Sunday Studio Projects: Audiophile 101

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Ear Yee! Ear Yee!

Hear all about it!  This is a fine weekend to work on your home sound system, isn’t it?

We are going through a modest upgrade to the home studio here at UrbanSurvival in order to get back into podcasting with gear that sounds (slightly) better than run-of-the-mill podcasts.

In the process, you might enjoy a walk-through of several audio/sound concepts that may immeasurably increase your enjoyment of the “hi-fi” experience.

Whatza “Audiophile?”

Easy:  “A Person who enjoys hearing ultra-clean sound in an acoustically appropriate setting at levels enabling full enjoyment of what the Artist, Producer, and Label wanted to present.”

Here are our top giveaways  that Reveal Non-Audiophiles:

Too much bass.

People love bass.  It comes produced into a lot of hip-hop and urban.  But, too much bass is a very bad thing.  Because the more bass you like, the more attention to detail is required in your system.  Above all, you want a system which will cleanly reproduce exactly what the Label released.  Not just something that will set off seismographs two counties over!

Single Amps.

A lot of people have good stereo amplifiers driving a couple of good quality speakers and they  believe that’s a good system.  And, it may well be.

However, if you have a  complex system – not some company’s idea  of what  they then will sell and think sound right for a particular price point – then at a minimum you will bi-amp.  And what we’re wiring up now is tri-amped speakers.

The reason – even with a woofer-mid-tweeter “in the box” – is that when an amplifier is pushing out a fair bit of power, on peaks all the power will be going to whichever speaker is involved.

Say there’s this Van Halen riff you love.  When the woofer is maxed out, the lower mids can falter.  Or, the sparkle in the guitar’s upper harmonics will sound “flat.”  Just not “there.”

If your source is wired to drive three amps, then no  one range runs out of power.  It’s a much more dynamic sound when dialed in.

Improper Phasing.

What is speaker phasing?  Simply:  When you connect a battery (like a D cell, right?) and have the grills off, do the speakers push the same direction?

If they do – and your amp wiring is not crossed! – the speakers are said to be in phase.  With some practice, like on this test page over at AudioCheck.net, you can do some blind test listening and see how good your ears are.  It’s humbling for newbies.  Takes practice to keep sharp, too.

Too Loud or Too Quiet.

An audiophile will generally like to listen to music at around 90-100 dB level.  But it’s a trade-off.  Playing tracks louder will get you more definition – no question.  But, over time (try on 20 years in radio on-air studios “rocking out”) and your ears will get some “mileage on them.”

The first way this comes through is in attenuation of senior’s upper frequency hearing.  Thing is, if it helps you  hear the music like you “remember” it, jack that treble up and rock with it.

Idiotic EQ Settings

Let me tell you some “old school” technique here.  Back in 1966, age 16, I got my first class commercial radio ticket.  That was the key to being a transmitter engineer age 16 and $10 bucks an hour.  Minimum wage back then was $1.25 an hour so 8-times Minimum Wage would be like $58 an hour today.  And while still in high school – reading meters every half-hour as required at directional radio stations. (It was also called ‘babysitting’ the DJ’s who had third class licenses.)  Min Wage bumped to $1.40 the following year, still imagine a making $51.25 while still in high school….

So one night, my boss, Lloyd Jones,  picks me up at the house (11:30 at night) and we drive half an hour out to the KYAC (“The Soul of the City”) transmitter site in Kirkland, Wa.  Turn on the transmitter and get ready to do an “audio proof of performance.” Experimental period started at midnight. Walt Jameson, a long-time PNW P.E. was there too.  We were early members of the Seattle SBE chapter.

For the next 5-hours we twiddled and fiddled and got the RCA audio console and the venerable Collins 21-M to “play” to the FCC rules of the time.  Flat audio response (from the console) out to the modulation monitor + or – 2db from 20 Hz up to 7.5 KHz.  As a practical matter, AM transmitters only need to be ‘flat’ to over 5 KHz.  The better the high-end frequency response, the  wider  the signal became.  And 10 KHz wide was the regulatory objective.

More highs in the audio sounded great, but adjacent channel interference, blah blah.. FM would some along with Stereo going mainstream shortly thereafter.

Don’t quote me on this, but I think the Rules now (Section 73.44) call for down 25 dB at 10.2 KHz.

“How does this relate to ‘idiotic EQ?”

Just coming to that:  You’ll notice that what we were doing (back in the day) was working our butts off to get to  linearity.  Basically from bottom end of bass up to 10 KHz.  Oh, it was glorious.  I’d adjust the audio generator, Lloyd would work his magic on the console (going through all the channels, individually) and Walt (before he earned his P.E. as I recall, but been  years) putting it on graph paper and doing the pencil work.

Noise had to be -45 dB through the system and dead flatt (as close as we could get it) + or – 2 dB.  Remarkably, it worked.  One audio channel had a couple of dried up caps and was failing, but we soldering in new ones and it was golden.

If you’re adding much more than 10 dB with a graphic equalizer, or even less parametric, then you may have unrecognized linearity issues with your system.

How to Do a “Studio Proof”

There are two main approaches.  One way is the “engineering” approach.  This involves a very good quality audio generator, an AC voltmeter (at your speakers) and (with more wiring) a distortion analyzer.

“Great…how much for those?”

Ummm…not much change back from a $400 bill on eBay.  Maybe $140 for something in software…but that brings its own set of problems.  And no, we’re NOT going to mess with telling you how to wire up a distortion analyzer test.  AYFKM?

If you want, though, you can shop for a distortion analyzer on eBay over here.

There Is An Easier Way!

We are all over-easy (and we’re not ‘egging you on!’).  The alternative which will get you equally good results for home use would be a laptop and what’s called a reference microphone.

The first thing you will need is a) a signal generator or b) click over to the AudioCheck.net Test page here.

Second step is to decide what you’re going to use as “linearity check points.”  Flat EQ settings or switched completely out, right?

We’ll want a few checks for bass response, some mids, highs, and tweets.  So your test plan (depending on speakers and cross-over frequencies if known) might looks something like this:

  1. 30 Hz  _____
  2. 250 Hz_____
  3. 400 Hz_____
  4. 750 Hz_____
  5. 1000 Hz_____
  6. 2 KHz _____
  7. 3.5 KHz_____
  8. 5 KHz_____
  9. 7.5 KHz_____
  10. 10 KHz_____
  11. 12 KHz_____
  12. 15 KHz_____
  13. 18 KHz_____
  14. 20 KHz_____

If – when you actually run your test – you get some “sketchy results” add additional frequencies between the troubling ones.  It can help zero in on the problem.  Like people, you’ll find “bulges” in unexpected places!

