REVIEW: SIGNATURE ACOUSTICS C12

I was pleasantly surprised to hear that Pristine Note, them purveyors of audio awesomeness in India, had come up with their own earphones! They're called the Signature Acoustics C12, and although there's a bit of scope for improvement, it's a wonderful start, and hopefully, this will be the first of many excellent audio products to bear the 'Made in India' tag.

The box is pretty straightforward. None of that ruddy hyperbole that seems to be plaguing the growing consumer audio market (OMG WE USE THE GR8EST MAGNETS THAT REPRODUCE SOUND SO SEXILY THAT RAINBOW COLOURED CATS WILL START FALLING OUT OF THE SKY OMG OMG).

 Inside the packaging, the big surprise was a brass storage box! This was quite interesting!

 While this was a nice touch, and the interiors were of high quality, there were two problems:

1. It's too heavy to practically cart around. You could, but... It's still quite heavy.
2. You know that spine-tingling feeling you get when you run nails down a blackboard? That happens every time you open and close the lid. Yow.

In any case, the guys who've reviewed this before me, like the box but again the practical concerns of carting around a heavy box was too much to discard. So the company has told me that they're coming up with a semi-hard leather case.

Tech2 summed it up brilliantly in their review of these earphones: The polished brass case is as gorgeous as it is impractical.

Now, on to the earphones themselves. They're gorgeous to look at! The body is made entirely of wood.

 They look fairly solidly constructed. I had some concerns about whether the cables would pop out of the earphones, but they didn't. Quite nicely done. The cable is of VERY high quality, I must say. It looks and feels premium and I don't see any wear happening with even gym-level use for a few years.

Now, on to the major question - how do they sound?

Well, I have mixed opinions here. While there's no denying that the sound is excellent - Signature Acoustics have done a superb job here - it's not a sound signature I'm particularly fond of. It's a very 'laidback', relaxed sound with a lot of emphasis on bass. The mids (vocals, rhythm guitars) are very well defined. The highs - treble - however, was very underwhelming. This was deliberately done by the company, to make their earphones less fatiguing. Fair enough, but I'm a guy who likes to hear each string being strung, if you know what I mean. Here, the treble comes off as a little 'muddy', for lack of another term. 'Rolled off', I believe, is the term audiophiles use.

So I tried this with all sorts of music. I listened to it with two sources:
1. My Sony Xperia S phone, which is a decent music player.
2. My computer, which has a USB AudioEngine D1 DAC and Schiit Asgard headphone amplifier.

Rock and metal being primarily what I listen to, were less than exciting on first listen. But I must put a huge disclaimer here: My primary headphones are the Grado SR325, which is VERY treble-heavy. So I'm used to a 'brighter' sound signature. So the C12s at first felt like they were being slightly 'suppressed'. The mids were lovely - but the overpowering bass meant that I needed to fiddle around with the EQ settings - and got a comfortable listen out of it. The vocals are very upfront - I believe audiophiles call this 'forward', so this will be very well suited for vocal-heavy music like pop, Bollywood, R&B and stuff.

Noticing the emphasis on bass, I guessed these would be great for trance / hip-hop. I'm not much of a fan of this genre, so I tried the only song that I'm a fan of - Sandstorm by Darude. And it kicked butt! These earphones, with their emphasised bass, can drum some serious bass into your heads. And since there are a lot of people out there seeking great bass in their earphones, I can readily recommend this to them.

Just to clarify - just because they're bass-heavy doesn't mean the bass is muddy like in many low-end earphones. You can still hear the basswork on a bass guitar, for instance - however, it's not as tight as I'd like it to be, but from a earphone in this price range, it performs as expected.

I tried some Carnatic (Nagumomu, from the Mallu movie Chitram), some random Bollywood songs I knew, and some fusion (Indian Ocean, Agam). The earphones performed well with Bollywood, but again, I couldn't help but feel some 'sharpness' was missing.

