[Affordable$$Audio]

Hi Everyone:
After a few days delay the October issue of Affordable$$Audio is now ready for free download.  Inside this month we review the path blazing Emerald Physics CS2 speakers, the Xindat integrated tube amp, and Danny Richie's latest stunner, the NEO-1X monitors, plus other reviews.  In addition, we have part two of the Power Line noise series.
Thanks for supporting this celebration of audio.
www.affordableaudio.org

[MJK]

Mark,

I really enjoyed your opening article "In Search of Great Lyrics". I agree with your assessment of what today's teenagers are missing with the way music is distributed. I have three teens who instantly change the station in the car whenever we go any place. Man that stuff is bad, shallow and repetitious. They just don't get the music from the '70s, when I was in high school and college. Then by coincidence, today on the ride home from work James Taylor's "Secrets O' Life" came on the radio. I had not heard it in a long long time and I remembered reading your article last night. I enjoyed the ride home looking at the trees turning while listening carefully to James' message.

Thanks,

Martin

[mcullinan]

Great Issue Mark. The hard work does pay off.. at least in appreciation
Mike

[timind]

It looks good, I'll give it a thorough read this weekend.
I did read the opening article. It inspired me to put on Van Morrison's "Moondance." The opening lines to "And It Stoned Me" are some of the most honest lyrics I can think of:
Half a mile from the county fair
And the rain keep pourin' down
Me and Billy standin' there
With a silver half a crown
Hands are full of fishin' rod
And the tackle on our backs
We just stood there gettin' wet
With our backs against the fence
Oh the water
That really hits me deep.

[isaacc7]

This is the first time I read Affordable audio and the one thing that stuck out to me is the music that was used to evaluate everything. Pete Townsend, Janis Ian, Enigma, James Taylor, Dan Fogleberg, etc... What struck me was how much I hated all of them. Seriously, with the exceptions of the Chieftains and Mingus, everything else brought images of hell into my mind.

My point is not to discuss tastes in music, there's no point in that, but how those tastes impact the reviews. I found myself wondering if
A) I could trust this guy since we have VERY different tastes and
B) Would any of the things he mentioned be of any use to me since I don't listen to what he does.

What things cross over from music into audio? At what point do we identify what the reviewer is listening for and decide it's not for us?

Isaac

[isaacc7]

Mark,

I really enjoyed your opening article "In Search of Great Lyrics". I agree with your assessment of what today's teenagers are missing with the way music is distributed. I have three teens who instantly change the station in the car whenever we go any place. Man that stuff is bad, shallow and repetitious. They just don't get the music from the '70s, when I was in high school and college.
Thanks,

Martin

Heh, you don't think your parents wouldn't have said the same things? Not only are different ideas more important to different generations, but the way in which they are transmitted make an enormous amount of difference. As "deep" as JT may seem to you, your kids will tune out within 4 notes. SOmetimes the medium is indeed the message, or at least it is a message.

Isaac

[Rocket]

Hi,

You should only use a review as a reference to point you in the right direction.  At the end of the day you should only trust your own ears when purchasing a component for your system.

Regards

Rod

[isaacc7]

Hi,

You should only use a review as a reference to point you in the right direction.  At the end of the day you should only trust your own ears when purchasing a component for your system.

Regards

Rod

Well sure, but I was getting at the "Point you in the right direction," bit. If the reviewer thinks that artist X is the end all be all and I hate him, there are two problems. First, I won't have any idea of the sound the reviewer is talking about since I don't listen to artist X. The second, and I think more interesting, issue is that I'm not sure I want a system or component that makes artist x sound so good. It's a matter of, "If I don't trust his judgement in music, should I trust his judgement in audio?" At the end of the day, I don't know if I should be more or less interested in a piece of gear after reading that kind of review. Is the answer simply to read reviewers with a similar taste in music?

Isaac

[Rocket]

Hi Guys,

I liked this article:

Surely, I’m not the only one who has experienced audio psychosis. For those of you who are in denial of your obsessive
behavior, below are some examples of crazy things audiophiles do. If you’ve done at least one of these, you’re a
certified audio fool:

Buy an amp you owned previously because it was better than the ten other amps you bought since then.

Woops!  I just bought 2 amps that I owned about 8 years ago and I like them better than the amps I originally replaced them with.

Call your friends over to listen to our “new” system and it sounds like crap. Your friends walk away unimpressed,
wondering why you spent a fortune on a system that they think doesn’t sound any better than their
iPod.

Yes a group of friends came to my house last year and totally bagged my amp and speakers.  Luckily they all liked my salk sound ht2's.

