Geek with Family

In my mind, I’m an evangelist for audio and video calibration to international standards (or at least my standards). In the real world, I’m a bumbling nerd who spouts random and contradictory facts and theories that never end in a coherent point.

When a co-worker or acquaintance asks my advice on the next TV or AV receiver they should buy, I make them sorry they asked by the end of a few sentences,”Wow, yeah, I don’t know…a plasma TV, huh? What else do you have in your system? Sony Dream Theater hooked up to some old Bose bookshelf speakers and surrounds that were installed by the previous owner of your house? Ouch. You have no light control? In a green house, yeah, humidity may be a problem. Sure Circuit City sells things. No, I can’t help you, unless you’re willing to spend at least $3000. $500? For that kind of money I could suggest a great boutique AC power cable. Sorry.”

Here’s my clear bit of evangelism: You must calibrate your TV. I don’t care who does it. Hire a professional ISF calibrator. Hire me, a semi-professional (my emphasis) calibrator. Or do it yourself with a calibration disc or two (like Avia Guide to Home Theater or Digital Video Essentials).

Continue reading Why Everyone Must Calibrate Their TV

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Whenever I'm tweaking and calibrating my home theater and music system well into the night I get stupid. The late night sessions always end with me thinking I've done the best I can and I've set everything correctly. The next morning and into subsequent viewing and listening sessions I retain the confidence in my skills and blame any oddities or failings of the system on bad software and limited hardware. On closer inspection I find that carefully coaxed dials and user menus have not retained their sweet spots.

Continue reading 3 Blunders That Can Ruin Your Home Theater Experience

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I've begun a Acoustic Test CD project that will contain various test tones, solo drum tracks, bass lines for testing your subwoofer and other musical tracks to test the rest of the frequency range and stereo imaging. Apple's Garageband will handle all the music compositions while Amadeus II will output test tones. This collection of tracks will follow industry experts' and my own philosophies and techniques for getting the most music out of your stereo through proper acoustic set up.

Continue reading My DIY Acoustic Test CD Project Will Help You Get the Most Out of Your Hi-Fi Components

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For the past two weeks I've been obsessed over my listening room's acoustics. I'm sure that acoustic problems are now invading the space (or I've read too much about the subject and I'm just noticing them now, always train your ears). The most obvious problem is too wide a stereo image. For example, I'll get a tight, centered combo of snare and kick drum that I can imagine a drummer playing and then he hits a cymbal eight feet away over past the right speaker. Another problem is losing center imaged singers to a weird lobing split between either speaker—the voice may suddenly collapse to one side. These anomalies are subtle, don't think my room is crap.

I need acoustic treatments and I don't want to spend much money. Enter Jon Risch's (of Audio Asylum Tweak/DIY moderator fame) DIY Acoustic Panels (a simple wood frame covered with burlap and stuffed with fiberglass insulation). The advantage of these panels is their wide frequency bandwidth absorption, sucking up high and medium frequencies and even upper bass down to 100 Hz. Other acoustic treatments with a narrower bandwidth only deaden higher frequencies and let the bass remain bloated. Plus they're more expensive and usually have a low WAF (wife acceptance factor).

Continue reading Why I Need to Build Jon Risch’s DIY Acoustic Panels

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Anyone that owns a turntable not made by a large Asian electronics conglomerate like Sony, Denon or Onkyo must buy Michael Fremer's 21st Century Vinyl. The DVD is just over two and a half hours long and is packed with useful information on how to get the most out of your vinyl playback system. In less time than it takes to watch Return of the King you can learn why Michael Fremer loves the LP record format, how a record is cut and how to properly install a cartridge on three popular turntables.

I was ready to cringe at bad jokes and a mad man flapping his arms up and down like a chicken at a wedding because other reviews described Fremer as "wacky." Luckily, Fremer is just a charming New Yorker, engaging the viewer with his passion for vinyl. Sure you have to sit through brief American Southern, British and German accents as he describes vinyl packaging from each region but the speech so informative that the voices are tolerable. I would like to meet Michael Fremer after spending almost three hours with him.

Continue reading 21st Century Vinyl: Michael Fremer’s Practical Guide to Turntable Set-Up DVD Review

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In the same PS Audio newsletter with the Noise Harvester video, Paul McGowan linked to Sonos (also see BoingBoing’s recent post praising the Sonos). Sonos makes wireless music access points with a large handheld remote. A basic kit will cost you $999. I want to compare the Sonos feature set and my own Airtunes setup, which is a much more economical solution.