While they're a pair of earphones that are quite dependent on the source (I doubt a Lava phone is going to help you get audiophile-level sound), they don't benefit too much from amplification (which is unsurprising - most IEMs in this price range are meant to be efficient enough to be driven by even a phone).

For the sake of showing off, here's the C12 with my Audioengine DAC and Schiit amplifier.

Price: The price it's going for right now is INR 2700. Which makes it a very worthy competitor to others in that price range - such as the Sennheiser CX270 and Klipsch S3.

The only other earphones I had on me at the time of review were the Brainwavz M2, which are 3750. It would be unfair to compare the two, of course - since the price range is different, so I'll refrain from doing that.

So, bottom line. Would I recommend these earphones?

It depends on the type of music you like and how you like to listen to it. If you're seeking intense amount of clarity and treble, then stay away from this. You'll be disappointed.

But if you're a basshead, want lots of thump, or place emphasis on vocals - then by all means try it out. It's an excellent earphone for the price. To make your decision easier, Signature Acoustics offers a trial period of ten days during which time you can try it out. If you don't like 'em, you can return 'em. I think that's immensely sporting of them.

And in any case, if you do end up buying them, fiddle around with your EQ settings, either on your computer or phone or player until you find what you like.

If you're interested, you can buy them from here.

And if you need more opinions on the C12, here are a few:

Tech2, Digit Forums, On another blog.

In any case, this is a superb start to indigenous earphones. I hope there will be many more such products to come out of the Pristine Note stable. By the way, check out the site, they have some kickass products in there. You can buy the products from their retail site, ProAudioHome.

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Thanks, 2012!

The temptation to call anything 'crazy' is quite prevalent in this era where hyperbole is considered normalspeak. I myself was accused by one of India's top bloggers for labeling everything 'epic'. So it's at the risk of sounding passe, at the risk of echoing everyone who clinked glasses together last night said: It was a crazy year.

Yes, 2012 was probably the best year I've ever had, for a variety of reasons.

The career move: For one, after three immensely awesome years at Windchimes, I moved to Ogilvy, for an awesome role. Essentially, if you're getting spammed with a new Twitter promotion or an app on Facebook, you'll know who to blame.

The incessant cartooning: As many of my poor followers on Twitter would know, I churned out a few cartoons this year. Some have been hits, some have been misses. I was privileged to do stuff for many people - Sportskeeda, Pagalguy, MTV, NH7, Niti Central (I never thought I could to political toons!), Sify, Cricinfo, CrazyEngineers, Ultimate Guitar... Heck, I even did some comics for Karnivool.
I'll be the first to admit I have a long way to go (especially in terms of art!) and have just been immensely lucky with some of the stuff I do. I actually counted how much I've done, and that's... 709 comics/bylines/articles over the year. That stuns me myself :D
Thank you to everyone who's clicked a link I've put out. I hope to be as prolific in 2013... Well, with a little more quality, perhaps ;-)

The gadget acquisition: One of the resolutions of the last year was to not buy gadgets. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Good one. I bought a Wacom tablet (well, the excuse there was - it's for professional reasons. So...), an iPad 3 and a lovely Xperia S phone. And a Logitech G300 mouse. And a Casio Edifice. And an Asus Xonar Essense ST sound card. And a Sony digital camera (since I sold my DSLR). The worst purchase of the year was an electric toothbrush. Never making that mistake again.

Failed project of the year: As usual, #Project72. Maybe this year... Sigh.

Experiment of the year: Stand-up comedy. It started when Apurv, the man who really started my cartooning career, asked me to do a small set on BSchool humour at the All-India Pagalguy meet. What happened was a pretty well-received set, and I was spurred on to try more. Some went well (like the sets at IIMK, GIM and a few open-mics) but some were incredible duds (like a couple of shows at The Comedy Store, Mumbai where I tried getting my guitar on stage - those were just total bombs and I apologize sincerely if you were at the shows).
But I've got some good feedback from friends, audiences and comics, and hope to do better in 2013. For starters, there are a few shows lined up in January in BSchools. Let's see what this year holds.
Having spent 4 years making presentations to marketing managers, I'm no stranger to getting up and spouting foolish things to an audience hoping they'll like the stuff.