“What am I Measuring On?”

Right.  Remember that laptop we said you’d need?  That’s where you will be running audio input measuring software.  Any old digital audio workstation (DAW) package will work – including Audacity.

The trick shot here is getting the least-cost mic for what you want to get done.  So from the cheap – and scaling up – the choices include:

Or, when Ure is hard-of-thinking and just wants to reset the graphic EQ to dead flat, you can get an idea with a cheap audio level meter.  Something good like a $56 buck VLIKE LCD Digital Audio Decibel Meter Sound Level Meter Noise Level Meter Sound Monitor dB Meter Noise Measurement Measuring 30 dB to 130 dB MAX Data Hold Function A/C Mode.

These little meters are great – because you can find standing wave nodes in a room (where not to listen) – and you can protect your ears by looking at the sound pressure levels (SPL’s) which you will want to keep under 100 dB, except maybe for that riff you love.  110 dB – but only very short periods.  For longer listening 85 dB is better.  Ears get damaged over time from concert-and-club backed abuses.

But, in a pinch you can set mids and such with an $18 (yes, you read that right $18 bucks) BAFX Products – Decibel Meter/Sound Pressure Level Reader (SPL) / 30-130dBA Range.

Still Flat Sounding?

Don’t grab for the EQ settings yet.  There are more pieces of gear to consider:

One piece of gear we’ve really enjoyed is called a  BBE 882i Sonic Maximizerand it will set you back about $150.  But what MAY make it worthwhile is that it doesn’t EQ.  It actually adds some additional high frequency harmonics.

I just picked up a seriously old-school Aurel Exciter Type C MODEL 103 and I can hardly wait to compare that with the BBE unit when Shipagedon gets it here….

This naturally leads to  a long discussion about the Fletcher-Munson Curve and how your ear’s response can then be modeled, too – and that – in turn – can be used to “inform” your EQ settings.  But don’t get stupid about it because when you get over 100 dB SPL’s (sound pressure levels) hearing problems can crop up quickly as mentioned.  High volume, shorter time spent listening (TSL).

Oh, should mention the older you get, the more you will find there are higher lower thresholds.  Elaine’s is down around a 35-40 dB SPL.  In a super quiet room out here, that’s about all the quieter life is, say the meters – so no big.  I can drop into the mid 20’s (used to be high teens) but that’s only when “following a very weak Morse code signal” on the ham gear. Mostly nowadays I lose tracking down in the 25-30 dB zone.

Ears – like any other body part – need to be used.  Listen to songs and focus on one instrument per listening.  Audio is in the details and learning to listen to the high-hats, or bass, or vocal, or backing….all the art form.

When we’re seeing both how LOUD and how CLEAN the system sounds (I mentioned the Van Halen riff for a reason, lol) I wear foam ear plugs.  Elaine goes to the gym.

If someone claims to be an old-school audiophile, ask them if they know what sel-synch is.  Then, ask them to explain it.  If they can’t, then sorry, rip up their old-school card.

OLD School Audio

If you find all this audiophile stuff interesting, here’s a snip of an email exchange with a long-time reader, source, and seasoned citizen who was an extreme video & audio jock for a living. 

We were talking about the Tanberrg DA-20A 10″ reel to reel analog recorder I bought off him recently.  He had told me his plans for the unit which sadly didn’t come to pass, this time around.  Think you’ll enjoy the story.  Much insight into sound, video, and how the magic works:

“I’m in North Carolina, as you know.  Lots of people around  here play.

Lots of them are also kinda old-fashioned “acoustic” people, not fond of Hi-Tek stuff in their music.  A lot of them probably still honor vinyl records, too.  Many see digital capture, editing, and media delivery in an all digital universe somehow fails to capture, “the ineffable patina of Reality” that linear and acoustic Mystic Sound provides.

As I said once, I think tape hiss, at an acceptable level, is somehow effectively transparent to the mind’s perception of the music.  Dolby kills that transparency.  CD sample rate artifacts don’t help, and slew rates are distorted and de-emphasized by the whole digital domain process.

As a registered, card-carrying, Golden Eared human, I know what they mean.  On some recordings, in the pauses, it is said one can “hear the air” in the concert hall.  “Room Tone,” movie people call it.  It’s a Real Thing.  (My guess is, that you know well exactly what I’m going on about.)

Some of this is hokum and bullshit, but there is an underlying reality to it.

Hence, The Dream.

I’m probably too old, too burned out, too broke, and too low on energy now, but The Dream was to create a recording label and production house for the beginners and old hands that were good — excellent, maybe — but never had been able to herd all the cats to “make a CD.”  The best nascent musicians are rarely the best technicians and business people.

(Do you know the work of the late Eva Cassidy?)  (Listen to attachment.)

She’s sort of the model.  Unappreciated in her time.  Deserved better.

As a Practical Fact, downloads and CDs are ‘Good Enough” quality for the vast majority of  folks for distribution.  Vinyl is just not a contender in the cruel, impatient, and frantic paced world of today.  Whether it’s “better” or not is mooted by Practical Reality.

So, the cachet was to be, —  All Linear Recording and Production, and release in CD, acoustics dominant, “Unheard Of Music.”  That’s the label and company name.  It’s also the most basic marketing positioning.

Promote via print ads, website, and sell via website market basket. (No jobber distribution.)

It would have been heavy on Country and Folk.  Maybe some Jazz.

That was to be my retirement occupation.  Putter, doing the things I enjoy most, make a few bucks, and help Good Talent get Discovered.

I have given up this whole enchilada now.  My time is past, and there are other fish to grill.

The Lord wants you to have this machine.  It can’t be stopped.

It’ll get there, if that is so.”

And it has, and IS.  So with it in hand, and some discrete amps to wire in, it’s time to resume the Peoplenomics podcasts, shortly.  So we can spend a little more time “going to the heart through the ears.”

Though through the eyes, works, too.

I was very moved by my friend’s notes.  A response in kind – with his notes in arrows and bold – will get you deeper into the archaic ideas of a Linear Sound School or Studio:

G: “OMG – you are preaching to the converted.

I remember in 2004 being all over the Burbank and LA areas looking at studios when I was relocating the Sound Master Recording Engineer school from its old digs on Magnolia Blvd. in Burbank’s studio district to – what turned out to be a beautiful ground-up build 15,000 sf in Alhambra…

But there’s a sense when you “clap out a room” – and you just sort of “know the spot where the “sound is right.”  There’s one to four areas in most rooms where the sound is “perfect.”  Hard to explain where that “sweet spot” is, though.  Clapping-out a room (listening for the echo of the clap – seeking that ideal room ambience…yeah…)

  —>  I well know this procedure. 

