Cheap sonic upgrade

[mjzee]

Surprised that audiophiles haven't yet addressed the weakest link in the chain: the air.  After all, music has to travel through the air to reach your ears, and there can be all sorts of qualities in the air in your home that could degrade the signal and give you a sub-optimal listening experience.  What you need is a hermetically-sealed listening room with audiophile-quality air pumped in and constantly monitored to insure peak transparency.  You don't want air that's too excitable, nor air that's too flat; humidity, ozone, ions, particulates and air pressure are all factors to consider.  Someone should start working on this.

[JSngry]

My ceiling fans have me convinced that every record ever made was recorded through a Leslie.

[Larry Kart]

1 hour ago, mjzee said:

Surprised that audiophiles haven't yet addressed the weakest link in the chain: the air.  After all, music has to travel through the air to reach your ears, and there can be all sorts of qualities in the air in your home that could degrade the signal and give you a sub-optimal listening experience.  What you need is a hermetically-sealed listening room with audiophile-quality air pumped in and constantly monitored to insure peak transparency.  You don't want air that's too excitable, nor air that's too flat; humidity, ozone, ions, particulates and air pressure are all factors to consider.  Someone should start working on this.

And don't forget the dire effects of farting.

[Dave Garrett]

10 hours ago, mjzee said:

Surprised that audiophiles haven't yet addressed the weakest link in the chain: the air.  After all, music has to travel through the air to reach your ears, and there can be all sorts of qualities in the air in your home that could degrade the signal and give you a sub-optimal listening experience.  What you need is a hermetically-sealed listening room with audiophile-quality air pumped in and constantly monitored to insure peak transparency.  You don't want air that's too excitable, nor air that's too flat; humidity, ozone, ions, particulates and air pressure are all factors to consider.  Someone should start working on this.

"Right here I want the sound of thick air." -- Bob Weir, 1967

[felser]

This could really be hazardous to good listening atmospherics:

[porcy62]

18 hours ago, mjzee said:

Surprised that audiophiles haven't yet addressed the weakest link in the chain: the air.  After all, music has to travel through the air to reach your ears, and there can be all sorts of qualities in the air in your home that could degrade the signal and give you a sub-optimal listening experience.  What you need is a hermetically-sealed listening room with audiophile-quality air pumped in and constantly monitored to insure peak transparency.  You don't want air that's too excitable, nor air that's too flat; humidity, ozone, ions, particulates and air pressure are all factors to consider.  Someone should start working on this.

Well, considering that according to physics music depends on the moving of air, the percentage of umidity and the presence of different particles in the atmosphere influences for sure the sound, in vacuum there's no music. IMO a smoke saturated ambient is much closer to the original fifties and sixties jazz clubs then a pair of headphone wired to spotify. This is the reason because I listen to jazz playing old records, smoking my pipes and drinking Martini.

Edited February 12, 2020 by porcy62

[AllenLowe]

this is all why I have stopped listening to anything. If I cannot have the purest experience I don't want the experience at all.

[JSngry]

1 hour ago, porcy62 said:

IMO a smoke saturated ambient is much closer to the original fifties and sixties jazz clubs then a pair of headphone wired to spotify. This is the reason because I listen to jazz playing old records, smoking my pipes and drinking Martini.

In a room by yourself?

[porcy62]

7 minutes ago, JSngry said:

In a room by yourself?

Usually I do a lot of conversations to other immaginary people, sometime I break glasses.

[JSngry]

Do you have somebody taking drink orders, running a blender, and ringing a cash register?

Perhaps most importantly - does your bathroom smell like a toilet?

If you can answer yes to all of these questions, you go to the bonus round. 100 points for every hooker and dealer you have at the bar. 150 points for every one of them you know by name.

Sounds like you might be getting close to winning, so don't stop now!

[porcy62]

How many point for a cop asking bribe?

[JSngry]

No points, but you get to skip a round!

You're playing like a pro, very much enjoying it!

[porcy62]

Cookie and Big Leg, the names of the dealers at the bar.

[sonnymax]

Why don't you two get a thread.

[JSngry]

Big Leg is asking if you're making trouble here, and no, he's not glad to see you, that's not what that is.

