Civic Reborn

The new "whip" has arrived in my driveway. For the past couple of years, I had been eyeing Jettas and Mazda3s. My 9 year old Korean vehicle was starting to cost more in repairs (and downtime) than I preferred, so it was time to go shopping. Luckily, Honda had some aggressive plans up its sleeve, and they were dished up just in time.

They really changed the Civic for 2006. I'm not talking about a couple of body panels and a sprinkle more horsepower. With the introduction of the Honda Fit as the new entry-level car, it's as if they want to keep the Civic targetted at the same people who bought one years ago. In other words, it also grew up. It has now become a refined, possibly even classy, sedan or sport coupe.

While I love the way it looks on the outside, the interior makes me giddy. Let me say now that I love technology, I love science fiction, and I love video games. The new Civic delivers! All of the smart technology is there, from full side airbags down to an audio input jack for your MP3 player. The Civic EX comes standard with ignition-killing transponder keys, which only allow the vehicle to start if a code is sent from your key to the car. This should slow down a casual thief, who you might even catch red-handed if you install LoJack like I did. That brings us to Science Fiction, which makes its entry with the voice controlled navigation system, which, once you use, you realize all cars should have. One can choose a male voice instead of the standard female voice for feedback and directions, but one would have to be insane (or maybe a girl.. heh).

And video games? This thing is fun, fun, fun to drive. From the rice-rocket-tight suspension with a smoothed out ride, to the digital dash readouts which you easily adjust to in about 10 minutes, to the slightly smaller steering wheel which does something for the sport-feel but I don't really know what yet, I am enjoying every second in this vehicle.

The math also worked out with this car. It gets an EPA estimated 40 mpg highway, 30 mpg city, even though the new engine pumps out 140 horses. It qualifies as a ULEV vehicle (Ultra-Low Emissions), which rocks! I finally had to fill it up and calculated my first tank of gas at 30.11 mpg, which is pretty good for the beginning of the break-in period. I tested and bought the car with 20 miles on it, and I plan to drive nicely for at least the first 1000.

So far, the new 2006 Civic is a serious winner. Mine was built in Canada, and there have been a few reports of problems with Civics from that plant, but none have shown up on mine. I know 'Navi' Civics are not staying on dealer lots for more than a few days at a time, so this car is not very old, and they may have worked things out by now.

If you are planing to buy something nice yet fun in the $16k-$21k range, you need to go check out the new Civic. It's a little smarter than the Mazda3 and a little less expensive than the fancy new Jetta. It might be just right for you too.

Review: Mackie Onyx 400F

Miracle of miracles, the Mackie Onyx 400F audio interface is finally in stock, as of December 6!

I've been using a MOTU Traveler since trying to buy the Mackie for my new studio rig in May of this year. It has been solid with the G5 and Logic 7.1. But I'm still going to try the Mackie because the Traveler has more options than I need, and the Mackie has the potential to sound even better with its Onyx pre-amps and AKM converters.

I'll update this as I go...

My original setup had AES/EBU digital (XLR jacks) running between my DAT deck and Digidesign 888/24 interface. The MOTU Traveler also had AES/EBU so that was easy. The Mackie 400F has coaxial S/PDIF, so I had to run some new cables behind the desk. The DAT deck has optical S/PDIF, but my trusty old Midiman CO2 converter now has a job again.

The Mackie powered up fine, with an apt Christmasy display of its green LEDs. I turned it off just now, while I boot up the G5 and uninstall the MOTU Firewire drivers. I don't want them interfering with the 400F, just in case.

It seems I have one of the earlier CDs which mistakenly didn't include the Mac software. So I'm off to Mackie.com to download...

All installed, and the 400F is working perfectly. It sounds fantastic. There has been some talk on forums about the high-end sounding "brittle," but I have a feeling this is a misconception based on something beyond the listener's control, like ear fatigue or bad monitors. The high-end is not brittle. If anything, it is stunningly crystal clear. I fired up Logic 7.1.1, set it to 192KHz, and launched an FM synthesizer plug-in. Clean!

My unit does emit a high-frequency whine, but it is extremely faint. I didn't even notice until I read about it online.

The 400F also includes Tracktion 2 and a suite of VST plug-ins. While fully WinXP and OS X compatible, these plug-ins are unfortunately not available in AU format, nor do they seem to work properly with FXpansion's VST-AU wrapper (which is unusual). I hope they release proper AU plug-ins at some point, since these plugs do look interesting.