When we decided to change a deck that I had built into a modest recording studio (10X20) the idea of a “small project studio” was exactly what was in my head.

   —>  In Viddy-O world, these were known as Boutique Studios. We were one with some few bigger capabilities.

Bought some initial gear for it, including an analog board that had a firewire out.  The firewire bit the dust – and the company stopped supporting the gear – but I have held onto that board because it (for some accident of design) had some of the best pre’s in it I’ve ever heard.

Speaking of desks…One of the things I hated about the move of Sound Master was seeing the new generation of boards coming up.  SSL and others own the field now. Great gear? Oh yeah.  But old-school Linear?  Not so much. But in the Sound Master main room was a 32-channel Quad Eight.  Going from memory, one of the big name musicians of back when bought it.  Might have been one of the Red Hot Chili Peppers band…lived in Arizona is about all I can remember.  ZZ?  Been a while.

Bi-amped stacked Crown power amps on playback and the low end was filled out with old Goodman 12” woofs.  These had a lot of history to them.  Goodman made speakers in the UK that were designed to protect granaries from pests like mice and such.  You see Goodman’s come up on eBay now and then – a slightly mismatched pair in good shape caught my eye the other day – starting bit was $500.

   –> I have a pair of very old Jensen 4311s in my living room.  Leftover from the Good Old Days.   Pretty damn good.

I think the technology has changed how we produce music – and certainly closer to your end of the viewfinder, I think subscriber Hank out in Hawaii could weigh in on this – the same can be said for film (as in Kodachrome) and other “analog video” – But when “perfect video capture” came along it somehow lessened the “art.”

   –>  When everybody’s Uncle Bud got an 8mm viddy-o camera from the local department store, and when these guys began to satisfy the low end and the cheap end of corporate and commercial — I knew The End of my way of life was at hand.  Quality died, and most folks couldn’t actually see the loss.

I’m sure you saw it filming:  The old-timers knew how to light a scene – any scene – in the field and do it somewhere between “well” and “inspired.”

   –>  Best single Wise Quote I ever heard about photography came from Ansel Adams, who said, “Photography is much more about light than it is about things.” 

That was the magic back in Panaflex days.  The lighting was the magic and a certain graininess or “look” to the film…why, it couldn’t be beat.

  –> Film grain “dances” in motion picture film.  This moving dance means that any particular clutch of grains will completely change 24 times a second, and like viewing a house while driving by its tall picket fence, the Mind interprets the Meaning of the material behind the dancing grain.  (Or electronic shot noise.)  I believe this Mind’s interpretive effect is why tape hiss seems transparent to the music.

Well, the same thing has happened to the music.  Everyone is over-EQ’ing, too damn much compression…art’s been taken to the wall for a smoke.  And if the vocal is a little hot, there’s a tendency to compress a whole mix, rather than the one offending track that needed to be adjusted.

   –>  Eva Cassidy’s early work is crude, and technologically simple, but her later tracks were “studio produced” and became soupy and inflated to no good effect. 

The result is good – and don’t misunderstand the technical magic we can throw in with VST’s and such is amazing.  And I am a HUGE FAN or samples done at the extreme genius level by what seems to be maybe the third other person on earth to get this – Gary Garritan who’s “World instruments” is superb…as is his Abby Road Piano sampling. GPO and more.

Maybe it’s not in the recording so much as it’s in the producers.  I can hear a piece of music and oftentimes figure whether the track was mastered in Nashville or L.A. – there’s almost a regionalism to how things come out. Producers, like fish, run in schools.

   –> Commercial producers kill the soul of nascent music for profit.  Crass, arbitrary, and cynical.  And they’re very good at it. 

Could it be that…Maybe we have put too much emphasis on the post-production processes?

   –>  Yes.

The “artists” of today are “one take wonders” mainly.  Two short stories to illustrate the point.  Well, make that three short stories.

Back when I was at Encore (I forget if it’s in Burbank or Glendale) but Everlast and his engineer were working on a new album.  It was an absolute pleasure to watch.  They were craftsmen working at their trade.  And the result shows – and it’s very much in that groove Leonard Cohen nails in “First We Take Manhattan.”

–>  I love the Jennifer Warnes viddy-o of that song.  (YooToob.)  She and Cohen had a “thing.”

But – other times and other places – the “one take wonders” would be on mic.  They would so a so-so (or, honestly, a sub par take) and that was it.  A producer (more like ego enablers) would say “We can fix that in post…”

  —>  “Shoot it right, and save a LOT of money in post…”   (Me.)

The result?  An over-produced mish-mash of highly compressed and over EQ’ed sounds.

   —>  See “Wall Of Sound” by That Guy.

I wonder how many “producers” these days even know what room ambient  is and how to adjust the “presence” effects when mic’ing an artist?

Our Studio out here is still DVM (Drums, Voices, Magic) but here’s where we ran into a problem.

Elaine and I were going to buy an old RV and set it up as the “guest quarters.” (Because we would be able to dual-use it as a bug-out rig).  And we were going to advertise just a bit and give people looking for a basic  8 to 16 track project studio a place they could come for a good time, steaks on the BBQ, and lay down great tracks.

Sounds like a dream, doesn’t it?

   —>  I would think in any small market (like here) one quickly runs out of the Truly Talented But Undiscovered rather soon.   Nice dream, though…  Make ’em stay in a hotel 5 miles away.  Some psychic relief and separation while Giving Birth is a Good Thing.  Everybody is annoying after five days or so in close and continuous quarters.  Everybody needs some periodic decompression time.

Except for one thing:  We ran out of people. Pandemic.  An “aw shit” of Life.

In other words, while we have a lot of really neat stuff here, most of the “artists” would rob us blind in a heartbeat.  People today are incredibly self-centered.  And think they know it all.

   –>  I’ve had better luck over a career-span.  Some bastards and inflated egos, but far more very decent folks.

I remember doing voiceovers (which I made a very decent side income on) – and with a good producer I sometimes had to do 10 or 12 takes on a single line to get exactly the “right read.”

   —>  Been there, done that, got the T-shirt, and finally overcame the hangover.

It was tough… I’m sure you’ve seen the movie “In a World…” and the Youtube video of Orson Wells going around and around with a dumb-ass producer (here if you haven’t:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ol5RpDEzLzY.)

Another classic producer-artist event was William Shatner’s experience with a producer who “knew more than the talent.”  (Which you can hear over here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMV1bwXyi54 ).

   —> Heard both.  Great Classics in my former business orbit.  Widely shared.  I’ll counter with Casey Kasem’s “dead dog” rant.  Arthur Godfrey had a good one, too.

