Monday, June 22, 2009

Image by sonictk via Flickr

Today I decided that the little iPod ear plugs had to go. Every time I put them in my ear they 1. fall out or 2. make my ear sweat like crazy. Although the sound was great, they were just too uncomfortable.

So we, Larry and I, went to Best Buy. No luck, they had only 2 sets of over the ear headphones. I wasn't about to pay $180 for a set of Bose and the other was a $12.99 set designed for children. Which would explain why they were labeled "children's headsets". Finally, truth in advertising.

Off we went to Micro Center. For all you computer geek wannabes, Micro Center is the Shangri-la of computer stores. They have everything you could ever want and more. The array of hard drives, laptops, cables, modems, programs, etc. is staggering. Like I said, a veritable cornucopia of computer stuff.

I moved around the store, probably looking like Hansel and Gretel after they discovered their breadcrumbs were eaten, trying to find just plain headphones. I walked up one aisle and down the next zeroing in on my prey. Eureka! I found the aisle. Before me pegged like pins in a map were no less than 150 choices of headphones.

Headphones with skulls, headphones with built-in microphones, head sets with removable ear pieces that can be color coordinated to your ensemble. Big headsets, little ear plugs, this maker, that maker. I was completely overwhelmed. For 45 minutes I stared at the different headsets wondering what was the difference. How could choice A be that much different than choice B?

So, being the kind of guy I am, I quickly eliminated all the in-the-ear plug types. Great, that left only 80 choices. Next, eliminate all the ones with microphones because lord knows I'm not going to be talking to anyone while listen to my iPod or watching a movie. Now we're down to about 60. Now I could discard all the headsets that were less than $20. I figured if they're under $20 bucks they can't be that good. Now were down to 10.

Dilemma....I've narrowed down to 10, well make that 9 because I wasn't going to pay $300 for a set of Sennheisers. I'm staring at 9 headsets not knowing which one to get. I could go and try to get some kid who looked like they knew everything there was to know about this stuff or I could just wing it. But if I'm going to spend $40 on a set of headphones, they had better be pretty decent. Instead of looking ridiculous and asking for help, I opt to just stand there and stare. Yep, staring is good. Staring makes you look like you know what you're doing. And if you're pacing and staring, then people ignore you all together; you've got it under control.

So I try to narrow it down to 3 pair. I couldn't even do that. This one has this kind of base output and watts per ear. The other one has this much. I was sweating like crazy and quite frankly getting irritated by the whole choice thing. Finally my room mate walks up and sees my face. He actually starts laughing. "What's wrong with you?" he chuckles. "Look at all these choices and I haven't a clue which are any good." I respond. Without batting an eye he walks over and grabs a set of Sennheisers. "If it was me, I'd buy these." he says. Knowing that Larry is a music major, has a music studio, plays 5 instruments, I kinda take him for his word that he knows what sounds good.

Is there such a thing as having too many choices? I don't know, but I do know that I rely more and more on what my friends say about a product. If I don't know anyone who has one, then I probably won't buy it either. And that is my choice.