The show of the year: I missed Karnivool last year thanks to a surgery. This year, when I got to see them at NH7, I was fighting back quite a few tears. It was a fucking dream come true. Now if someone would just get Rush or Dream Theater down...

The people who made 2012: To all my editors. I'm sorry I bug you and your finance teams so much. Thank you for all the work you let me do. The usual gang, really. H, M, S and of course, her :)
A special mention to the Indian National Congress. Thanks to you guys, I must have drawn half of those cartoons. I owe my new phone, a few LIC premiums, turtle food and stuff to you. Thank you!

Thanks, 2012. You've been quite good to me. I hope you've given your successors instructions to carry on the good work.

AN INTERVIEW WITH AF MATHEW

This was initially done for a website, unfortunately, didn't get published because of editorial concerns. Sadness. Nevertheless, I'm sure Mathew's fans will enjoy it. Publishing it here in full.

A brilliant photo of Mathew taken by Pratap Kaul, a MICAn.

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Professor AF Mathew. The name conjures up memories for MICAns who are years out of their alma mater and would have forgotten their 4Ps and brand Hofstedes. Mathew is an ex-professor of a host of subjects at the Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad (MICA) (and subsequently Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Kozhikode) where he taught sociology, cinema, culture appreciation and a lot, lot more. The impact the man makes is felt long after he leaves the classroom. In the words of a batchmate from MICA, "Mathew doesn't tell you to follow one particular path. He puts all the options in front of you, and expects you to make an informed choice." Long associated with MICA, Mathew is now moving on to IIM Kozhikode in his homestate of Kerala where he hopes to "enlighten young minds".

While no doubt those in b-school circuit would have heard stories about the man and 'Mathewisms' regularly invade Facebook and Twitter during his classes (coughcough), his genius lies not in one-liners with social media currency. To say that would be akin to saying Mark Knopfler was a genius because he helped sell guitars, or Messi because he kicked a ball. Mathew is known to open up minds in a way few would have imagined, especially while entering the cold, ruthless world of business school education. I was fortunate to be taught by Mathew during my two years at MICA, and I'm sure his coming to IIM-K might just help the B-school go a notch up in the 'most wanted B-school by students' section of various rankings. Here are excerpts from an interview I had with him a few days ago, a short while after he quit MICA, and his first ever media interview, I must proudly state!

The author of the blog with a fellow Mallu a few days before convocating.

Can you tell us a little about the courses that you have been teaching at MICA and other schools?

My training --- MPhil and doctorate --- is in sociology. But I take multi-disciplinary subjects when I'm teaching. My broad area of teaching includes subjects like Cultural Studies, Areas of Globalisation --- its economic past, the social past and the cultural past. I also take two elective courses in Cinema Studies --- both Indian and global. These courses are not on cinema per se, but through cinema, they explore the socio-economic, cultural, historical perspectives.

I’m a teacher and if you’re in an educational institute, the main purpose should be education, right? How does one disseminate education? I believe that using various teaching methodologies, you can actually show a slice of life. I use cinema as a medium and try to show what is happening around the world. And this kind of an understanding is necessary irrespective of what career or profession you’re going to pursue. I think a rudimentary, critical awareness of the world is necessary for you to perform well in your work.

And I also take a course on India which is also a socio-economic, political and historical overview. I take all these courses at IIM-K and I’m also a visiting faculty at many places around the country.

You have largely been involved with a lot of marketing schools and courses that celebrate capitalism. How do you make your relatively left-leaning beliefs fit in when teaching at these schools?