We’ve kicked around this “shortage of talent” problem – one take wonders and such – and asked “How do we find people who are really interested in their craft?

When I ask someone (like an aspiring artist) “How many hours a day do you practice?”  And they tell me – “I practiced for an hour last week…” I know they’re not wholly immersed in the objective of a great performance which is the basis of great music.

   —>  Q:  “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?”  

            A: “________________________”   (One word: thrice repeated.)

[Practice for those who’ve never tried it…]

Besides:  Who would respond to an ad like this?

“Small project studio in East Texas Piney Woods looking for honest musicians to record.  No (recent-10 year) criminal history, no hard drugs, no drunks.  We seek visionaries who want to capture a great vibe.  If interested, contact Drums, Voices, Magic at…..”

   –>  We never cared about people’s private lives & sins.  As long as they didn’t bring the cops down on us, and were honest in their craft, we could collaborate.   One reason why separation each day for relief in long projects is vital.

I doubt we’d get any response. Scammers, crackheads, and thieves anymore…

But that’s OK – the studio is where those time machine experiments are still pending.  And you know – this whole discussion of  “linear reality capture” is damn useful grist on that front.

   —>  I think retro production workflow and technology is poised to become a popular  (and short) fad.  Not quite there yet, but coming very close aboard.   Vacuum tubes.  Open reel tape.  Razor editing.  Even vinyl release.

[Related to the Retroculture piece on Peoplenomics this week, too, if you haven’t completely nodded out by now…]

Be well

  —>  Workin’ on it.  Need to make Dirac Transceiver coffee cups and T-shirts for food.  (Some obsolete secrets all I got left.  Gotta monetize them while there’s still time.)   If only I could say all the Really Good ones….)

I need to go tri-amp the mains in the audio playroom and get back to modeling the sounds that generate dimensional warps.

Write when you make more than just money,

George@Ure.net

61 thoughts on “Sunday Studio Projects: Audiophile 101”

  1. don’t forget to sweep the stl!
    & water the lawn at the transmitter site.
    & Why are those spare fluorescent tubes over by the transmitter glowing?

      • I found out why they call the wire trenches under the transmitter “Mouse Runs”. One got in and tried to hug the mercury vapor rectifier tube. He touched the top cap and fried in place, hugging the glass.
        My head hurts just thinking about the angst of doing the ‘proof-of-performance’ overnight at the radio station(s), wondering if it would pass, or what I would have to fix. In my later years learning digital audio and later HDTV I have become a big fan of digital bit-slicing technology. I used to love to argue with ‘audiophiles’ about how solid state amps were demonstrably cleaner and flatter than tube amps. Tubes just add pleasing harmonics that audiophiles love, but it is still, by definition, distortion.

  2. While I have a decent audio system, I find myself listening to the little Klipsch Promedia 2.1 computer desk amp & speaker set more than anything. The availability of a wide variety of digital sources from the web makes it my favorite.

  3. I never liked bi-amp or tri-amping. I always thought that Sound is a more subtle Gestalt complex construction than most people think.

    Interactions (intermodulations?) between overtones and waveforms can’t be walled-off from each other like cubes in an ice tray. To my (uneducated) mind, a full-spectrum amplifier and transducer (speakers) maintain the full interacting, intermodulating, Completeness of a complex Sound.

    The frequency-selective aspects of cross-overs or even line-level EQ boxes, chop up the Gestalt of the Sound into independent packets — BUT! — there are subtle phase-shifts and errors at the skirts (edges) of the passband of any filter or frequency-selective processor that change the relationships.

    That’s why a CD of a Bosendorf or a Martin Dreadnaught, and being in the room with the Real Thing are such very different experiences.

    (In my humble and bullshit opinion. I can’t really explain what I’m trying to say — all I can do is “fire for effect,” and drop a few rounds nearby and hope the shrapnel bits hit the target a little.)

    When a total system’s errors and deficiencies work to cancel each other out, one gets a Complete end-to-end system of Truly High Performance. Magic happens when all the bits happen to agree with each other — usually accidentally — and the damn thing sounds Great, often for reasons not fully understood.

    • One other small point. One good way to keep as much “bandwidth coherence” as is possible is to use Super-Big-Ass high power, ultra clean, very wide bandwidth power amplifiers.

      Peaky-peaks (VERY short in duration) of twenty times (or more) of the average sound level need to be faithfully amplified. This isn’t easy. 100 or 200 watts a side for an amp delivering to the speakers is maybe a minimum. Yeah, it’ll run at maybe four to ten watts 99.9% of the time, but at the peakiest of peaks, the event is over in a sub-millisecond time frame — but if the amp saturates, even very extremely briefly, the Magic will die.

      This is hard to do for another reason. Powerful solid-state devices (power transistors) have a thing called “crossover distortion” as the waveform passes though zero volts in the waveform cycle. The transistor’s gain has a teensy hiccup of non-linearity very near the zero-volt crossover point. This creates a minuscule distortion. The only way to beat this is to use fully-linear power gain devices — like vacuum tubes — that don’t have any crossover distortion, because they never go through a zero-volts point: they are “on” — conducting — 100% of the time.

      • Here, my friend, we TOTALLY agree – which is why I am using a big Crown for the effects/rear channel of Ure’s earish retreat. The problem for most rational consumers is manufacturers outright freaking LIE about power ratings.
        There is (when amongst the grownups like our commenter) only ONE measure of power. Steady-state RMS into a 4 or 8 ohm load.

        Music power? I lmao when I see someone on Amazon claim 3,500 watts! from an amp that is on 110v ac mains power. NFW. Not even for milliseconds because they so “value engineer” shit now that big-ass ultra caps in the power supply (which can extend the peak power a good bit) cost money. And well, as you know, THAT doesn’t work.\

        I feel my BP rising…no discussions of power ratings for you!

      • Not music power George, but peak input power: 3500 watts, bridged, into a 1/16 ohm load, for 4ms, at 10000% THD, and all for $79.95 delivered!

        That’s one of my main gripes, as well.

  4. Thank you for introducing us to Eva Cassidy. What a voice and talented guitarist and what a tragedy her life was so short. I remember lying in bed at night during my last year of college with the headphones on and listening to Gordon Lightfoot sing In the early morning rain – over and over again. Brought back great memories.

    On a totally different note, you have not mentioned woo woo dreams for a while. I have been having some doozies lately. Too many to mention but one about a futuristic Chinese car assembly plant in America. Scary.

    Maybe you can have a “dream day” column sometime where you share your recent collage of dreams and you invite your readers to share one or two of theirs. I can’t be the only old coot having them.

