cinque engine. Also drove the Zonda R in Forza 4. Now that's a BEAST. It's quite the monster to handle, but it's still smooth, and has amazing grip, along with incredible brakes. Unlike the LFA, which I had to brake harder and a lot earlier. (not to mention the Cinque brakes are fantastic as well) Here's footage of a real Zonda Cinque in a review. And the monster Zonda R. -Ed

Right! Fish and Chips, followed by Chocolate covered bacon!

Forza 4 + Fanatec Rig + 50" Pioneer Kuro + Crowson Tactile Transducers = Awesomeness. -Ed

Yeah, I'm still having a tough time getting the Hammerhead perfect, where it feels I'm not coming to a near stop taking that corner. I keep doing it way too slow or way too fast and crashing into that tire wall. (was that the same wall that Stig crashed the Koniegsseggseeesgsgsegsgesegsgsgessg?)

LCD-2 was selling like hot cakes, because there was literally only one other product that could compete in a similar price range. If the LCD-3 is not a significant improvement in sound quality over the LCD-2, it will be pricing itself in a territory where they will have much tougher time selling as a "no-brainer" purchase. As soon as headphones get into the 4 digits, people hesitate to open their wallets a LOT more.

I've tried the more recent revision (2) of the LCD-2, and the headband is much more flexible, and the padding in the leather headband is nice, with it's Sennheiser HD650-like padding bumps. Even with my huge noggin, it was pretty comfortable. Not quite as comfortable as the HE-6, but if/when Aude'ze makes velour pads, they will be pretty close. Leather looks great. And feels great for about 5 minutes, until I start getting all sweaty.

Ah crap. Looks like the BBC doesn't like Jeremy Clarkson appearing to endorse an automotive product, so they're cancelling it. So only the first ones made and distributed will be sold. And Head-Casers in the UK near a Halfords? -Ed

After playing many games of Modern Warfare 2 with Danger Close Pro and all the grenade spamming, I never complain about reduced explosive damage. The noob tube ratio was just waaaaay too high. Although it is quite nice to be able to blow a giant hole in the side of a wall where people are hiding behind. The grenades and rockets are plenty powerful in BF3 for me. -Ed

Next time Peter's down here for sure. There is also a local Fish and Chips place down the street. We'll have to have a Top Gear marathon.

Yes, I have lost my mind and spent an assload on actually getting the Fanatec CSR Wheel, shifter, and Elite Pedals like in this picture (not mine pictured, but I have the same set up, including the stand). Although, I did sell off a few nice knives to fund this purchase... The game looks and feels fantastic. I must admit the collaboration / co-branding with Top Gear has pushed me over the edge with getting stuff for this game. Also, the fact that they support true H pattern shifter, is why I got it. Flappy Paddles and Sequential shifter is there as well. The amazing Auto Vista mode (a spin around the car gallery tour, with a feature narration by Jeremy Clarkson), and the featured Top Gear test track. You can even race it by yourself (Hot Lap mode) in the Kia cee'd to see how you stack up as a Star in a Reasonably Priced Car. (Oh, man, it's a lot harder than I thought, the Hammerhead is a real challenge). -Ed

Gunplay is much much better with BF3 vs. COD. Especially compared to Black Ops. The feel of the guns, the sights, optics. And most of all, the sound. The sounds are much more realistic and very close to what they actually sound like, unlike COD MW where they mostly sound really really fake. Also, the recoil in Black Ops is completely off. I've shot the MP5 full auto before, and it does not recoil at all like what they have in the game. It's like the COD developers never bothered to do any research whatsoever. The most amazing part of Battlefield is the sound as well as the graphics. The sound of bullets cracking and zinging past you is really crazy intense, and you can really tell how far and what direction gun fire is in the game. Also, indoor vs. outdoor sounds different as well, as they do in real life. I was really impressed with how they dealt with suppressors (note, not "silencers", there are no such thing). They are anything but silent, but are quieter and a lot more difficult to tell where the shots are coming from, along with suppressing the muzzle flash, which makes it difficult to see where they are shooting from. The big complaint I have is that you can't hear foot steps at all, not even when it's dead quiet and someone's running at you. Most of the time, they make almost no noise. But when someone is crawling in the prone position, they do make a lot of noise with gun and equipment clanking together, which I guess they did on purpose to make it more obvious when someone is camping in the prone position. I'll have to say this game is my favorite in regards to Audio Quality. Unfortunately, PC's have multichannel audio ass backwards. In order to get SPDIF passthrough for Dolby Digital or DTS, I have to get a specialized sound card with a real time encoding Dolby Digital Live or DTS Connect. Which eats up some computing power and adds more complexity to a computer set up. This retarded and redundant method of getting digital output to have available for an external Home Theater multichannel audio to decode has been around for more than 10 years, and apparently has not changed at all. Sigh, so it's almost like PC gaming has changed little since I stopped playing games on the computer more than 10 years ago. People still type instead of using headsets in FPS games, and no native surround sound digital output for use with a Home Theater system. I'm still expected to play with crappy "gaming headphones" at a workstation set up with a small LCD. Ironic since a gaming PC costs a LOT more than an XBox 360. -Ed

