If you’ve paid any attention to my recent posts you’ll have noticed I often refer to my "Bose noise-cancelling ear buds".
Bose QuietComfort® 20 Acoustic Noise Cancelling® headphones
These mentions aren’t merely brags that I was willing to spring for that name brand. They’re very much testimonial as to how really well the Bose QuietComfort 20 Acoustic Noise Cancelling headphones work. They seem all but perfect for air travel, where their effectiveness is essentially absolute. They are excellent at suppressing most noise that's of a monotonous, droning nature, including a lot of background conversation. And they work pretty well, to a varying degree, in many situations where ambient noise is more unpredictable and thus more difficult to damp out.
The Bose earbuds really shine in comparison to Sony products I’ve used. A set of Sony on-ear headphones with active noise cancellation I sometimes use in my home office provides a degree of effective suppression, but under any conditions the Bose system is always orders of magnitude better.
As for the wireless Sony earbuds I bought early this year – well those were a complete waste of money. They’re almost entirely ineffective at dealing with the roar of my home air conditioning system, and utterly useless at cancelling lawn mowers and leaf blowers – all of which the Bose handles with aplomb. And even if the Sony units had been effective, they still would not have fulfilled my need to combat wind noise while I’m riding my motorcycle; they’re simply too large and clunky. I used them in my helmet just a couple of times. They started out painful and after a short time became excruciating.
The Bose earbuds really shine in comparison to Sony products I’ve used. A set of Sony on-ear headphones with active noise cancellation I sometimes use in my home office provides a degree of effective suppression, but under any conditions the Bose system is always orders of magnitude better.
As for the wireless Sony earbuds I bought early this year – well those were a complete waste of money. They’re almost entirely ineffective at dealing with the roar of my home air conditioning system, and utterly useless at cancelling lawn mowers and leaf blowers – all of which the Bose handles with aplomb. And even if the Sony units had been effective, they still would not have fulfilled my need to combat wind noise while I’m riding my motorcycle; they’re simply too large and clunky. I used them in my helmet just a couple of times. They started out painful and after a short time became excruciating.
Sony WF-1000XM3
By contrast, at sub-freeway speeds the Bose earbuds do a better job of cancelling wind noise than any passive earplugs I’ve ever used.
In my latest helmet, a Schuberth C3 Lite for which reduced wind noise was a primary design objective, they do quite well and render music that (despite a residual level of wind noise and the occasional digital hiccup) is arguably hi-fi. The earpieces are fairly compact and streamlined; they slide with surprising ease into the Schuberth, which is still fairly snug after many hours of break-in wear. The buds start out mildly uncomfortable (but then, so do plain old earplugs of any design) and it now takes some hours of continuous use inside a helmet before they become excruciating.
In my latest helmet, a Schuberth C3 Lite for which reduced wind noise was a primary design objective, they do quite well and render music that (despite a residual level of wind noise and the occasional digital hiccup) is arguably hi-fi. The earpieces are fairly compact and streamlined; they slide with surprising ease into the Schuberth, which is still fairly snug after many hours of break-in wear. The buds start out mildly uncomfortable (but then, so do plain old earplugs of any design) and it now takes some hours of continuous use inside a helmet before they become excruciating.
Bose QuietComfort® 20 Acoustic Noise Cancelling® headphones
I should emphasize "sub-freeway speeds"; the Bose system does fail at high speeds and especially if other vehicles or gusty crosswinds are roiling the airstream; its attempt to provide active noise cancellation instead delivers what's best described as "wow and flutter", and the "occasional digital hiccup" morphs into continuous loud tweets and warbles.
It’s also worth mentioning I have an abnormally high tolerance for physical discomfort. This has served me well over the years because motorcycling, especially over long distances, is an activity that quite frequently serves up plenty of twinges and aches and pains and chills and other bothersome conditions, even when nothing technically goes wrong.
All that nets out to: the Bose system has been a real game changer for this riding season… such as it’s been, given the interruptions of COVID-19, mechanical breakdown, and other reasons.
Riding this year has, for the most part, been an occasional Saturday or Sunday morning ride to no particular destination. My route is often determined by how much traffic goes in which direction at any given intersection. I’m not really going anywhere. I’m just looking, in the words of Hunter S. Thompson, “to run a few long curves to clear my head”.
As such, I’m rarely anywhere but within a convoluted network of roads I’ve been riding, in many cases, since before I had a license.
While there’s something to be said for the familiarity and comforting green lushness of a Michigan summer, it’s a far cry from the dramatic mountainscapes that surround the roads I’d prefer to be riding.
So it really helps that, after decades of fruitless attempts to solve the problem, I’ve finally got tunes to assuage the boredom.
But another thing I’ve become bored with is the playlists on my iPod. Don’t get me wrong; they’re superb playlists, full of my very favorite music. Naturally I’ve got uncounted collections of songs bestowed on us mortals by those who inhabit the Pantheon of Rock Goddesses. A particular favorite is Grand Canyon Suite, which I built for my 2014 backpacking trip into that abyss; in the years since it’s proven an ideal sonic background for aimless wandering. Going to California (with an achin' in my butt) is a well-designed soundtrack for my 2017 transcontinental moto-tour; it also works for shorter excursions. I sometimes spin Lost Lake Mix or its sequel Lost Lake Return, which were intended to be something the Boy Scouts in my car wouldn’t consider hopelessly old-mannish.
