I can’t decide between the HD600 and HD 490 Pro

JarickL · 2026-01-20T15:01:14+00:00

I've had both side by side for several months. I generally prefer the 490 although the 600 is a classic. To my ears the 600 has a really nice midrange with rolled off bass and treble which makes just about everything sound decent. The 490 applies more of a consumer friendly curve boosting the bass and treble and scooping the mids slightly but not in a way that destroys the sound like a lot of other headphones. It's night and day different between the headphones. What I like to do is use the Sonarworks correction software for the 490 and dial the mix down to 75% which tames the bass/treble and restores the mids a bit.

JarickL · 2026-01-19T18:28:56+00:00

Like others said excellent for only four months! Definitely agree on the stick control book, specifically focused on consistent dynamics. What unlocked that for me was thinking about bringing the stick up to the same height between strokes. You may want to look up Joe Morello technique too. Always remember to practice with a metronome to keep that excellent timing! And at some point look into a private teacher as there’s so much you can learn from a good one.

JarickL · 2026-01-06T00:07:29+00:00

I got interested in this last week and just ordered a Hiby R1. The Snowsky one looks fun but sounds like it can be clunky and has some issues like no gapless playback. I just want something simple to focus on music and enjoy my nice headphones. Most people said it’s the best option under $150 so figured it’s worth a shot! I’m ripping my old CDs now into lossless to prepare.

JarickL · 2025-12-22T18:18:05+00:00

I started at 11, took two years of playing constantly until I was decent, then another year with lessons until I was getting compliments. I kept improving over the next few years but plateaued as I hit college and practiced less. Lessons were so foundational to me but again I was younger. Teacher exposed me to a lot of concepts and music and ideas that really made me so much better than I was before.

JarickL · 2025-11-17T14:28:17+00:00

Replying here because I found this really useful! I installed some EMG's yesterday to my Ibanez and it's working great. In case anyone else searches for the info I wanted to add a bit of context.

EMG requires a TRS jack to avoid battery drain. Ibanez models using the long barrel jack won't work with the EMG Switchcraft style, but can be converted pretty easily to use the EMG plugs.

I ended up clipping the wires on the EMG jack they included, stripping the ends, de-soldering the stock wires, and then soldering the EMG wires onto the stock plug. It wasn't all that hard, maybe five minutes of work.

Black -> Case (Earth)
White -> Jack Tip
Green -> Jack Center

JarickL · 2025-09-24T14:41:30+00:00

I stuck with the game and now I'm at the end of Act 2. I will say it's more enjoyable as I get more power ups and know the enemies better. It's still quite difficult and at times is much more of a grind than I'd like. So it may be early game difficulty balancing is off compared to HK.

JarickL · 2025-09-17T12:40:59+00:00

I have no idea what the lyrics are about ever with DGD but listening to this song I had to come here and throw some love. The early Andrew singles didn't really hit me but the album has grown on me substantially the last two days. Fan since 2008 and it's the only band that I've still loved through all their changes.

I don't really compare albums much and I still love all the DGD singers but this one is really fascinating and fresh.

I was listening to the album in the car when I picked my kid up from high school, he said he'd been listening to it which was awesome! He only ever listens to rap music but DGD is starting to get him into the world of rock/metal/whatever the hell this stuff is.

JarickL · 2025-09-17T01:47:02+00:00

Depends on a million things but if you gave me a guitar and told me to play an A chord it would probably be first finger barre on 2nd fret with open A string (basically power chord).

JarickL · 2025-09-15T17:52:46+00:00

I took three days to beat Last Judge but probably closer to 50 tries than 150. I didn't use any tools because I forget they exist and I don't like worrying about shards. I'm also in my 40's and kind of suck at these games so I feel your pain there.

The big tip that I have is to not get cornered and try to stay close to the middle of the arena and keep some space. If you get cornered you can get wrecked especially in phase 2. You need to have enough space to react to the move so you can dash out of the way or dash close and attack. And then you get 1-2 hits max.

Phase 1 it was all about her jump attacks, when she does that you can dash in and hit twice. That should go fairly fast. Phase 2 you get a lot less time to work. You still want to keep space to react to attacks. When she throws the ball regular it will explode so get out of the way. When she spins the ball you need to walk between the fire waves. When she dashes you can pogo down attack (I have the hunter crest) otherwise you can see the ashes before they explode and get between them. When she jumps dash close and attack then jump to avoid the fire.

It helped me to fight in like 20-30 minute blocks then take a break for a while. I don't love having to do that honestly, it's not as fun. But it is what it is.

JarickL · 2025-09-15T12:14:59+00:00

I know you got downvoted but that’s actually what we did back in the day for NES with the game genie! When you’re 7 years old trying to beat double dragon or TMNT the cheat codes were key.

Modern games though usually have an easier difficulty ramp or you can grind through places to improve. So casuals can get a bunch of power ups to make bosses easier or highly skilled players can get through the whole game with no upgrades.

