I always enjoy reading Herb Reichert’s poetic writings. There’s more in them than hi-fi and music, and I always learn. https://www.stereophile.com/content/magic-picture-shows In this piece, he reminds me that many audiophile commenters claim to see ‘soundstage’ images of musicians playing in their listening rooms. But Herb talks of images conjured by the reproduced recording of some […]
One ruling taste. When asked about what we like, it’s so easy to default to making an evaluation. “It’s the best” is not the same as “I like it”, but we all make the step by assuming that our tatse is supreme. Writer and music (and record) fan (and former music reviewer) Tom Cox just […]
To describe some claim or statement as nonsense intends to dismiss it as having no intelligible meaning, or because it is foolish or absurd, or extravagant frivolity. Then there’s the willfully misleading that is ‘nonsense’ of another kind, meaning I also want to stay away from that. There’s so much nonsense in hi-fi talk that […]
It has been a busy week here at the listening sweetspot. We integrated a further 2000 CDs into my library shelves, the new v1.50 firmware update for the Parks Puffin came through, and I finally found a Behringer FX2000 Virtualizer in stock locally. I could accept the sound of music recordings as determined by recordists […]
Musicians create their music. Entertainers act when they performs others’ music.
This short story from the Smithsonian Magazine reports on revealing research. It seems that Simon and Garfunkel were right! https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/we-can-hear-silence-like-a-sound-scientists-say-180982512/
I like this expression of mindful listening and sound as a culture. “SlowSound® was born in 2015 from an idea which came to Maestro Igor Fiorini through his work as a Sound Producer. He wishes to promote conscious listening and tasting of sound“. https://vdmsoundgroup.com/slowsound-manifest-eng I prefer the phrase slow listening (a slow living activity) as […]
More, better, best, latest, new. These are marketing values. I’ve always been something of a frugal fan, but have largely cured my desire to upgrade by getting back to basics. I’ve thought a lot about what is sufficient to enjoy my musical recorded sound reproduction experiences. Watts, decibels, bit-rate, sampling rate There is a threshold […]
I’m on about day ten since I abandoned many terrabytes of digital files assembled on multiple external hard drives. I’m feeling relieved of a (self-made) burden. Just one failed disk too many. The unpredictable lifespan, USB communication, and file recovery hassles became too much like no fun at all. I’ve moved on. Like these two […]
Tidal just gave me another reason to switch to Amazon Music. The HiFi streaming service tier price is being increased. Also, to get HD sound quality would cost double the subscription rate charged by Amazon, and Tidal is only now about to increase the number of HD files available from a very low proportion (less […]
Music & Hi-fi Appreciations 