How Has Your Finely Tuned Audiophile Dexterity Helped You in Your "Other" Life?
Listening. Observing. Trying. Failing. Perceiving the nuances. And, sledge hammer impacts. Developing a new vocubulary. (As well as using very familiar terms when things don’t go as expected), Sorting through tons of data. Skillfully differentiating between the things that matter, and things that don’t. To us, anyway.
So, how have these skills (and, being a generally good person) helped you in life? Or, others?
Here’s one to start:
Wine Pouring:
My wife and I like to drink wine. Landing a enjoyable wine in the single digits (after all discounts applied) is a big win for us. Our evening of wine allocation and enjoyment generally takes on the following cadence: Pour One. Pour two (making sure to save just a little in the bottle). Then, the highly anticipated "desperation pour". The last 2 sips for each poured from the bottle. This way we take a pause, and take the time to fully appreciate those last two sips. Silly, but it’s what we do.
Frankly, I’ve gotten pretty good at this wine allocation thing. Equal pours, every time. For a while there, I thought I was just "lucky" and timed it just right. But, recently, I’ve concluded it’s something more. My "finely tuned audiophile" dexterity.
As we have all observed, when you fill a vessel with liquid, the frequency of the sound changes as the space in the vessel becomes occupied with more liquid. I was unaware that I was paying attention to those frequencies and my brain remembered the frequency at the conclusion of the last pour. So, when filling the second glass, I just listened and stopped when the frequency of the last pour was matched. Seems to work for me (within a tolerance of a few Hz/Mls). This doens’t help when you’re camping in near darkness and miss the glass completely, but has worked for us in a workable domestic sense for quite some time. Now I thank Sal Marantz, Frank McIntosh, and others after those (nearly) perfect pours.
Showing 7 responses by waytoomuchstuff
Yeah, I get it. I attended a music program at a large church last Christmas. A few seconds into the performance, I had a strong desire to rent some scaffording and rip out all the cheap "builder grade" speaker wire and replace it with "good stuff". Everyone around me was smiling, and singing along. I found that singing loudly helped the situation. But..... on the other hand, when they DO get it "right" at a music venue, I’m the happiest guy in the room, filled with joy, gratitude, and appreciation for all who made it happen. So, that’s the "tariff" for being an audio nurd? |
Okay, here’s another one. Hot rodding: I have an older car with solid lifters connected to the camshaft. The car sounded like a Singer sewing machine running down the road at high RPM from the driver’s position. Audiophiles use a product called "Acoustical Magic" to dampening the ringing on turntable platters, and I had a can of it laying around. Since my valve cover (yes, one in case) was made of aluminum, I thought: "Why not?" So, I cleaned up the inside, de-greased it, applied the magic stuff, baked it in the oven for several hours, let it cool, and reinstalled. It truly was "magic." Now I hear the exhaust, and the wind. A definitely upgrade in the "SQ" of my ride. |
Taking someone from a position of ambivalence to being wildly enthusiastic about quality sound reproduction is a pretty steep gradient for anyone. Small, precise steps may be the solution. I’m attaching to link to what I used as a training exercise for my guys to demonstrate quite simply what their job is as an "audio consultant." I’ll not attempt to add context here. Hopefully, the clip will speak for itself. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dLRXxC40B0&t=8s I’ve found the "perfect storm" for those most likely to migrate into "audiophile territory" requires 2 components. 1) a profound interest and appreciation for music, and 2) a sense of "play" where they are highly interested in things to mess around and experiment with. The combination of these 2 produces the lifetime of musical enjoyment and presents infinite possibilities to elevate the listening experience to another level thru experimentation, research, etc. I’ve seen "the light come on" when demonstrating real high fidelity sound to customers for the first time. Their ears were opened. And, so were their wallets. The hardest "nut to crack" for me were trained musicians with enormous investments in their musical pedigrees and equipment ($30k cello, $8k bow comes to mind). I just couldn’t move these guys off of the "lower mid-fi" category into to decent gear. It was probably me. I remember many years ago a man came in looking for speakers, accompanied by his 8-year-old son. As the music started, the 8-year-old began "coaching" his dad on what to listen for. When that 8-year-old reached 18 years of age, I hired him on the spot and never looked back. He is still currently working full time in the business I founded (and sold). And, having fun. Some people just gravitate towards high quality audio the elements required to achieve it. Some people don’t. |
"The really funny thing is for decades, completely by accident I ended up working in companies that are primary sources of high end subcomponents for high end audio… Burr-Brown Corp and Texas Instruments. So all wrapped together for me." Back in the 70's when I was working at a "consumer electronics" store, I was reminded by someone that we were selling products from the company that built the planes that bombed Pearl Harbor (Mitsubishi), and the company that made the chemicals that killed people in death camps (BASF). Not exactly a "feel good" moment in my audio career. |