A Sunday Drive, an Unbeatable Experience
The big difference between car audio and home audio, explains WIRC Media's Micah Sheveloff, is car audio’s need to overcome ambient noise. In fact, to a large extent, it’s this simple requirement which dictates a system’s overall design. In the case of the Caprice, the system had to have enough power to overcome the car’s custom-built 2.25-inch stainless dual exhaust.
By this point in our conversation, Micah has already apologized for the noise a number of times.
“Let’s listen to the system for a bit and I’ll see if we can find some good roads,” Micah suggests. “Ready?”
A Synth Wave and Crickets
I really love the comments tool, but I wish it would notify me of when new comments are left for old blog entries. Because it doesn’t, I have to scroll through each entry and check. This isn’t such a big deal, but it does mean that I’ll miss a few comments every now and then, or that it’ll take me a few days to get around to them. And that’s not cool because web-time flies.
A Tale of Two Racks
Just to be clear: I never felt imprisoned, or controlled, by my">http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/the_transformation/">my television. We had enjoyed a harmless, casual relationship. My television never told me what to do, never told me who to associate with; my television never judged me, never questioned my motives; my television gave me my space when I needed it. It had been a good television, for the most part. Sure, sometimes it could be obtuse or aloof with its poor reception; sometimes it seemed like it didn't want me to watch the Mets game on Saturday afternoons. But, all in all, I liked television. I still do. It's just that I like my">http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/my_new_rega_p3-24/">my turntable more.
A Test
It's 4:59pm. Ariel walks into my office and waves a hand.
A Very Special Hi-Fi
I won’t be in the office tomorrow. I’ll be down in Hunterdon County, NJ, helping a very good friend set up a very special hi-fi system. This is big—BIG—news, but I can’t say anything else about it yet.
Speculate amongst yourselves.
A Visit to Mikey's and the Glamorous Side of Publishing
Last Friday was an interesting day in the office. No one was here, but Ariel. Robert Baird was whooping it up at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, and John Atkinson and I would soon be on the road. It was the first day of spring, and snow was falling like mad.
A Watering Hole for the Soul
Photo: Michael Lavorgna
A Welter of Polyrhythms
On the train this morning, deep into Aaron Copland’s classic, What to Listen for in Music, which Art Dudley discusses in our November issue, I read a bit about rhythms and polyrhythms. Copland is giving a brief history on the use and evolution of rhythm in modern Western composition, explaining how we got from basic two-four time marches to much more complex combinations of two or more independent rhythms in varying times. This is what I read:
A Year of Distance and Difference
To be clear: I'm not really considering messing around with a different pair of loudspeakers.
Abandoning the Compact Disc?
In our December issue, I write about the Emotiva ERC-2 CD player, which, at $449, brought me many hours of listening pleasure. Stereophile editor John Atkinson will describe the player’s measured performance in an upcoming issue. In January, I’ll write more about the Emotiva, and, in February, I’ll discuss NAD’s affordable ($300) C 515BEE CD player.
Obviously, I’ve been listening to a lot of CDs lately; and, while I have started to long for my LPs, I haven’t really gone crazy or anything. Listening to CDs can be fun, too—especially when the discs hold music by Alva Noto and Ryuchi Sakamoto, David Sylvian, and Matthew Shipp.
Meanwhile, Natalie and Nicole have mentioned a rumor that’s spreading all over the Internet: