Putting Curtains in the Man-Cave

A Good Read! Yes, I know, this blog is primarily about stereo gear, music and families.  Why should we review a book on people who collect records?  Essentially a book report? This book is quite a trip.  And having been through the book, I'll say no matter how "far gone" you may think you are collecting records, these guys are unimaginably hardcore .  People going door to door in bad neighbourhoods surrounding record plants that had closed, looking for undiscovered 78's is one particular example that stood out in my mind, and another one was describing a "Holy Grail" record that was a musical based around household products that actually ran on Broadway (probably one night).  But the book is filled with examples of the various sorts of collectors and collections they have, and the lives they lead. In any event, I took the book on the plane, and poured through it on my way to my destination.  It was well written, and each chapter stands on its own, so...

Music, more than gear, drives this hobby  I am finding this article to be difficult to write.  I have started several times, and erased it - gets too preachy, ponderous, pedantic, detailed.  And all I really want to say is that "if you want high end audio to be mainstream, you had better make sure you have mainstream pop music in suitable resolution" Don't believe me?  Try this little experiment: Put yourself in the shoes of someone who is under 30, and the music that us old farts would call "contemporary pop" A small sample of them would be: Fun. Lorde Bastille Pharrell One Direction  Pitbull Mumford and Sons Katy Perry Jason Derulo Ellie Goulding Eminem  Arcade Fire Florence and the Machine Ceelo Green Christina Aguleira Beyonce Zedd ... etc. In this thought experiment, your parents listen to music you don't really "like" or "get." That would be some Classic Rock, Jazz, some Blues, some C...

Neil Young making the round, evangelizing for Pono, his plan and mechanism to save recordings' soul ... We have been aware of the development of Pono for the last few years, and when we saw a few announcements and the Kickstarter campaign pop up, we went in to order ours on what turned out the be a wave of support. We see they are flirting with $2M $3M $4M $5.3M raised in their funding campaign, which clearly is on the path to being one of the most successful Kickstarter campaigns yet.  It also bodes well for high end audio, as well as high quality recorded music.  And the fact that one of our favorite audio companies (the majority of our electronics come from Ayre for those keeping track), Ayre Acoustics , is doing the analog guts of the player, means it will stand with the best of the best. from www.Ayre.com This post is NOT an advertisement for it, though we would encourage you to consider it, or something like it as a personal music player. We listened to ...

A friend of ours who is rather well connected in the audio field was talking to us about our adventures in selecting some new cables, and made a surprising comment in passing, a tangental comment to explaining to us why people made so much argument on the yes/no canard about cables making a difference:   "Well, you guys actually listen to your music a lot ... that's not as common as you'd think" Really? Wow ... I mean we spent an embarrassing amount of money on a stereo that gives us great joy and enjoyment of our music every single night - or at least most nights.  We actually rarely watch TV anymore since we can listen to our favorite bands with the illusion of a live performance! What's mind boggling is that in the audiophile spectrum, we are dead average for spending.  It is truly mind boggling for us to contemplate that there are lots of people with gear we could never possibly hope to afford, with sound reproduction even better in a larger, bet...

As he placed the trade paperback sized piece of metallic graphite on top of the amplifier, and stepped back ... the bass improved, and the clarity took a jump up.  He then muttered something like a curse word and removed it and stepped back.  Yep.  A bit muddy.  Back it went.  Clarity and defined bass.  He sighed and returned to his listening chair looking somewhat defeated, but not daring to remove the thin brick from the top of the amp.  The subtle improvement proved far too significant to ignore. Debunkers? Welcome to my world. Cognitive dissonance.  Insanity.  It goes by many names, but for a technically minded audiophile, there is a point once where it dawns on you that everything matters, and some things that seem to have an effect on the quality of sound simply makes no sense.  I think a lot of audiophiles can develop coping mechanisms when faced with this.  The simplest thing is to deny the evidence of your senses...

The vinyl LP ... the once and future king? God, I'd love it if the 12" vinyl record would the dominant media once again - or at least be a preferred choice, roughly equal to the various alternatives. And from lots and lots of news reports of the meteoric growth it seems to be experiencing you might conclude that it is simply a matter of time before it reclaims it's usurped throne. Despite the buzz, and the growth, and its currently small slice of the music pie, the LP is likely to be a niche format for awhile.  There are a few things people aren't talking about that explain why.  We call them "Challenges" rather than "Barriers" since it is very possible to overcome them if the popularity growth proves to be solid, not fleeting as many lazy journalists seem to think. Estate Sale of Vinyl - this will be hotly contested by various used record shops. Challenge 1 :  Used Vinyl is becoming harder to come by and is rising in price If you a...

Pure silver stranded wire ... the last inch to sonic nirvana, or hokum ... opinions abound, and all too common is that people don't actually trust their ears ... Cables are some of the most hotly contested and infuriating aspects of our hobby.  You can easily spend the price of a component on a single cable if you aren't careful.  People will have opinions, but sometimes the right cable or cables can and do help maximize the money you spent.  And complicating things is the varying quality and levels of electronics - with, generally, better speakers and electronics benefitting the most from high end cables. A rational discourse about cables of the "Does it/Doesn't it" variety ... The same can be said for speaker placement and room treatments, too, but I think the so-called "debate" over cables is probably the most emotionally charged.  And yes, and the arguments go something like this:   "I tried out XYZ cable, and found the sound ...