    • Interesting that George should highlight “Early Morning Rain” as performed by Eva Cassidy. I literally lived that scene clip. My girlfriend in college — who the love for distracted me enough that I flunked out and got drafted and got sent to Vietnam — left from Lexington KY’s Bluegrass Airport in the early morning rain. We both knew we’d never meet again. And didn’t. I didn’t prompt G to pick that track. The Lord moves in Mysterious Ways, his Wonders to perform. How terribly Zen…

  5. The way entertainment is enjoyed can be influenced by the technology used to play it. Using the latest tech may not always be the best.

    I’m surprised that you didn’t go with Fields of Gold, or any of the other tracks from the live album Eva Cassidy recorded.

    Also stereo isn’t always the best. Rarely, but sometimes, mono is better: Nina Simone recorded a song called Sinnerman. Please compare Mono to Stereo. Mono is so much better.

    Finally there is the TV monitor. I have an ancient Sony 1080p tv that I keep around for watching some old videos. One DVD In particular is The Terminator. The movie is better on DVD 1080p than 4K because of the movie’s plot. 1080p literally makes the movie look like an historic document from a bygone lost era.

    • Look up Eva Cassidy’s tracks from WASHDC’s “Blues Alley” club. They are Elemental, and show fabulous Promise. Later, some of these rough, live tracks were “improved” in some Big-Shot studio — but the Life of the Real & Ruff performances WITH the tinkling ice cubes and occasional audience cough was squeezed out. The “Blues Alley” material is her very best, I think. Check YooToob — I think some is on there, maybe.

  6. Really like the audio discussion. For me I always took it as a benefit that I am not an audio or videophile. I can listen to most any crappy audio and get enjoyment from the music. Same with video, I don’t need the latest 4k standard to enjoy the content. This allow me to lower the quality level of both downloaded and stored content. I feel left out as people discuss, what seems to me at tiny quality differences with different platforms. But over the years saved a lot of money for good enough equipment and content.

  7. Hmmmmmmmmmm…. Very interesting. Mmmmmm Hmmmmmm… Very Interesting indeed.

    Function and Form a production of
    TTTT. Temperature, Timing, Tempo and Trajectory.

    Que the song, “Where it’s at.”
    ~Beck~

    I got two turn tables and a Micro phone.
    Thanks.

    You ever notice the Morse code on a Dollar?

    • Lol two turn tables and a Micro phone on the back of every one dollar bill.

      HAHAHHAHHAHAHA!

      ROFL!

      HAHAHAHAHAHAHHA!

      HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAAAH!

      HAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA!

      MY eyes just leaked laughing so hard.

      HAHAHAHAHAHAHHA

      HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA!

  8. I think I just peed little laughing so hard.

    HA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

    That is some funny shit.

    HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA!

  9. I present these 3 images for the rest of the class.

    #1. You seen it before, you love it and back in the day you could buy 6 packs of Candy cigarettes, a 2 foot Pixie stick and a thing of Laughy taffey with one.

    https://www.interestinganswers.com/money/us-dollar-bill-back-meaning/

    Then we have the Real deal found here which is super expensive but ya pay for what ya get:

    https://reverb.com/item/25447163-revox-b77-mk1-custom-stereo-reel-to-reel-tape-recorder

    Then we have the Modern version at the Great Whore Amazon. She is a bitch but we love her:

    https://www.amazon.com/Pioneer-DJ-Smart-Controller-DDJ-200/dp/B07RPW4PSS

    Let me know if ya find Waldo. Hahahah. Emerson. Hahahahah

  10. Ohhhhhhhh shit!!!!!!!! “The day the music dies.” By by by mid American pie!!!!

    11/22/2020 is not an assasnation of a person!!!!! Which I was thinking it was. Because of Kennedy and the Lincoln. It’s the day of the death of the Dollar!!!! Shit I’m retarded sometimes. Duh! I’m not very good at speaking or reading this language.

    Not trading advise. I just got the missing puzzle piece. Wow!

    • On the Anniversary of the Kennedy assignation which is what the song talks about.. shit! I’m so dumb sometimes. The music, two turn tables and a Micro phone. Wow! How could I not recognize that until today. Wow!

  11. Sorry for so many comments. I kept wondering why they comb Bidens hair to make him look like Washington in a side view. Like he is wearing a white wig like George Washington. I kept staring at the back of the Dollar bill thinking what am I supposed to see here. I seen it a million times. The stone mountain aka pyramid and my last name meaning mountain of stone? It’s the Real Projectors in movies. And the WMI, and Lincoln keeps coming up and Lincoln is on the 5. And that damn song which normally never plays on the radio kept coming on when I was looking at the dollar bill on the back side I kept that part that says, “The Day that music dies.” And kept thinking are they gonna whack trump like they did Kennedy and Lincoln?? Because everyone who went against the Fed got whacked. Jackson etc. Etc. Then Ure latest open my eyes. Lol. Or Ayes. Because the language of creation is a parable wrapped up in a puns and encapsulated by metephors. I left a 90% Silver Dollar at my Moms. She found it and I told her to hold on to it she might need it later. Wow. I’m so dumb sometimes. I’m not very good at reading this language very well. It’s all abstract and shit. I’m not a web bot. I’m a human for the Love of God. Lol.

    I don’t even like the internet that much. Well, I guess we will see if that is the case. Im sure the flip will have some inertia to it. Like the Covid, it will take some “time” for the momentum of the Tsunami to reach shore. So to speak. I hope. Hmmmmmmmmmm…. Don’t stop 3 feet from Gold. That was Darby’s lesson. Good thing I didn’t stop like he did.

    • The other random song that showed up recently on totally non country station is this one: https://youtu.be/43qK1Lh2xH0

      Just randomly played, Johnny CASH, and the Jackson is on the 20, the lyrics are eary as F to our current trajectory. Cash, Jackson, 20, ain’t never coming back.

      Hmmmm. Maybe another trip accross the Veil.. I mean how many NDE can a fella have? I’m on my 13th life in this life. Lol. My middle initial. EM.

      I hope I’m wrong about the collapse of the Dollar. Implosion… Hmmmm… Negative e-motion accelerates the swing of the Arch invertedly…inward.. and 5 planets are in retro grade…..

      I sure hope I’m wrong. But I saw a chick the other day at the gym that was wearing a hoody with the Obama Campaign Symbol and it said Nope! Shit.

      Trump: “Let’s make a deal.”

      Money, uhem Monty, I pick door number 2. Because that savant chick said the better the percentage is by picking the middle door.

      A New Car! Ha ha ha ha ha ha! Thank God I didn’t get the Goat and the Wheel barrel behind door number 3. Or a monkey playing the dums behind door number 1

      Ha ha ha Johnny tell Him what he is Won!

