Your favorite less-than-hi-fi listening experiences?

low.pfile · « **on:** 17 Jul 2008, 08:37 pm »

I am spinning off of the XM Radio Thread, since the latest transistor talk made me think of this.....

Admit your favorite less-than-hi-fidelity listening experiences/memories/system. Add pics if you have them. This could be fun.

My most recent one was at a friends 40th birthday party. We were in a rented country house, where we where doing the iPod DJ thing after dinner using Harman Kardon Soundsticks + iSub computer speakers, which to me sound mediocre. Dancing erupted in the empty space near the dining room. About 8 of us crammed into the small space laughing and dancing. Then the power goes out during a decent sized storm. Since it was a rental we had no idea where the fuse/breaker was. It didn't matter power was out down the road too.

Determined, we connected a little mono speaker Tivoli radio to an ipod and in the candle light, continued dancing for over an hour. During that time the little battery powered Tivoli was losing power fast and sounded like an AM transistor radio pulling in a station from 50 miles away. But dance on we did. All of us moving in as close as possible to the little yellow savior to hear the tune.

So it goes to show that you don't need a $$$ system to have an amazing time listening to music.

BTW that is a 2.5" speaker!

"It's about the music" ....to steal the XM Radio tag line often heard on Channel XMU #43

cheers,
ed

nathanm · « **Reply #1 on:** 17 Jul 2008, 08:53 pm »

Ummm…my entire adolescence? Cheap boomboxes, Radio Shack amps powering homemade speaker boxes held together with hot glue and tape decks from St. Vincent DePaul which had to be smacked periodically to stop a weird squealing feedback. Ahh, the good 'ol days.

TONEPUB · « **Reply #2 on:** 17 Jul 2008, 11:09 pm »

Letting off the gas when driving the new Bentley Continental Speed Spur last week in
Boston and listening to that twin turbo 12cyl grumble through the dual exhaust.

Awesome....

low.pfile · « **Reply #3 on:** 17 Jul 2008, 11:15 pm »

^^^ showoff!

and hardly low-fi

richidoo · « **Reply #4 on:** 17 Jul 2008, 11:53 pm »

I LOVE the sound of my Honda Oddysey minivan stereo system. It is battery powered chip amp playing into paper drivers in a closed field acoustic with tons of absorbtion and custom EQ. Compared to my hifi, the bass is weak and loose, highs are not terrifically extended, midrange is not detailed as high end gear. But the sound is balanced, pure, harmless, friendly, penetrating, emotional and satsifying! When the kids are screaming or wife is banging in the kitchen too loud for hifi, I go out there and sit in the silent car playing it. I use a Creative Labs Nomad Jukebox 3 mp3 player, into a cassette adapter to the head unit. The reclining seat is a nice touch too... haha. I love it.

Rich

stereocilia · « **Reply #5 on:** 18 Jul 2008, 12:12 am »

In high school: driving down the road in a rusting toyota corolla (poorly re-painted with a sprayer once used for barns) with a radio-shack tape deck in the dash. In the back seat (not the trunk) a home-built plywood sub, again, with a radio-shack sub, finished with stapled-on random brown cloth driven by a combination amp/ 5-band eq (sliding around in the trunk, purchased at a garage sale) with the contols set to maximum bass (in-lieu of a x-over). R.E.M. never sounded so good until the too-thin +12V wire, which I later discovered was aluminum that I grabbed from my grandpa's random stuff in the basement burnt up like a fuse on one of those cartoon bombs. *fzzzzt*

denjo · « **Reply #6 on:** 18 Jul 2008, 12:44 am »

In my varsity days, I had a fairly unknown and nondescript radio brand, Fairmate, with AM/FM radio and cassette tape. I made a cheap speaker (mono) to plug into and spent many enjoyable hours listening to it! It was a memorable experience - no power cords, interconnects, line conditioners or tweaks to worry about! The equipment was definitely lo-fi but the experience was priceless!

nodiak · « **Reply #7 on:** 18 Jul 2008, 12:57 am »

A couple years ago took my son and his friend on summer surf trip in the '84 toyota pickup (they switched off sitting on the cushions and a rigged up seat belt in the extra cab

). Stock cassette deck and 6.5" door speakers, worn out and lotsa distortion, and cassettes! I brought a bunch of cassettes had in a box from the 80's just to have something along. Turned out to be a lot of fun in the noisy truck with the terrible stereo! We listened and sang to Hendrix, Bowie, Mott the Hoople, Lennon, and more. I didn't care about the sq at all, and they never do anyway!
Don

Zero · « **Reply #8 on:** 18 Jul 2008, 01:10 am »

You could say that my awareness of high end sound did not come in until late adolescence when I received my first high quality audio system. Until then, I was perfectly content with the stock speakers in a car, or my PC speakers (although I found myself switching PC speakers often to hear how they would influence the sound - a forewarning I didn't get until it was too late). In fact, from age 15 on down, I was actually somewhat scared of loud music / noises.

Like most of you, I'm spoiled by good sound. When I'm at home, and the lights go down, I want/enjoy my hi-fi.