Sociology is a very foundational subject to help understand the world around you, regardless of your profession. It’s also important for business. Actually all these subjects are taught in most important business schools all over the world, especially of late. Why? Because it’s a very important requirement for any business student to have these fundamentals at the back of the mind for his/her work. It’s also important in terms of business. You need to have a balanced critical base to your mind which will also help you with your work. This is one of the most fundamental requirements for even business studies. A sociological view of the world will always keep you grounded so that you can do your work in a more efficient, progressive manner. It gives you a sense of perspective, teaches you to look beyond your own world-view and how your decisions will impact various levels of people.

It’s not about capitalism or socialism or anything like that. The focus is to give a balanced perspective to education. All perspectives should be taught. Then let the student decide what he/she wants to do.

The best description of your class I’ve heard is, “He gives us all the options on a platter and says: Now you pick and choose.” For instance, many students might not have a socialist leaning, but the fact that such an ideology exists shows that there is some reasoning behind it. It’s important for students and future manages to be aware of all such perspectives, according to you. Your classes have helped open the minds of your students...

That’s nice of you to say that,  but the most important aspect is to keep different options in front of the students. I try to make sure that whatever is there in terms of sociological understanding is linked to marketing or advertising. These links have to be demonstrated in front of the students to even show the utility to them, whether it’s law, medicine or engineering. Albert Einstein and other great scientists have emphasised that even to teach science, scientific research or engineering, you need to have social sciences as a backing course. 

These are the things that will help you direct your scientific research. So it’s very essential for every discipline to have a component of social sciences. And it’s the teachers’ responsibility to link it to the subjects which the student is pursuing.

Interesting you say that, because when we were in BSchools, we tended to focus on so called action-oriented courses like Marketing and Brand Building and ‘soft subjects’ like Organisational Behaviour and HR were just meant as things on the side that one has to go through them in order to get the degree. But the reports that are coming out suggest that ‘softer skills’ like HR and people management are the most valued assets as you move up in the senior management chain. If that’s the trend globally, do you think that in our country, there is a lack of the kind of courses you’re teaching?

There has been a minor shift in the IIMs, but I don’t see any shift at all in other business schools in the country. In fact, in America there has been a lot of critical thinking about the entire business school curriculum, especially after what has happened in the area of finance, with the recession and crisis in Europe. People are going back to subjects like Philosophy, Sociology and History. 

That is not seen in a big way in India. Nobody’s coming in because there’s no other way out. Given the state of globalisation today, there’s no other way but to reflect on. As far as subjects like OrganisationalBehaviour and HR are concerned, they’re also drawn from the social sciences. The main social science subjects like Psychology, Sociology, Philosophy, History etc. are the mother subjects and the other disciplines that you mentioned are derivatives of these. 

Obviously, subjects like OB and HR are extremely crucial but then the main question is how are they being taught? Ultimately, it comes back to the teacher. A bad teacher can ruin any good subject and can also give a completely different twist to the subject.

Maybe we look upon subjects like organizational behavior as softer subjects because of the way Indians learn. Right from school, the focus is always on marks. When we enter college, if we have high marks, we get into science. If someone gets into humanities, it is assumed that he/she must have got lower marks. Even at B-school, this mindset persists. The subjects that will immediately get one good placements take precedence and are given more importance. So is it because of our result-oriented mindset?

Actually I would call it a short-term vision. If you study sales distribution, marketing etc, then the view is that you will immediately get a job. People who are at the top in any discipline are highly well-informed and articulate people. They will be able to bring forth a discussion on history, cinema and various topics. So in the long term, if you really want to be on the top, you need to be a well-informed, balanced person. You can’t be bigoted or a one-track fundamentalist. You need to have a broad vision and only students who are given this vision will climb their way up and reach the top.

Even in business studies, if you see the top people who are doing very well, a reasonable amount of them are actually well-articulated people. There is no substitute to the long-term vision of a good, wholesome education. There’s absolutely no way other than that.

You’ve always taught us to look beyond stereotypes. Unfortunately, a large part of marketing, especially advertising is stereotyping. (For example – typical shots of the subservient housewife, or the villager who is not at all tech savvy) Be it in terms of things like SECs (Socio-economic classifications, that segregate people by their education and purchasing power) or behavioral analysis. Is the world ready to move beyond stereotypes and how can advertising work without stereotyping?

