2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

Ever since I was a little kid I’ve always had a thing for headphones. I’m not sure why but I had everything from the dorky large headphones that had a built in radio to the cool waterproof Sony’s which didn’t turn out to be that waterproof (as a kid it’s easy to mistake splash proof for waterproof). I guess I liked the immersion headphones offer and this hasn’t changed as I’ve grown older. I currently own the Bang & Olufsen A8, Shure E2, Sure SE210, Sennheiser PX100, Sennheiser PXC250, AKG K81 DJ, UE Super.fi 5 Pro, a UE Triple.Fi 10 Pro and my latest acquisition which this post revolves around, the BeyerDynamic DT770. I never think I have enough headphones and I always find a reason to get another one, I’m just obsessed…

If you don’t want to get bored you can skip this whole paragraph. Before I decided on which BeyerDynamic model I wanted I had to choose between closed or open air type headphones. Closed usually offer better sound isolation so that the people around you don’t hear what you’re listening to while with open air the sound leaks out and could annoy people around you. There are other advantages and disadvantages to each but since I was planning to listen to these headphones in the living room in front of my computer where Nat would be watching tv, I went with the DT770 model which is closed. If you prefer open air then you would need to check out the DT880 and DT990 models. Now that I had that sorted I had to choose which DT770 model I wanted, Amazon had 5 different models, the DT770 32 Ohm, 80 Ohm, 250 Ohm, 600 Ohm and the M. Even though all 5 headphones are the same model, they all had different sound signatures but after a lot of research I finally decided on the 600 Ohm since they supposedly were the best sounding of the group but with a big disadvantage to the rest which is they needed to be powered by a separate headphone amplifier. The 32 Ohm and 80 Ohm could be powered by the iPod directly (but could benefit from a small portable headphone amp like the FiiO E5 or a home made CMoy). The 250 Ohm require a headphone amp but can be powered by some portable headphone amps as well. The M version is for drummers while the 600 Ohm requires an external powered amp to drive. So I had to research headphone amps and once I got into that I found out I could get even better sound by bypassing my computer internal audio car by using an external DAC (digital-to-analog converter). To cut it short I ended up getting the FiiO E7 DAC and the FiiO E9 amp. The amp had enough power to drive the my headphones while the E7 acted as a DAC when connected to the E9 but could also be used as a portable headphone amp with 20+ hour of battery life when used by itself although it wouldn’t be able to power the DT770 by itself.

I listen to a variety of music ranging from downbeat like Kruder & Dorfmeiser, A Guy Called Gerald, Tosca, Dzihan and Kamien and anything from the K7 label, 90’s alternative bands like Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana, Blind Melon, Radiohead, NIN, Tool etc.. to electronic music like Paul Oakenfold, Tiesto, Matt Darey, Underworld and Booka Shade. After having the headphones for a few weeks now I have to say I really like them a lot but slightly disappointed with them at the same time. Firstly the good stuff. These are the most immersive headphones I’ve ever had. They’re extremely comfortable since the ear cups are soft and the material nice to the touch. They also fit around my ears instead of pressing onto them which makes them less painful when listening to them for a long time. Once I have them on I don’t really notice them anymore, I could leave them on for hours without feeling any discomfort whatsoever. The build quality is amazing, they’re made in Germany and a lot of metal is used in the construction so they feel like they could last a lifetime and they should seeing how much they cost. The sound is also extremely well balanced, for example I love the Beats by Dre headphones but their bass dominates everything else and the music can end up sounding muddy. With the DT770 they’re perfectly balanced, a bit too perfect actually since sometimes I wish they did pump out more bass specially when listening to some electronic music. But that’s just on rare occasions, majority of the time they blast music wonderfully and I actually re-ripped some of my CD’s at higher bit-rates so I could truly appreciate these headphones.

But, like I just said, I wish sometimes the lows did dominate but I guess that gives me an excuse to also pick up a pair of Beats for when I’m in the mood to pretend I’m at a club. The second negative is the fact it doesn’t isolate as much as I was hoping they would. When I have the volume pretty high up the way I like it, everybody in the room could hear what I’m playing and if the TV is playing loud I could also hear it. I guess the solution to that would be to listen to music with my in-hear headphones but they aren’t anywhere as comfortable as the DT770’s.

