My topic today is not the hardware that we use to reproduce sound, but the delicate precision instruments we use to detect it: our ears. Our enjoyment of musical sound is important enough to justify spending thousands of dollars on recordings, electronics, loudspeakers, and concert tickets. What is it worth to preserve your hearing so that you can continue enjoying great sound 10 or 20 years from now? I've been conducting an experiment for the last 30 years, at a cost of less than a penny a day. It began when I was 17.
<B><I>Sound Reproduction: Loudspeakers and Rooms</I></B><BR>
By Floyd E. Toole. Focal Press (Oxford, England, UK, <A HREF="http://www.elsevier.com">www.elsevier.com</A>, footnote 1), 2008. Paperback, 550 pages, ISBN 978-0240520094. $49.95.
Back in February 2008, senior contributing editor John Marks decided to hold <a href="http://www.stereophile.com/thefifthelement/208fifth/index.html">a competition</a>.
There has been a lot of Leonard Cohen talk going around the office this week. You will find out why when you receive your September issue of <i>Stereophile</i>. You will enjoy it, too, I am certain.
There has been a lot of Leonard Cohen talk going around the office this week. You will find out why when you receive your September issue of <i>Stereophile</i>. You will enjoy it, too, I am certain.
Here in the office, I am (like most jerks in the corporate world) constantly juggling several tasks at once. Sometimes these tasks seem to have absolutely nothing to do with one another, and nothing to do with the making of a magazine. So it goes. To keep everything from crashing down at my nervous, trembling feet, I scribble little reminders on yellow Post-it notes and stick them to everything around me: Post-it notes on my computer screen, Post-it notes on my telephone, Post-it notes on my calendar, Post-it notes on my stapler, etc.
A couple of months ago, I heard <a href="http://www.wnyc.org/news/articles/128092">an interesting segment on NPR</a> about Sam Hillmer's <a href="http://www.myspace.com/representingnyc">Representing NYC</a> project. Hillmer, a NYC school teacher, partners his students with indie-rock musicians to create hip-hop albums. The children are given an opportunity to express themselves and gain real experience in the art of commerce, while the musicians get to contribute to the working-class communities they've recently moved into.
Musical Fidelity's founder, <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/features/575/index3.html">Antony Michaelson</A>, arrived at my house to help me set up the two chassis of his sleek, limited-edition, $30,000 Titan power amplifier. (The task requires at <I>least</I> two people.) A week later, a representative of Musical Fidelity's US importer, KEF America, dropped by to listen and to deliver three of Musical Fidelity's new V-series products: a phono preamp, a DAC, and a headphone amp. All three fit comfortably into a small paper bag; the price of the three was $700.
While my enthusiasm for the long-discontinued <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/cdplayers/708play">Sony PlayStation 1</A> remains high (see the July 2008 <I>Stereophile</I>), I freely acknowledge that not every high-end audio enthusiast wants a CD player with an injection-molded chassis, a Robot Commando handset, and a remarkable lack of long-term reliability: Yes, the Sony sounds wonderful, but sound isn't everything.