I think that these are 1950-60 kind of ideas. At that time, the market was booming. All they had to do was present some sort of a campaign and the product would sell. The growth rate was huge. It was just after the Second World War and everything was being rebuilt.

The 1970s saw stagnation and saturation. We also had a sense of awareness among the consumer on issues of environment, progressive sensibilities with regards to portrayal of women, blacks, homosexuals etc. Now there is no way out that you can keep on reproducing the same stereotypes. There are many examples. One example I give is where one particular campaign has gender as one of the most important aspects of the advertising brief. They’ve increased by 33%.  Or how the consumers lap it up if you put environmental sensibilities into your product as well as your campaign. So the consumers are also becoming aware.

One of the most important areas now is segments that were never there earlier in the 1960s, for instance the gay and lesbian segments. That’s a huge market. Most students can actually be homophobic right now. Having said all this, I’m not saying that we’ve reached a situation where no stereotypes are being used. It is still continuing in majority. But it’s not the same as it was before and there is no need now to inculcate better sensibilities among the marketers and business students. The market is not the same as it was earlier. Now marketing professionals need to incorporate all these sensibilities in their work, otherwise they may not actually reach out to the consumer. This debate will continue for some time but it’s not like the earlier times where you could do anything and get away with it. It’s not so easy any more. Although I must admit that stereotyping is still the norm, but it’ll take some more time. Stabilisation doesn’t come in a minute, no?

A slightly controversial question. A large part of the takeaway from your classes has been through unconventional methods - films with nude scenes, UCB ads, Madonna videos, hints at lesbian porn etc. Is this sensationalism or is it a required part of the teaching? Or is it just to hold the attention of wavering young minds?

I don’t think I show any porn in my classes. All the films that I had shown were award winning films. They are by great filmmakers and have won awards at the Cannes and Berlin Film Festival.

But it is a deliberate methodology from my side. As a teacher or an educator, how does one give education to young students? One thing that came to my mind through what my own teacher has told me is that education is hearing things that you don’t want to hear. Anybody can tell you things you want to hear. You’ll become very happy and the teacher will be very popular. The real test is that you must tell students what they don’t want to hear about caste, religion, life, sexuality, gender, race, nations. All the uncomfortable things should be told to them so that they become better equipped not only in their work, but also in their own lives.

Cinema is a very attractive tool and that‘s why I’ve adapted it as a methodology to tell unpleasant things to students. So that they are not only shocked but they also know what is happening around the world. For example, 18 percent of France’s population has voted for a right-wing Fascist party. I think it’s very important to tell the students that this is not a right thing for the world. That is the duty of the teacher.

Tell us about your experience at MICA.

I have a total of 15 years plus of teaching experience at the post-graduate level out of which 10 years I have been at MICA. MICA is an interesting school in the sense that it’s both communication as well as marketing. Communication is an essential component of business operation. How does one sensitise students or communications management professionals to this particular area was a challenge for me. I had come from a typical state university before I joined MICA. What MICA taught me was how to connect social sciences to every business function. That has been my learning experience. In fact, that learning has also come from IIM-K where I’ve been teaching for the last 7 years. IIM-K is a mainstream business school and there also, I had to customise my teaching to the requirements of the students.

When I was at a state university, there was no pressure to link my teaching to business operations. But after joining MICA and now at IIM-K, there is a direct section that says there’s a need to connect it to business functions. That is something I picked up from my stint at MICA. Hopefully, in my present position at IIM-K, I will extend that and probably learn even better because they are mainstream business school students and will help me in trying to bring about these connections even more clearly.

You have largely been perceived as a legend wherever you go and you have a cult following. What are your thoughts on your ‘rock star status’ if you will?

