Geek with Family

I was very stressed when I decided to buy my Optoma GrayWolf 92 inch 16×9 1.8 gain projection screen. According to posts on AVS Forum I had to worry about: finding a discounted online retailer that would ship me the right product (the Graywolf has the same product number as Optoma’s white screen), the screen surviving shipping damage (large dents in the roll-up housing reported) and a horizontal line across the image area from a plastic sheet used for packing (more on this later). I’m happy to say I avoided all these headaches and received an intact screen at a reasonable price.

Continue reading Optoma Graywolf 92 inch 16×9 High Gain Projection Screen Review

Popularity: 8% [?]

Toddler_o_Geek and I danced until bedtime Sunday night.

We started out with Gnarls Barkley (didn’t get us moving) and quickly switched to Futureheads. I pogoed, my daughter stomped. I made the mistake of pogoing toward her instead of just side to side, we then went into full chase mode—I was still dancing (a series of spastic kicks, arms flailing and hopping like a frog) and she screamed around the room as fast as she can navigate the furniture. We got through "Alms" before bathtime (I was freaking her out with my expert lip-synching at this point).

I can enjoy myself while dancing because I don’t have to wonder if the music sounds good or not. I don’t have to go upstairs to find a new CD in my armoire and then eject the playing CD and load the new one. My musical desires are answered by pressing left, up, right, down and X. I control my whole music collection through my Sony PSP and Coverbuddy on my Mac Mini. Convenience and fun overshadow audiophilia and tweaking. My initial experience with this music server wasn’t as fun.

Continue reading PSP + Airtunes + Coverbuddy = Dance Party - Listening Test

Popularity: 11% [?]

I’ve been into Blade Runner since it came out in 1982. I remember the color full page ad I cut off the back of the Seattle Times Sunday Tempo section and thumb-tacked to my wall. My Harrison Ford fever was high after the Empire Strikes Back and Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Ridley Scott is finally releasing a restored 1992 Director’s Cut (saw it in the Fine Arts theater in Chicago) this September. Later in 2007 a "final cut" will be released in theaters and then a super-deluxe-special-edition with multiple versions of the film (now I can finally enjoy the voice-over narration again—those fly by scenes seem so empty without them)(Ridley Scott better record a commentary track too).

Variety.com - Marathon ‘Runner’: "The restored ‘Director’s Cut’ will debut on homevid in September, and remain on sale for four months only, after which time it will be placed on moratorium. ‘Blade Runner: Final Cut’ will arrive in 2007 for a limited 25th anniversary theatrical run, followed by a special edition DVD with the three previous versions offered as alternate viewing: Besides the original theatrical version and director’s cut, the expanded international theatrical cut will be included. The set will also contain additional bonus materials."

In 2007 I’ll have another two additions to my Blade Runner curiosity cabinet. The cabinet’s past and current contents: Director’s Cut DVD, VHS (permanently borrowed from some guy in high school), CD Soundtrack, S.M.H. vol. 4 (featured top anime sculptors’ diorama interpretations of the Blade Runner world—"Post Bla-Run Syndrome"), Starlog magazines, PC Game, Plager Katsumate Series-D blaster resin kit; Books: Retrofitting Blade Runner : Issues in Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner and Phillip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner, Blade Runner: The Inside Story; second draft of the script, and failed attempts at making my own action figures, 1:6 scale sculptures and Hot Wheels spinners.

(Via Rotten Tomatoes.)

Popularity: 7% [?]

Following up on the digital audio tweaks I’ve tried to improve my CD listening experience, I present a smaller list of prohibitively expensive or crazy tweaks. I haven’t heard the benefits of these tweaks and electronics. Either my wallet hid itself from me to protect my financial well-being or it slipped out of my snake-oil covered hands.

Continue reading CD-Digital Audio Tweaks - 5 Too Crazy and Expensive

Popularity: 4% [?]

Now that I have my Mac Mini set up to deliver my whole iTunes library to my listening room through Airtunes with Sony PSP remote control, I needed to rewire my hi-fi components. The goal: deliver the digital Airtunes signal through the best DAC in the path and passing the analog signal cleanly through to my loudspeakers. I have no budget, so I must only use components I already own.