For just under $1000 Sonos provides two Zoneplayer ZP80s and a two handed Controller CR100 with a table top charging dock. You hook up the first ZP80 to your home network, point it toward your digital music collection and it streams the requested songs to as many as 32 ZonePlayers in your home. Each ZonePlayer can play music independently of the others. Additional ZP80s cost $349.

The Sonos Controller CR100 has a 3.5″ QVGA LCD screen that displays a GUI featuring navigation, playlists, album art and track listings. Its best feature is a iPod-esque click scroll wheel for scanning through your large list of songs.

The Sonos system is a great wireless audio distribution kit if you have lots of money to burn but if you want 80% of the functionality of the Sonos for 40% of the price then try my Airport Express and PSP remote solution (the Geek with Family Distributed Audio Solution or GWFDAS: read my five part series on the set up and experience starting with “PSP + Airtunes + Coverbuddy = Hi-Fi Music Server Dance Party - Introduction“).

Continue reading How to Save $600 With My Alternative to the Sonos Zoneplayer and Play All Your iTunes Music Store Songs

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The other day I wanted to re-watch this video of Steve Albini giving a lecture about audio engineering and thought I'd find it on YouTube. I did find a trailer for a very promising audio engineering documentary, Engine Ears, by Violet Biggs.

Documentary film about audio engineers and producers. Interviewees include, Steve Albini, Calvin Johnson, Solex,John Parish, Jon Spencer and many more notables. Studio sessions are covered with such bands as The Little Rabbits and Old Time Relijun…plus many more!

I can't wait to see the whole thing and watch some of my longtime heros, like Calvin Johnson, Steve Albini and Ian MacKaye at work.

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Some in-genius German vinyl lover, Charles Altmann, made a high performance turntable using very common and inexpensive materials called the Altmann DIY Turntable. The turntable pictured is constructed out of plywood for the plinth and base, Harley Davidson motorcycle parts for a spindle and bearing, C37 lacquered pine and a knitting needle for a unipivot tonearm and, most technologically amazing, a 2 step phase motor synched with an iPod playing an endless loop of a 50 or 60 Hz sine wave for a perfectly clocked 33 1/3 record spin.

Another tempting DIY project that is so cheap and easy I might just try it myself.

Via Make.

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I just uploaded two new black t-shirts in the Cafepress shop.  One is about blogging and the other about the town I call home. Check out the designs below. Now go buy a shirt!

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Tone Audio is a new(ish) free PDF e-zine focusing on the high end hi-fi and tweaks. I discovered them yesterday while scrolling through Modwright's link list. So far they have five issues full of hi-fi equipment and music reviews.

Tone Audio's layout is similar to Hi-Fi+—clean white pages with a good balance of white space and content, full page and silhouetted glamor shots of equipment and clean san-serif type for easy on-screen reading.

The editors of Tone want to inject the hi-fi industry with a good dose of fun. Regular features include "The Budget System" (an inexpensive component that plays well with systems above its class), "Old School" (usually a revived amp or loudspeaker from a bygone era), "Headphone Planet" (detailed headphone reviews and comparisons) and "Slummin'" (a peak at all the junk (Sonny and Cher records) and gems (old McIntosh tuner) the editors found on ebay and at their local dealers and garage sales). The latest issue even covers my favorite video game, Guitar Hero.

Their reviews cover a broad range of equipment for two channel audio. They support the more obscure corners of the industry tending toward tweaks and mods. Issue 5 featured both a review of the Modwright modded Sony 9100ES SACD player and a "Short Take" on Audience's Auricaps, for instance.

Advertisements dominate each second page of a review or feature, taking up three quarters of the page. The large ads are sometimes glamour shots of equipment that can be mistaken for the the product being reviewed. It takes a little getting used to—the ads can break the the flow of the content which is pushed into a narrow column. The majority of the ads are relevant to the content, dealers and manufacturers. One ad for a jewelry shop bugs me, though. Why would a tweaky audiophile be shopping for an engagement ring?

Tone Audio is a great addition to the hi-fi review online and print community. Go check them out and tell me if you agree.

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