Now, I’m not the kind of person who gets excited about unboxing, but the packaging for these headphones is superb. Considering the contents the box is not overly large and a window on the front shows off the earpieces. Open up the box and slide out the plastic surround and you will come across a small, neatly folded black cardboard box – this contains an assortment of eartips (2 pair of small, 1 pair of medium and 2 pair of large – the other medium pair are already on the earphones), aircraft adapter, cleaning device and some tiny manuals. Back in the main box there is a handy case which the earphones can be wound into.

My usual headphones of choice are a relatively cheap (£20-£30) pair of foam-pad earphones. The Aurvana’s, in comparison, come with rubber eartips and fit snugly in your ear canal. As a result up to 95% of sound is blocked. Like sticking fingers in your ears, though, you end up hearing your own breathing a lot louder – none-the-less it does provide a much quieter listening experience without the background noise.

There is some sound leakage from them but it’s not excessive.

I’ve tried the earphones with a selection of music from Will Young to The Prodigy and all sounded clear and detailed. I love the soundtrack to the recent Star Trek movie, so that had an airing – the chimes in the opening number, for instance, I’d never heard before. Nor had I heard the musicians making various noises in the background. I also tried them with a BBC audio Podcast and it was immediately obvious the improvement in sound as I heard every rustle of script paper and could tell where all the edit points were.

Now, I’ll admit, I’m no audiophile. But, thankfully, a friend is so I asked him to try them. He stores all his recorded music uncompressed and uses earphones that cost many hundreds of pounds (and this isn’t including the £100+ it cost to have some custom eartips made). He thought the Aurvanas were excellent for the money and particularly liked their small size. He found them comparable to Shure SE210 earphones, which have a price of £125 (and they are a lot bulkier in size).

Summary of Creative Aurvana In-Ear2

I think these really are excellent – they look and sound brilliant and are extremely well presented. It’s such a shame that, thanks to breaking my last MP3 player, I’m reduced to using them on my mobile phone!

Reviewed by David Artiss on 25th May 2010.

Gallery

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And I particularly love the music.

Now, most people generally agree that Wrath of Khan is the best Trek film. The soundtrack, by James Horner, has been available for some time, but as a stunted 9 track version. However, a recent perusal of Empire showed a new version available, now with 23 tracks. Basically, the long-awaited “complete” score. Brilliant. I had to have it.

The CD is produced by Screen Archives, who don’t have a presence in the UK. Now, you can buy this CD from their website and arrange for international postage, which would cost approx. £17, or they are available via Amazon’s Marketplace, which costs a little over £13. In both cases it ships from the US. Naturally, I chose the latter and received it at the weekend.

I’ve not a chance to have a good listen yet but, as you can imagine, it really is excellent with all of the soundtrack previously missing. If you’re a Trek fan, it’s highly recommended.

Star Trek poster

It’s now just a few hours since I got to watch the new Star Trek film. And unlike last week, when I went to see Wolverine, I’ve recognised that when I can’t sleep soon afterwards as a direct result, lying in bed tossing and turning is not the answer. Hence I’m up, writing this review in the early hours on my Netbook.

Not many people realise just how much of a Trek film I’ve been in the past, thanks to my more-recent Star Wars conversion. I think I was put off Trek in the end by too many insipid films and tv series that didn’t little more to expand the “franchise”¹. Never-the-less, I can recite Wrath of Khan word-for-word and can turn onto most episodes of Next Generation and identify the episode within a few short seconds.

So what was JJ Abrams, he of Cloverfield, MI:3, Lost and Alias, going to make with a series that most people considered already dead?

Well, he’s been bold². Unbelievably bold.

Ok, let me try and explain. The film, if you didn’t know already, takes us back to a young Kirk, when he first commands the Enterprise, and meets all the other characters in Trek that we know so fondly. The bad guy is a Romulan and, I don’t think I’m giving essential plot details away, he’s from the future. And there’s the device. Or McGuffin, as it’s known. Because this guy, Nero, has changed the past. He changes everything from Kirks upbringing to how he gets his command. Yes, die hard Trekkers, tear up your Encyclopaedia of Trek because this film changes it all. JJ Abrams has envisaged a new version of the Trek universe and has found a plot device to do it. And unlike most films, there isn’t a fantastic time-travelling conclusion that puts everything back to how it was. The Trek universe has changed and it’s staying that way. And doing that needed a lot of balls.

Having said all that, the bad guy wasn’t that exciting – he’s certainly no Khan. As with most “first” films it spent a lot of time setting up all the introductions and allowing you to get to know the characters, so the second film may be better with a lot more time to dedicate to more of an action romp.

