#when my head is too full I just spend the morning hopping around and stimming

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it’s so weird waking up with my head feeling so full but not able to articulate anything vs waking up with a clear mind and clear memory of a dream. I now know what it feels like to be a full glass vs an empty one fr

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Microsoft Surface Headphones Review: 1st vs 2nd gen, and why they're great to Work-from-Home or anywhere.

So you're on the market for some new gear, and in your search you stumbled upon Microsoft's Surface Headphones, but you're not ready to make the plunge until you get some more research under your belt, right?

I don't blame you. The right head candy can be an expense these days, but hopefully this short and concise review can help!

Let me start by acknowledging that sound and music are more personal in nature, and everyone has their natural preferences. I happen to dig all kinds of music from musical soundtracks and trap to neo-soul and hip-hop. That aside...

Let's begin!

How much do Microsoft Surface Headphones cost?

Surface Headphones (1st gen) - $139.89 on Amazon

Surface Headphones 2 (2nd gen) - $250 from Microsoft Store

What's the difference between them visually?

To be honest, not much has visually changed at first glance. The design was pretty slick the first time around, and was well received. Even as I rode the subway or walked through the aisles of the grocery store, you could tell people admired the unique modern look. It's simple and clean just like the original.

The first gen headphones are grey/off-white while the second gen are charcoal black. They are beautiful shades, however it does make me wish for more colors. It would kind of be a good look if Microsoft offered four more colors that matched the colors of their logo (red, yellow, blue, green). But, I understand the safer play as opposed to going bold.

So what are some key differences that stood out?

Buttons: The 1st gen headphones had buttons that were almost flush with the cup, which was annoying. There were plenty times where I had to search frantically for the power button. The second gen fixes that by making the buttons pronounced.

Ear-cup Size: The size/diameter of the 2nd gen earcups are definitely larger, which is welcome because I have Will Smith ears. But not only that, it makes for an over all cozier feel.

Earcup Swivel: The Surface Headphones 2 earcups can spin around almost 360, which is great because I have more ability to wear them comfortably around my neck! I'm glad they fixed it this time around.

Multi-Bluetooth Connection: I was easily able to set up multi-bluetooth connections to my various devices, including the Android Pixel4a and Pro7. It was amazing to listen to music or video on my phone, then continue right where I left off on the Pro7.

Grease: One other thing to note...don't touch the black Surface Headphones with greasy hands, it shows much more than if you did with the white 1st gens. That's a user issue though, not a hardware one.

How do they feel once you pick them up?

Without a doubt, the difference is night and day. The 2nd gen headphones are more weighty, and for me that's a great thing. I honestly don't like my hardware/electronics to feel too light, because it makes me think there's not much going on inside to produce a quality experience.

Once I picked up the Surface Headphones 2, then picked up the Surface Headphones (1st gen), I was properly excited to listen. The extra weight provided a sense of anticipation that there would be more UMPH, in terms of low, mids, highs and bass tones.

Setup Time?

It took literally less than 5 minutes to open and pair the headphones to begin listening to music. It was quick, easy, and intuitive for me. I enabled blue-tooth on my phone, then powered on the headphones. Found the name of the headphones from my phone's blue-tooth list, and followed the onscreen/audio instructions, and boom I was setup.

Now if it's someone older or unfamiliar with blue-tooth devices, they might need some help going into their blue-tooth settings, etc.

What about the Sound?

I preferred the sound of the Surface Headphones 2 over the 1st gen. During my test I played all kinds of music at a 95% volume (almost on max...yes mom, I know it's not good for my ears).

One of my main gripes on Surface Headphones (1st gen) was that on higher volumes, and listening to music with more bass, it started to sound like 'rattling', as if the headphones could not handle the true sound.

The Surface Headphones 2 fixed that issue completely. I listened to all sorts of bass heavy music and not a single time did I hear rattling.

The treble is also more solid this time around, and truly shines when listening to slower soundtrack or classical music.

I would say that I'm highly satisfied with the sound on both fronts. And if you're curious here are some of the songs I listened to on both Surface 1st gen and Surface 2nd gen.

And here's the rest of the list in case you're curious or want some new jams:

Story of OJ - JayZ

Cyberpunk 2077 - Pacific Dreams Radio Playlist

Father Figure - Tobe Nwigwe

Will (Remix) - Joyner Lucas & Will Smith

O-o-h Child - The Five Stairsteps

This Land - from Lion King original album

Black Panther - Ludwig Goransson

Break You Off - The Roots

All the Stars - Kendrick Lamar & SZA

Nothing Without You - Tanerelle

Adonai - Sarkodie

Be Here in the Morning - Joy Denalane

Noise Cancellation and Ambient Amplification:

The noise cancellation is solid. With no music playing and maxed out ambient filter on, I couldn't even hear myself snapping fingers next to my head, or my wife talking to me in her normal voice (which is occasionally kind of loud - no shade).

