The Tale of the Forsaken. (Buffalo HD-PXU2 Portable HDD Review)

I happen to be an early adopter of this certain drive by Buffalo, and  let me break it to you guys before i begin this futile review that it has now been abandoned. Just like that. Still interested? Then read on.

Released on Jan last year, it had impressive features like hardware encryption, flex USB cable and turboUSB driver.I was sold on the hardware encryption alone as it offered hassle free password protection of your data, a feature overlooked in almost all the brands available here.

Portable data security has been considered a niche segment and its only the manual methods which are available to those aware of the risks of carrying 500-odd-GBs which anyone can 'plug n pry'. In that regards its a welcome move by Buffalo to introduce such innovations in the stagnant storage market.
But for all its worth, it's certainly pitched wrong. First up is the high price, an MRP of 15k is clearly too much premium charged for features which the industry decided against including in their products just because they think the gloss-loving crowd wouldn't know better. And that, apart from being patronizing, doesn't justifies its price tag.
For the sake of review i'll include some benchmark captures, which isn't exceptional, and an overview of the aesthetics. The purpose however isn't the review, instead i wanted to share my misadventure with this particular product and discuss why its a disaster if you choose to buy it!


Build Quality

Hands-on feeling is good with a slight weight and matte texture on the back along with rubber outlining for better surface grip.Then there's the  integrated flex cable; a feature which just contradicts its positive first impressions over time due to usability issue. It scores on mobility but maybe this picture will suffice why you'd rather carry the extension cable along than risk it being loose at its joint (thus undoing the whole point of its inception), desktops usage will further confirm this BIG fail.
The drive has two indicator (red,blue) for disk activity and encryption status.
Overall the build & ergonomics is kinda meh. 


Performance

In short, everyday usage feels snappy enough to ensure its one of the better performing drives around. But is this performance unscathed? You bet not!
A part of the premium this product charges is due to implementation of TurboUSB, basically a tweaked driver which provides some speed gains when installed on the host computer (you have to install it on every other computer you want it to work on). Now i don't mind installing stuffs if it means a tangible speed improvement, but 64-bit incompatibility makes it a dud. Then there's the bigger issue that if a premium is being charged, why offer some lame, incompatible tweaked drivers instead of latest standards like USB 3 or even power E-SATA?

HDTach benchmarks with and without TurboUSB -

Issues & Conclusion

 
The firmware's incompatibility with 64-bit Windows (Linux/MacOSX not supported at all) is itself a serious flaw for a premium product, add to that the fact that no kind of support is provided in the website and you know why i have been crying foul the whole post. I tried contacting them to no avail and now that it has been abandoned in less than a year's time, i realize even this review is a waste of time.

The new product (HD-PXTU2) fixes incompatibility, retains the TurboUSB (you no longer have to install it), is still devoid of USB 3 and charges a similar premium in the same enclosure as its half-baked older brother. Somehow the company felt releasing the same thing with some polish is better than issuing a firmware upgrade and not ditch its customers as lab rats.
In conclusion, if there has to be one, steer clear of it or its successor (short and spiteful!).

Late Night Jam Session (Ultrasone Hfi-450 Review)

Been playing with the 79$ Ultrasone Hfi-450 headphones i talked 'bout, and after a 2hrs continuous session with my customized Foobar2K, here's my little review on it.
First up on the whine list are my sore ears. There's some extra resistance from the band and the pleather paddings are just not deep/large enough to prevent your ear from being slammed into the hard plastic beneath so after a stretch things get real stiff for those with melons like mine!
And thats it.
These cans are pretty fresh and li'l short on the recommended 100hrs burn-in but so far it sounds really balanced. On comparison, Creative's budget plugs EP-630 sounds like a cheap radio (not a fair comparison by a long shot, but that's an easy reference!).
Listening to some Allman Brothers, CCR, Slayer & Dylan revealed a great frequency output. Bass notes were well-defined, although a bit lacking and boomy, warm mids and clear, sibilance free highs.

The headphones have what the company calls 'S-Logic' (gimmick alert!) technology for some '3D' effects, if anything they've fantastic instrument separation/soundstage for a closed cans and I'll give credits to this s-logic-thingy for that!
Superb experience overall.

Ratings 8/10, with points being struck mainly for its build quality. They sound good for the sub 100$ price,offers great portability due to rotating/collapsing design but has comfort issues, making them unsuitable for prolonged listening.








Update: The test was done un-amped on a portable source and although they're pretty easy to drive, one might see some improvements with a good amp.