Yeah, Origin is trying to be like Steam. When you download and register the Key with Origin, it will forever be linked to that Origin account. So when you reinstall Origin, you can re-download again. There's basically no point in having the physical disc version of the game, since you need to play through Origin anyways. Except with the disc, you might have to have it in the disc drive with an annoying disc check every time you launch the game. I would recommend installing Origin on an Internet browser you don't use, since they are probably going to still spy on browser activity, despite all the negative publicity they got about that "feature". -Ed

A little late to this thread, but I'm heavily into gaming and virtual surround sound headphone gaming. My favorite so far is Battlefield 3. Hands down the best audio in games so far. They render all audio internally at 32bit floating point. And they took the time to sample actual weapons fire at different distances and environments. And you can really hear the difference. http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2011/02/28/war-tapes-the-sounds-of-battlefield-3.aspx I've used the Astro A40 gaming headset before, but the audio quality was lacking because, I like most Head-Casers here have overkill headphones compared to "gaming headphones". I ended up attaching a Zalman clip on microphone to a long bendy pipe cleaner and attach it to my HifiMan HE-6 when I play games to chat. For virtual surround sound, I used to use my Smyth Research Realiser, but mainly use my JVC / Victor SU-DH1 with it's Dolby Headphone encoding. Takes an optical input directly from the XBox 360. Basically, if it's not an HRTF based processing for virtual surround sound, I don't even bother checking it out. Having multiple speakers spaced a few inches apart inside a headphone ear cup is not going to magically make virtual speakers appear several feet in front of you. Now for surround sound gaming on PC platform is another messy topic. Very retarded, not home theater friendly. I can' t believe they haven't made significant progress in over 10 years. -Ed

Anyone try the Beta? I liked it a lot, despite the bugs. They did fix a lot of them during the Beta, so they were certainly working their asses off at DICE. I played the XBox 360 version, but the frame rate is too slow, 30fps and slower sometimes. I really want that silky smooth 60fps. Also the PC version looks soooooo much better. I've loved Battlefield since the original 1942 and BF2. I've not been a fan of the Consoled Bad Company versions, though. BTW, the PC Download version is for sale at Amazon for $42. http://www.amazon.com/Battlefield-3-Limited-Edition-Download/dp/B005Q47M56/ref=dsvrt_myd_asin_block We can get a Head-Case squad going as well. BTW, both the Physical disc and Download versions require Origin to play, which is essentially a browser tool bar. I intend to install it on an internet browser I don't use (like MS Internet Explorer) since EA will spy on cookies in that browser. But I'll be using Firefox and Chrome for actual internet browsing, haha. Of course, now I'll have to look into upgrading my Video and Sound Card if I want to play on the PC. I want to play at maxed out settings. -Ed

I've held off on getting a dedicated SatNav unit. Until now. http://www.tomtom.com/en_us/products/car-navigation/top-gear-edition/

Quite a bargain on the hybrid SACD of Gilbert Kaplan and the Vienna Philharmonic version. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00009Y30W/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&m=A96CQQZGK78UG If you have a SACD player and like Mahler, don't think, buy it! There are only 3 left as of this posting. It's sold by Newbury Comics and fulfilled by Amazon, so Prime shipping applies if you're a member. Normally, when I've bought from 3rd party sellers, they can't tell the difference between a SACD and regular redbook audio CD. But in this case, I got the real deal SACD version. And I can confirm it's 5.1 multichannel. I have the Ivan Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra SACD, and the Kaplan one is much much better performance. -Ed

Yes, he just finished processing the pics as I type this post. Including the inferno engulfing the steaks before the Baconing. The bacon grease goodness is cooling down, almost ready to pour it into a jar to save for future cooking. Mmmmm. Lardy goodness.

Holy shit. I have a new favorite dessert. I would never have thought chocolate and bacon would go together so well.....

Peter's visiting, so we got some prime NY strip steaks from Costco and grilled them on my Big Steel Keg. I have a perfect system for a much faster cook. Using a "Spider" lowering ring with a Big Green Egg 15" Cast Iron grid. Then moving it to a raised grid with diffuser underneath for the finishing cook. Awesome char, and perfectly even doneness. I ended up getting a Thermapen since it's so much faster to read temps, making it easier to cook different doneness for everyone. Cooked 4 steaks at once this time. Then after the steaks were done, tossed some corn on the raised grid. Then removed the grid and cooked up some bacon while I was having the grill cool down. (takes forever to cool down even with the vents shut down completely). And of course I cooked up two batches of bacon. One we all ate right away. The other was for dessert. Chocolate covered bacon. It's cooling in the freezer right now. I blame Grahame and Peter. I'm really curious as to how it will turn out.

Happy Birthday, Tyll!

Aw, already over. Kind of a meh last episode. Hopefully they'll have a special episode as well.

ROFL, the Jag Train had me in stitches.