Reviews Written By: A1SMHIPICUSIFPprovided by Amazon.com |
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 | Schwinn 460 Elliptical with Variable Stride Technology | |
 | "Very Pleased!" | 2009-04-22 |
| The hunt for the ideal home elliptical is tough, unless you want to spend a fortune. There's so many choices, even in the under $1000 range. I spent a long time researching various ellipticals and decided to purchase the Schwinn 460. My girlfriend and I are both over 6' tall, and though the standard 18" stride length of most sub-$1000 range machines works just fine, it's not ideal, and it's nicer to have a longer stride, if you can find one. I liked the idea of the Schwinn 460 because it offers variable stride lengths from 2" to 26" depending on how fast you're moving. But it's worth noting, you don't adjust it manually, it depends on the amount of work you put in! This is also good if you just want to step a little, or want to go all-out and run like crazy with a 26" stride. I might have been happy with a Schwinn 430 or 431 (or various other 18" stride machines) if both myself and girlfriend were not so tall. Delivery/Packaging: Yes, this is heavy. I was happy the delivery man was kind enough to bring it into my apartment for me. Schwinn did a great job packing this thing up and it seemed well protected while shipping. It took me a while to take all the parts out, and some are fairly heavy, but none showed any sign of damage except a few scratches on the mast (conveniently covered by the cupholder). Assembly: I must admit, I was dreading this stage, but to be honest, it was seamless and much more straightforward than I expected. The instruction manual has decent sized pictures, all the parts are well labelled, and I found nothing confusing. They recommend someone to help at various stages, but I did it all myself. Admittedly, I probably could have done with some help in places, because there's a few spots when an extra hand would be useful, but it's not essential. Some of the parts are heavy though, especially the main body. With a bit of concentration and effort, it's straightforward. If anything, it's more 'fiddly' than strenuous. The tools provided are perfectly passable. You might want to use your own 17mm socket wrench, but I found the supplied one just fine, because on the whole you just use that for leverage and twist bolts tighter using the hex key. Appearance: Steel tubing on this machine is thick and well constructed. All the parts are smooth and well-engineered and everything feels very stable. No squeaks, no rattles, smooth operation. I was aware of Tiffany's review below stating some issues with the machine feeling like it can topple over... I really can't see that, I have to give the machine a damn good shake to even get it to wobble. On a purely aesthetic note, the 460 does look a little different to other ellipticals, it's certainly more angular than most other machines, but I like it. The LCD display is clear and the touchscreen functions well. Being tall, there's a little bit of 'fade' from up high looking down on the display, but it's still very legible. The machine does stand quite tall though, at their highest point, the pedals are over 20" off the ground, so those with low roofs might need to be careful. Operation: So this is the key thing, and so far I'm delighted with the Schwinn 460, and greatly relieved I made a good choice. The variable stride pattern does take some time to get used to and the strides are independent, so to begin with it can feel a little disorienting and I sometimes got myself 'out of sync'. But even when this happens, it's not like you fall off the machine or feel unsafe, and within a short time you get used to it. I love varying my work out from longer strides to shorter strides. I know some others have commented that there's no arm resistance, but I disagree: longer strides require longer arm pulls, shorter strides require less. Pull harder and you go faster and work out more. Up the resistance, and you WILL work your arms if you're striding long! This is common on all cheaper ellipticals, and I've only seen very expensive gym machine offering separate upper-body arm resistance independent of your legs. The 460 offers a nice range of resistance, some good workout courses, the ability to construct your own workout patterns, and of course, the 'inspiring' messages telling you you're doing great or not working hard enough! Anyway, I hope this review is helpful for anybody looking into this machine. There's some good reviews here on Amazon so far, but fewer out on the web, and some of the seem suspiciously 'spammy' or are those generic fitness equipment blogs where you're not quite sure who's really offering the review. I think there's some discussion as to whether the variable stride thing is a gimmick, or perhaps that it doesn't work you as hard as a regular elliptical or exercise the 'right' muscles because of the independent strides, but even at the very simplest level (let's say you never varied your stride at all) it appears to be working me out as well as any other elliptical machine, and that's the key thing, but offers a few features to make it more varied and fun. | ||
