Audio Federation

July 12, 2016 by Michael

Going to California VI

Yep, still hunting for a house to settle ourselves and the store into in the Silicon Valley area.

The Acapella Cellini speakers in the dining room.

The house was much like our previous home in Boulder.

The ‘mountains’ [what passes for mountains here, not quite the Rockies] on the very tip of Silicon Valley.

Big. Quiet. Large Lot. Views [but nowhere near as spectacular as our previous location in Boulder]. Smells really good here to; all sorts of wonderful flora.

And with the same problems – difficult road [very, very narrow and twisty] and long steep twisty driveway. Only one flight of stairs to go up though 🙂

It is also kind of away from everything, which is good and bad, right? We can really Turn It Up but many people would have a hard time getting to us [we fear].

Lots of room here for several systems, and tall ceilings are nice.

But, personally, my body just starts aching when I think of all the effort it will take to get gear in and out of here – not as bad as Boulder, but can we at least TRY to make life easier? [this is me whining to the wifey :-)]

If the views were really, really excellent [or a really good location] then I might be up for something like this again, but…

in California 0 comments

July 11, 2016 by Michael

Going to California V

Continuing our somewhat more lengthy than desired adventure looking for a new place for the store, which we also call our home [since, you know, we live there], in the San Francisco Bay Area.

[Not about CA, but about the fact that – unfortunately – we think we HAVE only just begun.]

Neli and a Rocky Flats yucca plant.

Now, most of you not from the Denver / Boulder CO area will not know about Rocky Flats.

Rocky Flats processed fissionable material for nuclear bombs and was located between Boulder and Denver.

They periodically ‘leaked’ ‘stuff’.

Much of the land around there is now radioactive.

They closed the plant … 10 years ago? [Oops. It was 24 years ago. Time flies :-)] … and cleaned up best they could.

But, still, whenever we see a super-sized tomatoes, or pumpkin, or anything, we think… hummmmm…. like the Sci-Fi movies of the 1950s taught us, it could only be due to One Thing. Too much ‘Radioactive Fertilizer’. 🙂

So our journey continues…

Anyone has any ideas about how this search for a new location might be, you know, successful [and not be a complete muck up :-)], Please let us know!

in California 0 comments

July 9, 2016 by Michael

Going to California IV

Continuing the journey in our search for a new home for us and Audio Federation in the general Sillycon Valley area 🙂

[The Animals are so under-rated. Though the song is about S.F. we are not looking in S.F. Well. We *looked*. The prices are actually more reasonable there than in Palo Alto, much of Menlo and Mountain View, Woodside, etc.(!) but too cold. Too cloudy. Too different of a lifestyle for the laid back people that we have been].

Small, Mid-Peninsula, south-facing

Close to trails. Yes!

Rectangular rooms? Yes!

Enough rooms? Yes!

Large enough…? Well…..

We liked this place. But really small. Large two car garage helps. But…

A little windy and hilly getting here. Hills like this would never work in Colorado – in the winter, even with 4-wheel drive and snows [snow tires], there would be a pile of cars at the bottom of every one these kinds of streets.

But maybe people here who would like to visit us are comfortable with this? Without Google Maps, how did people find ANYTHING?

Anyway, this room is 14 feet 3 inches deep. So figure the speakers are 1 foot from the front wall / windows. The Acapella speakers are about 18 inches to 30 inches deep.

We would put the listening couch up against the opposite wall. Figure that puts our ears about, what? About 9 to 11 feet from the front of the speaker? Not completely horrible.

This is definitely the best room in the house. There was not another room that had corners w/o some kind of built-in shelves or other issue for the Audio Note system. And those rooms also had compromised views / privacy.

But… the rent was reasonable [ha ha. Reasonable Rent. Such an oxymoron here. But we live in the high-end audio world right? We are used to THAT particular oxymoron 🙂 ].

I mean, what if we go crazy and get the Acapella Poseidon while we are living here? No, they are NOT ‘really nice headphones’, Neli. 😉

This place is on the list of ‘probably not’. But it is on the top of the list. [this was written several days ago. The place is still near the top of the list. It backs to open space and just has a nice feel, for all of its practical faults].