Passion of the Hi-Fi: Part I - Unlistenable
Photo by Lalupa, Wikimedia Commons
There sat the hi-fi. Untouched. Unplayed. Unlistenable. Bass resonances continued to torment my sound. Geddy Lee, Paul McCartney, and Sting all produced loose and exaggerated bass energies in unnatural ways. I was constantly perplexed with the unevenness in my bass response. Despite hours of tinkering with speaker placement hindered by random obstructions, namely a queen-size bed, a poorly positioned radiator, and stacks of guitar amps, the bass resonances remained.Passion of the Hi-Fi: Part II - Dimensions
At the end of April, it will be time to renew the lease on my quaint Kensington duplex. Over the past three years, a cast of typical New Yorkers rotated residency within these plaster walls: stand-up comedians, chefs, and real-estate agents; art handlers and opera singers; venue managers and musicians. Claiming residential seniority over this home of interchanging misfits, it was time to stake claim on the room my system most deserved.
Passion of the Hi-Fi: Part III - Balance and Control
The promise of happiness is elusive. Is it found in the 10-hour workday? Maybe it’s spotted sunbathing on the Portuguese shoreline. Or is it found in a wider soundstage? Sartre teaches, "In life, a man commits himself and draws his own portrait, outside of which there is nothing." So if your actions define who you are, and if you love what you do, then will you find content?
Passion of the Hi-Fi: Part IV - Why Boombox?
I scuttled furiously from bedroom to living room. DVDs without cases, puzzles with missing pieces, and random pairs long Ragnell scissors (why do we even have these???) strewed across a cascade of coffee tinted MDF shelves. This hand-me-down Brobdingnagian entertainment center would be the new home for my hi-fi, chipped away but yearning for gear. Like any man on a mission, I needed my soundtrack, my “Eye of the Tiger”, my “Don’t Stop Believing”, my “Bootylicious”, but what would be my source?
Passion of the Hi-Fi: Part V – Imbalance
My hi-fi basked in morning sunshine. The sparkling white finish of the Usher 520s reflected angular glints of yellow light across plaster walls. Birds chirped as I hoped for the best. Would my bass bloat be gone? Would I have an evenly dispersed image?
Passion of the Hi-Fi: Part VI - Resolution
JA guffawed, “It sounds like you need a tweeter-ectomy.”
“I hope that’s all I need.” After buying a replacement tweeter for my Usher S-520s, I asked Stan Tracht, US representative for Usher, a pair of questions.
“Will I need to solder anything?”
“No soldering needed,” Stan advised.
“Do I need to buy a second tweeter to ensure the speakers match?”
Petition for Better Sound
“A change is gonna come, oh yes it is,” said once the wise prophet Samuel. What the prophet failed to foretell was that change never just comes, change is made. Well audiophiles, this is your opportunity to make a change. Valiant Stereophile forum poster sometimesuk2012 started a petition on Change.org to “Stop the Loudness Wars and Release High Definition Music Downloads”. You can find out more about the petition and sign your name here. Here’s your chance to stop whining about that over-compressed papsee Jason Victor Serinus' report from the 133rd AES Conventionand start enjoying some well-recorded pop. It all starts with your signature.
Pop Music.
Here at the Stereophile office, we listen to lots of different tunes ranging from Bach to Fucked Up to Sylvester, but in the Bitran/Mejias cubicle, there has been a recent resurgence in our passion for POPULAR music.
Praise Pod
My congregation! Ladies and Gentlemen! I tell you, there is a Pod! Some heathens choose to ignore him and burn for all eternity in the depths of hell, while Air Supply plays a continual concert of doom. Others have seen the light, and they opt instead for superior listening experiences.
I say, for the hi-fi community, there is hope. When I came to Stereophile, the first assignment Mr. Mejias gave me was to assess how I, as a young person, felt about the world of hi-fi. When my official term of Summer Intern was over, I had nothing. Well, I had a lot of stuff in my head, but nothing that I was ready to post on the blog. There was so much pressure. What had I learned here at Stereophile?!?!
So much.
Released Today: Anamanaguchi’s Endless Fantasy
For gamers, video games can instill a sense of purpose. They imbed the idea in their minds that any ordinary boy or girl can become a hero. On their second full-length record Endless Fantasy, Anamanaguchi recreate the quest of becoming something bigger than yourself.