A story about Barns, 1 Chair, Boy's Toy's and Friends
I have come to think that the audio über alles types get restless after awhile with any component. Once they either get used to its sound or can identify its failings, they require a change of sonic scenery in order to get their fix. Its not the music that counts, its the sensation evoked by its sonic architecture. (TAS 119 1999 HP)
Gentlemen! (As there seem to be not that many ladies, surprise surprise).
Time has come to discuss the concept of "the one chair affair".
I for one had always thought that enjoying music in the broadest sense was a multiple affair not a solitary thing.
With amazement I have been reviewing correspondence between people that seem to hide away in barns and basements in order to get their daily fix of discussing the toys of the boys and fiddling with cables all night. All I read is about pieces of equipment, cables and hardware. Every month a new speaker or a new amp, not even one word about the software except data of the quantity.
Where did you guys go wrong?
If its about your toys then you are only Hi-Fi nerds and the nerds are killing, in my opinion, the industry. It should be about the music and the emotion music can deliver. It is not a solitary thing it is a thing you should experience with multiple. The hardware is in my view only the means.
I played in bands and orchestras for years and the magic happens where there is emotional interaction. Not interaction between apparatus but between people.
These one chair barn and basement rooms are the perfect example of boys with their toys and the ONE CHAIR affair. No signs of the together. I can imagine the dance around the ONE CHAIR that will give you the utter sweet-spot experience.
Look at the aesthetics and atmosphere of the one chair barn and basement rooms. We can differ about taste and things are subjective but most barn and basement rooms have not one single element that would attract a music loving person ready to share the experience of communicating music.
For me this fits the discussion starting slowly in TAS about what the absolute sound is all about. Should a High-End system communicate the emotional expression as intended and recorded by the musicians or should a system be able to retrieve every little
detail and be so analytical that you can tell what is the make of the car passing outside the Amsterdam Concertgebouw.
Gentlemen, its all about the transfer of emotion. Remove your ONE CHAIR and invite 50 people in you barn or basement rooms. Put on some ass-kicking music and have a party. Youll love it. (And go to work fully revamped the next morning)
Ps: Do not forget to invite your family since without them your barn or basement is not a home right?
(But then one Mr. Zappa had a different opinion about home: Home is where the heart is )
The Eames Lounge Chair:
An Icon of Modern Design
May 18 September 3, 2006
The culmination of Charles and Ray Eamess experimentation in molded plywood, the 1955 Eames Lounge Chair represents the epitome of both modernist style and luxurious comfort. The exhibition examines this icon of modern design through a dynamic installation including prototype models, drawings, advertisements, and an exploded version of the chair that breaks down its components. Through these materials, the Eames Lounge Chair will be fully explored in terms of its technical design, production, and promotion. Examples of other Eames designs will provide a context for the profound impact of this classic chair on subsequent furniture and its lasting legacy fifty years later.
In an advertisement from 1961, Herman Miller Furniture Company, the manufacturer of the Eames Lounge Chair, posed the question, Why so much fuss over a chair? This is precisely the question that The Eames Lounge Chair: An Icon of Modern Design will answer by examining how this construction in molded-plywood, leather, and metal has come to take on iconic status in the world of modern design.
A crystal radio is nice because it needs no power, and the materials can all be home-made or at least found around the house. But the crystal radio needs a big antenna, and a good ground, and so is not very portable.
To get away with using a much smaller, portable antenna, we will need to amplify the tiny signal it receives. This requires a portable power supply, such as a battery.
Our next toy is a portable radio. It can be powered from a tiny 1.5 volt battery, or from a battery made from copper wire and aluminum foil sitting in a glass of lemonade, a soft drink, or a beer, or by a few small commercial solar cells.
The heart of the radio is a special 10 transistor integrated circuit in a tiny three-legged bit of plastic. This circuit comes ready-made with several amplifiers, the detector, and an Automatic Gain Control circuit that boosts the level of faint stations to match the strong ones, so no volume control is needed. The final radio has excellent performance, pulling in weak stations, and preventing nearby strong stations from overwhelming the weak ones next to them on the dial.