      Y’all have a great week. I know I will.

      I’m sorry that is what eye see. I don’t make the data. Im trying to communicate back with it… It’s one thing reading it. It’s a whole nother trying to speak it. Do with it what you like. I don’t give trading advice.

      After 13 years I should get a fricken Ginormous Pay Check.

      Later OM’s and OL’s.

  12. George, John Titor said the last president was like lincoln. Aka Timetraveler_0
    Sorry about the comments I won’t say shit for a week.

    And Trump was called Lincoln in the Debate. Whoooaaaa how everything is coming together. Mine mind is just spinning a Million Million miles an hour. And Jackson was where Titor was from. And I keep seeing old corvets every where I go and Toyota 4 runners. I didnt know why I was noticing them. Which was what his fricken time machines were made out of. I think I’m going to puke from everything lining up on all the sides of the cube. Soooo fast… All colors just lined up on all sides of the cube with the center squares….6 feet under means crypt, and 6 feet social distancing. 6 sides to a cube. The number of the beast I gotta go. Good luck to you all. It’s too much for me to process it all. It just keeps hitting me in waves. Deep breath. I’m putting myself on time out.

    Sorry about the blast. I’m realling emotionally as they all line up on the cube. Convergence. Whoooaaaa. That is heavy.

  13. Back in the early 70’s while doing afternoon drive on WVLK in Lexington, KY, a station which had a reverb on the entire audio chain, 30 db of compression, plus a Fairchild 663/664 on the mic, I’m introing a tune and all the sudden I’m lost in the echo chamber! Boing boing boing!!!
    Later when I had a chance to grab the chief engineer, I find out the reverb unit at the Xmitter site was on a shelf with the cover off, and some mouse droppings hit the springs directly, thus causing the “boing-boing-boing”!
    That’s my old-school contribution for the day.
    Now for some Ernie Anderson outtakes (the “voice” of ABC)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63yyMxlBhZs

  14. You aren’t the lone voice crying dollar devaluation. Economic collapse is a staple of Christian apocalyptic prophesy. The bug stimulus packages have prompted Ure and a host of economic commentators to raise the devaluation issue. Gold bugs and crypto fiends talk the dollar collapse incessantly. The thing that seems to be a common thread is the rotation of euphemisms. Everybody has a pet term and scenario for dollar devaluation.

    Don’t expect for a government spokesman to stand up and announce a dollar devaluation. You will see it in PM prices, the currency exchange rates, and in the price of capital goods like new automobiles. That is to say, the accelerated devaluation has been underway since the 1st quarter 2020. The real question is how fast and how deep will it go? Covington dropped a 1/3 step prediction.

  15. I roll with a factory refurbished Peachtree audio nova 220 $900, 35 yr old bought new Magnepan speakers $450 a fortune back then, 35 yr old Rega Planar 2 with a decent Sumitoma MC cartridge through a Pro-Ject Tube Box phono preamp and lastly because of an enormous CD collection a marantz CD6006 CD player.

  17. So many things are converging here, my head is beginning to spin…

    For Jensen 4311, I actually meant JBL. (I’m old!)
    EV 664
    Lexington KY (Transylvania College)
    (I was briefly at WLAP – 630 – in the mid 1960s)
    (Saturday night folk music. What else?)
    Ben Story
    Early Morning Rain

    –and some other items. Spooky.

    ( –I’m getting a little scared. )
    ( …are the Big Monitors in SubSpace on? )

  18. Normally I don’t prosses that stuff in the open. The process of how it all moves into a position of value. I think it’s good to see how everything lines up. How it all juxatposed in a color coordinate convergence. Like 800 pony race. Except some of the ponies started racing, shit… 200 years ago and some just started running last week but they are all lines of transactional data moving in concert to a single point. The finish line and they are coming together at that finishing line from every direction imaginable. Some are even running backwards towards the finish line

    Wish, there was an easier way to describe it.

    Example. The Dollar bill is geometrically the same in smaller scale skimatic like a blue print of a Movie Projector, A real Recorder and in an alternative position the two turn tables and a mixing board in the center. The same exact Geometrical layout just in different scale. The language of creation is dual point perspective. It 3 D, Geometry. Math and English and Spanish is Single point perspective language. It has many forms, written, verbal, spoken etc but each conveyance is from a single point of origin or single point perspective/perception. And is linier or directionally propelled. (Period, full stop). Or 2d. Point to point. Not so with the Language of Creation. That is 2 point perspective and 3D. Remember we have already established that a singularity is 1 in 3. Moving in multiple directions from a 2 point vector convergence vehicle as in physics:
    the contraction of a vector field. Like the Dude looking from the top of the pyramid. He is looking down from the top and we are looking outward from the bottom. 3D. But that is just one reel, on the projector or turn table or recording reel. Like in MWI (Many worlds interpretation theory) there is two reels. Reals. Over lapping. Like and red and blue in the old 3D glasses.

    Hmmmmmm…..
    It’s really hard to put it all in words. Because they are just lables like the stickers on each square of a rubix cube. Words are like stickey notes. Like the To and From notes on Christmas gifts. That is what words are like. They are not 3 Dimensional objects moving simultaneously in every direction even backwards toward a single Finish line that groups them all together. I don’t even know if I’m even making sense. I can visualize it in my mind. Who cares if John Titor said it or Jo the Hobo down at the local mission. It’s just another horse in the race crossing the finish line (or World event) at the same time. Doesn’t matter if it’s a Palamino with a Gypsy riding it, Jockey on a Clydesdale, a Picture of a Horse on a postcard makes from South Africa lost in the mail in 1921 and just found behind a bookshelf at the post office, or a 71 Mustang Bos 302 Or a Rocking Horse hand crafted 1801 that is estimated value to be at $2000 on the Antique Road Show. They are all grouped together at the same point. THe Event! The Finish line. All journeying from different time periods and trajectory.

    I don’t know if I’m making sense. People want to say, that doesn’t count that is just a post card or a 71 Boss 302 mustang doesn’t have 4 legs and doesn’t eat hay!

    Doesn’t matter, it is all 3 Dimensional Descriptors of the Same Event. Not to beat a dead horse here but we know it’s not a Fckin donkey! Even if it Bucks like one. I will just give ya the results when I get it all figured out. Because I just don’t know how to explane it correctly. Lol. It’s easier to just say, The Dollar is gonna crash on 11/22/2020. Not trading advice so there! You don’t wanna know how I know this. LMFAO! because I had to piece together a 3 Dimensional, 2 point perpective 800 piece abstract jigsaw puzzle where some of the pieces have been in motion for over 200 years without the box with the picture on it, using a cypher code I found in the back of a Halloween candy wrapper while randomly returning some grocery carts at Walmart to figure out my personal life. Your welcome. Hahaha.