And like most of you (I hope), when away from the main rig - a sub-par system wont stop me from enjoying good tunes. It doesn't matter whether I'm traveling with friends listening to their cruddy stock system in their car, listening at a restaurant, outdoor event, in an elevator, on a set of crappy "earphones" in a flight, at the club, - so long as I'm around good company, and the music's good - I'm fine. The only thing that'll ruin the deal is exceptionally bright systems.. that'll drive me insane regardless of the source/event.

jazzcourier · « **Reply #9 on:** 18 Jul 2008, 01:17 am »

The listening booths at Wallach's Music City.Sunset and Vine,Hollywood.NO HEADPHONES! Each booth had a turntable,amp and speaker.They were supposed to be soundproof,but they bled so you could hear a little bit of everything everyone played.1967.We played Thelonious Monk records until they kicked us out.We NEVER bought anything there,too expensive.

soundbitten1 · « **Reply #10 on:** 18 Jul 2008, 01:42 am »

The summer of '64 at my parent's cottage . Listening to a little one speaker plastic radio fading in and out . The far away station playing the glorious sounds of the British Invasion bands . The Beatles , Stones , Kinks , Animals , Dave Clark Five , etc . Exciting , strange and wonderful music to a teen who previously never gave a hoot about music . It was an awakening .

low.pfile · « **Reply #11 on:** 18 Jul 2008, 01:46 am »

cool stories!

TONEPUB · « **Reply #12 on:** 18 Jul 2008, 01:52 am »

Ok, if we get more gear oriented, one of my good friends
still has the system I sold him after I got out of college (like
25 years ago)

Marantz 2275 with JBL L-166's...
Got a CD player but it still sounds vintage and groovy whenever
we hang out and drink too much.

Especially if we drink too much!

Wind Chaser · « **Reply #13 on:** 18 Jul 2008, 03:47 am »

Back in the mid 70's - when my parents weren't home - having a few friends over after school and cranking up the tunes outside... Queen, Heart, Cheap Trick, Elton John, Supertramp, Van Halen etc. This led eventually to stereo wars with my next door neighbor which was a good thing. Because if my parents were home, I could sometimes count on them to turn it up loud with the Cars, Led Zep and Aerosmith.

In the late 70's, getting stoned and listening to anything by anyone, as long as it was in stereo it sounded pretty darn good to me. In the early 80's, after I graduated into high end, pot just made me more critical and I didn't enjoy the music or my system as much. Funny how that works.

Tyson · « **Reply #14 on:** 18 Jul 2008, 03:49 am »

Listening to "her" moan in the back seat. Poor acoustics, but an ecstatic experience

Wind Chaser · « **Reply #15 on:** 18 Jul 2008, 04:14 am »

One more…

Summer of 1979… on cassette tape, Bob Seger, Dire Straits and 10cc in a smashed up Ford Cortina. My buddy had just turned 16 and got his drivers license. So to celebrate we drove from Edmonton, Alberta into Montana to buy some beer. That’s about a 5 hour trip one way.

hmen · « **Reply #16 on:** 18 Jul 2008, 04:59 am »

Mid 70's when I was in high school and my friend's parents weren't home. Pink Floyd , Zappa, Yes, ELP and occasionally even Kraftwerk. You couldn't walk within five feet of the turntable or the record would skip.

Russell Dawkins · « **Reply #17 on:** 18 Jul 2008, 06:29 am »

1/
Listening late at night to Al "your boy" Bowen on KSL Salt Lake City, when I was 15 and living in Victoria BC.

I had a little, very primitive radio I built out of an old tube hearing aid, where the microphone was replaced by a hopped-up crystal set (a loopstick, diode and capacitor).

I listened on a crystal earphone which must have sounded appalling but good enough to enjoy the program. Al Bowen was phenomenal in his personality and knowledge of jazz - he would often take longer than the cut he was introducing to explain what to listen for and had a unique way of signing off at 2AM - he would say "so ... this is your boy Bowen wishing you a very good .... (2 or 3 minute pause with silence in the background) ... goodnight!" - followed by immediate hiss and other distant stations rushing in as he flipped the switch on their transmitter.

2/
Getting my daily fix of the Staple Singers on the worst sounding, most distorted, yet most enjoyable record in my collection at the time - on the Everest Label, Gospel Archives series.

Less than hi-fi. And more.

superchad · « **Reply #18 on:** 18 Jul 2008, 07:59 am »

Listening to "Kid Leo" and "Ruby Cheeks" on 100.7 WMMS at Edgewater beach in Cleveland during the mid 80's on dozens of boom boxes all tuned to same station, the sun, fun, and view with unorganized simulcast was a ton of fun...............oh wait maybe it was just youth that was so "lo-fi" but boy it was a blast! I still remember that station was polled #1 for years in "Rolling Stone" till they got greedy and were busted for ballet stuffing. I can even recall the tag line between songs, "The station that reaches the beaches, shakes the lakes and rocks the docks, the flame throwing Buzzard" ahhhh the memories!

Imperial · « **Reply #19 on:** 18 Jul 2008, 11:20 am »

In Norway, in the city of Trondheim, out in the fjord, on the Island MunkHolmen is a building:

Observe the hemispherical chamber there, used to store gunpowder back in the old days.
The acoustics is unlike any other room on the planet... you guys better believe it!!!
So me and a friend sort of was on a guided tour on this Island, and when the rest of the group
followed the guide along and out of the room, we stayed back.

And what we did, oh my, we sung Amazing grace, the song at the top of our lungs!!!
I walked the outer circle, and he stood in the middle singing up towards the roof.

The experience was out of this WORLD!!!
The resonance, and amplifying effect of this chamber, gives chamber music a new meaning!!

It actually brings tears to my eyes just writing this now...

Hehe... Well.

Awesome experience! Just awesome!

Imperial