I also wanted to test how much I could combat the compressed audio feed’s nasties in the analog realm. My weapons: Taddeo Digital Antidote II and Rogue Audio Magnum 99 Preamp. One of these components won the battle and the other almost lost the whole war.

Continue reading PSP + Airtunes + Coverbuddy = Dance Party Hi-Fi Wiring

Popularity: 15% [?]

I never realized Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and the ABC’s had the same tune until my daughter remixed them at bedtime while we rocked her to sleep.

Since she was born I’ve sung Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star whenever I put her to bed. She usually sings along. We sing it in low, high or staccato voices. A few months ago she started requesting "Eh-Bee-Thee’s?". After running through the alphabet at least twice we’d switch back to the Star song.

This month she’s really liked to mix the two songs up. I’ll start, "A-B-C-D…" and she’ll cut in "…little star…" then we’ll both "…H-I-J-K…" She thinks it’s hilarious. I imagine a smile in her mind at the improved creativity.

If my wife can hear us, she’ll tell you the song hops are never as smooth as described above. I really have to pause and think about fitting the right phrase with the coming melody. Luckily, my daughter has lots of musical and cognitive talent to spare, so she helps me out.

I wish this was a talent we could nurture and encourage in our daughter. Mash-up remixing is a dangerous talent path to pursue. By the time she wants to share her songs with the world I’m sure we’ll have the lullaby copyright police at our door.

With the collapse of the public domain do we owe performance licensing fees for singing these songs in the first place? Will her pending release of the "Alpha-Star Album" spell doom for the record industry?

Popularity: 4% [?]

Sunday night, the wife and I stayed up late to watch all 143 minutes of The Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl DVD (we’d planned to only sit through half of the movie). Distracting technical difficulties barred me from having a good time watching this Jerry Bruckheimer production based on a Disney theme park ride.

The Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl DVD is cursed by edge enhancement. A crunchy halo surrounds Jack Sparrow set against the Caribbean’s blue skies. Every jib, mast and rope on the Black Pearl lost their fine detail under the confusion of edge artifacts.

Edge enhancement or ringing is so distracting that I am tempted to pause the movie and double check all my sharpness settings on my Panasonic S97 DVD player and Sanyo PLV-Z3 projector. The projector must have its internal sharpening turned all the down to avoid any ringing. The DVD player introduces its own edge enhancement or ghosting at its upsampled 720p and 1080i resolutions, so I watch it at 480p.

Continue reading Pirates of the Caribbean DVD Ruined by Edge Enhancement

Popularity: 5% [?]

My CD audio set up never satisfied me. It was plagued by sibilance, congested midrange, flat imaging and boomy bass. How could I turn around this fatiguing listening experience?

Buying a new boutique CD player (an affordable Marantz CD-5001 or a not so affordable Arcam Full Metal Jacket CD36 upsampling CD player) was too obvious of an irresponsible use of my daughter’s meager college fund. The frugal audiophile (that’s me, by necessity) chisels away small chips of family savings through cheap tweaks (less than $100 flew below my wife’s radar).

How many tweaks could I try before I hit the ceiling of a price of Marantz most affordable CD Player? How many digital audio accessories would turn out to be snake oil? Would the subtle differences and gains be worth the tweaks’ cost and effort?

Continue reading 7 CD-Digital Audio Tweaks for the Newbie Audiophile

Popularity: 10% [?]

Not able to afford an additional $2500 investment in remote music server hi-fi equipment I had to make due with music server components I already owned: Airport Express, Mac Mini, Onkyo TX-DS989 AV Receiver and a Rogue Audio Magnum 99 Preamp. With some additional software on my Mac Mini I could remote control the music served to the remote system in my listening room with my Sony PSP.

Continue reading PSP + Airtunes + Coverbuddy = Dance Party Software Setup

Popularity: 14% [?]

AC line noise is the enemy. We want silence. Inky. Deep. Black. Silence.

PS Audio has a new device in their power accessories line-up: the Noise Harvester. When you introduce this tweak into your home theater and hi-fi AC circuit, it identifies noise and transfers the energy into light (notice the little blue bulb). Multiple units can gang together to transform more noise into light.

Continue reading PS Audio Noise Harvester - Transforming AC Line Noise into Light

Popularity: 10% [?]