Overall though these are pretty good headphones, the best I’ve owned and completely destroys everything I have except for maybe the UE triple.fi which I should review soon. Price wise they’re not that expensive but if you’re getting the 600 Ohm version then it adds up since you would need to purchase an external Amp to run them. I paid $244 for the DT770, $99 for the FiiO E7 and $130 for the FiiO E9. You could skip the E7 or just skip both the E7 and E9 and get the 32 or 80 Ohm DT770. The final score is a highly recommended 4 out of 5.

Amazon Links:
BeyerDynamic DT770 600 Ohm
FiiO E7 DAC
FiiO E9 Amp
FiiO L3 (iPod cable)

Sawah has been open for around a year now but I only finally managed to pass by this past weekend. When I want to have Lebanese I usually have Leila but since I’m practically having Leila everyday I decided to try something new. Sawah is located in the Avenues right next to Napket and the place doesn’t look like your average Lebanese restaurant which is what always grabbed my attention.

I ordered tabbouleh and taouk and both dishes turned out pretty good with the tabbouleh being the best of the two. Actually their tabbouleh is currently in a tie with the tabbouleh at Al Mayas as my favorite in Kuwait. What I mostly liked about the place though is the look and feel. As I mentioned earlier Sawah doesn’t look like an average Lebanese restaurant, from the furniture to the cutlery, they have their own unique look.

The only negative thing I would say based on my short experience is that I thought the price of the taouk dish at KD4.250 was a bit on the expensive side for just two skewers and a bit of french fires. Other than that though the food was good, the service very friendly and the design of the place very interesting. I would definitely go back.

Last night I posted a sneak peek of the new Choowy Goowy Cafe that’s opening up at 52 Degrees and today Nat passed by and was able to send me pictures of 52 Degrees as well. The place so far looks really cool and that has a lot to do with the fact it was designed by the Kuwaiti architect Ahmed Al-Baghli, the same guy behind the beautiful MELENZANÈ. Nat on the other hand created the 52 Degrees identity. You can check out some sneak peek pictures below, they are soft launching tonight.

For those of you who don’t know what 52 Degrees is, it’s basically a department store that will be filled with Kuwaiti products and creations from clothing and accessories to food and desserts.

The Pro Kart Racing Club is organizing a Universities & Colleges Karting Cup that will be taking place next month. It’s divided into a “Males Cup” and a “Females Cup” so that way everyone gets to participate. The cost is KD30 if you’re a racer and KD10 if you’re a supporter. This includes an open buffet but not sure if the KD30 fee includes the cost for all the races (practice, qualification etc..).

For more information you can check out their website [Here]

Choowy Goowy Cafe is currently under construction but it looks pretty cool so far. It will be opening up at 52 Degrees by the first week of February. On the other hand 52 Degrees is having their soft launch tonight (Sunday) at Tilal Complex.

Blogger chillnite posted pictures of what looks like a replica of the Taj Mahal that is being built here in Kuwait. According to him it’s a new mosque located off the 7th Ring Road. The picture above is of the Kuwaiti Taj Mahal while the one below is the original one in India. [Link]

Thanks Amir

Ibrahim Al-hulail is a Kuwaiti student who’s currently studying in Japan and wanted me to share this video he put together of Japanese people trying to speak Kuwaiti by saying “7ad ouma bard” which basically means it’s very cold. [YouTube]

A friend of mine took the picure above a few moments ago on the Gulf Road. Looks like a police car flipped upside down in front of Burj Al Hamam.

A twitter follower made me aware of an advanced commenting system I could install on the blog. Personally I prefer the current simple comment system but I know that many of you have been asking for more features. So I installed the new comment system on 248PM and would like you guys to check it out and tell me if you prefer that system to the current one.

Some of the advantages of the new system are:

– Allows you to connect your profile here with your facebook, twitter or yahoo accounts

– If you already comment on other sites like CNN, Al Jazeera English, Engadget, Tech Crunch etc.. then you could use your same profile here

– New system makes it a lot easier to reply to someone specific

– Has “Like” button

– You can sort out the comments from oldest to newest or the other way around or by popularity etc..

– You can flag comments you see as inappropriate

Anyway the best way to experience is to try it out. Please visit [This Post] on 248PM and try out the commenting system and tell me which you prefer.

BBC News have a nice piece on the state of Kuwait’s theatre industry. Gone are the golden days of plays like Bye Bye London but there are a few people who are still trying to bring the theatre back. I really hope they can, like New York is known for Broadway Shows, Kuwait could be known for theatre as well. I couldn’t embed the video on my blog so you’re going to have to view it on the BBC website [Here]

Thanks Nibaq

K’s Path (Animal Friends) are having a cool Christmas event for animal lovers. I’m going to take Geo my dog (pictured above) and have him meet Santa.