The noise cancellation was great on SurfaceMulti (1st gen) but it's now even better with the 2nd gen, especially when drowning out annoying sounds when walking outside (such as people, cars, trains).

I also love the ambient amplification feature, that's easy to use by dialing up the level on the left ear cup. I use that regularly if I'm listening to music, but want to also know if someone says something to me directly. Or the other day, when I was in the grocery store and walked up to the cashier to checkout, I didn't have to take the headphones off. I was able to up the ambient amplifier to max, and speak with the cashier. Once I finished, I immediately turned my music and noise cancellation back up. It was pretty seamless.

Charging and Battery Life:

Officially the 1st gen gets 13 hours and the 2nd gen gets 18.5. After a full charge, and then turning on the Surface 2, the voice said I had 17 hours left. I typically only listen in 1 - 3 hour spurts at my highest usage, so that pans out to about a whole week almost without needing to recharge.

Overall Verdict:

I'm highly recommending the Surface Headphones 2. For the price point and quality, I feel like the Surface Headphones 2 are your better buy, especially considering how they stack up against similar competitors. I felt like Microsoft paid attention to all the things that actually needed improvement, instead of trying to switch everything up. That impressed me more than anything honestly, how they paid attention to the minute quality of life details. Compared to other headphones I've tried in the same range, excluding the Sony XMs, I'd say these are very well priced and outdo the predecessors as well as the competition. But even compared to Sony XMs, which are prices $100 to $150 more, the sound on the Surface Headphones 2 are definitely comparable. I certainly don't think you'll be saying "I'm really glad I spent that extra $100+ on these Sony XMs".

I would have no problem recommending these to anyone trying to figure out what to spend their next stim check on!

[feral-space-possum]

Close to You [Lifetane]

Game: Apex Legends

Ship: Lifeline x Octane

Idk there’s some light pining in it from Octane or something, idk what to put. 

“I know you can fix this on your own,” Ajay’s annoyance was more for show than anything. Octavio knew this. He knew she would rather he come to her over something silly than end up without a working prosthetic—that didn’t mean she was going to be all rainbows and sunshine about it though. “I’m beginning to think you enjoy scraping years off of my life trying to guess what kind of,” She shook her head with a sigh as she tried to find the correct word to describe his actions. “ridiculous schemes and stunts you’ve been trying to pull off.”  

“Don’t tell me your one of those ‘here for a long time, not a fun time’ people, Amiga.” Octavio retorted with a laugh. While Ajay worked on one of his prosthetic legs, he propelled himself with the remaining prosthetic leg in a rolling chair. It was their compromise, otherwise, he’d be hopping around on one leg out of boredom, something Ajay said was dangerous and annoying. If it was anyone other than Ajay, he wouldn’t accept the compromise, the chair was too slow, too bulky trying to careen around corners as he tried to make the time Ajay spent repairing his leg fun.  

She wasn’t wrong when she had stated he could repair it, but…he enjoyed messing with the combat medic. She always had some sort of retort for his nonsense, but in the end, he knew she would have his back. You couldn’t buy that kind of friendship and trust for a million dollars.  

Octavio pushed off of a wall with his remaining leg to give himself momentum, careening along Ajay’s workstation in her home, before coming to a halt right in front of the table she had all of her equipment laid out on. Bits and pieces of his leg lay in the middle.  

“So tell me, Doc,” Octavio made a show of being all up in the business of what Ajay was doing. Resting his chin on his hand as he looked up at her. “How bad is it? Is the leg going to make it?”  

Ajay pretended to be mulling it over, putting down one of her tools to stroke her chin as if lost in thought over this conundrum. “I don’t know. We may have to amputate….” She paused for dramatic effect, “Your head from your neck.” A wicked, joking grin covered her face.  

Octavio let out a faux-shocked gasp, partly going along with Ajay’s bit and partly to hide the fact that her smiling face was a sight to behold all on its own. “As exciting as that sounds, don’t I need those two connected to each other?”  

“Hm, one way to find out for sure.” She picked up the tool once more as she returned to her repairs. “Either I advance medicine in a shocking way or find a way to finally keep you still and out of my things. I call that a win-win.”  

“So harsh!” Octavio spun in the chair, just to do something. He enjoyed being close to Ajay, but damn, that didn’t mean his craving for excitement was magically cured thanks to their proximity. Life didn’t work like that, and he definitely didn’t want it to. “I think I want a second opinion.”  

“You also need a major dose of Adderall.” She retorted. “There’s your second opinion.”  

