… my favorite headphones …

Today I broke out the soldering iron and fixed (for the fourth time) my favorite pair of headphones – The Optimus Nova 71. Yes, these are Radioshack headphones. I am not insane. I have had many pairs of headphones in my life and I have always ranked these up towards the top. They don’t sound 100% awesome. They are more like 82% awesome. But I enjoy listening to them. They are fun.

I worked selling high end hi-fi for a while (see this post) and had a chance to listen to the high end Sennheiser and Beyer phones. I own a big honkin pair of Sennheiser HD 280 Pros (the 64 ohm model). The 280s are good and pretty clean. They cup your ear so that you are isolated fairly well (good for vocal takes).

The Nova 71’s deliver (at least for the price). When I was working at Radioshack (see this post), they were discontinued and I bought three pair for $6.95 each. One pair went to my buddy Dave. They broke and he threw them away (&*%#@)! I’ve gone through five or six pair and I am down to my last two. Liz uses one pair every day and my pair conked out on me a few weeks ago. Tonight I replaced the cable and it’s good to go.

So if you ever see a lonely pair of Nova 71’s just hanging out somewhere … let me know.