We call the radio a
basic powerplant
the ultimate
legalize party
do it
ADDITORS Medium
The Eames Chair:
The Perfect Chair!!!!!! (but it will not massage your back)
To overcome the blocking effect of the headrest, cut yourself some BIG paper ear-supplements and attach them to your born-with protruding elements. Youll be amazed about the additional micro-infested low-level detail these ADDITORS will provide. No specific instructions for these ADDITORS exist but make sure they are proportional to your speakers and room. BIG speakers means BIG ADDITORS, small room SMALL ADDITORS and family room: MULTIPLE ADDITORS for all members.
Had me one of them there chairs, gave it to my son it was so uncomfortable, he only looks at it but loves it!! I wish he'd become an Eamesnostic like the old man but the only hope I can see is an intervention!!!!
I think that barnboy ear picture is priceless,you are pretty much on the money about audio nuts.And it is more enjoyable to listen with at least 1 other person,sometimes its not possible.I have been dragging my wife in to listen and she could take it or leave it. Robert
Hard to define anything in this hobby as inentions and motivations are infinite. But the physical manifestation is always the same: the system.
I went thru all kinds of stages, and I must agree that the gear, was a huge part and still is..some of us just like things that do things..I speak of audio gear, love cars, airplanes, ships, etc etc...I love music and instruments. But at this point in my life, I dont actually enjoy listening to music alone anymore...My wife will ask, you were alone for 2 hrs, and now you play music? and I will reply, but now you and Jr are here, its feels better. I have Jr pick an LP./CD, and she puts it on, and we just plop on the couch while Jr draws or whatever.
I really decompressed my obsession with gear, and so stayed with some vintage.
the of the most realistic takes on what has to be a very wacked out hobby and industry. as for record collectors...god bless 'em.....you'd never catch the kings of that hobby anywhere near a high end stereo....and never alone.
Just simply astonished here. We humans are such a contradiction. It just amazes me that we have time on our hands to write such a blog and aim our brain gun at people we know nothing about. Just think how much family time, and/or listening to music with them, you lost while taking the time to write such pretentious garbage aimed at those who have chosen this forum to show and discuss their hobby. Shame on you. Shame on me for even taking the time to offer my opinion, by highlighting yours. See how this "contradiction" thing works??
Truth is, your words are just that. I think it tragic that any of us responded... .....
I guess my main struggle with your prose, is that if you harbor those opinions, why not just keep it to yourself? Why attack people for what they're into. If they enjoy audio equipment more than the music, so what? I say again,......SO WHAT???
You can correct me if I'm wrong here, but if you are the "music lover" and "family music share person" that you profess to be, Is that the real and total goal of a true audiophile?? Can audiophilia be more than just about music? Or is that just your small minded opinion? Perish the thought.... Maybe I'm missing something here.
I'll admit it, I laughed right out loud when I read "sensation evoked by its sonic architecture". Jesus,.... exactly.(Laughing again). Thanks for that. None of us really knew what it meant to get emotionally involved by the music's "sonic architecture". You go boy, great way to bring that point home.
True again....music may very well be the main vehicle that brought most of us to audiophilia, but does any one of us really care if for some it became about the equipment, and for some it was more about music, or both? Whether for some of us, it is a way to distance us from others, and be consumed by our own thoughts? Or that we care to share(or show off) our systems and the way they can "suspend disbelief"? Did you buy your last car because you knew it would be fun to drive, but didn't let anyone else sit in it? I guess the choice would be yours to do with it what you wanted.
You see, in the beginning and the end, your opinion, as well as mine, counts for nothing. We both decide when and what to do with our time. I would only suggest that you find something more beneficial to do with yours instead of aiming useless rhetoric towards people you don't even know. I'll take the same advice.
You party animal!!! I love the reference to solitary versus multiple. My wife can have multiple orgasms to my solitary one. The good news is, I can take pills for my condition, and so can you for yours...see a shrink soon.
I really don't know if your issue is one of jealousy or piety, but either way....what you said in your blog is just so wrong...and without grounds.
In conclusion, my wife would like to add, that the solitary chair can be loads of fun with two people in it, evoked sometimes by the "sonic architecture" of the music flowing from our system.
So, my good man, go forth, but please don't multiply.....we have enough villages that lost their idiots.
Damn, that was harsh.....nope.......not taking it back.
