by Michael

Other 2007 RMAF reports trickling out

Six moons recently posted their RMAF show report by Marja and Henk.

They said nice things about our room. Of course, they said nice things about E-v-e-r-ybody’s room [but Neli tells me it is just that they are more subtle than my ‘most horrible of show’ approach :-)].

But they said extra super special nice things about our room, [so we can tell they liked ours the best :-)], and we appreciate it. Thanks you two.

It was in the style of the very large reports Srajan used to write. In fact, it may have been larger, being almost(?) comprehensive. Now please, please, please do these kind of reports for the shows in Europe that are under-reported on so we can see what is going on at those other shows [Seems like every country in the E.U. has their own show… that’s a LOT of shows. And yes, we peer intently at those other reports of shows we don’t attend (and even the ones we do :-))… maybe not with a magnifying glass… well, maybe not all the time with a magnifying glass…. :-)].

Josh at Sonic Flare is back to posting their “room a day report” of the RMAF 2007 show. I can’t decide if this is a brilliant use of content, or doomed to wear thin in the context of people wanting their news to be kind of reported soon after its occurance.

At this rate, with 140 rooms at RMAF and 200+ rooms at CES 2008, by the time these show reports are done it will be time for RMAF 2008… 🙂

Anyway, another report with detailed information and analysis and with nice things to say about all the rooms.

My poor ears, they hear various problems with all the systems at shows, unfortunately – some serious and some forgivable – as well as various things they may do better than anyone else, all in the context of what have learned to be several, linearly independent, categories related to people’s sonic preferences.

Maybe I am just too darn picky.

But truth be told – this learning to differentiate the large number of subtle variations between good and bad is one of the things that can make life so rich and interesting – and the only way I know to appreciate the true artisans in this world, who spend their lives perfecting their art, whether they be musicians, painters, martial artists, manufacturers, or just people who make their profession being nice and good hearted. [Add fine furniture and autos here too – except Lamborghinis, Coltrane Supremes beat them out :-). Kind of straying away from talking about show reports to talking about life, and politics kind of, in case you haven’t noticed :-)].

Boy, if I could just get rid of this pickyness life sure would be a lot less expensive around here. 🙂 Of course, Neli is picky too, …really, REALLY picky …so she would need to Just Stop It. [Yeah, Neli, just cut it out…:-) .. Yeah. Right. Someone else is going to have to try and convince her… :-).]

So, until then…. hee hee hee …. Norodst ODIN is still burning in, and then we have the Audio Note SOOTOO to burn in, and then….

in High-end Audio HiFi and Stereo / RMAF 2007 / Show Reports 0 comments
 by Michael

Vidar'ing the Odin

The Nordost Vidar cable burner arrived back yesterday from its repair after the lighting strike.


So just some photos. We got about 8 days of burning in to do.


We did manage to get the two sets of interconnects and the one pair of bi-wire speaker cables on at one time.


The lights go blinky blinky as the Vidar works.


Are they done yet? Are they done yet?

… if 4 days of burning in equals one century of playing, then 3.75 hours of burn-in equals…. well they must be burned in pretty good already, right? Right???

in High-end Audio HiFi and Stereo / Nordost 0 comments
 by Michael

Spades Suck

OK. I’ve said it. Wanted to say it for a long time. Whew! That feels better. Well, a tiny wee little bit better.

I will refrain from disparaging the mental prowess of the person who came up with it, or much worse, the industry that continues to promulgate it.

For those of you who can’t imagine using anything else, think about this:

Spades… fall .. off. Well, not very often, that is because we tighten the fastener, jiggle the cable a little, tighten some more, jiggle some more, … until we hope no one moves anything or walks near anything. Anything which might, over time, jiggle the cables loose and caBLAM something shorts out and there is a big mess of a bill to pay.

The solution?

Replace ‘C’ shaped spades with one shaped like an ‘O’, i.e. a washer. Reduce the mass of the washer (and of the fasteners) if you want to improve the sound while your at it.

Won’t jiggle loose. No having to tear skin twisting the fasteners so very, very tight. Sleep better at night. Reduces stress while re-re-re-positioning of the speakers.

And it will work with 99% of the binding posts out there.

Only company I have seen do this is Acapella, and only with their cables hard-wired to the speaker crossovers [and they use a loop of braided conductor, not a washer-like doohickey].

The fact that the E.U., worried that children might receive .00001 volts by touching an exposed binding post, made manufacturers shield binding posts with plastic, but still let the children pull loose the spades and ruin $100K pieces of equipment just shows how much this industry is used to walking lemming like over the cliff of unintentional short-circuits.

OK. Get on it you cable manufacturers you. 🙂

in High-end Audio HiFi and Stereo / Sounding Off 0 comments