About Us ...

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I figured I should tell any people who we are:

I am Brent, my wife is Kathy, and we are both audiophiles. 

I am not sure exactly when I became one ... but I am pretty sure when Kathy became one.

I take that back - I know exactly when I started down the path.  I wanted a "good" stereo system when I was living in California, but there is only so much you can do when most of your paycheck went to basics - and your house was small and cramped.  I know now that shouldn't have been a barrier, but back then it seemed insurmountable.

So I subscribed to The $ensible Sound- and picked up copies of Stereophile and The Absolute Sound when I saw them in the bookstore.  And enjoyed reading about them and dreaming about the day when things would converge and I would have enough room and cash to put something really cool together.

Life has a habit of changing - and I'd also say I learned the meaning of "be careful what you ask for."  The company I worked for went through a merger and I found myself not liking my job very much, and so I found a new job (a promotion!) in Western NY.

If 2 is good, is 4 (or 5.1?) better?
When I cashed out of California, I ended up swapping a 1200 sq ft house for one that was nearly 3500 sq. ft.  Suddenly I had both room AND some cash.  The new city I found myself in (Rochester, NY) had several places that sold high-end audio equipment, too.  So about the time my house closed, I took delivery of Thiel Speakers and some electronics to drive them.  I was over the moon.  At that moment, I had become an audiophile.

Fast-forward several years.  My marriage had fallen apart, I sold the 3500 sq. ft. house, and got a 1900 sq. ft. one - and upgraded my initial system to something completely new, excepting the Thiel speakers.  So, while my life was in flux, I still had the stereo, and the sound was better than ever at that point.

Enter Kathy - I won't delve into the details of how we got together, but suffice to say at that point we were spending a significant amount of time together.  She loved the sound and enjoyed music on it - but it was clear that it wasn't central to our entertainment at that point.

I had adjusted things in the living room (again) but couldn't banish a boominess in the bass.  I was fussing, and fuming and trying to figure out how to tighten up the bass as it was very annoying in tracks with a lot of bass content.  I came across a tip from online which had you placing pennies under the spikes of the speakers when on hardwood floors to control bass coupling.  So with 8 pennies in hand, I set about doing just that.  When I got everything set - Kathy was in the kitchen preparing dinner - I turned on the test track - Erykah Badu’s “Rimshot” ...

"Hey that sounds good ... what did you do?" came from the kitchen.
"I just put 8 pennies under the spikes of the speaker - seems to have tightened the bass"
"Fuck a duck ... really?" and she came into the room.  Looked at the pennies, and asked me "Is this all you did?" I nodded.  Heaved an exasperated sigh and went back to the kitchen.
She told me at that point she didn't drink the kool aid so much as received her first force-fed dose.  I think at that point she was an audiophile.




Comments

  1. KayJune 30, 2013 at 7:35 AM

    I really am a morning person so I reread your entry this morning to confirm the fact that eight pennies really did fix your speaker system. And I read Kathy's to learn that she really did say "f...a duck" (Sorry I am too old and too prudish to even write it all out.) Also, enjoyed how she tossed back the kool aid metaphor. This is going to be fun.

    That said, the whole music/sound thing in my family belongs to Bob, my husband, or Tom, my brother. Both are 100 X more musical than I and a whole lot more technical so if reading this blog is more about music and tech than laughs and general smarts, this may be my last post. That's not a threat, just a fact.

    But what a great start!!! Congrats.

    ReplyDelete

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