“I’m beginning to think you don’t know anything about medicine and that you just lied to me throughout our entire friendship just to be able to build and work on my legs.”  

“Yes, I played the perfect long con.” Ajay stopped what she was doing to stare at Octavio with a raised brow. How she managed to keep her voice level and face straight was a feat in and of itself. “I knew that one day, you would perform a stunt so daring it would cost you your legs. Then decided, ‘yes, I want to fill my days with fretting over the oh-so-famous Octavio Silva instead of getting work done for ventures to frontier planets’. You found me out.”  

It took him a moment to get over the fact his voice sounded a lot better being said by her than anyone else before he continued speaking. The wheels in his mind never stopped going full throttle, but Ajay had a way of making them slowing for just a split second in a way others could never achieve.  

He laughed to cover his slight embarrassment at the way Ajay seemed to knock him just slightly off-kilter without seeming to try or even realizing it. He tapped his left temple, “I see through your lies of having a medical license.”  

“And yet you still let me patch you up and repair your prosthetics. Maybe it was you who just wanted to spend time with me since, supposedly, I have no real medical knowledge.”  

“In your dreams, Amiga.” A paltry retort, usually he was able to shoot back with something much more devastating. Something that could keep their banter going for a while longer, but there she was, making his brain go off the rails just long enough that he couldn’t form a full, coherent sentence other than some lukewarm ‘in your dreams’. What, was he five?  

If Ajay noticed the lukewarm response, she didn’t comment. Her attention was once again focused completely on the leg on the table. From the look of it, she was almost done. Part of Octavio was glad, he could escape the scene of his embarrassing reply relatively unscathed, but also that meant he’d no longer have an excuse to bother Ajay in her place of residence.  

Knowing himself, that wouldn’t remain the case for long. He’d do some sort of stunt and end up needing her help again….well, need wasn’t the truth. Want, fit better. But what kind of friendship was that? Constantly asking for her help was bound to get annoying. But he wanted to see her, though their interests weren’t always aligned. The most daring thing she’d done that he had personally seen was using his jump pad in the midst of a firefight in the games to get the high ground for just a moment. He remembered she’d commented about that fight, thinking her stomach was going to go through her knees after the games had concluded. Still, he needed something perfect, something that didn’t revolve around the games or something being wrong with his prosthetics.  

“I’m done. You can finally go back to raising hell for others, instead of just me. I know you like having an audience.” Ajay hooked her foot around the supporting column of the chair Octavio was sitting on, pulling him close enough that she could reattach the prosthetic for him.  

He was going to be caught dead complaining about it.  

He didn’t slow down for anyone, he just happened to be lucky that Ajay could keep up with him—in a certain sense of the word. She seemed dead set against using his stim to make herself faster in battle. Her loss.  

He watched, barely breathing, as she leaned forward to reattach the leg. Her brows furrowed and, if he wasn’t intent on not ruining the moment and their current proximity, he’d tease her over the lines between her eyebrows and claim she looked old or something. Classic.  

“Do you reattach all of your patients’ limbs for them, or just your favorite ones?” Shit. He couldn’t manage to go five minutes without making some sort of stupid comment. He’d tried. Still managed to ruin it.  

Ajay rolled her eyes, but there was a smile on her face. “Oh, you consider yourself one of my favorite patients, huh?”  

“Of course! What’s not to consider me a favorite over?”  

“The fact that you have called me at three in the morning over your prosthetics repeatedly.”  

Well, yeah……he could concede that point—but he wasn’t going to. “Just keeping you on your toes. Who needs a solid, what is it, four hours of sleep, anyway?”  

“I’m surprised you are shooting for four hours.”  

“Oh, I’m not! But my fans say I should. And then they go and say that’s not close to the amount you’re really supposed to get. Amateurs. Who needs that much sleep to function?”  

Ajay pinched the bridge of her nose. This man was a trainwreck. “Technically, you need eight. Yes, you, Octavio Silva.”

“Hm, sounds fake.”  

Ajay snorted, rolled her eyes, and made a shooing motion with her hand. She wasn’t going to get anywhere with that conversation. It’d be more likely she could convince an enemy team in the games to give up and let her squad come in first, which was to say: impossible. “Get out of here, before I learn any more about your horrible sleep schedule that causes me actual, physical pain.”  

He gave an exaggerated salute, hopping up from the chair. He gave the leg an experimental bend at the knee, kicked it forward, before seeming satisfied with your work. “What do you know, maybe you weren’t just in it for the long con after all.”  

Ajay tried to look annoyed, she really did, but while she managed to narrow her eyes at him, it was obvious she was fighting back a smile and failing miserably. “Don’t you have some fans to impress?”  

“Always.” Too bad she didn’t seem to be one of them.