Dag 1180: Let the happiness in

My life seems to be getting more and more involved in music these days, which is a good thing, but unfortunatley, it is mostly listening to music rather than making it as I just never seem to get time for the latter these days.

My iPod died a month or so ago, but as I had managed to wangle a new W880i, which comes with a gig of memory, out of my mobile phone provider, I have started listening to music on that until I can afford to buy a new iPod. The sound seems noticably better than it was on my old The headphone I had been using were pretty cheap ones I had picked up from Edinburgh airport some years ago as I don't like using the in ear type that come with an iPod. I noticed that the sound from the W880i was far superior to my previous phone and as my headphones were beginning to fall apart I thought I might inverst in a new pair.

I had once tried on a pair of noise cancelling Bose headphones when I was working in Scotland and was amazed at how they much were able to reduce the background office noise. I thought it would be great to get some of those but they just cost so much that I thought I might get some noise cancelling headphones by a cheaper brand instead. I read a few reviews and it seemed that although I could get some for under £100 I shouldn't expect them to work as well as the Bose ones.

So one lunchtime last week I headed out to Richer Sounds to see what they had. On the way there I passed a Bose store and thought I may as well just pop in and see if they had some special one off offer on that meant I could get their noise cancelling headphones at a greatly reduced price. I found that not only did they have the noise cancelling headphones on display (unfortunately only at full price), but they also had 3 models of non noise cancelling headphones - and these were within my price range. The 3 models were in-ear, on-ear and around-ear and each (apart from the on ear model) was hooked up to an iPod so they could be tried out. First I tried on the noise cancelling ones, but the iPod only had a Michael Jackson CD on it so that reduced the value of any test I could do. I then tried the over ear ones and the iPod they were attached to was pretty full of all sorts of music. It actually took me longer to choose what I was going to listen to listen to than I spent listening to it. The sound quality was excellent, but I felt these headphones were too big to wear on the train or when walking through town. The on ear ones were a better size but I couldn't listen to anything with them. I decided that I had originally set out to get some noise reducing headphones from Richer Sounds so I headed of to see what they had to offer.

When I got there I saw that all the headphones were up on racks behind the counter so they couldn't be looked at without having to look around the staff which means you are bound to get one trying to help you sir. I wanted to be able to have a good look in peace. Also, as the headphones were all sealed in their boxes it meant that I couldn't try them out or get a feel for how comfortable they might be. I spent a bit of time looking at the Cd players and speakers while deciding whether I wanted to go up and look at the headphones or not. I was feeling that the sound of the Bose ones was so good that maybe I should just go back there, but then I remembered that I had originally intended to get some noise cancelling ones so I bit the bullet and went up to the counter.

I couldn't see any noise cancelling headphones on the rack and then came the inevitable "Can I help you sir". I asked if they had any noise cancelling headphones. He said he didn't think so, but checked on the computer and then said they should have 1 pair in stock but they must be in the back, so off he went to look for them.

While I was waiting a guy came in with a pair of headphones and handed them over to one of the other guys behind the counter. He explained that he had bought them one month ago and the sound crackled so what were they going to do about it. He handed the headphones over. I looked at them and was astounded to see that the whole length of the wire was filled with knots and some of the knots were themselves made up of knots. It looked a right old mess.

The conversation then went roughly as follows:

Guy behind counter: "Can I help you?"
Customer (handing over a set of headphones): "I bought these from you a month ago and the sound has become really crackly. I expected them to last longer than this."
Guy behind counter: "I can see exactly what is causing the problem - it's all these knots. Audio cable isn't designed to be treated like this and it causes the wire inside to break over time."
Customer: "So what are you saying?"
Guy behind counter: "You shouldn't have let the cable get into this state. This is what has caused the crackly sound."
Customer: "I didn't know that. Can you replace them?"
Guy behind counter: "I'm afraid this can't be classified as damage through normal wear and tear."
Customer: "So what are you saying mate - are you not going to exchange them?"
Guy behind counter: "We can only really exchange things that are damaged by normal wear and tear. All these knots ain't normal wear and tear mate".
Customer: "Yeah but mate no one told me that you shouldn't let them get knots in them".
Guy behind counter: "We don't mention that fact as normal policy when we sell headphones. How did they get like that?"
Customer: "I don't know that just got like this."
Guy behind counter: "Sorry, but there isn't really anything that we can do."
Customer: "But mate how can you say that. I didn't know that I shouldn't let them get like that."
Guy behind counter: "But mate you've got to see that this isn't just normal wear and tear. I don't see how they could have got like this in only one month."
Customer: "What are you saying mate? Are you saying you don't believe me."
Guy behind counter: "No mate, but I can't exchange these as this is not normal wear an tear."
Customer: "What are you saying mate? Are you saying that you're not going to do anything?"
Guy behind counter: "Mate, you could try sending them back to Senheisser to see if they will do anything, but I doubt they will as this is purely down to them not being looked after properly."
Customer: "So what are you saying mate? I appreciate about the knots, but no one told me that I shouldn't let the knots get in there when I bought it so I didn't know that it would damage the cable."
Guy behind counter (still managing to sound incredibly calm and collected): "But mate, really each time you saw that a knot had got into the cable you should have undone it to prevent it getting in this state."
Customer: "So what are you saying mate? Are you saying that if I had undone all the knots outside the shop before I brought it in then you would have replaced it?"
Guy behind counter: "Mate, I can see what condition they are in and I know that it is these knots that have caused the sound to become crackly."