A strange detail emerged when I ran a loopback test to determine recording delay. Let me first state that latency feels very good on the 400F, at least as good as the MOTU Traveler. In other words, I can play virtual synths on a MIDI keyboard and the sound doesn't seem to "lag" behind my playing. But while the MOTU had a universal recording delay of only 64 samples, the 400F first tested at around 2540 samples. When I adjusted some forgotten settings in an attempt to improve this number, it actually went up, as high as 6000 samples even after restarting Logic. I finally rebooted the entire machine and testing was steady at 2544 samples. To be clear, this is not the amount of latency or delay of a live signal, but the offset at which Logic "prints" your audio after a live recording. I'll take a guess that the large number is related to the native CoreAudio support from OS X. I also have the 400F on a Firewire PCI card, instead of the built-in ports. Whatever the reason, I now have my Recording Delay set to -2544 in Logic 7.1.1, OS X 10.4.3, running on a Dual G5 2.7, and audio prints dead on target.

All in all, the Onyx 400F is a fantastic value in this price range. It's a keeper.

Review: Tapco S8 Active Monitors

Imaging is impressive on the S8. I've mixed on NS10's, JBL 4208 and 4312, and various Genelec and Tannoy models. The S8 is not as pretty as the Genelec, but I prefer it that way. Some Tannoy monitors, especially the older concentric units, are cleaner than the S8 but not by much.

Build quality is excellent, too. These are heavy, solid beasts. I'm sure there are seams on the cabinets, but we couldn't find them. They are also good looking, much more dark and aggressive than photos can relate. Overall, we have no complaints at all, especially at this price.

This is what's so great about the S8: They are an astounding value. They will definitely show you what is right or wrong with your mix, and do so better than anything else in its class at high or low volume (yes, that is an option no one ever talks about). I had read some reports about bass power problems, but I believe they perform much better in an actual studio/room rather than in a store showroom where sales-staff have likely cranked the back-panel bass option beyond reason.

If you have a chance to listen before you buy, you should. If not, search online for reviews and comparison shootouts. The S8's are a solid investment for anyone shopping in this range.

http://www.tapcoworld.com/products/s8/index.html

UPDATE January 2008: It looks like the Tapco S8 and S5 might be on their way out, replaced by the Mackie MR Series Studio Monitors, due out next month. They have similar specs, price, and an even nicer, more minimalist Mackie aesthetic.

http://www.mackie.com/products/mrseries/splash.html

Review: Dell 2405FPW LCD Display

The nice thing about a review of this large LCD panel is that I don't need to say much. I bought it to use as a computer display (see other uses below). I plugged it into the PowerBook via DVI when it first arrived, and it sprung to life at full 1920 x 1200 resolution immediately. I temporarily used it on my 5-year-old G4 with a graphics card which could only manage 1280 x 1024 pixels. The display had options to fully stretch that signal to fill the screen, stretch it proportionally and pillarbox, or simply show it 1:1 with black on all borders. I chose the latter for top quality.

And now on the new G5 with a phat graphics card, it continues to kick ass. Once or twice on the G4 while rebooting, the Dell seemed to get confused when the video signal went away briefly. A simple power cycle fixed that. But on the G5, the Dell 2405 seems perfectly comfortable. They do their handshaking as if they were meant for each other. Standards are good. The Dell even falls asleep when the G5 tells it so.

Quality-wise, the Dell is very good. In fact, I would have said "excellent" but I just got a new 20" iMac G5 in as an admin machine, and it has the best display I've ever seen. To compare, the Dell has great whites, but the iMac is slightly better. After spending some time on the Dell, it's not much different coming back to the iMac, but you can tell it's just a little more balanced (maybe better blue, where the Dell either seems to have too much or not enough). I could probably run the same calibration tools on both and get them even closer. But that would still leave an interesting effect I notice at close range: The pixels on the iMac are crisp, while the Dell's have a slight glow about them. Again, I wouldn't even have noticed without having them side by side. Some people might even like the Dell's glow/blur, as it can make text and graphics look less blocky at small sizes. Personally, I prefer to see what I'm doing, but again, it's not a huge difference between the two.

The 2405 features DVI and VGA inputs for computers, as well as composite, S-Video and component connectors for video. I tried connecting a DVD player with both S-Video and component cables, but the result was a highly distorted picture in both cases. This was a Philips 727, which can output interlaced and progressive video. No matter what I did, it wasn't useable.

A Motorola 6200 HD cable box with DVI output was different, but not better. A tiny version of its output would display on the 2405 then go blank. I'm guessing this was some sort of copy protection, but that would be pretty damned lame if I can't even watch the show in the first place, let alone dupe it. What ever happened to one generation allowance schemes like SCMS on DAT tapes? There was definitely some "talking" back and forth, since I had to do a defaults reset before the cable box would again work with my HDTV and ReplayTV properly. This was a fun, though unsuccessful sidetrack for me. Your mileage may vary.