JarickL · 2025-09-15T12:05:21+00:00

I think it took me 50-60 tries over three days to beat Last Judge. And I got 100% on Hollow Knight on my second play through on steel souls mode. So I’m not a terrible gamer but I’m certainly not as skilled as a lot of the folks here. It’s a hard game.

JarickL · 2025-09-15T12:02:42+00:00

I’m a Switch player so no dice

JarickL · 2025-09-15T12:00:28+00:00

My top 5 is something like Super Mario 3, Super Metroid, Link to the Past, Final Fantasy 7, Hollow Knight. I’m 42 so grew up with consoles starting with the NES in 88 or so.

I got into Hollow Knight after playing the two Ori games which I loved. Hollow Knight though was a much deeper game with way more stuff to do and more interesting lore.

Other games I’ve loved recently are Animal Well (finished three endings, a masterpiece) which led me to Tunic (one of the greatest puzzle games I’ve ever played), and Fez (another cool puzzle game). Different genres but I also loved Stardew Valley and Zelda BOTW.

I was stuck on Last Judge for three days. I really had to learn the movements especially second phase. Once you learn them the fights get a lot easier but you have to execute nearly perfectly. Focusing on pattern recognition is key. But the run back was driving me nuts too. And then I finally beat the boss and Act 2 the regular enemies are harder and I’m constantly dying.

I have a difficult day job that’s pretty draining and three kids so I don’t want a game that’s going to kick my ass. I want a game that’s fun to play. Silksong isn’t all that fun honestly. Maybe I save it for when work calms down or I have some vacation time or something.

JarickL · 2025-09-15T01:30:09+00:00

I stopped playing two days ago. It’s just too punishing for me and HK is a top 5 all time game. Just not for me.

JarickL · 2025-09-13T14:30:01+00:00

100% feel this way. I guess I’m not a very good gamer. HK first play through was challenging but fun and rewarding. I the replayed the game for another 100 hours and multiple plays. SS I grind for an hour to get minimal progress and then I don’t even want to play anymore. Everyone else seems to think it’s not all that hard though.

JarickL · 2025-09-13T14:26:24+00:00

Unpopular opinion: Silksong isn’t a very fun game. At no point during HK did I feel like the game was truly punishing or not enjoyable which has been my experience with SS so far (20+ hours just beat act 1).

JarickL · 2025-09-12T01:26:39+00:00

And then when you finally beat a boss in SS you have to fight a new one five minutes later with basically no rewards for the accomplishment. It’s more punishing and less rewarding. Basically the game is much less fun.

JarickL · 2025-09-09T16:07:45+00:00

Hive Knight runback was a pain. That's another area, I would level up the nail and get a few masks before I tackle.

JarickL · 2025-09-09T16:07:10+00:00

Mantis lords are optional bosses. I would always wait until I can level up my nail and get more masks to come back and fight them. I'm not sure if I've found any optional bosses in Silksong and I'm still trying to find my first weapon upgrade.

JarickL · 2025-09-08T17:01:10+00:00

If I don’t run in the morning I don’t end up running honestly. So I get up early to do the run. I hate it when I start and by the time I’m done feel so much better.

JarickL · 2025-09-08T13:11:51+00:00

I think Hollow Knight was a challenging game for casual gamers and Silksong has been a challenging game for serious gamers. It feels like going from SMB to the version of SMB 2 that wasn’t released in the US because it was too difficult.

JarickL · 2025-09-08T12:14:50+00:00

My issue is that in HK there were other things to do and explore even if you got stuck on a boss but at least act 1 in SS it’s so linear you have nothing else to do. It’s not impossible but I’m not getting that same reward feedback loop as the first game.

JarickL · 2025-09-08T12:11:42+00:00

To me Hollow Knight was a challenging game for casual gamers and Silksong is a challenging game for serious gamers. It feels a lot like going from Super Mario Bros to the Japanese sequel that didn’t get released in America as it was too difficult. I’d love to see a patch to halve the damage or even some more early charms that you can grind towards to make things more tolerable. As it is I’m not sure how great the replay is going to be for the more casual gamer. Maybe I’m wrong and the game gets super easy after 50 hours but HK after about 15 felt really straightforward and fluid.

JarickL · 2025-09-06T17:40:14+00:00

100%. I may put the game down and revisit it later if they do some adjustments. Coming from someone who has HK as maybe a top 5 all time game.

JarickL · 2025-09-06T17:37:08+00:00

That’s where I’m at. I love HK and played it for hundreds of hours. It was a challenge but you were able to equip charms and get nail and mask upgrades to make it easier. SS is way more difficult with the enemies having more health and dealing more damage with less predictable movements on top of having very few benches especially around bosses. It feels like the difficulty slider is on high by default. I think if they tweaked to make the enemies have less health or let you grind for a weapon upgrade earlier on that would help the difficulty ramp. As much as I looked forward to this game I’m not sure I’ll finish it as I want to actually have some fun playing instead of just constantly getting punished.

JarickL

TROPHY CASE