Join us on Friday at the K’S PATH shelter and sanctuary in Wafra.

When: December 24th 2010
Time: 1pm to 4pm

– Socialize with fellow animal lovers and bring your dog
– Bring a gift to the animals. We suggest a value of 10 – 20KD.

Suggested Donation list:
– Large size paper towel rolls for large dispensers
– Betadine
– Clorox
– Whiskas cat food (dry and can)
– Purina dry dog food
– Pedigree canned dog food
– Toys
– Rawhides
– Small size dog collars

A Christmas gift to an animal in need will not be forgotten.

Bring your dog for a photo with Santa (5KD)*

*Dogs must behave well around other dogs and must kept on leash and under control at all times.

Tonight after my gym I passed by fashionably late to the The Gulf Run Dinner. It was an event organized to get all the drivers to meet each other, enjoy some good shawerma and sajj while checking out pictures of previous Gulf Runs. They also had a Ford GT, Mercedes SLS and a Ferrari 599 on display to check out up close.

One of the announcements I had missed with my lateness was that the SLS will be one of the taxi ride cars at the upcoming Gulf Run. Taxi ride cars are for the spectators who come to the track to watch the races. The spectators will be able to take a ride in the SLS (and other taxi cars) around the Bahrain F1 circuit while being driven by professional race car drivers (i.e. lots of fun).
Update: The SLS taxi ride will only be for the GR6 drivers. There will be other sport cars available as taxi rides for the spectators. My mistake, sorry about that.

If you want to know more about Gulf Run you can visit their website [Here]

A few weeks back Nat accidentally slammed my FJ’s door onto a little pole while opening the door and I ended up with a nasty dent. The usual fix for this would be to take the car to a body shop and have them repair the dent and then repaint the door but I decided to pass by Dent Xpress and see if they could fix it. For those of you who’ve been checking my blog for a few years you might remember Dent Xpress as one of my previous advertisers. They’re a little shop behind Sun City in Shuwaikh that specializes in paint-less dent repair.

I had finished some morning chores that day and decided to pass by Dent Xpress to get an estimate and book an appointment. Once I drove up to their front entrance their employee was standing outside and noticed the dent as I pulled up. After getting a closer look he told me the dent was pretty deep and since my car was black he couldn’t repair it 100%, I told him anything would be better than the current state. I asked him how much it would cost and he told me just KD15 and it would take 30 minutes to repair. Luckily there wasn’t anyone there before me so I told him to go ahead and start on it.

I went and sat down in their cozy little corner and watched the guy work on my dent. It’s really interesting to watch so you don’t get that bored waiting. If you’ve got an iPad with entertainment on it I would bring it along or you could be old fashioned and flip through some magazines they had available. After exactly 30 minutes my FJ’s dent was repaired. Even though the guy said he couldn’t repair it 100% it looked like it was 100% fixed. He told me if I looked closely I could see a tiny little bump. That bump which you couuld only see under a certain light and up really close was basically non existent so it’s a 99% fix even though you really can’t see the tiny bump. I left extremely satisfied which is why I’m currently writing this post. So if you’ve got a dent and need it repaired Dent Xpress would be a good place to stop by before a body shop. They can’t repair all dents and the paint also needs to be factory original but it’s still worth passing by and seeing if they can repair it. Below is a picture of my FJ door before and after the repair.

Their website address is www.dentxpress.com
Their phone numbers are 24837666 and 55787747
Their Facebook page is [Here]

Last week I posted about the Gran Turismo 5 Time Challenge that’s taking place across the Middle East and how Kuwait wasn’t even ranked in the top 10. Well the competition is finally over and it turns out Kuwait came first. Pretty cool (although slightly geeky) achievement. [Link]

Found a store near my office that has the funniest named perfumes. Most are actually mimicking big brands but some like the above are just completely random. Actually I have a theory to how they might have come up with the name Whisky on Titanic. Here it goes… What did the Titanic hit? An iceberg. What do you put with whisky? Ice. What do you call that? Whisky on the rocks. So rocks is ice which is the iceberg which is what the Titanic hit resulting in the name Whisky on Titanic. At least this is my theory on the concept behind the name. Check out some more funny ones below. (Another favorite of mine is “Just call me Taitanic”).