Actually, that is far from the truth. They see only the end product. Wherever I have taught, it was a lot of hard work. In the beginning, there was huge opposition to what I brought to the table! Slowly, you build brick by brick and after a long process, the students actually say something nice. I don’t know about all the students but many have nice things to say. In the beginning, they were always was abusing me! As time goes by, there is some sort of a mutual admiration society that evolves.

You’ve been known to be an extremely difficult man to shop for. Since you have all the movies that one could really want, what would you like for your next birthday? Maybe you can make a wishlist on Flipkart and make it public. Then, IIM-K will have some courier work to do.

How I wish my Flipkart wishlist is fulfilled! It’s a huge list and I don’t know if my students will be kind enough to send me couriers.

There is one thing that I can think of and I will make use of my first interview or public appearance to express my ardent wish that needs to be fulfilled. That is to go the city where Pablo Neruda wrote poetry. I hope I do that before I die. I hope all the students are listening! Maybe they can all get me a ticket to Santiago in Chile in South America!

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That's all, folks, hope you liked this. Sound off your Mathew love in the comments, I'm sure he'd love to see it!

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SMALL MUSINGS AND STUFF

If you're the type who likes spice - who lives and breathes by Scoville scales and whose toilet jet has seen its water being converted into steam - then here's something brilliant that you can do, that a certain someone told me.

Eat spicy stuff. Do not drink water / anything sugary. When your tongue is on fire, close your mouth. Blow slowly. Hot air over a tongue already writhing with pleasure / agony (depending on your point of view).

Soon, your mind will go to places that LSD couldn't hope to take you.

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Turtles are awesome pets. They just plod along in their tank all day, and keep themselves amused. Don't make the mistake of thinking they're low maintenance, though, even if you get them for cheap. The food, the tank, the cleaning - all costs a fair bit.

They poop like souls possessed, though - and the water tends to get murkier than Satyam's account books.

So I asked my good friend Srikeit to ferry me an expensive Fluval filter when he went to the US. After waiting for it for weeks, I finally plugged it in. BOOM. India's 230 V is not equal to America's 110 V. What a freaking waste.

Some engineer I am, but then, I once called water 'condensed ice' or some such, so I'm guessing those credentials have been left behind long long ago.

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I recently bought a cycle, thrilled after my doctor told me I can pedal again after that ruddy accident last year. Felt so good to have the wind on face and all that.

What did the Samajwadi Party's symbol tell the CPI(M)'s symbol after the latter was trounced in the election?
Bye, sickle!

Sorry ok.

FEAR

Fear.

Some people describe it as waiting outside your boss' room before your annual appraisal after a particularly bad year.

Some people describe it as a bowler coming in, with your team on strike needing two to win, with one wicket left.

Some people describe it as sleeping alone at night.

Some people describe it as the wait for exam results.

Some people describe it as popping the question, and the painstaking wait as she thinks it over.

Some people describe it as waiting for the 'Price' slide of the annual Apple gadget presentation.

I thought of many of those too, and more.

On July 10, 2011, my definition changed for ever.

Imagine being woken up from your reverie in the backseat of a car, totally out of control and the driver unable to get a grip. Imagine seeing a huge truck in front of you. And you're speeding towards it, with no sign of slowing down.

That one second when you know you're going to crash.
That one second when you don't know whether you'll be alive at the end of it.
That one second when your entire life - from peeing in public to raising your hands in triumph after conquering Maharashtra's tallest peak - flashes in front of you in ultra-fast-forward.
That one second where you wonder whether all you've worked for - all your hopes and dreams - will just reside in pieces of a useless cerebellum, whose best future could be inside formalin.
That one second where you want to scream, cry, curse, hope, pray all at once.
That one second where you know something terrible is going to happen, and you don't have the power to do anything - anything about it.

That one second.

Everything else - job, cricket results, bugs at home, marks, rejection, iPad prices - seemed so inconsequential.

That. Is fear.

One year ago, each one of us involved in the accident is alive. And well. And in a position to work just as before without any problems. We can think about iPad prices and cricket matches again.

I just hope none of us - or any of you reading this - are needed to be given a reminder on how fragile life is.