    I just gonna go to the gym. Have a wonderful week. I will never share again. Hahaha

    • George do ya get what I’m saying? I mean how would you go back in time and describe a mixer board and turn tables to the guy who is desiging the art work for first paper dollar bill.

      It’s like standing around a Viking bonfire and trying to describe a 777 Boeing Jet airplane in the year 872 The Vikings are just gonna think your fricken nuts and laugh. I feel like sound like that. So it’s like a hollow log with people sitting in it that these round bonfires hanging off the branches that make wind by using Thors hammer to get lighting to move the Log thing through the clouds like a sky boat faster than birds and will take you to another land where people talk to metal boxes over thousands of miles to other people only using their thumbs.

      Uhhhh what?! The Vikings around the bonfire are just gonna think you drank way too much ale.

      It’s not that I think anyone is an idiot. I’m just unable to accurately describe it. I can see it and visualize it in my mind perfectly I just lack the communication skills to present it. Like the Aztecs first saw the Spaniards in ships. They thought The white Gods are walking on the water. They couldn’t understand it. They didn’t even register the ships at first because the ships were so foriegn of a concept their eyes couldn’t physically accept what they were seeing. They physically couldn’t see the ships and they were right there as plane as the nose on their faces. They mind just blotched them out. And coverered the scene with what they knew. Like mental photo shop.

      I know your not idiots. Maybe I’m the one be not seeing it. I don’t know. It’s just hard to describe like that. Lol. I’m probably the dumb one. Hahah and you are all saying sound it out Andy! Here is your gram crackers and carton of milk. Nap time before the short bus takes ya home. Lol

      Time to get vigilant especially if I’m right about the dollar collapse. No time waist farting around.

      I have a Trump win by a landslide. But that is not necessarily a good thing. it’s the Lesser of 2 evils. I suppose… Good luck and God speed.

      • Try us. Report what you see, not what you interpret. No one pays attention to seers who put their personal spin on everything. There is a lot of tech and financial knowledge associated with this website, not to mention life experience.

  19. George (and others), I apologize in advance for the essay…

    “The trick shot here is getting the least-cost mic for what you want to get done.”

    If you request it (or if the mic ever goes back to the shop for service) Shure and EV will send you a card charting (and graphing) the exact response curve of your individual microphone. ‘Pretty sure the Neumanns and Manleys of the world do so, and shouldn’t be surprised if MXL, Behringer, and the other “entry-level” prosumer mic makers will do the same, if asked (and paid.) If’fn you know the exact response curve, any mic that’ll reproduce the range in-question can be used as a reference for setup, even if it’s crap for actual recording.

  20. “If someone claims to be an old-school audiophile, ask them if they know what sel-synch is.”

    ‘Hated selective synch because you always started one generation down from the master, and if anybody screwed up, it either went to press screwed-up, or you redid the entire sequence. With that said, it was the first truly viable means of overdubbing. Richard Carpenter may have been the absolute master at the craft. The Carpenters’ “44-voice polyphonic choir” was originally built, one-track-at-a-time, by Richard overdubbing his and Karen’s voices on the “B” track of a 2-channel, second-gen master, in their parents’ garage. I can not even IMAGINE the degree of patience such a thing would’ve required. I’m sure getting his hands on a 24-track Ampex at A&M did away with the overdub and helped greatly in their later years, but sheesh!!

  21. “As I said once, I think tape hiss, at an acceptable level, is somehow effectively transparent to the mind’s perception of the music. Dolby kills that transparency.”

    …Which is why I was sold on dbx the first time I heard a demonstration. It restored the audio compression required to make a dynamic piece, especially classical, be able to be reproduced on vinyl or tape, removed the compression artifacts, and drove tape hiss below the measurable noise-floor without coloring the music or obliterating the brights. Unfortunately, dbx didn’t have Ray Dolby’s name, reputation, or personality, and so, lost out (FWIW I still have my 3bx and 224x… ;-)

    For the young’uns: “Dynamics” is how loud AND how quiet a recording is. “Dynamic range” is the difference between the quietest sound and the loudest. Most “top-30” songs will have a dynamic range of around 24 decibels, unless they’re scarfed from a Broadway play or a movie. A classical piece (think: Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture done as originally scored, with artillery cannons making the BOOMS) can have a dynamic range in excess of 120 decibels. (I also own a matched set of three Nakamichi CM300s, which are the only self-contained mic I’ve ever seen that could take the SPL of a field cannon, without distortion.) A high-end phonograph record is capable of reproducing a usable dynamic range of about 42db (the first time it’s played) when played on a high-end turntable equipped with a good cartridge and needle. A high-end cassette tape recorder (Nakamichi Dragon f’r instance) with high-end tape, 58-62db, and reel-to-reel with high-end tape (Ampex 406/456), nearly 80db. Commercial CDs are around 82db, so “dynamic compression,” compressing or “normalizing” a recording is necessary to fit a performance onto media for reproduction, lest the quiet parts become inaudibly quiet or the loud parts run out of headroom and become unacceptably distorted.

    The other “dynamics thing” WRT recording is “frequency range.” This is the difference between the single note in a song or piece that’s lowest in-pitch, and the one that’s highest, or more reasonably from a recordists’ perspective, the fifth overtone of the highest-pitched note. “Overtones” are frequencies at which a pitch resonates. If you step on the damper pedal of a piano and hit the 3rd “A” key “A2” (110Hz) the vibrations of the strings will cause the strings of “A3” (220Hz), “E3” (330Hz), “A4” (440Hz), “C#4” (554Hz), “E4” (660Hz), “G4” (784Hz), “A5” (880Hz) and so on, to vibrate also. This is what musicians call the “overtone series” (and is also how a piano tuner “tunes by-ear”). The highest-pitched note on the piano is “C8” (4186Hz) and its 5th overtone is roughly 20kHz — at the top edge of most humans’ hearing ability, thus the 5th overtone.

  22. When I was somewhat more into the audiophile thing than I am now, I built both a cassette and a CD, which I used to evaluate stereo systems. The first cut was Gino Vannelli’s “Brother to Brother” from Live in Montréal ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eC-4rqOM_Tw ) because its bass-line (which you can’t even hear on this vid…) goes down to “C#” below “Low A” or 17Hz (it’s amazing, what a body could do with a 3bx and a parametric! I couldn’t “get it back,” but I did make it plainly audible, even on the cassette.) Rarely did I encounter any speaker, at any price, which could reproduce the low notes of this line below its first overtone (~34Hz.) I do remember a set of Maverick Audio speakers, though. ~$8000 each in (1985?), and they weighed several tons apiece…

  23. “…The old-timers knew how to light a scene – any scene – in the field and do it somewhere between “well” and “inspired.””