If you do plan to use the 2405 on a Mac or as a TV display, you obviously won't use the included Windows driver. But that does come with one limitation: The normal setup menu accessed by the display's on-board controls doesn't offer brightness adjustment. Never fear, a trick is nigh: Instead of starting with the Enter button, hit - (minus). This will pop up a mini brightness menu. Easy like pie. And as you can see in the photo above, OS X 10.4 or later even supports screen pivot on many native graphics cards.

I still haven't had a chance to try the flash media card slots on the side of the 2405, or the built-in USB 2.0 hub. I'll try to update this entry or leave an extra comment if/when I get the chance.

Recently, I've seen killer deals on the Dell 2405FPW pop up again. If you can pick it up for near $800, it's a no-brainer. Like I said when it arrived, even at the normal $1200 MSRP, this thing is the best deal out there by a wide margin. Get it? Wide..

And I don't even notice the Dell logo when I'm using it.

Review: Sonnet Allegro Firewire PCI Card

I purchased this card to pamper a Firewire audio interface, which it does well, leaving my native Firewire ports for other things like hard drives, iPods, etc.

Installation was zero effort. Just open up the computer and pop it into an empty PCI slot. Mac OS X 10.4.1 requires no drivers. The ports simply show up as standard Firewire, not even some stepchild class sub-set, just Firewire. Can't ask for more.

But you do get a little more. My audio interface has many power options: Firewire bus power, portable battery power, or AC adapter. Since I was switching to a PCI solution, I thought I'd need to start using the AC adapter. But the Allegro FW400A supplies sufficient bus power to run a MOTU Traveler! I didn't even realize this until after I'd spent a day working with it, then noticed the AC adapter was still sitting in the box. I hadn't expected this since the card has no option to connect hard drive style power leads inside the computer. Apparently, this is not necessary, at least for certain devices. The audio interface seems perfectly happy. It continues to run without a single hitch at low latency (64 samples).

Note: The original Allegro FW400 card did not support the Power Mac G5 motherboard. So be sure to get the newer Allegro FW400A. This is the model reviewed here, and it is working perfectly in a new Dual 2.7 G5 Power Mac.

Highly recommended, especially when a good Firewire hub costs nearly twice as much, but your devices would still be sharing one bus.

Love, Angel, Music, Baby

(aka LAMB)

Wow! I haven't liked a pop album all year, and I was tired of being negative on new releases. But Gwen Stefani's new album is great from many perspectives. Of course, if you don't like Gwen, this won't magically seduce you, so feel free to skip it. Yay freedom!

The songs have great melodies and interesting vocals. The production is different from anything out there right now, and a lot of it distills the best elements from the 80's. New Order and Freestyle fans will find a few interesting tracks near the end of the album, including guest appearances by Bernard Sumner and Peter Hook. This is not just another No Doubt CD, it's a very cool electronic project with great songs and a kick-ass vocalist.

Technically, the album is outstanding. The mixes are huge and incredibly present, but still natural sounding. I think this has something to do with the purity of Gwen's voice being easy to mix above the usual problems of mid-range crowding, and it has already given me new ideas. The mastering is jaw-dropping, and much-appreciated by someone like me who does the occasional final processing. The ability to maintain such clarity and bass, while pumping the signal so hot, is a serious talent. There is only some occasional distortion in hot moments, but it's good ol' pleasant crunch. Brian "Big Bass" Gardner at Bernie Grundman Mastering deserves his title.

Definitely worth picking up on sale for under $10 or on iTunes for $9.99. I wish there were a few more photos of the lovely Gwenifer, and some have been disappointed that the lyrics aren't as allegorical as some No Doubt odysseys, but I guess you can't have everything. I think it's just what I needed right about now.

Beware Etronics.com

I purchased a cordless phone from Etronics.com in October 2001. My purchase arrived with scratches and smudges, and worse, no manuals or warranty info. I managed to clean it up, as I would any refurb, since it was a really good refurb price (about 55% of original MSRP). Their prices on other items seem just average.

When I finally reached them the first time, they claimed that they don't sell refurbished products. I took them at their word. All I really wanted was the user manual and warranty. Easy!

Dear Mr. Gutierrez:

Thank you for your e-mail correspondence. We apologize for the condition in which you received your merchandise. We do not sell used or refurbished merchandise, so I'm not sure why there would be scratches on the unit. In any case, we will be sending the manual and any other paperwork right away per your request, and we apologize for any inconvenience.

If you have any further questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us again.

