By no means am I an expert audiophile, nor a sound engineer.  I am a gamer and entertainment enthusiast who likes the most realism he can get in sound.   This review is written as such.   If you’re looking for a professional reviewer, look elsewhere.  I will be as objective as possible.

Ever since it was announced last August, I’ve been anticipating the availability of the Creative Labs WoW headset.  Today, I finally received mine.      I ordered mine through Amazon.com on Thursday for a retail of $159.99, and after overnight shipping, it came to $181.95.  Your shipping cost may vary and tax of course, depending on where you live.

So after opening the huge box from Amazon, here’s what I got.

Inside the box, going clockwise from top left we have:  the headset itself,  a storage bag (which has two internal pockets with Velcro to keep them shut, a small flat head screwdriver to pop out and change the lenses (below the screwdriver),  the USB dongle,  a USB charging cable,  a quick-start guide, and the detachable microphone.

Note that there is no driver disk included.  I’m ok with that.  Instead the quick start guide tells you where to download the driver.  That ensures you will always have the latest driver when installing for the first time.   Installation was very simple.  First before I did anything, I plugged in the headset to a free USB port with the charging cable to get that started, like it recommends. (Well, before I did even that, I changed the lenses.  Mine came with the Alliance glyphs installed.  I quickly changed that to Horde.)  Then, after downloading the driver,  I plugged in the USB dongle to another port and did the pairing.  Pairing was easy.  Hold down the connect button for 3 seconds on the headset and release.  The lens should flash blue.  Then press and hold the connect button on the dongle for 3 seconds and release.  The lights should stop flashing then.  After pairing, I installed the driver and then rebooted.  That was it.  All done.

While rebooting, I put them on.  They fit snug, and are very comfortable.  They are a little heavy, but I quickly got used to them.  They cover the ears very well, closing out a lot of outside noise.

So, after that, I went into the Audio Control Panel, and started making adjustments.  First, I set the color of the lenses to red.  They’re cyan by default (or at least it was on mine).  Next I went to the THX section.  There I turned on the various settings.  There are five options:  Crystalizer (Enhance music and movies to make them sound livelier), Surround (Control the level of audio immersion in music, movies, and games), Bass (Enhance the sound quality and bass of any speaker system for a better listening experience), Dialog Plus (Enhance the voices in movies for clearer dialog), and Smart Volume (Adjust the loudness of your audio playback automatically to minimize sudden volume changes) .  I turned them all on, and set them all at middle (50%), which I adjusted later while playing.

Next I checked out Game Audio.  This section allows you to enable VoiceFX (to change your voice) and enable the EQ.  There’s about a dozen presets and you can of course adjust each slider on your own.  It has a few WoW races you can chose from to change your voice to.  I was a tad disappointed there wasn’t a Tauren to chose from, but maybe in a future update (hint hint Creative?).

The last section is for key bindings.  You can set up key bindings to do different things in game with your headset, such as turning on and off the various THX settings, turning on and off RGB color cycling, and so on.  Note that if key binding is enabled,  they will be locked out of other applications.  The warning is also present on the key bindings page.

So, the main reason you’re here is you want to know how they sound.  After all, panels are nice, but sound quality is the key.   Ok, well,  I have to say, I am not disappointed in the least.    I had an eargasm the first time I logged into WoW.  As I walked, I could hear every little sound.  I could litterally hear the grass crunching under my feet.  I could hear the subtleties in the water fountains in Dalaran.  I then went up to Argent Tournament to do a little combat.  I swear, it was like I heard the game correctly for the very first time in the five years I’ve been playing.  I can’t emphasize more how phenomenal this headset sounds.

Now, in game, I had to make a minor change to be able to hear the full 360 degrees of sound.  Under the sound options, I changed it from default sound device to the headset device.  If left to default, I couldn’t hear full surround sound.  That may be because Windows still sees the default headphones as 2 speakers only.

Next, I tested the headset to watch a movie.  I wanted to chose something that would have a lot of sound effects and dialog, so I chose the new Star Trek movie.  I used a Blu-ray version of the movie with Cyberlink PowerDVD 9 Ultra.  After a couple of minor tweaks in the software to make it play 6 speakers rather than 2,  the movie came to life.  Again, sound quality is phenomenal.  I got so engrossed in the sound, I forgot to stop the movie after a few minutes and ended up watching the entire thing.

After the movie, I put in iTunes and played some of my mp3s.  My music library ranges from hard rock, classic rock, classical, jazz, blues, country, metal, and video game soundtracks.  I played a wide range of my music library to get a good eclectic mix.  Again, the sound quality was impressive.

I only have one real complaint about them.  The wireless range doesn’t seem to go very far.  I can go about maybe 20 feet away before they lose signal.  My kitchen is about 50 feet away from my computer, so I can’t go all the way there to get a beer or soda while playing.   Now, your mileage may vary.  My computer is in the corner of my room, so I have to go past a few walls to get to my kitchen.  You may have better range depending on your home’s layout.

