what are you listening to?

[FredR]

 

[FredR]

Todays youth gives me hope.

 

[laatsch55]

It's their world, we're just living in it..

 

[D-500 Flogger]

I've been guilty of nattering on about trying to capture the subtlety & nuance of different songs -- that is, on a mediocre system all songs have a similar sound due to one note bass, honky midrange, sawtooth treble, etc.

Well, let's relax a bit and check out 2 completely different interpretations of the same exact song. The differences are so obvious that there is no doubt which version you are listening to no matter how crude & unsophisticated the sound system is.

The original version of this song is *ideal* for decompressing after a bad commute home. You know, where your light turns green, you wait a second before entering the intersection just to be sure...start out, and then have to jam on the brakes while another vehicle blows a red light because they are so focused on their iphone that they are no different than an unguided missile?

Or (my personal favorite) another driver coming at you from the other direction is texting on their phone - meanwhile, their car is drifting over the double yellow and towards you...so you blow the horn to get their attention, they correct...and then they flip you off as they sail by?

Well, friends, this is the song that's like a anger crowbar circuit, works like magic. (Just as long as you don't smoke a voice coil in the process. :0)

Conversely, whenever I have something unexpectedly good happen to me (say, a 40+ year old o-scope travels across country & arrives intact) ...I actually listen to the same song, but the difference is in the performance:

By the way, playing the alternative version at a party will result in much frivolity. Obviously, music is how I choose to self-medicate! :0)

 

[laatsch55]

Never heard that version!!

 

[J!m]

 

[NeverSatisfied]

Never heard that version!!

I never heard either, like the first one the best but they both sound crappy on my IPad.

 

[laatsch55]

As they should..

 

[D-500 Flogger]

Never heard that version!!

Lee, just prior to restaining/repainting my house (circa '99) on a quiet cul-de-sac, I had heard this song on one of the more adventurous low-power college FM radio stations, and bought the CD. Which I played while staining said house. The gist of the CD was basically this guy with the stage name Richard Cheese covered all these popular songs with a Vegas lounge act vibe. Actually, the joke was that both the musicianship & the production values were above average...

Anyway, I popped the CD into the boombox while working on the house. But to be perfectly candid, most of it was for me...but a small slice of the pie was for my neighbor across the circle from me. He had the biggest house, his garage had a decent black 911 Porsche, and he had a perfect family. My kids played with his kids. All was quite good. This isn't a bad neighbor story, quite the contrary.

The only wrinkle in the whole situation was that this guy was the 'Jones' of the neighborhood. As in, the guy who assumes the title of titular king of the neighborhood. Although I couldn't outspend him, I could (& did) employ elaborate countermeasures to his neighborhood pecking order.

For example, when I drove that orange Fiesta home in it's (admittedly eyesore) prior-Winnebago dinghy-status, he walked over and asked if I was going to actually park that in front of the house? (Quarter kidding, 3/4 not.) I told him that not to worry, I would be removing all the hideous stripes & giving the car a best-reasonable-effort cleanup.

But at the same time I remembered that his black Porsche had a lot of cobwebbing in the paint - it truly looked better in the shade, no matter how much he waxed it...which was often.. So when I got my Fiesta repainted, I opted to not only clearcoat it, but asked for extra clearcoat, so that I would wet-sand it & buff it to a 'motorcycle gas tank' level of smoothness. Which I did. And when he checked it out, he couldn't believe the mirror image in the factory Signal Orange paint color. It was literally better than showroom condition.

...but I digress. So when I painted my house I had this CD on repeat. Not loud & obnoxious, but it was still 'there'. There was no real struggle, mind you, but I could tell his attempt to establish some sort of neighborhood pecking order was flummoxed by my non-conformity.

I wasn't at the Doc Brown level, but Doc Mellor did his best to put on a really good show... and it was effortless.

That's all I've got to say about that. -- 3D gump
:0)

 

[D-500 Flogger]

As they should..

Lee, you are absolutely right, in that in order to get the full effect from either song it needs to be heard on a clean/authoritative system. Anything else just caves in on the first song, whereas the delicate piano playing & finger snaps are lost on the latter version.

Actually, when I come out and call your neighborly bluff, I would like to hear your setup play both of these songs. (Plus a bunch of more serious audiophile fare, of course. :0)

Sounds crazy, but the first one is definitely worth a listen, especially if you are probing the 'slam'/transient response of your setup.

Yours for high fidelity --

 

[laatsch55]

Well, you can my neighborly bluff anytime there feller. Should have my Ohm Model F's home by then, thereby giving 2 ways to slay ya..

 

[D-500 Flogger]

Lee, I truly enjoy hearing other people's sound systems. Some of my most satisfying long-term improvements to my own setup have come from listening intently to a fellow enthusiast's system, realizing that it did a much better job in one or more areas than what I had at home...and then this would spur me to learn more about that area of sound reproduction. (!)

And of course, the above is just the gravy when compared to meeting someone else who share's my enthusiasm for all things sound & music. Get the lab up & running, then my equipment...and then once all is sorted out on the home front, I feel a senseless road trip coming on...

It's good to have something fun to look forward to out on the horizon!

 

[laatsch55]

Amen bud!!

You like to fish?

 

[D-500 Flogger]

Well, you can my neighborly bluff anytime there feller. Should have my Ohm Model F's home by then, thereby giving 2 ways to delay ya..

PS - I used to read about the Ohm Model F's in my high school library. I've never seen a set in person, much less heard them, so this would definitely check another box on my audio enthusiast bucket list! Not to mention the only K-horns I've heard were ~45 years ago at a little audio store in Independence, MO -- I was an innocent bystander while a real customer was taking them for a test drive...and was big into marching band music?

Anyway, always wanted to hear Jimi Hendrix & the Band of Gypsies album on a set of hot-rodded K-horns. Bigger than life, no doubt! :0)

 

[laatsch55]

It's a different experience, that's for sure .

 

[D-500 Flogger]

Amen bud!!

You like to fish?

You know what? I've always told people that my lifestyle has been mostly to 'know a whole lot about very little'. So I'll have to admit in public that I never really got the opportunity to fish...but, then again I've never been known to be stopped by a lack of experience before. :0)

I think it would be a hoot to give it a try. Besides, the way things are going these days adding another way of gathering food/self-sufficiency is not a bad idea...

 

[laatsch55]

I flyfish the North Platte a lot, just curious..

 

[laatsch55]

PS - I used to read about the Ohm Model F's in my high school library. I've never seen a set in person, much less heard them, so this would definitely check another box on my audio enthusiast bucket list! Not to mention the only K-horns I've heard were ~45 years ago at a little audio store in Independence, MO -- I was an innocent bystander while a real customer was taking them for a test drive...and was big into marching band music?

Anyway, always wanted to hear Jimi Hendrix & the Band of Gypsies album on a set of hot-rodded K-horns. Bigger than life, no doubt! :0)

Bought a set of F's new in 77 I believe, sold em 2 years later, kickin myself in the butt ever since. Their sound is hard to describe other than the purerst, sweetest, no ear fatigueing mofo's I've ever heard..

 

[George S.]

Robin Thrower... Bridge of Sighs... digital

 

[J!m]

There’s a bridge if sighs joke my friends and I share. Remind me to get into it some time when the site is slow…