A couple of years ago, at Fry’s on the north side of Indianapolis, I bought a little dealy called a Boosteroo, which is simply a headphone amlifier, which allows you to hear what the people are saying in your iPod/PSP/Android/etc handheld video when you’re in a nominally noisy environment.

When I bought it, I wanted it primarily for airliners, but nowadays I spend an hour or more on city buses daily, and having just a little more audio power is the very thing to jump the gap from frustrating to enjoyable, when I’m listening to “serious” programs, instead of cartoons. For a while, I was using primarily South Park and The Simpsons on the bus, because compared to live-action programs, practically all the lines are shouted in the cartoons. The real-people programs inevitably involve whispering.

After I bought my Boosteroo, it worked well for a couple of trips, and eventually became erratic on one channel. I had to take it apart and re-solder it, which took me two tries, because the old soldering iron had lost all heat control. Recently, I bought a new soldering iron, which does a lot for one’s general self-esteem, of course, and also allowed me to fix the Boosteroo. Since then, I have been really happy with it. On the bus, I actually play things on my Motorola Droid at less than full volume, because full volume is too painful, as God intended. There is no discernible clipping at any setting.

I also am beside myself with Joy to find that when I dub between computers, I can insert the Boosteroo in the audio chain and get louder, distortion-free track audio.