The wireless runs on 2.4GHz, but it doesn’t seem to affect my wireless router.  I imagine it was made to be outside of the range of the 2.4Ghz channels that most routers use.

As for the microphone quality, I got onto Skype with a friend and talked for a little while. She was able to hear me very clearly.  I had to bend the microphone slightly to come closer to my mouth.  The noise cancellation works very well.  She said she couldn’t hear any background noise, not even my fan I have running behind me.  I could hear her very clearly as well, better than I ever could with my old headset.   I played with the VoiceFX for a few minutes, which incited a lot of laughter on her part.

Overall, I have to say this headset exceeds every expectation I have had while waiting.  Of course, I will keep playing with it and if anything changes I will certainly let you all know.  I’m not going to give a number rating, because I think those are bs.  Instead of a number rating, I will say that they are definitely worth the money (If you can’t afford the wireless, the wired version is $119.99).

I added a new page to the blog.  It’s an old piece written in 1982 by a man named Ed Post.  I read it before many years ago but ran across it today and wanted to share.  It’s way too big for a blog post and I thought it deserved it’s own page.  The permalink is http://www.spiritfiresrealm.com/real-programmers/

Got the new one today!

As I mentioned in my last entry, I upgraded my PC to Vista 64bit.  Spefically, I’m using Vista Ultimate 64-bit edition.  So far, the PC just runs so much faster.  I’ve installed just about everything I had before, and everything loads so much quicker.  The only crash I had I am pretty sure was related to the wrong memory.  Speaking of which, I got the correct memory installed, and the PC took another jump in performance.

I’m pretty happy with that.  What I find incredible is that the hard drive is rated 5.9 on 64 bit vista.  Anyway, now the PC is factory overclocked like it was supposed to be.  My games all run a lot better, performance is great.  Life is good.  I am looking forward to seeing Windows 7 when it becomes final.

I’ve also decided to try an experiment.  I’ve put Ubuntu 9.04 linux on my laptop, and on my second PC.  It installed very easy on the laptop, had very little issue getting the dell built in wireless to work, and the built in bluetooth worked as well.  The nVidia drivers for the mobile video card installed without any trouble.  On the other dell pc though, that wasn’t as smooth.  I had a lot of trouble with the sound, found out the front headphone and mic jacks will not work at all, so I had to plug my headset into the back of the PC.  Had some issues getting Jockey to install the proprietary nVidia drivers, so I ended up using EnvyNG instead.    I will try to install WoW on both the laptop and pc using Wine and see how it runs.  If I like Ubuntu, I may keep it on both machines.  My big machine though will always run Windows.

In the spirit of embracing “alternative computer lifestyles”, I may even buy a Mac someday.  There, I said it.  I’m Mac-curious.  Since I got a taste of Apple with my iPhone, I’ve been looking at Macs and wondering what it would be like go to the other side and try one.

This post is going to be a bunch of non-sequiturs, so bear with it.  I haven’t updated in a while (no reason, just sheer laziness).

Well, I’m now in my 4th week of classes online.  So far, I’m doing well. Let’s hope I stay that way.

I’ve added a new link to the side over there.  Go check out the WoW related comic: World of Warcraft, Eh?    It’s very well done and it’s hit the list of my favorites.

Speaking of links, I’ve added another one of those tottaly useless things to my list of Social Networking things that I almost never update.  I’m on Twitter (link is on the right ->).

What else.  Been playing WoW with my best friend when we can. Our Tauren bros have hit 36 as of yesterday, our undead locks are still sitting at 31.  My main (80 tauren druid) has been working on rep here and there.

Redid my PC to run Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit.  The speed difference is incredible.

Oh, I finaly found out why I never could get my PC’s ram overclocked to factory specs.  I have a Dell XPS 720.  The 4 gigs of Corsair Dominator ram are supposed to be factory overclocked to 1066mhz, but it’s never been.  Today I was poking around with the nVidia performance control panel, and found out, one of the memory modules is different from the rest.  3 of them are indeed 1066mhz modules, but one of them is an 800mhz module.  The timings are different from the other 3, and the SPD profile is different too.  No wonder every time I tried to bump the fsb clock speed up to OC the ram to 1066, it would lock up.  I contacted dell, and after going in circles with their LOVELY tech support tier one person who knows less about PC’s than a 1st grader (I mean comeon, how hard is it to listen to the customer who knows what they are talking about instead of trying to insist they try some things that are pointless in the first place), I have them sending me a replacement module to match the others.   Just to clarify,  she wanted me to take out the three other modules, leave in the one, and try to OC it.  WHY?  If it’s not going to OC stable with all 4, what is the bloody point?  I sure as hell am not going to run only 1 gig of ram, OC’d or not.  Ah well, at least she finally listened and they’re sending me the right one to match the others.  Later on, if I don’t upgrade to an i7, I may just drop 8 gigs of 1066 ram in here.  The mobo supports up to 8gb, and Vista 64 will see all 8.