Susan
Etronics.com
Customer Service
(800) 541-1490

Everything was cool, they were going to send it right away. Weeks pass. Nothing.

I contact them again, and on January 2 receive this glorious example of English:

HI
I do apologize about the inconvenience this might have cause you
I will have the order send again to the warehouse and have them shipped the missing stuff to you immediately


Happy Holidays

Leo Landau
www.etronics.com
212-475-2450 x 2219 / 1-800-323-7669 x 2219

When I contacted them on January 23, the true nature of Etronics "customer service" became apparent. The attitude at this company is not about helping people, it is about protecting the company.

Hello,
At this time the order number that you have provided for us in invalid. If you have a number beginning with a 3 that would enable us to assist you better.
If you have any further questions or comments, feel free to contact us at any time.
Regards,
Philip

I offer to scan the invoice, to which Philip replies "We do apologize for the misunderstanding. Your order should be shipping out shortly, we are sorry for the extensive delay." Meanwhile, the different phone numbers listed in the emails above rang and rang, without a single pickup.

After several more weeks, I finally reported Supreme Video (dba ETRONICS) to the BBB and in March 2002, Sandy at Etronics miraculously managed to "find" a manual for the phone and sent it to me. Then the spam started up and I had to drop that email address.

It's no major monetary loss, of course. But the principle here should be a serious warning, especially if you're going to spend more than I did. Note: the shipping charges came to $19 for UPS Ground, on a 2 lb. box. Factor that in while shopping, if you think you've found a good price.

Review: Sony SPP-ID975 900 MHz Phone

After reading some reviews here and there, I was hesitant. My old Sony ID910 was having its own problems, with the LCD losing entire rows of pixels. But I loved it otherwise, and still wanted a 900 MHz phone which wouldn't interfere with my 2.4 GHz 802.11b computer network. The ID910 always had great range, the digital 900 MHz quality was great, I wanted a speakerphone, and I needed Caller ID. The ID975 was one of few choices.

Thank goodness! I haven't had any problems with battery life, scrambled directory entries, or reliability. The range is at least as good as the ID910, and it still charges an extra battery (the same T23) in the base. Best of all, it improves many annoyances of the ID910: The handset is much lighter. The 3-line LCD display shows both the Caller ID title and number, so you can try to figure out who it is even if Caller ID doesn't know. The jog wheel makes a user manual completely redundant - I've never even looked at the paperwork, but had no problems entering speed dial numbers or changing the ringer. There are two bright red LEDs on the base unit which indicate if someone has called, and if you have any messages (I'm guessing it listens for a stuttering dial tone when you're not on the line).

All is not perfect, however. Where the ID910 handset had no real external antenna, the 3-inch extra at the top of the ID975's handset is a step backward. The extra battery charging in the base unit cannot power the base unit during an outage, as the ID910's could. And while the New Call and Message LEDs on the base are very nice, there is no indication on the handset of either. Sony still won't let us control the volume of the ringer. It's either style 1-4 or off (0). But these are minor issues.

Overall, I'm very happy with this phone. I hope I don't need a new one until cordless phones and WiFi are no longer competing for the same frequency space. With 2.4 GHz phones becoming popular, good digital 900 MHz phones (most are analog) are becoming hard to find!

Review: Rendezvous with Rama

Arthur C Clarke is my favorite author, and the Rama series is my favorite from him. This universe is his most ambitious, and there is a lot of 'brain candy' to absorb.

I loaned the first book (Rendezvous with Rama is the first of 4) to a friend who talked me into reading Tolkein and Chung Kuo, and he bought the rest himself. He loved it.

Even better, Morgan Freeman has the movie rights to the books and has brought in David Fincher to direct it properly. While this is great news, do yourself a favor: read the books before you see the movie.

There's no way they'll be able to cover all the details. I can only hope mainstream audiences will appreciate it.

Review: Labtec Pulse 424 2.1 Speakers

I have a Monsoon flat panel system at home, but wanted to get something inexpensive for the office. After reading a couple of glowing reviews here and elsewhere, the Pulse was on its way. I didn't expect much, as my first computer speakers in 1995 were Labtecs and definitely sounded like they were cheap. The box arrived well-packed. Installation was a no brainer.

Wow! These things sound enormous. Unreal Tournament is a whole new game. And they make well-mixed music sound even better (try Bootylicious by Destiny's Child - I didn't really like the song until now). The Monsoons do have a bit more clarity at very loud levels, but the Labtec Pulse has this great warmth that is very appealing. The subwoofer is strong and very well matched to the satellites. Crossover point seems perfect.

Labtec has come a long way in six years. Highly recommended.