You’d think they would have recognized and appreciated any of the Weird Al tracks I sprinkled liberally throughout.
Kids these days.
Anyway…
As I implied earlier, I’ve worn the grooves out of all those playlists. So on recent rides I’ve increasingly taken to simply selecting my master library and punching shuffle.
A consequence of this is that the random 2nd Look track pops up. As few of these are of particularly good quality, they aren’t songs I usually – well, ever – add to a defined playlist.
This morning I was riding west on Clarkston Road just past the Clintonville Road curve. It was, as always, a particularly fine morning; I don’t bother with these rides if the weather isn’t perfect.
What came up in my buds but Rockin’ In The Free World, recorded in October 2006 at one of the very first 2nd Look live shows. I’d let a 4 track digital recorder run all night, using borrowed mics that were likely of sub-optimal type and placement. Later I chopped out the best segments of about 30 songs and burned them to a demo disc I entitled 2nd Look – Live at Rob’s Place (show flyer and CD cover photo courtesy Jim Gillette).
It’s also worth mentioning I have an abnormally high tolerance for physical discomfort. This has served me well over the years because motorcycling, especially over long distances, is an activity that quite frequently serves up plenty of twinges and aches and pains and chills and other bothersome conditions, even when nothing technically goes wrong.
All that nets out to: the Bose system has been a real game changer for this riding season… such as it’s been, given the interruptions of COVID-19, mechanical breakdown, and other reasons.
Riding this year has, for the most part, been an occasional Saturday or Sunday morning ride to no particular destination. My route is often determined by how much traffic goes in which direction at any given intersection. I’m not really going anywhere. I’m just looking, in the words of Hunter S. Thompson, “to run a few long curves to clear my head”.
As such, I’m rarely anywhere but within a convoluted network of roads I’ve been riding, in many cases, since before I had a license.
While there’s something to be said for the familiarity and comforting green lushness of a Michigan summer, it’s a far cry from the dramatic mountainscapes that surround the roads I’d prefer to be riding.
So it really helps that, after decades of fruitless attempts to solve the problem, I’ve finally got tunes to assuage the boredom.
But another thing I’ve become bored with is the playlists on my iPod. Don’t get me wrong; they’re superb playlists, full of my very favorite music. Naturally I’ve got uncounted collections of songs bestowed on us mortals by those who inhabit the Pantheon of Rock Goddesses. A particular favorite is Grand Canyon Suite, which I built for my 2014 backpacking trip into that abyss; in the years since it’s proven an ideal sonic background for aimless wandering. Going to California (with an achin' in my butt) is a well-designed soundtrack for my 2017 transcontinental moto-tour; it also works for shorter excursions. I sometimes spin Lost Lake Mix or its sequel Lost Lake Return, which were intended to be something the Boy Scouts in my car wouldn’t consider hopelessly old-mannish.
You’d think they would have recognized and appreciated any of the Weird Al tracks I sprinkled liberally throughout.
Kids these days.
Anyway…
As I implied earlier, I’ve worn the grooves out of all those playlists. So on recent rides I’ve increasingly taken to simply selecting my master library and punching shuffle.
A consequence of this is that the random 2nd Look track pops up. As few of these are of particularly good quality, they aren’t songs I usually – well, ever – add to a defined playlist.
This morning I was riding west on Clarkston Road just past the Clintonville Road curve. It was, as always, a particularly fine morning; I don’t bother with these rides if the weather isn’t perfect.
What came up in my buds but Rockin’ In The Free World, recorded in October 2006 at one of the very first 2nd Look live shows. I’d let a 4 track digital recorder run all night, using borrowed mics that were likely of sub-optimal type and placement. Later I chopped out the best segments of about 30 songs and burned them to a demo disc I entitled 2nd Look – Live at Rob’s Place (show flyer and CD cover photo courtesy Jim Gillette).
What I heard during this morning's ride, for the first time in years, was the end of our final encore.
1:40 of Mark and me belting out the final chorus… Jim’s blistering guitar solo over Mark’s driving drumbeats, Paul’s rhythm guitar, and my bass… a shithouse ending… and finally a sustained, boisterous audience response in which Carl Anderson’s unmistakable voice rises high in the mix.
It made me smile to think it might not be hard (not that anyone should, let alone would ever have a reason) to pass it off as a bootleg of Pearl Jam doing the same damn thing in some Seattle dive.
What do you think?
2nd Look - Live at Rob's Place - Rockin' In The Free World
1:40 of Mark and me belting out the final chorus… Jim’s blistering guitar solo over Mark’s driving drumbeats, Paul’s rhythm guitar, and my bass… a shithouse ending… and finally a sustained, boisterous audience response in which Carl Anderson’s unmistakable voice rises high in the mix.
It made me smile to think it might not be hard (not that anyone should, let alone would ever have a reason) to pass it off as a bootleg of Pearl Jam doing the same damn thing in some Seattle dive.
What do you think?
2nd Look - Live at Rob's Place - Rockin' In The Free World
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