Don’t laugh at electric vehicles, they will supplant the internal combustion engine, performance freaks need not fret.Not laughing at the elec vehicle. They have been with us since the cars beginning. They are as impractical as tits on a boar hog. Will they become more practical? Maybe. But I wonder what the consumer is going to react in 6-10 yrs when the battery has to be replaced. Besides the cost of the battery $5-10K plus installation, there will be the recycle fee for all those dangerous heavy metals which go into these batteries and will be filling the landfills at an alarming pace. Then there is the charging stations which will be powered by fossil fuels. So how much have we really lessened our dependence on fossil fuels? And how many other problems have we created? Meanwhile my wife’s Avalon beats the torque monster Tesla X in a 500 mile race with ease. But that’s the long view of things. We Americans don’t consider the long term results anymore.
Noise floors
I'd like to address an issue that every single audiophile experiences, that being inherent/ambient steady state noise floors. Here we spend so much effort and money on our equipment in order to lower noise floor and increase resolution, transparency, only to lose some percentage of it on relatively high ambient noise floors. By this I mean the noise generated internally by home, hvac systems and so much more, add to that external, outside the home generated noise. Measuring over many years, over large variables, lowest readings of mid 20db to highest mid 50db in my dedicated listening room, these are steady state readings, any particular system in house may activate and or outdoor generated noises, which are even more variable, may kick in raising if from here.
And so, while we can address both these internal and external generated noise floors to some extent, we can't rid ourselves entirely of them. I presume there are widely varying levels of these noise floors for each of us, and it should be accounted for in reviews or evaluations of equipment. And could be reason for trusting only long term reviews, with varying noise floor levels within one's listening room, short term listening could have taken place during time of best or worse case room noise floor.
But mostly what bothers me is, here all this effort and money spent on equipment in attempt to lower noise floor, and so much of that lost by relatively ridiculous levels of steady state and/or ambient noise. Makes one think about getting closed back headphones, or moving out to extremely remote area to home with minimal internally generated noise. To think how much better the very system I presently have would sound in that environment!
And so, while we can address both these internal and external generated noise floors to some extent, we can't rid ourselves entirely of them. I presume there are widely varying levels of these noise floors for each of us, and it should be accounted for in reviews or evaluations of equipment. And could be reason for trusting only long term reviews, with varying noise floor levels within one's listening room, short term listening could have taken place during time of best or worse case room noise floor.
But mostly what bothers me is, here all this effort and money spent on equipment in attempt to lower noise floor, and so much of that lost by relatively ridiculous levels of steady state and/or ambient noise. Makes one think about getting closed back headphones, or moving out to extremely remote area to home with minimal internally generated noise. To think how much better the very system I presently have would sound in that environment!
- ...
- 85 posts total
- 85 posts total