[nathanm]

Hello my name is Nathan and it's been six years since my last post. Once upon a time I created some graphics for this website and I'm really kind of surprised it's still around, but also glad that it is. I may or may not remember some of the usernames around here. I fear reading too far into the past for fear of maximum cringe.

I completely abandoned the hobby since then and moved onto other things. My listening room gradually filled up with non-audio stuff. Giant inkjet printers, stacks of paper, guitar amps and photography gear. I could never listen at the levels that I liked. I sold some of the more expensive stuff, mainly my Michel Gyrodec turntable which was such a beauty. The ratty old Technics table that my friend's dad gave me does not compare in looks or sound.

But when I was forced to work from home I got to looking around and thinking, "Dammit, I have this great gear sitting around doing nothing, that ain't right. This equipment could be used to feed starving audiophiles who don't even have two speakers to rub together." So I said screw you to the starving audiophiles and decided to power up the old girl again. I started clearing out all the BS from my room and watched hi-fi stuff on YouTube to re-aquaint myself a bit. Back in olden times there was almost NO audiophile content on the interwebs. Now it's all over the joint.

Even though the Tannoy DMT-10s sounded good when unearthed from their tomb of neglect, there were other speakers that now existed and somehow I got it in my head that I needed those too. Also it seems streaming is now A Thing. Interesting. So after many many months a pair of Zu Omen Dirty Weekends in beautiful Rustic Hickory finish found their way into my room. I got Spotify and Tidal on my PC and had been listening to that for awhile on headphones. I couldn't figure out how to get my old Squeezebox gadget working so I just plugged my phone's headphone out into my preamp.

The Zus are more directional than the Tannoys and when you stand up the frequency response goes all haywire, but no matter, on axis they were doing really well. With Almost Any Song You Can Think of being within reach I found myself actually listening to music for an extended period. In the Quest For Soundstage I even revisted the old chestnuts like Patricia Barber and got dat brushed snare intimacy all up in my grille. (I came to kinda learn she's not even jazz enough for jazz. I don't know. That's eldritch knowledge no meant for metalheads to know) Steely Dan's 'everything must go' is like sonic corn syrup. The freaggin' kick drum is soooo tactile. It doesn't move me like the two verses of Midnite Crusier, but the sounds are creamy. I also checked out Yello and filled in my gap of ignorance between the end credits of Ferris Bueller's Day off to November 2020 with some intense vocal fry and synth bass vibrations of guilty pleasures which actually weren't that guilty. Pressurizing girthy low end and crispy treble, that's the audiophile's crack right there. No, make that morphine. I know morphine is an excellent drug. (it was in a hospital, honest)

The amazing thing is that I can turn off the 40Hz-crossed VMPS New Larger sub which is more sub than any sub could ever sub, and the Zus still have extension down there, just not as much level. Impressive. The Tannoys do not do this for some reason. (physics, most likely) I was prepping myself for total buyer's remorse on these, assuming they would not do anything special and just be a waste of money. But no, they're dang good. Keepers. Oh yeah, they've got the Expensive Fancy Capacitor upgrade. (basis for comparison: none)

I then went ham and bought a Schiit Yggdrasil and a Loki EQ box. I've never actually owned a DAC before, so I figured I should get one. So why not get a really expensive one so you can't worry about it? Ok, we can do that. But internet folks say it takes 2 years to warmup or it sounds like crap! Ahh! But but it's a DAC, gotta be better than your phone's DAC, right?  Erm, well I'm sure it is. Probably. Yeah but this has a phase switch. You press it and nothing happens. Your phone can't do that now can it? But what if I listen to Stereophile Test CD absolute phase tracks? Nobody wants to listen to that, it's boring af. You're right.

Now I've gotta buy some dang streamer gadget because ya'll cable industry emmer effers don't make a gosh dang USB-C to USB-B cable what's longer than my arm and I've gotta keep my chair on an angle to the Yggdrasil cos there ain't enough slack between it and my phone. We're talking serious first world problems here.

I'm thinking about building an outrigger footing for the speakers so they can be easily tilted, or perhaps a platform to raise them up to my ear height. The under-the-woofer supertweeter is an odd thing but it still works. I even bought lasers 'n stuff to try and align them precisely, but not being able to actually move the speakers precisely or mount the laser precisely makes me itch. But I can't complain, it sounds dang good. Center images are not as locked on as I'd like. But I swear these recordings do not have a true digital mono signal of the singer, stuff seems wider than that. I also have anxiety about not having the means to precisely match left and right levels.

Would you believe cruel people on the internet made me willingly and without coercion stream a Hootie and the Blowfish song to my gorram stereo? It's true. I did it only for a few seconds, honest. The horse song was much better. That's more of that Patricia Barber's hot breath in your earholes kinda sound we can enjoy without guilt. But I don't think I got any sort of imaging epiphany yet. That tune I think does have true monophonic center signal.

That's enough yammering for now. Hope you are all doing well.

[Woodsea]

Welcome back to the fold.  I missed that old avatar of yours!

[Big Red Machine]

Nathan is back in the house!!

[FullRangeMan]

Welcome Nathan, I always appreciated your art work and yet try reduce the use of commas.

[JakeJ]

Behold! The Grammar Nazi Master lives!  Welcome back Nathan and hope you and your loved ones are safe, happy (as can be), and healthy in these crazy times.  Sounds like you have already slipped down the rabbit hole of good sound, keep on the path of sonic goodness.

Hope I didn't overdo the commas.

Jake

PS - Just clicked on your website link and it takes me to an Indonesian website.  Maybe you got jacked, hijacked, or just plain hacked.  Dammit, more commas!

[WGH]

Hey Nathan, I still have the AudioCircle logo hooded sweatshirt you used to sell. 
Good to see you're back!

[toocool4]

Not seen your avatar in a long time, welcome back.

[nathanm]

I'm drawing a blank on the bit about commas.

[nathanm]

PS - Just clicked on your website link and it takes me to an Indonesian website.  Maybe you got jacked, hijacked, or just plain hacked.  Dammit, more commas!

I dumped my domain and web hosting awhile ago. Too expensive to maintain, zero traffic, no income from it.

[SET Man]

Hey!

   Welcome back Nathan. Wow, it has been 6 years? I haven't been around here as often like I used to myself. I guess because I'm pretty much happy with my system, it haven't changed much at all the past 6 years actually. But this might change now due to this covid pandemic 

   Anyway, good to see you around here again.

Buddy

[ArthurDent]

Welcome back Nathan. Good to see you are well & kickin'.   

[JakeJ]

The reference to commas is about your occasional need to be the English proffessor by pointing out spelling, grammatical, and punctuation errors.  Never with a mean presentation, but always correct.  Thus was my reference to the "Gammer Master", all meant in jest and good intentions.

As to your website, well that's too bad as there were a couple of pieces I wanted to discuss the possibility of buying a digital copy that I could have GIK make into custom art panels to help tame my nasty acoustic.

Bottom line is it's great to hear from you again.

Jake

[nathanm]

As to your website, well that's too bad as there were a couple of pieces I wanted to discuss the possibility of buying a digital copy that I could have GIK make into custom art panels to help tame my nasty acoustic.

My Flickr page is still active so if there's anything on there that you want just let me know and I can send you the high res file (if it is that much higher than on Flickr, can't remember) I assume these abstracts make the most sense aesthetically for such panels:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/nathanmarciniak/albums/72157613026000373

It's all got a Creative Commons license on it I believe. Use whatever you'd like, it's fine with me.