[felser]

Though I cut my live jazz teeth at the Empty Foxhole Cafe, which was in the basement of a Catholic Church on my college campus and they sold cookies and stuff.  But they brought in Archie Shepp, Cecil Taylor, Sun Ra Heath Bros., Eddie Jefferson, etc (those are who I remember seeing there).

https://phillyjazz.us/2015/03/08/genos-empty-foxhole-2/

 

[porcy62]

4 hours ago, JSngry said:

Big Leg is asking if you're making trouble here, and no, he's not glad to see you, that's not what that is.

Just remind Big Leg I married the youngest daughter of Don Carmine, there is no need to say more.

Edited February 13, 2020 by porcy62

[JSngry]

Big Leg says he has no problem with you, it's that other guy, the one that thinks he's funny, that he's looking at.

[porcy62]

Ok then, just tell Big Leg to do it clean. Publicity is no good for business.

Edited February 13, 2020 by porcy62

[JSngry]

[Dmitry]

On 2/5/2020 at 8:42 PM, Larry Kart said:

Been thinking about my equipment  (stereo equipment, that is) since I bought an Audio Technica VM740 ML cartridge a few weeks ago, a notable imporvement over what I had. For some reason my thoughts then turned to electronic interference between components. I have a hefty Marantz integrated amp, a hefty Marantz CD player, a Rega RX-7 turntable, and a nondescript cassette machine. These were stacked on a rack this way: turntable on top, then CD player, then amp, and finally cassette player. Just for the heck of it, I put the CD player on the bottom shelf, and the amp where the CD player was  to see if  separating those two components by a greater distance  than before might make a difference. I thought it did, so I looked up what substances  are most resistant to electrical conductivity, and rubber came out near the top. So I went to the hardware store, got several rolls of rubber shelf liner, cut the rolls to fit and placed three sheets under the cassette player (that would be one shelf above the CD player), three sheets under the amp, and two sheets under the turntable just for the heck of it.  So the amp and the CD player are now separated by a total of six sheets of rubberized shelf liner, as well as by the shelf that holds the cassette player. 

Voila! Sonic benefits (at least to my ear) across the board -- definition per se and  spatial definition too. Also, my spinal stinosis has been relieved (just kidding). And all for $16 at Ace Hardware.

Larry, now that you've confirmed what simple tweaks can do to change the sound of your system, if you want to take your listening experience on the new level, put the turntable on the bottom of the stack, with the amp on top of it..

I was floored when I did that.

 

[Dmitry]

On 2/11/2020 at 10:20 AM, porcy62 said:

That is correct, but why two different amp with exactly the same accepted measurements in terms of distortion, s/n ratio, etc, do sound different?

Amplifiers, if correctly designed and fabricated, should not have their own sonic signatures.

 

[Larry Kart]

13 hours ago, Dmitry said:

Larry, now that you've confirmed what simple tweaks can do to change the sound of your system, if you want to take your listening experience on the new level, put the turntable on the bottom of the stack, with the amp on top of it..

I was floored when I did that.

 

But with the turntable on the bottom of the stack there wouldn't be room for the turntable's plastic dust cover to open.

[Dmitry]

3 hours ago, Larry Kart said:

But with the turntable on the bottom of the stack there wouldn't be room for the turntable's plastic dust cover to open.

That is indeed the point.  I'm sorry, I just felt like fooling around.

[porcy62]

14 hours ago, Dmitry said:

Amplifiers, if correctly designed and fabricated, should not have their own sonic signatures.

 

I strongly disagree, there is no ONE WAY to correctly design amplifiers, class A, class A/B, mosfets, vaccum tubes, transistors, ecc. The same performance on test bench doesn't implicate they sound the same. In order to "sound" they have to be hooked with speakers, preamplifier and one source. Sound is the result of an interaction.

I quote what I wrote in another thread:

"I think hifi is a system, like a car, that includes the room where it sounds. Consider one element alone would be like consider only engine or brakes or suspension to judge a car. Testing a single element is okay but it will not tell you exactly how it will sounds in your room hooked with your amp, speakers,etc. likewise the results of an engine on test bench will not tell you how it will works a car drives by you on a common road. I was lucky enough to test single gears in my system and often results surprised me."

Edited December 6, 2020 by porcy62