 | Skagen Men's Titanium Watch w/ Black Mesh Band | |
 | "Echo..." | 2009-03-04 |
| Just echoing what lots of others have said. Love the dial, thinness, lightness, style of this Skagen watch. Only watch I've had where people actually comment on it. The deep blue color is beautiful, it keeps good time, and it's very comfortable. But, oh, the strap! Yes it's cool looking, yes it's light and comfortable and stays on tight, but the black metal clasp has now lost its black color and has started to fade, what with it being steel. And now the actual strap itself seems to be losing its black pigmentation too (even though I thought the mesh part was titanium too). This is such a shame because the rest of the watch is perfect, and I still love the design of the strap, just not so much its practibility or potential durability. | ||
 | Sennheiser EH-350 Pro-Style Digital DJ Headphones | |
| "Fantastic" | 2009-01-07 |
| Like a previous reviewer mentioned, these are pretty much identical to the now discontinued Sennheiser HD-497 Over-Ear Headphones (Silver), a pair of headphones that served me brilliantly for many, many years, so I was very happy to find Sennheiser make a practically identical pair of cans. The sound from these is excellent for the price level. I guess a good sign is that I rarely find myself tweaking my iTunes EQ levels much, as they offer a great all-round natural sound which switches seamlessly from genre to genre. I've never been keen on headphones offering hideous amounts of bass as a feature, the bass levels here are perfectly respectable without giving me a migraine and I find they're great whether you're listening to dub-heavy Jamaican dancehall or Ralph Vaughan-Williams. Comfortable too :) | ||
 | The Rotters' Club | |
| "another great novel by a truly gifted writer" | 2007-12-20 |
| Insanely great novel by Jonathan Coe. At turns harrowing, funny, poignant, but always exceptionally readable. As someone who grew up and went to school in England during the '80s, I found so much in Coe's portrayal of a posh Birmingham grammar school that rung true. Different decade indeed, different kind of establishment compared to my no-nonsense secondary school, but the parallels were there, from children's cruelty, unrequited loves and lusts, growing up and discovering girls, and most importantly, trying to find a place for yourself in the world. The Rotter's Club is a great rollercoaster ride of emotions, full of moving moments and great humor. Coe's prose is fresh and precise as usual, but what makes his work stand out is his incredible ability to capture insightful moments so perfectly, something which many novelists struggle to do over hundreds of pages, but which Coe sometimes manages in a few mere sentences. Be sure to check out the follow-up 'The Closed Circle' too. | ||
 | The Rotters' Club (Vintage Contemporaries (Paperback)) | |
| "another great novel by a truly gifted writer" | 2007-12-20 |
| Insanely great novel by Jonathan Coe. At turns harrowing, funny, poignant, but always exceptionally readable. As someone who grew up and went to school in England during the '80s, I found so much in Coe's portrayal of a posh Birmingham grammar school that rung true. Different decade indeed, different kind of establishment compared to my no-nonsense secondary school, but the parallels were there, from children's cruelty, unrequited loves and lusts, growing up and discovering girls, and most importantly, trying to find a place for yourself in the world. The Rotter's Club is a great rollercoaster ride of emotions, full of moving moments and great humor. Coe's prose is fresh and precise as usual, but what makes his work stand out is his incredible ability to capture insightful moments so perfectly, something which many novelists struggle to do over hundreds of pages, but which Coe sometimes manages in a few mere sentences. Be sure to check out the follow-up 'The Closed Circle' too. | ||
 | Black & Decker CHV1500 15-3/5-Volt HEPA Cyclonic DustBuster - white and grey | |
| "an improvement over the 14.4V model" | 2007-04-04 |