There are a few things that just don't seem to make sense when one reads your ramblings, both here and your troll incursions on Mr. Lavigne's system page.
To wit:
You claim to provide acoustical consulting yet no evidence of acoustical treatment is apparent from the photographs of your room/system.
You bitterly blame the "audiophile nerds" bringing the "industry" down, yet you have listed in your system the big names of "audiophile tweaks", take for example the Acoustic System resonators, these must be the biggest discovery of the millennium. The knowledge accumulated over the last 50 years in acoustics must have been a waste of time, effort and money -including the time you spent your alleged formal education.
What is wrong with this picture?
Whether there is one chair or a number of them in a listening room, it is the owner's exclusive prerogative. It doesn't make it good or bad, nor is it anything anyone should criticize. If you object to the fact that they listen to their music in solitude, you are barking in the wrong park.
You like to have ten people with you while listening to your music and have a ball? Then good for you!
Why is it that those fortunate enough to have a dedicated listening room with true high-end equipment are the cause of your anger? You seem to be poisoned by the food eaten by someone else. Should we all place our systems in our living rooms?
What kind of special powers do you possess to determine long-distance that 'subject A', whom you haven't met, does not have a true passion for music?
This section of the website is intended for members to share their systems with the world, by doing so, they are opening a window into one of the most precious possessions, their privacy. Therein lies the true merit.
Their systems -without any tags- are just the vehicle to the real goal of this hobby, music!!
Anybody that builds an entire room, spends well over $50k on a system and says it's for the music is full of themselves. It's about much more then the music.
If it was about the music they'd invest into a headphone system. One where room acoustic's have little effect. Where painstaking effort isn't needed. I have nothing against people who have the money to spend on such luxary items. It's fun (if you can afford it) but to pretend it's about the music...I know music lovers who would rather spend $50k on music and listen to it on an ipod then spend $50k on gear and spend $350 on CD's...that is a music lover...most people who use this webforum wouldn't do that, even though they say they would.
I agree with Loxodrome 100%. Those offended will be entrenched in the one chair camp. I fail to see how music is a personal thing. I enjoy listening to it, as I generally feel it's a great way to entertain and socialize with people. But I can't deny my own personal selfish reason's and I enjoy learning and trying to perfect. The attachment to music was what lead me here, but to some I think it goes well beyond the music and it's more about a way of thinking, of building, of creating something that you've thought about and your own sense of perfection. Most one room systems look like temples, some even suggest this in their tittles. I question if they're worshipping their systems or themselves through they're systems.
it sounds as though the distinction loxodrome is trying to make is that for some, the hobby can devolve into little more than an unhealthy, obsessive escape that isolates, rather than an experience that opens our eyes and helps us grow. although it's hard to pinpoint exactly what constitutes the difference, surely there's a distinction in there worth making. is your 'chair' just an escape from reality, or does it help you see into it? it's a question worth pondering.
as Robert Ashley says (with Jaqueline Humbert's lovely voice): "You have to learn to keep your mouth shut about, something that is part of you even if it is, pleasureable, lest that part get in the way of, having the pleasure of the other parts. That's harder than you think . . . "
I do agree with most of our writing and I think most is exactly in line with my commenting.
Where we differ however is in the fact that there are High-Ender out there with prominent barns that do only get the "fix" from the tools.
I enjoy wines as well and I also invest time in hunting down real nice wines but I put in time and effort in order to DRINK and ENJOY the wine not to drool over the bottle.
One of the Barn Bundys mentioned a small film about the Audiophile Club of Athens and what is clearly evident in the second part of the film is their dedication and passion for music. These are people with expensive set-ups, not telling their wifes what they spent, but most of all music lovers passionate about music. The means to ..
Enjoy your wine while being passionate about music. Lox
Barn & basement boys do need to understand that I do question their motives: its not the musical emotion they are after in their one chair but its the apparatus they drool over that gives them their fix.
I think you are not only making too strong a statement but also generalising a bit too fast: 1. For example, I happen to have my main system in a dedicated room in my basement for two reasons: a)it is a place I can go to and relax while listening to my favorite record alone or with friends or my kids who understand that the music in there sounds "real" as they say.. b)I can play good music and good sound while spending time with my kids in the adjacent playroom that is the rest of the basement.