Let’s turn to the actors now. Chris Pine was unexpectedly brilliant – he WAS Kirk – and a stand out for me. All the other characters were spot on too. Chekov gives early comic relief, with Scotty providing it later. However, I have to give maximum kudos to Karl Urban as McCoy – simply fantastic.

References to Trek past (or is that future?) came thick and past, with various quotes from Wrath of Khan and even a mention of Captain Archer from Enterprise.  In some cases I think they even overdid the references, almost crowbarring them in every other sentence.

The effects – provided by ILM – were as excellent as you’d expect and the whole thing had the retro feel of the original TV series without looking too 60′s and odd. Sound effects old and new were mixed together and you’ll have to wait until the final credits to hear the original music. But when it does come, it’s a modern mix of the original series music, complete with the singing, set to a cheesy, but somehow still good, credit sequence.

So, conclusions.

It’s a very good film and a fine reboot to bet things restarted again. With a bit more action and a finer script next time around, it could seriously threaten Wrath of Khan as the best Trek film. But not quite yet.

I was worried what JJ Abrams would do with Star Trek, but I shouldn’t have worried. He’s brought it into the 21st Century with humour, action and a touch of very classy retro.

Oh, and before I forget – there’s no extra scenes during or at the end of the titles! So no need to sit in the cinema until the bitter end if you don’t want to. I do that for you

Summary of Star Trek

The best Trek for a while, and JJ Abrams have set up the franchise for a new generation. Brilliant casting and effects, let down only by a slightly limp script.

Reviewed by David Artiss on 13th May 2009.

1. an expression often used and just goes to show that they think of Star Trek more as a money making exercise than anything else
2. no “boldly gone” jokes, please

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X-Men Origins : Wolverine

I wasn’t expecting a great deal from this film, especially after the mediocre review from Empire Magazine, but I have to admit to being pleasantly surprised. That’s not to say it was a great film – it certainly had its flaws.

As you’d expect from the title this film is all about Wolverine – why he is who is he, how he got to where he was in the first X-Men film, etc. A lot of the most interesting stuff – him and his equally indestructible brother fighting together through 4 wars (American Civil War, Two World Wars, Vietnam) is glossed over through the opening credits. His brother, who we know as Sabretooth, then turns bad. We don’t know why, after all this time and it’s not really explored. This puts a rift between the 2 brothers.

Obviously the X-Men, as we know them, haven’t been formed by this point, but there are lots of other “mutants” with abilities, with many of them being pretty exceptional. Agent Zero (AKA Maverick), for instance, with his gun skills is particularly good. And Gambit… well, it’s a been long time coming and it was great to see him. He, seriously, needs a film of his own.

Cyclops also makes an appearance as his younger self but he never meets (that he’s aware of) Wolverine, so that remains consistent with the earlier films. In fact, it’s consistency with those films was my main concern about this film – how would they do it? Or, rather, would they not? Well, from what I could tell, they kept the consistency and they flowed together nicely. Obviously, Sabretooth is in the first X-Men film and why Wolverine doesn’t recognise his brother is covered. Sadly, why Sabretooth doesn’t recognise Logan isn’t, although there’s blatantly a number of years between the end of this film and the start of the first X-Men film.

One tip – wait until the end of the credits. Yes, there’s an extra scene part way through the credits but there’s another right at the very end. Sadly, depending on the cinema, one of two possible scenes is shown – one is better than the other. If the one you see involves a bar then make sure you read Wikipedia on the other scene.

Still, it had it’s flaws – there wasn’t much of a plot and it seemed to just jerk from one set piece to another. And if you hadn’t seen past X-Men films you’d probably have been confused to hell about some of the storyline elements.

But, not as bad as I was expecting. Roll on Star Trek next week!

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Anyway, after thumbing through some still images from the film, I came across this one showing, I assume, the bridge of the Enterprise (that’s Chekov at the helm)…

But, hold on, look at the middle of the navigation console. Isn’t that a role of duct-tape surrounded by a couple of Symbol Cyclone scanners? Sad and geeky I know, but I work in Point of Sale, so I recognise these things.

So, here’s my take on converting your work desk to look like the bridge of the Enterprise (I didn’t have a thick role of duct-tape so I used an almost empty role of parcel tape)…

Pretty realistic I think you’ll find.

Wow. Great film.  I can see why Empire gave it the review that they did.

There was more of the monster than I expected (and a surprise from that too) but less of introduction, ending, etc. There is no title music, or even titles. It’s represented as US evidence of what happened, and ends abruptly at the end once the home video ends (if you didn’t already realise, the whole film is taken on a hand-held camcorder. This make it very atmospheric, as if “actually being there”).

Very cool and it bodes well for JJ Abram’s next film… Star Trek.

Summary of Cloverfield

Creepy, unnerving and original. A brilliant film in all respects

Reviewed by David Artiss on 13th February 2008.