While my first unit of the Koss PortaPro headphones, which about in 1998, lasted a few years the two replacement units I got afterwards didn't "survive" for long (I take extra care of my Music gear). Was it because of the incredible success of this model (at least in France) and the money-hungry company that understood very well the law of supply and demand and decided to raise the price quite significantly (I bought my first unit for about 45 EUR and now they are around 70...) while diminishing the costs with a negative impact on quality? This might be mere speculation but see, my last unit fell apart yesterday. One of the phones doesn't want to stick anymore to the head support. And that support's resizing plastic elements broke. So I thought it was time to look for something else for a change.

I still use my Shure E3C when commuting or before going to sleep. But I needed something similar to the Koss PortaPro when I work so that I can hear people around me. But I didn't want to spend much time comparing models so I decided to ask my friends around and Jethro, a fellow DocIslander and a Music lover to whom I am grateful for making me discover some very interesting Music, told me about the Sennheiser PX200. He bought a unit when he got his iPod Nano about 10 months ago and he was very well satisfied with them, save for feeling a discomfort after wearing them for an extended time.

Being a closed model, I feared they were heavy and won't let ambient sounds in. But I decided to follow Jethro's advice anyways and I bought a unit for 57 EUR yesterday. When I got back home, I opened the package and took the PX200 out of their quite interesting carrying case that looks like it was created for carrying glasses (the PX200 fold almost like them). It was time to test them. So I launched iTunes, plugged the unit to my laptop and created a playlist with many genres of Music. The songs I chose were some of the ones I know most and to which I listened to many times. That way, I believe I could fish any distorsion or unusual sound rendering. Well, the PX200 performed very well. They sound a lot like the PortaPro and are very light and comfortable. The noise blocking is pretty nice and if you don't listen to Music too loudly, you can hear some of the ambient sounds around. They also look pretty solid. Let's hope they don't break apart soon.

I am so far happy even if the people around me might no be that happy when they realize I've changed headphones and that they need to shout to make themselves heard. Thank you Jethro for the great advice.

[World] Toumast, Tinariwen
From the album Aman Iman (Water is Life).

WOW. WOW. WOW!!!!! I rarely felt in so great a communion with Music but Toumast touched the inner core of my being. It feels like someone gave me a strange shot with some special fluid that makes me go in a trance. I am very sensitive to that kind of Music. Maybe it is due (again) to my brother making me listen to Gnawa Music when I was a kid back in Morocco, a genre that Tinariwen's Music takes to higher grounds. The sound quality is awesome and the handclaps participate to that trance feeling. I've listened to Aman Iman almost 20 times (according to my iTunes's Play Count numbers) and I can't quit. All the songs are excellent but Toumast has something into it that makes it different from the others. If you want to travel to the Sahel without ever leaving your seat (I am totally crazy about this characteristic of great Music) and take part in a Tuareg mystical party, go get this album right away.

I think Tinariwen has reached some sort of incredible alchemy that wasn't there in their previous albums. And I really thank them for that. If it wasn't for a family event that was scheduled so ahead in time, I would have bought a ticket for their Bataclan concert on April 7th.

Meta information:

• Rating: 5/5
  
• Label: Universal Music
  
• Release year: 2007
  
• Related Artists: Desert Rebel, Ali Farka Touré, Vieux Farka Touré, Hamid Kasri, Tartit, Toumast
  

Extra links :

• Streaming version of Toumast
  
• Tinariwen's Official Website
  
• Streaming versions of four of the album's songs (require Real Player or Windows Media Player)
  

I am very happy to welcome Siegfried Noël (a.k.a. sieg) to DocIsland as the twelveth member of our not-so-small group. We had our traditional new member "welcome" dinner last Thursday in La Robe et Le Palais, an excellent Paris restaurant where you can have a wonderful meal and amazing wine.

sieg was kind enough to send me the necessary data to create his profile on our Website. Welcome on board mate!