[You tell your wife that you don’t plan on upgrading anymore. A week later the UPS guy shows up at your doorstep
with a new preamp./quote]

Damn .  How on earth am I going to get the new bel canto preamp that I bought secondhand from a friend thru the door without a fight?

You make an impulsive purchase and regret it before the component arrives. Sure enough, it sucks, and you
sell it as fast as you can.

Guilty of this one too.

You sell your amp to a friend, visit his house one day and the amp sounds great, then you’re pissed off for selling
it.

I sold a really good pair of speakers that used raven 1 ribbon and focal midbass drivers to a friend.  Six months later he wouldn't sell them back to me.  I bought another 3 pair of speakers before I felt I was satisfied with my system.

You’ve been changing out components for many years in the same room, only to finally realize that inexpensive
acoustic panels made the biggest difference, by far.

Woops.  No acoustic pannelling at this stage.

So what’s the cure to this madness? I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but there isn’t one. The good news, however,
is that once you’re infected, you’ll become so obsessed with finding the perfect sound that you won’t even realize the
need to be cured. I guess this answers a question I’ve had for a long time – “Do crazy people know they’re crazy?”

Well I guess I could be crazier and be driving around in a v8.  Petrold costs about $8 a gallon here.

As you can tell I enjoyed this article.

Regards

Rod

[Mister Pig]

Hi,

You should only use a review as a reference to point you in the right direction.  At the end of the day you should only trust your own ears when purchasing a component for your system.

Regards

Rod

Well sure, but I was getting at the "Point you in the right direction," bit. If the reviewer thinks that artist X is the end all be all and I hate him, there are two problems. First, I won't have any idea of the sound the reviewer is talking about since I don't listen to artist X. The second, and I think more interesting, issue is that I'm not sure I want a system or component that makes artist x sound so good. It's a matter of, "If I don't trust his judgement in music, should I trust his judgement in audio?" At the end of the day, I don't know if I should be more or less interested in a piece of gear after reading that kind of review. Is the answer simply to read reviewers with a similar taste in music?

Isaac

Hi,

Well I think the old adage of "ya can't please everybody all of the time" is a valid answer to the questions posed in these posts. Possibly I should feel fortunate that you like at least one of the groups I used in my review.

I try to pick a diverse musical selection to use in my reviews. My goal is find music that addresses the interest of most readers. So I include jazz,blues, folk,pop,eletronica, and some rock n roll. I try to feed in some classical, but that's probably the format that I have the least amount of music in. Not that I don't like it, I just haven't bought much. If you were to go back into previous issues, I think you will find several pieces with artists you might appreciate. Of course I could be wrong, but that's how I try to structure my pieces.

As far as what you do with the info that's contained in the article, well I can't answer that. All I try to do in my reviews is relate my listening experiences, and communicate what I appreciate from a piece of gear. The reader has to consider my choice of equipment used for the review, my efforts at set up and location in my listening room, and my choice of music. All the information needed to understand the context of my writing is contained in the review. It's up to the reader to decide whether it has any value to them or not.

I sincerely hope that you can find nuggets of information contained in A$$A that are useful to you. If you have any observations on how to improve the magazine, by all means give us a shout. Make a post to this board. Or send us an email. While A$$A is put out by a collection of rabid volunteers, we try to find gear that makes all sorts of music accessible to the every day audio enthusiast.

Regards
John Hoffman

[pardales]

I enjoyed the piece on "Audiophile Neurosis" 

[TONEPUB]

this is why classical music or unamplified music is such a good tool.

Granted a lot of people don't like classical music, (and there are variations
on the theme of acoustic instruments), but it is invaluable when listening
to gear, because an oboe, a piano or a violin either sound like the real thing
(or as close as possible) or they don't.

It's darn near using your favorite rock records to completely evaluate
hifi gear and I know I do it too.  I couldn't agree with Issac more and
have gone to a more general overview, lumping in vocals together rather
than picking out my one favorite record.

The one thing rock music is good for is the delta, or change you hear between
one component or system and another.  If you've heard Led Zeppelin III
a million times and know it inside and out, you can at least hear the difference
between something new and something you are listening to for the first time.

[Affordable$$Audio]

I try to pick music from most genre's for every review.  I hope that i hit upon something that virtually every reader can have some bit of connection to. Other reviewers may listen to music that I can't stand (rap), but I would never dismiss their opinion, instead i usually try to get out of that reference is "what about those tones and reproduction can i connect to music I would listen to regularly".

I do agree with Jeff that unamplified instruments are best, that is why I like hearing an acoustic guitar, piano, or especially the xylophone.  I just wish I had Jeff's music library to work with, but I'm grateful that my hearing is as young and healthy as knees are stiff and old!