2) Now, on the topic of sending music and gear back to back, this is not different from sending driving and cars back-to-back...yes there are folks who buy BMers or Porsche to be seen in them or who buy Civic so they can spend time tweaking it and dressing it of any kind of apparatus...but you also have those who buy sports cars because they like the emotion of driving it...and those who are motivated by both and who get a kick looking at it, owning it and driving it.
I think statements like yours are killing this industry (but your purchases don't!)as they are trying to create an antagonism between hifi and music to the point that it is common to read in these forums that people spending thousands $$$ in hifi gear and the time it takes to research, shop, set-up and tweak are doing all this at the expense of time spent enjoying music. I happen to be a wine amateur as well and I enjoy as much reading on-shopping for-collecting bottles as I enjoy drinking them , sometimes alone, sometimes with friends.
To conclude, different gear make the same music convey different emotions. One system will emphasize bass response and overall tune "energy", an other set of gear will focus on immediacy, transparency, detail, a sense of "you are there"....I think loving music is also loving different interpretations of the same piece and whether it is alone or in group is just a different set of emotions..I love concerts for the energy that one gets from thousands of people around but I seldom enjoy acoustic of most commercial venues.
In short, many Agoners like music, like their gear, may have a single chair and/or a 5-seat sofa in their audio room and music means as much too them as a nice pair of handcrafted speakers.
I agree, I should get a fantastic turntable and listen to the records I have stored on the attic. Between the late 60 and early 80s I collected many records, still in my possession.
Here in Europe I can still get most issues of popular music and most jazz on 180 gr. Vinyl, classical issues are problematic. As long as you do not want to collect the records mentioned in HPs super list prices are still reasonable.
Yes the resonators are wonderful. Everyone serious on acoustics should give them a try.
Take care Loxo
Dear Beheme,
My system is quite an investment, I agree.
The difference with the barn & basement boys is that it is one of the centrepieces within our family life. We play all sorts of music on it, my wife uses it and my kids. It is a family investment used by and with the family. If this means I have to cope with family noise thats my bad luck. I consider music one of the expressions of world culture and I like friend and family to share the emotion.
Barn & basement boys do need to understand that I do question their motives: its not the musical emotion they are after in their one chair but its the apparatus they drool over that gives them their fix. And I my opinion exactly this turn off lots of people that could love our hobby of reproducing the emotion of music.
This does not however imply, and I want to stress this, that I want to keep them from their fix. Its a free world so if you want to spend all your budget neutral revenues on stuff that you can drool over so be it but do not tell the world that you are a music lover first.
I love music dearly and I do try to achieve a sort of absolute sound within all the limits of our family priorities but it is music first and above all.
I have 30 years of experience in/with music and a large music collection that I want to share with people interested. Therefore I will issue a record recommendation every week, see if you like them.
One of my favourite recordings of 2006 is:
Thomas Dybdahl One day youll dance for me, New York City CCAP 033 (Norway)
You can view one of his concerts at: http://www.fabchannel.com/ and look for Thomas Dybdahl
If its about your toys then you are only Hi-Fi nerds and the nerds are killing, in my opinion, the industry.
Not sure I agree with you. Nerds are what this industry is about, marketing hype, new products that better the last one...Musical Fidelity and B&W are what this is all about and nerds are their target market. Now, if you talk about the music industry and not the HiFi industry, boy, it does not need anyone to kill itself, it is already dead thanks to record companies who make Britney a bigger star than the most talented musician of all. Finally, music is not just about partying with people, sweat and shake your booty...for some it is about relaxing and reflecting on life itself and the search for perfect sound is the search for a sound that does not distract from those special moments...when the system is almost perfect, there is no edgy treble or mushy bass to distract one from his or her thoughts.
For someone who claims that gear matter less than music, isn't your system a big waste of time and money then? let me get to where you are in terms of system and then I'll tell you if gear matters less than they do for me now.
So what is your take on record collectors who drive the price of vinyl up for the musiclovers?
Also, a suggestion for your own system... if you want maximum transfer of emotion from your music you should introduce a great turntable to your house.
Nice work with the Acoustic System resonators, they really are amazing.
