Repaired ...

My Bose speaker broke down at the tail end of last year, right after the warranty expired. Which was a shame. Since then, I was using a smaller Bluetooth Sony speaker, which didn’t carry as hefty a sound.

Last week, I decided to haul the speaker back to the dealer and asked for an estimate for the repair. A week later, I received the call, agreed with the price and I picked up the speaker yesterday night.

And things sounded so much better. Bigger bass, clearer treble and sweeter midrange. It may be because the streaming quality was much better with Spotify but I must say that I was impressed. The only thing was the battery on the remote needed replacing ...

V-Drumming

Idlan had been keen to take-up drumming for a while. He even signed up for classes at school and would be starting lessons in the next few weeks. And I had always been fascinating by drums but the main problem with them was the loud noise they generate!

As a compromise, we went for an electronic drum kit. We had been looking around for one, reading forums and review. It was quite difficult to be able to see and test one in KL. The only shop which allowed us to play around with a kit was in Mid Valley. After a few visits, we finally made up our minds.

It was a Roland rather than a Yamaha.

The set came in with a real foot pedal, as well as fabric snares and toms. This would create a real feedback and bounce so that when Idlan use the normal kit at school, it felt more natural. With your headphones on, the drums played out with minimal noise, although not completely silent.

The package also came with a dedicated speaker, from which drum noise could be generated. It was pretty clear that I would need plenty of practice to be any good at it, and at the current rate, Idlan would be teaching me a trick or two soon ….

Tugu Drum Circle at #Urbanscapes

Usually, as the name suggested, the Tugu Drum Circle do their jamming every Sunday at Tugu Negara. This weekend, the plan changed. They were at Urbanscapes, right in the open at Medan Pasar entertaining the crowd and getting them to join as well.

It worked out great. They got all their equipments laid up on seats arranged in a big circle with the director right in the middle conducting the whole thing. Even those we couldn't drum just followed the interactions and the rest was history.

Getting the place readyEvery instrument was pre-arrangedG-Pro readyTime for a quick briefingIt went on a touch too long I thought with some of the participant already getting tired after around 15 minutes. They did jazz it up though, by playing alternate instruments and just having fun.

The most important guy was the one with the bass drum. He controls the tempo.And they get some of the sections to do a bit of a soloIt attracted a sizeable crowd and yes, there was somebody who started to dance - in a rather suggestive fashion - before being told off by security. On the whole, it was a spectacle. I wonder if my boys - Idlan especially - may be interested.

Taking Shelter

I arrived at Lebuh Ampang quite early. There was a stage already set up but nobody's playing. The comedy show I was waiting to see was some time away. And it threatened to rain.

Time to make a timely escape. Rather than going into the Urbanscapes House, I decided to walk on to Central Market. I parked myself at one of the cage and had some drinks.

Might as well order something for the afternoonI was still there an hour later with the sound of thunder ringing outside. Not the time to go yet. But the owner - a fierce-looking Chinese lady - was giving me the look. She sent her waiter a couple of times to clear my table. Luckily there were a few European visitors occupying the table next to me, and they were still there. I guess I would be pretty safe.

The weather didn't seem to let up. I was practically stuck here as I parked my car at Nu Sentral. I'll give it another 30 minutes before making my move...

A New Pair

My Beats headphone lasted almost three years now and was worn off especially at the ear cups. The connections were also suspect as I could sometime could hear interference when I moved about. Time for a new pair of headphones.

Initially I wanted a Bose. But after some search on the Net, the Audio Technica MT50X got some decent review. And it was reasonably priced as well.

So, I went around looking for a pair around Bukit Bintang yesterday, and tested one. Impressive. No active noise-cancellation like my old Beats, but the sound was good. None of the exaggerated base of the Beats as well. The midtone and vocal sounded super-sharp. I was happy.

The pair I picked up was from the limited edition line, with faux-leather muffs coming with a matching pouch. Slightly more expensive than the standard but not by much. The whole package was less that RM700. Good value I thought since my old Beats cost double that ....