Internet RadioIf you use "australia" as keyword to search in MS MediaPlayer's Radio Tuner, you could get a couple of more oz stations.
BasementHamish is Chief Executive of Chief Entertainment Pty Limited, a company he and Doug Mulray formed to joint venture with Telstra Corporation in the creation of www.thebasement.com.au , a 24 hours a day/7 days a week broadband internet webcasting operation. This project includes live streaming of both audio and vision, and was established in conjunction with Sydney's legendary live music venue The Basement.
(from: http://www.immedia.com.au/entcon/speakers/Cameron.html)
I had a chance to bring a group of about 30 people (my colleagues and their partners) to a dinner party to celebrate something (that's commercial in confidence; don't ask. If you do ask, I won't answer.
) To find a venue, I chose The Basement, situated in the heart of Sydney. A meal followed by some music is always something cared by people who care about their music systems.
As usual, I was pretty picky. I asked The Basement to fax me a table plan and a program. It wasn't a difficult decision to make, to circle a few tables and determine when to go, as the
Fourplay would be right on the stage in few weeks time.
So, I composed an email with links to The Basement and Fourplay to everybody and eveybody began to look forward to it.
One day I received a call from a staff of the Basement telling me that, as I booked after Fourplay, it should be made clear that the Fourplay on that night would be the
Australian Fourplay; some poeple had some confusions. I said I did. I didn't know there is also a jazz group called Fourplay in Australia. Then I informed my colleagues that this Fourplay is not that Fourplay. One of my colleague said he wouldn't remember what the American Fourplay played anyway so it would not confuse him which Fourplay would be playing. "Ok, that's ok, let's go ahead with it."
On the night at the Basement, there was a video interview with a Caucasian lady next to our tables who dressed in a traditional Chinese folk jerkin. What puzzled me a little was that later she stepped up onto the stage and turned up to be one of the Fourplay(ers). I don't know if it's a coincidence for her to dress in a bit of Chinese costume or The Basement informed the Fourplay that there would be a group of 30 Chinese booked after them (I booked under my full name, very Chinese. 30 people would occupy about half of the tables in front of the stage), though the 30 people did not show up with all Chinese faces; that was another story.
Anyway, the night was good and I bought a couple of CDs of this Australian Fourplay when I was stepping out of the The Basement. This Fourplay group consists of people with degrees and higher degrees in arts, law, philosophy, pure mathematics, modern languages, and one and the only one music artist by training. They are an interesting group of people who love music and make music in harmony. (I am struggling to find the balance of loving music and loving music reproduction system.) Since then, I regularly read their newsletters sent into my email box.
I couldn't recall how the quality of the HiFi system on the site was (remember that this Australian Fourplay is an electric string quartet) but the "presence" of the music was second to none
and absolutely no one complained that the amplifer or speakers there was not HiFi enough. That's part of the reason why when I heard some people claiming their system is the best in blah blah ... I was often giggling and never got involved.
I have a habit, good or bad, habituated from my training and profession, of placing any conclusions on evidence. I have been involved in subjective assessments of audio and video quality in my jobs and am very familiar with the process. Subjectivism is not to say whatever one likes to say or to hear. (Saying whatever one likes to say may be rightly a part of the freedom in audio.) Subjectivism is evidenced by scientific observations and can be assessed objectively with evidential results. I am happy to carry on this habit with my audio journey since I don't want to spend my time, efforts, money and, last but not least, my passion for something that does not exist in evidence. (That bit could be my
self-introduction to this circle 
) It is not always easy to be or not to be the "little child" to say "
But he has nothing on at all."
I don't know if the Sydney Opera House concert hall would be the best concert hall in Sydney in terms of acoustics, but it does become my reference to tune my system. When I close my eyes and don't feel like sitting in the concert hall while listening to my system, I will continue my journey ... I will never stop, I believe. (Once I did feel as if I was in a cafe "seeing" tables around me, when I listened to the Jazz at the Pawnshop with my eyes closed. Unfortunately I could never get that same feeling back after I had to move my speakers around, no matter how I later fiddled with interconnects and speaker cables etc.) I am not here talking about subjectivism but my hopeless obsession to the accuracy.
Anyway, anyone, who likes music in HiFi and is, or happens to be, in Sydney, should "pick" one night and listen to the music at the Basement. (If one asks me what's the relation of the Basement and HiFi, that's my answer both as an audiophile and Sydneysider.) If you want a table close to the stage, book a dinner; if you like to talk around or dance (there isn't much room for dancing, by the way.) holding a bottle of beer or a cup of wine or whatever you like to hold, just walk in.