Well, that’s about it for now I guess.

Alright, I finally got my iPhone back this morning.  After putting the Sim card back in and plugging it into the computer, running iTunes and restoring the backup, it’s almost like I never had to replace the phone.  All my data is there, nothing at all missing, but the only gripe I have is that my icons for my apps are all on the wrong screens, so I’ll have to rearrange them eventually.

Now, for the rant portion.  I saved this until AFTER I got my phone back, in case some jobbite somehow stumbled upon this and my iPhone got held up in limbo in retaliation.  Would they do that?  Who knows, but I wasn’t taking the chance.

So, as you recall, my phone broke when I dropped it a little over a week ago and the screen shattered.  When I took it to AT&T the next day – a Sunday – they said they can’t replace it and that I would have to talk to Apple.  The salesperson put me on the phone with an iPhone rep from Apple, who told me what my options were.  No matter what my options, it was going to cost me $200 for a replacement phone, since it was a physical damage and not a warranty issue.

So, #1, I could go to the nearest Apple store and have my phone replaced there.  To me that really wasn’t much of an option because the nearest Apple store is two and a half hours away, in Sacramento.  Not to mention the fact, I would have to make an appointment beforehand with their “Genius Bar” to get it replaced.  Genius Bar?  How pretentious is that?  And why the fuck would I have to make an appointment?  How hard is it to walk in, show them the phone, which obviously needed replacing, and have them go to the storeroom and bring out a new one?  It doesn’t take a fucking genius to do that.

Option #2:  I could  have them send me a box, which I could ship my phone to them to be fixed, which would then be sent back to me and take about a week turnaround.  I didn’t quite like that option, so I was given another choice.

Option #3:  I could pay a $30 fee for an advance replacement, where they would send me a new phone and I would send them back my old one.  Total time without a phone:  2 days.  Better than a week I decided.  So I took that option.  It took a $400 hold on my credit card to make sure I sent back the old phone, but that’s pretty standard.  I gave them my info and waited for Tuesday to roll around for my new phone.

Tuesday came, Fed Ex dropped off a box at my door.  I thought it was a bit strange I didn’t have to sign for it, so I went out and got the box from the doorstep, and took it inside to open it, finding….an empty box and instructions how to pack my phone to be shipped for repair.   I wasn’t mad yet, thinking ok, maybe the phone was being sent separately.  I called Apple to find out what’s going on.  The rep I talked to sent me to a manager right away, who told me that “we don’t send advance replacements for physical damage, only technical issues”.  OK, so at this point, NOW I was furious.  I told him that they had already put a hold on my card, so I expect a phone.   He said that they would not send me an advance replacement, period, and that I would have to send my phone to them for repair.  So I asked him what about the $400 hold on my card?  He said that the CSR that did it made a mistake and he couldn’t remove the charge until the phone was repaired.  After much going back and forth about the advance replacement, the manager finally made me this offer.  He would remove the charge from the card, and cancel the repair order.  He would then schedule a new repair order at no charge to me.  Yes, a free replacement on my phone.  Well free is better than $200, so I agreed.  He shipped me a new box (I didn’t quite understand why I couldn’t use the box they already shipped, but he kept insisting that it was tied to that repair order), and Wednesday I had the box, packaged my phone, and shipped it back.

Thursday, I checked the repair order, and they had the phone and was working on it.  Well, by the end of the day, I’m seeing “replacement pending”.  Pending?  what happened to just fixing it and sending it back?  I figured maybe their website wasn’t up to date.  I waited until Friday.  Friday came, and no phone.  I called.  They said that it was being tested and would most likely be sent out Monday.  After more complaining (yes I complain when someone doesn’t do what they said they would, especially when it comes to my technology), they ended up sending the phone out Friday.

The fun didn’t end there folks.  Today comes, and I check tracking on FedEx.  My phone was delivered.  Delivered?  Wait, nobody came to my door.  After calling FedEx, apparently the courier took it to a business by mistake, and they had to go get it back and bring it.  So, here it is, around 10am, and I finally have my phone.

Dear god this was one major pain in the ass.

All I can say about this is it’s fucking brilliant.  It makes my geek heart skip a beat.

Ok, so I went to the AT&T store to replace my iPhone, thinking I had insurance, only to find out that there never was any insurance on it.  Apparently, and I don’t blame AT&T for this, Apple won’t allow them to sell insurance on it.    The only way I could get it replaced was to call Apple and have them send me a replacement, costing me $200 (!).  I’m replacing it, but I”m not exactly happy about it.  I love my iPhone, but I hate apple’s policies.  Every other phone maker lets AT&T sell insurance, why don’t they?

*grumbles and breaks out the wallet*