| I had the 14.4V model for a couple of years (it has green buttons, but looks physically the same), and it served me pretty well except for the battery never being able to recharge consistently and properly. So, even after a full charge the power would dwindle within half a minute or so. I picked up this 15.6V version and am very impressed so far. It seems to hold its charge a lot longer, so maybe Black & Decker fixed the battery issues with the previous one. Also, its lower setting is super powerful enough, I very rarely even have to switch to the higher one. The test of time will be whether it continues to hold its charge consistently, or start to fail like the previous version. Like many other reviews, I seriously recommend emptying the tray and dusting off the filter every time you use it. | ||
 | PANASONIC SC-PM19 NITRIX Series Micro Audio System - Wood Finish | |
| "great value & performance" | 2004-06-24 |
| Well, for the price, I don't think you can go far wrong... you get a lot of bang for your buck. The system's appeareance is clean and cool looking, it has a small footprint, and the remote, though small and a little cluttered, doesn't take long to get used to. Most importantly it sounds just great! The speakers are good, and again, for the reasonable price, it produces better sound than I expected. CDs play beautifully, there's a few EQs to choose from, and separate bass/treble settings. The radio is good as far as i can tell, and I'm sure tapes (remember those?) play just great. Haven't tested MP3 yet, but like the way it reads tags and displays them - a cool feature for sure. Overall, this is a perfect little system for my apartment and I'm happy with Panasonic quality yet again. | ||
 | A Northern Chorus - Spirit Flags | |
| "fantastic" | 2004-06-01 |
| Incredibly beautiful and haunting pop music from this Canadian band. A lot of groups try the whole "post-rock" or "shoegazer" or "dream pop" style thing, but A Northern Chorus pull it off magnificently with songs that range from hypnotic to acoustic to fragile to stirring. A lot of variety here and it works really well, even over its hour-long length | ||
 | SENNHEISER HD-497 Stereo Headphones | |
| "Wonderful Cans" | 2003-01-03 |
| These are excellent headphones, especially for the price I paid - I feel I got much more for my money that I would expect at this price, especially since lots of other name brand headphones are in a similar price range. I listen to CDs while I work often using my computer's CD-ROM. I never realized audio CDs sounded so good! I always thought my soundcard was weak, but it must've been the old headphones I used to have. The highs are high, the bass is loud without being obtrusive - all in all, I'd say these headphones give a very 'honest' sound, and that's a great thing. I find them very comfortable, even for long periods of time. They're light, but can get a little sticky after an hour or two. Highly recommended. ** Just a word of warning: I've had a few people tell me at work that the sound from these leaks pretty badly... not that I mind of course, but your colleagues could get a little irritated, so beware! ** | ||
 | Bissell 35451 PowerGlide Plus Upright Vacuum | |
| "excellent vac!" | 2002-11-13 |
| In the end I had to purchase this from another online retailer, but I still wanted to write a review because it deserves high praise! It's very simple and efficient, and is pretty powerful for something so cheap. I've found it works really well - better than some of the more expensive cleaners I've used - and I'm really happy with it. It's fairly light too, has a long power-cord, and the onboard tools make it a breeze to use. The filtration system is adequate and does the job well. The only indication of its 'cheapness' is its rather plasticky construction - but so far mine has held out pretty well, and if I had to buy three of these in 10 years, it'd still work out cheaper than a lot of other manufacturer's products! Oh - and to the reviewer who can't find bags - try your local BestBuy - they're [money]for 3 - or order online from the Bissell web site! | ||
 | JVC AV-36F703 36" Flat Screen TV | |
| "excellent TV!" | 2002-10-28 |
| I'm very happy with the features offered by this TV, especially for the price - when it comes to 'bang for your buck', I found this JVC great for all uses. The 16x9 anamorphic squeeze means when you watch a DVD which is widescreen you can set the DVD player to '16x9' then select the 16x9 button on the JVC TV remote and away you go - the DVD resolution is upped, and you get 33 inches of widescreen DVD glory... it looks seriously good! I like the fact that this TV has a good picture on cable, digital, VCR, and DVD. The sound from the built-in speakers is excellent as well. Pros: flat-screen picture is sharp and easily adjustable Cons: very, very heavy (189lbs) | ||
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