During this conversation the guy behind the counter was staying very calm. I was very impressed with how he was handling the customer and he is a credit to Richer Sounds. I, on the other hand, was getting more and more stressed.
Who in their right mind would let their headphone cable get into that state and still expect them to work? Presumably the fact that this guy is still alive is purely because someone told him to "make sure you keep breathing and eat and drink occassionally" early on in his life.

At this point the guy looking for the headphones for me came back. He hadn't found them so I said I would call back next week and headed back to the Bose shop and purchased the on-ear headphones, despite the fact that I hadn't been able to hear a demo of them. The price was £20 more than the over ear ones so I thought they had to be at least as good.

I got back to the office and tried them out and the sound was incredible. It seems to make all the instruments have their own space in the mix and the bass is one of the best I have heard on a pair of headphones. In fact the best way of describing them is to say they are addictive - I just want to listen to music through them the whole time.

One of the first things I listened to on them was Smile's OK by The Hope Blister. This is a pretty high quality recording anyway and it sounded so good through these headphones that I became very anti-social at work and listened to it over and over again. One of my favourite tracks is called "Only Human" and it was originally recorded by Heidi Berry, who sang "Till I gain control again" on the This Mortal Coil album Blood. I had been aware that she had recorded some albums on 4AD but never heard any of them, but now I really wanted to hear the original version of "Only Human" through my new headphones.

The next lunchtime I trawled round all the record shops in Leeds but couldn't find any of her CDs so I had a look on amazon. The only one that seemed to be available new was Pomegranate (an anthology which includes Only Human), but it had a 6 to 9 days delivery. I ordered it along with Singularity by Peter Hammill and in order to keep me busy while I waited for these to arrive I went back into Leeds and bought the newly remastered version of Secondhand Daylight by Magazine along with a remastered Secrets of the Beehive by David Sylvian (which contains the track Let the Happiness In, also covered by The Hope Blister on Smile's OK). I have been listening to these 2 alot while awaiting my CDs from amazon. I had forgotten just how good Secondhand Daylight is and the David Sylvian album is great to listen to on these headphones as it is such a high quality recording. I hadn't heard this before and comparing the original version of Let the Happiness In with the Hope Blister version just shows how talented the peple invoved with the This Mortal Coil and Hope Blister projects are when it comes to arranging covers of other peoples songs. I pressume that Ivo Watts-Russell is the one who would take most of the credit for this.

The CDs from amazon have now arrived and I chose to listen to the Heidi Berry CD first as it was the one I had most been anticipating. The outcome of this is that I still haven't listened to the Peter Hammill CD (or anything else) since I listened to Pomegranite.

This is currently the my all time favourite CD of all time and I am sure it is going to remain in my top CDs list for the rest of my life. Her songs have a bit of a folky edge to them, and in some ways they remind me of Sandy Denny, who was one of my favourite singers in my youth. However, I certainly wouldn't class her as purely a folk singer/songwriter by any stretch of the imagination. Her voice is both beautiful and mournful and the songs themself are at times melancholic but uplifting and full of emotion. These songs are all over 10 years old, but have a timeless quality about them and sound like they could have been just recorded. In many ways they make me think of my youth, but I don't really know why.

It was interesting hearing the original version of Only Human as The Hope Blister had changed the lyrics around so they were directed at the singer, whereas in the original version the subject of the lyrics is somebody else. This is the only song on the CD to consist of piano and vocals - all the other tracks have a greater number of instruments involved. The tracks that so far stand out as the best are Northern Train (one of the greatest songs I have ever heard), Only Human, Mercury, Time and Follow, though there is not a weak song on the whole CD.

I now wish that I had sought her music out when it first came out so I could have had the chance to see her perform live. Looking at her website I see that she is currently teaching courses in songwriting in Brighton. I feel very jealous of people living in Brighton now as I would love to attend one of her courses, but it would be a bit of a commute from Yorkshire.