    We also knew how to nurse a cup of coffee for hours, just waiting for that 3-5 minute window when the natural lighting was “perfect,” and we’d take 3-6 shots, pushing or pulling the film when necessary, to get that ONE perfect set, background, and exposure. I’ve seen kiddies nowadays shoot 3000 exposures with a DSLR and not get what we got on film, 30 years ago, with 3…

  24. “Everyone is over-EQ’ing, too damn much compression…art’s been taken to the wall for a smoke. And if the vocal is a little hot, there’s a tendency to compress a whole mix, rather than the one offending track that needed to be adjusted.”

    …And don’t forget the damn’ Autotune! Yeah, REO Speedwagon was sometimes cringeworthy because Kevin Cronin always blew sharp on highs, and the deeper into the concert, the sharper he’d get, but it added to the charm of seeing the band, live. The last time I saw them, he had an autotune and sounded the whole night like someone had attached Vice-Grips to his nether region — Like listening to Michael Bolton on 78 — ruined it for me. Axl Rose couldn’t carry a tune in a handbasket most of the time, but his offpitchedness was a part of seeing Guns ‘N Roses live. ‘Hate Autotune, and refuse to support any band or singer that uses it.

  25. “When I ask someone (like an aspiring artist) “How many hours a day do you practice?” And they tell me – “I practiced for an hour last week…” I know they’re not wholly immersed in the objective of a great performance which is the basis of great music.”

    My musical kid and her band do 3-5hrs daily on a 3/1/2/1 schedule, unless they’ve got gigs. They’ve gone from 5th billing to regional headliner in the past 18mos. It takes work, practice, management, practice, work, choreography, practice, social media exposure, and more work…

    • Saw an interview of a famous classic pianist who was teaching at a university. He was asked if he would ever start playing concerts again. Never forget the answer, he said no, he was too busy and out of practice because he could only play 6 hours a day now.
      I grew up hearing 3-4 hours a day guitar practice to be a pro. Jimi Hendrix was known to mostly play all his waking hours.

      • I was not a successful pro for two reasons:

        1) I lack the “soul” to play jazz improv
        2) I generally only practiced 4-5hrs/day

        The real pros LIVE their music and instruments. It’s not uncommon for musicians to practice 7-8 hours, then get together with the band and do another 3-4 until they have the setlist nailed and the music absolutely clean. You never see it with a road band because they won’t go out until everything’s clean & crisp — then they’ll practice from 0-2hrs per day, usually in the form of mental walkthroughs. Listen to the clip I posted above. Gino Vannelli was essentially a prog jazz band, the music to which Gino and Joe Vannelli attached lyrics. The guitarist is Mike Miller and the drummer, Enzo Todesco, simply two of the finest jazz musicians to ever grace a stage…

      • Can’t reply to you’re last, but the real pros living it is what got them all screwed. Somebody came along with a contract and a push by marketing got them out of their ‘zone.’ classic p above got bailed with a college background, me got trashed going alone and not doing 16 hours, Hendrix trashed not looking over his shoulder, the jazz greats didn’t have marketing. How can anyone succeed without a loving manager? Mastering the craft takes all the energy.
        Ray: just play your own little song until it’s is perfect. nobody will ever figure out how you did it and it will have YOUR soul.

      • “Ray: just play your own little song until it’s is perfect”

        Not gonna happen. I haven’t picked up a horn in 20 years.

        I’m content to live that portion of my life vicariously through my kid, now…

  26. ” —> I think retro production workflow and technology is poised to become a popular (and short) fad. Not quite there yet, but coming very close aboard. Vacuum tubes. Open reel tape. Razor editing. Even vinyl release.”

    I’ll pass on the razor editing. The rest I see, and not necessarily as a fad. Audiophile vinyl has become BigBiz in Japan and is booming in Dutchland and Deutchland. My kid’s trademark is a Shure Unidyne 55 which she uses both on-stage and in the studio. Both she and the audiences love it.

  27. forget the fancy words and diatribe all do here . what university did you get all this economic guru stuff from? 700 economists some nobel prize winners have signed a letter to put an end to this madness.. tell the masses hurting right now your ideas are good for them .. and further all your big M numbers. where did it go ? straight in fall street that’s where .. its about jobs and food and this madness don’t work .. so tell dalio and musk and the fake gold bulls and the FED to sark it up and forget about it

  28. and further this stimulus madness .. big deal . didn’t work doesn’t work .. just hand out same hats and clothes to all .. except elite or more equal. then feed everybody cake

  29. I don’t think you get it . Something is really bad behind the curtain. Little bits of yellow metal ain’t the answer. In fact the answer may shock a lot of people

  30. when I ordered my mini onyx harmon kardon, Kate Harmon answered my email and did my order! And I love that speaker for it’s rich sound, portability, rechargeable and size fits anywhere. Plus the price was right (under $150).

      • Nobody mentioned a flaming ion arc speaker. I once had a 10kw am transmitter arc over the tower tuning coils. Nothing like a yard long lightning bolt speaking with the voice of God! Incredible highs!

    • Since the Klystron is essentially an amp, ISTM it’s already been done. The real issue would be to build a human who could hear microwaves/radar…

  32. Very interesting comments from the audiophiles. Glad I’m not one!

    Unlike George’s definition: “A Person who enjoys hearing ultra-clean sound in an acoustically appropriate setting at levels enabling full enjoyment of what the Artist, Producer, and Label wanted to present.”, I’m of the opinion that you listen to or actually buy a recording for the purpose of personal pleasure, and not to necessarily experience what the creators wanted to present. It’s perfectly legitimate to bend, edit and adjust the audio recording to what most delights you.

    The most annoying attribute of classical music, and to a lesser degree other styles, is the unreasonable dynamic range. Even lying on a couch in a quiet room, the volume lows are indecipherable and the next moment your ears are assaulted with a painful level of sound volume. Perhaps there is a purpose, but it escapes me – it’s just unpleasant! Listening to music with a wide dynamic range is impossible if you’re doing any kind of real work. Compression is heaven!

    Complex riffs are technically challenging, but there’s nothing relaxing about listening to them. There’s often a very high level of distortion eliminating the natural twang of a guitar. The guitar work by Eva Cassidy was delightful, but the melody line would IMHO be better carried by the same or another guitar rather than a voice. She has a nice voice, but few things can compare to a soulfully played guitar instrumental.

  33. Heck 10 meters opened a week ago and I worked Melbourne on 10m ssb. 100 watts on the OCF dipole…. that I have not modified yet!

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