I got these headphones as a gift over two and a half years ago from a dear friend. I have to say that it was the first time I have used a Bang and Olufsen product. And it has performed fantastically over these years. I use it while traveling, sitting in a cafe, on a plane, when working out, and when riding my motorcycle. I have tested these headphone in every possible enviroment, and they have always out performed my expectations.

Positives:

• Crystal clear sound, great highs and lows
• Doesnt break up at high volume, there is no distortion
• Great base for its size, dont expect something such as DJ headphones, but decent
• Extremely comfortable and versitile
• Keeps sound in your ear, has the ability to keep outside noise out of your ear

Negatives:

• None

These headphones are worth the price and I have used them extensively and will continue to use them because I haven’t found any headphone better then it, and I dont think I need to. The design of it makes it very easy to slip on and adjust to our liking. I can’t recommend these enough.

Link: Bang and Olufsen

Rating:

I needed component cables for my reciever to connect to my Plasma screen. I wanted to see the quality difference between the two, and I currently have the reciever connected by S-Video to the screen.

I was too lazy to figure out where I could get them from and I didn’t feel like going into Salmiya because of the traffic. The once place I knew for sure that they would have was Alghanim Electronics since they had Monster Cables, but I was just hoping they would have everything in stock.

I went over there and found the cables, and I knew they would be cheaper online but I just wanted to use them now. Im tired of depending on shipping companies right now. So I saw the price for 25 KD for the 2 meter version and I knew it should be cheaper, but by how much I wasn’t sure. When I went to pay it was only 20KD and I thought that wasn’t too bad.

I got home and connected my reciever to screen and for some reason it wouldn’t work, but then I found out that the A/V reciever must have equipment connected through component for it to output by component. So I connect my Xbox 360 through component and started playing around with it. I have to say that I was amazed with the quality improvement. I was just watching a dvd for testing purposes on the Xbox 360, but then I started playing Gears of War for over 45 minutes when I should have passed out. It wasn’t late at all, but I was just tired as hell.
Link: Amazon

This is an extremly full featured A/V reciever with HDMI and every possible feature is included in this A/V reciever and one of the important parts that I’m taking a look at is that it upscales all feeds to 1080p out if the Television accepts it. The list of features can be seen at the Onkyo link below. The one thing that surprises me about it is the cost of the machine in Kuwait is cheaper then online.

Alghanim Electronics
Price: 1500 KD (without installation)

ETC (Online Info)
Price: 1200 KD (with installation)

Online Prices:
Between 2000 – 2500 KD (no installation)

I really like dealing with ETC because of the superb service and there pricing is very reasonable.

Link: Onkyo

Sony Ericsson W950i

Price: 190KD

Sony Ericsson W850i

Price: 145KD

Nokia E50

Price: 80 KD

Nokia 5300

Price: 80KD

Nokia 8800 Sirocco (Special Edition)

Price: 290 KD

This is one amazing remote it does everything that the Logitech Harmony does and it also has access to the same database so you can load your equipment into the remote from the online database. On top of that it has the Omnilink system which controllers your lighting system in the house.

You can take a look at the review on Engadget below, and you can also see the list of items which work with it. And it isn’t an expensive system to equip in your house, since you can equip it to control the lights in your house.

It isn’t cheap but not too expensive either it goes for $600. I would like to get my hands on this at a later point but first I want to figure out how exactly the lighting control system works with the normal lighting.

Link: Monster
Link: Engadget Review
Link: Amazon

If you have those rooms in the middle of a house or office which doesnt haven any natural lighting or window its usually constricting to some degree. For the first time this Swedish company came up with an ingenious idea of transporting the natural light through a wire called Sunwire. Paran is the Swedish company and I think that would be extremely succesful in helping to conserve energy and at the same time provide a different kind of lighting. Its fantastic, it work great in Kuwait, but I wonder how expensive it will be or how exactly it works.

Link: Gizmag

I think high quality high resolution LCDs, Plasmas, and Projectors are fantastic. You really get the best bang for your buck in the long run, and you dont have to buy it right away.

But these Runco Projectors are the first to be THX Certified for 1080P, but they are a little rediculous and really go over board. The cheapest THX certified projector goes for $35’000 and the most expensive goes for $99’000, and I dont think that includes taxes, and shipping.

I think there are some nice quality projectors coming out in a couple of months that would be pretty good for home use, and not break the bank really.

Link: Engadget

I have to say that I’m extremely happy with my Xbox 360. I have been using my 360 a lot over the past couple of months. Especially the 360 in my basement it has been on for the past two weeks without any issues, but it is in the best cooling environment. It’s standing up with adequate cooling, and I love how the controllers are very dependable. I have done any updates yet since I don’t want it going dead, but I want to play an Xbox game that needs the update to have it play, but sometimes there are issues. When there is no issues from an update then I will update my console, but I don’t want it to show the red-ring of death after updating the Xbox 360.

I have been playing Oblivion for a while and now Gears of War, followed by Call of Duty 3. I can not complain, I think Microsoft did a good job, but I don’t think the updates are doing a good job. But when they get it right then I will upgrade.

For a while I was complaining that there arent any high quality A/V shelves or funiture available in Kuwait, and Panasonic in Salmiya has Denon home theater electronics. But there is a home theater company in Kuwait which is run by a man who is passionate about Audio Visuals and high quality equipment. They also carry Onkyo A/V equipment, Mirage Speakers, Meridian speakers, and other theater type equipment. I cant recommend this place enough if your looking for the right type of equipment, and they will install and configure your equipment for you. I like dealing with them, and I have not had any problems working with them. I have two theater rooms setup for feeling the sound of a good theater.

They also carry Omnimount racks, wall mounts, and stands. These are high quality mounts with extreme amounts of flexibility, and a real solid build. Their pricing is pretty reasonable for the real good service you recieve so I dont haggle too much regardin pricing. I really do enjoy going there every once in a while.

Link: Onkyo
Link: Omnimount
Link: Meridian

ETC

Location: Shuweikh
Phone: 4825851

I have had my home theater setup for a year now and Im very happy with it. I only had two front speakers, one center speaker, and one subwoofer from Mirage. So it wasn’t a complete Dolby Digital Surround system yet since I didn’t have the rear speakers. I didn’t get them previously since I wasn’t sure of the seating arrangement and I thought it might be different at a later point, but after a year and keeping the same arrangement I decided to add the rear speakers.

So I got the Mirage HDT-R from the same range that my speakers are currently from, and they cost $1500.00 (without installation) from online audio shops. ETC did a really good job with the installation and they used high quality audio cables to connect them to my Onkyo receiver.

All together I paid 620KD including installation. I didn’t mind the price difference since I understand they pay shipping charges and other details, but their service is really good and they installed it the next day. It only took two hours to install even though I thought it would take a lot longer to do it since they had to move a lot of objects out of the way. Heavy and breakable objects, but they did it quickly and I’m happy customer because it sounds fantastic and a very clean installation.

I will be posting pictures when I get back home.

For testing purposes I played different scenes from three different movies: Gladiator, Hero, and Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.

ETC

Location: Shuweikh
Phone: 4825851

Link: Mirage
Link: Vanns Audio