Some time ago I stumbled across Europa Jazz. Some of the content is annoying but for the most part I'm really digging 50's acoustic jazz. I'll hear something that will catch my attention and it's usually someone I've never heard of, and his band. Cudos to Europa Jazz for preserving all that wonderful music and making it available.
The other night after watching all of Ron's Sound Shed videos. Europa Jazz was playing very pleasant selections. I was sipping an IPA trying to process all I had learned. I thought about all the insights y'all have shared. I watched all those sound waves bouncing around the room, crashing into each other, stacking up in the corners and such.
I grabbed a thick comforter and flung it out to cover the floor between the speakers and my listening position. I listened, pulled it back, listened, flung it out, listened. I did that for several songs. Couldn't really hear much difference. I thought at one point that perhaps the cymbals were a bit more clear with blanket down, but then I would bull the blanket back and wonder if I was just imagining an improvement.
Perhaps covering the floor alone isn't enough. Perhaps it will take a combination of floor, walls, and ? before I can hear an improvement.
I've started watching the content on Acoustics Insider. There's a lot to process there.
After Ron's videos and Danny's stories about expensive equipment sounding horrible at Audio shows I understand the importance of room treatments. Now I've got to figure out room treatments that I can employ that are practical, fit my room and lifestyle, and at the end of the day, improve sound.
I'm going to ease into that rabbit hole and see where it goes. As I embark on this journey, the impression I have is this is going to require a lot of time, trial and error, and from where I stand now a lot of guesswork. Perhaps someday I will get a mic and run that room analysis that Ron used. I'll have to see where this rabbit hole leads but I'm not going to stress about it.
Over the last few days I've thought a lot about the tendency within this hobby to constantly upgrade equipment in the face of diminishing returns in a quest for perfect sonic reproduction. One of these days I'd like to hear one of those systems. But I'm not going to go down that rabbit hole. I think good enough is within reach.
The cable I ordered was supposed to be here Monday, I'm an hour from Tulsa. For reasons unknown Amazon routed the package to Arkansas for a few days, now it's supposed to arrive Friday. When that arrives I'm going to upgrade 16ga bare end lamp wire and binding cups with 12ga and tube connectors. Will I hear that, or will it just make me feel better? Time will tell....
I'm still going to service the vintage Yamaha M-45. I might end up with a nice amp, I might destroy it. Either way it will be a challenging learning experience.
I'd like to thank Danny for sharing your vast knowledge, wonderful products, and this forum. This is an amazing resource.
I'd like to thank the members who participated in this discussion for sharing your experience and insights.
This has been a very helpful dialogue. I'm grateful to all y'all.
