Boring
Anyone else bored, so you go cruising the net looking for something high-end audio-ish to read or look at, and end up being more bored than you were when you started?
There is the Social Asylum, or sometimes anti-Social Asylum. Sometimes there is something interesting in the critics section to do with why such and such a component was reviewed in such and such a way. Sometimes.
Then there is Audiogon. As more and more people move onto the net, and discover Audiogon, the percentage of people interested in the Truly High-end diminishes and then diminishes some more. Not to mention the dissapearing thread disease [though I think they are right to delete hit-and-run content-free posts. Whose posters often show up on the Asylum to complain about it].
The All Out Assault (not so virtual) systems pages can be fun, in a kind of purient, peek-a-boo kind of way, as long as one avoid the ones that are trying to sell you something [we just updated our system there – we try hard to avoid saying that everything we have here is the Most Awesome Ever – we may have good reason to believe so, but it seems like bad manners to try and convince people of it in a public forum. How many times does one have to read how everthing else sucks but components X, Y and Z, and, oh, what an amazing coincidence, it is exactly what they now own! And, uh, didn’t they just have the very best stuff just a year or so ago? But then it was all different stuff…and… there should be a hit song called: “somebody needs therapy and it ain’t me”].
Have to admit I like Albert Porter’s system when he talks about music. But most of the time the poor guy has to answer questions from people like “Will my 10 year old Korean cable sound good with the new beta Koetsu cartridge I just ordered from New Zealand?”. I exaggerate to make a point here- but, he needs to add an accelerater key to his keyboard that prints out “How the eff do I know? Why don’t you try it and report back on what you heard.”.
The AVS $20,000+ forum can be interesting – but half of the people there either cannot hear the difference between cables, or they are afraid their fellow forum members will attack them for admitting that they can, so…. the depth of any discussion there is limited. Even so, this has been my favorite board of late.
Romy goes off in a DIY / Equipment Construction Digest tangent which does not interest me at all.
The rest – the rest are usually have a lot of posts about the vague capabilities of specific components that I do not own and am not interested in [I am interested in the very high end and Cool Weird Stuff].
The show reports over at 6moons are the most interesting thing right now. Paris, Vienna, … I like Henk and Marja’s reports, although I bet they are missing a lot of the Cool Weird Stuff I want to see [they missed our room at RMAF].
Have to give Positive Feedback and Dave and Carol a BIG THANKS – they are the only major online mag that covered our rooms, even though they thought our main room was either Peddling Nyquil, or running a game show called Snoozing for Dollars, You Deserve a Nap Today, The Snores of Our Lives, The Young and the Sleepless, …
Anyway, now I have probably upped the boredom ante, boring you all by talking about how boring the net is for bored people.

Hi Mike,
Remember that avsforum started as an online home theater resource. That is a big reason why some of the strongest debates there are “all amps sound the same,” and “powercords & interconnect are snake oil.”
Don’t forget audiocircle – that’s an interesting forum – I like reading the get-together threads – it’s really neat to see what info the local area groups share. I think there is more comraderie than the one-ups-manship that goes on at other forums.
If you ever decide to get a portable audio setup – do some research on head-fi.org. Another great online forum resource. There are threads there where people show off their rigs – some of their ultra-high end setups rival the cost of “all out assault” systems on audiogon.
If you’re TRULY bored and want to do something different with audio/video, start putting together your home theater PC or PC as audio transport. So many components to choose from – plus all the software. Steve Nugent at Empirical Audio has a lot of practical tips that can be applied to HTPC. The tweaking of PC hardware and software is never-ending, and can be quite fun.
– Steve O.
Hey Steve,
Yeah, and AVS is still mostly an online HT resource.
We post sometimes in the Denver Audio Circle – but it is usually very quiet. Sometimes I also check out the Odyssey and ModWright groups – mostly to see how people are appreciating those lines’ sonic quality and in what ways they are putting them to use.
Head-Fi does look vibrant and enthusiastic – thanks! I’ve only been there a few times, personally finding the weight of headphones on my head to be uncomfortable and the connecting wires confining.
No, I’m not TRULY BORED. I get bored the way someone does who has been working 8 (or more 🙁 ) hours straight without a break [all you with your own businesses know what I mean, or who write software at a start-up, or who have to do the job of two people because of d-o-w-n-s-i-z-i-n-g] and I am BORED WITH WORKING. I want something entertaining and distracting – not more work 🙂
But we do intend to do a Home Audio PC sometime, and me a HTPC, if we ever get *really* bored… 🙂
Thanks!
-Mike