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music to my ears
Feb. 23rd, 2010 10:07 pmFor my graduation from high school long ago, my parents bought me a stereo system of my very own. Appropriate, for I was already a dedicated classical music listener, but up till then I'd been listening to records on their installed cabinet system, which I could hardly take off to college with me. Some years later the system was augmented, also via gift, with a CD player.
I've had to replace the LP turntable and the tape deck over the years due to old equipment wearing out, but up until today I was still using the same venerable CD player and even more ancient amplifier and speakers. Or trying to, for since we moved here - at least the tenth and probably closer to the twentieth time I've had to reassemble the system after a move - it's been balky. I haven't been able to get the speakers to work right (I could always listen on headphones, though), and the CD player has begun to skip and stutter on some discs. It's just been getting old.
I had three or four other devices I could play CDs on, but the best sound quality was on the one in my car. When I was studying the Concord Sonata prior to reviewing it, I used a boombox we keep in the living room, but the sound kept fuzzing out due to signal overload, and though there was a pause button, it had no way to move around inside a track, a bit of a nuisance when you're trying to analyze an 18-minute movement of bewildering complexity.
It was time to get a new system - I can say I need this for work - and thanks to my B. I was able to get it as a combined Valentine's-birthday-anniversary present for two years. (Last year life was kind of damp.) A visit to an audio specialty store, after I convinced them that I wasn't out to spend thousands, and just wanted the least expensive equipment it was worth the money to buy (you can get an all-in-one system off the shelf at Fry's for less than $200, but the problem is that it isn't worth $200), produced a recommendation for a CD player and an amplifier from Marantz and speakers from Usher.
It then remained to set it up. Unlike my old equipment, these devices are not supposed to sit directly on top of each other, so I had to find an appropriate small modular shelving system at a storage store, plus the dreaded task of attaching cable connectors to the end of lengths of speaker wire.
But that finally got completed today - I'd somehow blanked on realizing that I needed eight cable connectors and not just four, so back to Fry's - and I have been happily listening to Chopin, Alexander Glazunov, Kurt Atterberg, and Steeleye Span on my new speakers, which are a lot smaller than the old ones and hence fit where I want to put them. Great rich sound, even at low volume, and there's even a remote control, so I may make adjustments at ease from my chair. I am very pleased.
[oh my ghod, this conductor hums along. Must he?]
I've had to replace the LP turntable and the tape deck over the years due to old equipment wearing out, but up until today I was still using the same venerable CD player and even more ancient amplifier and speakers. Or trying to, for since we moved here - at least the tenth and probably closer to the twentieth time I've had to reassemble the system after a move - it's been balky. I haven't been able to get the speakers to work right (I could always listen on headphones, though), and the CD player has begun to skip and stutter on some discs. It's just been getting old.
I had three or four other devices I could play CDs on, but the best sound quality was on the one in my car. When I was studying the Concord Sonata prior to reviewing it, I used a boombox we keep in the living room, but the sound kept fuzzing out due to signal overload, and though there was a pause button, it had no way to move around inside a track, a bit of a nuisance when you're trying to analyze an 18-minute movement of bewildering complexity.
It was time to get a new system - I can say I need this for work - and thanks to my B. I was able to get it as a combined Valentine's-birthday-anniversary present for two years. (Last year life was kind of damp.) A visit to an audio specialty store, after I convinced them that I wasn't out to spend thousands, and just wanted the least expensive equipment it was worth the money to buy (you can get an all-in-one system off the shelf at Fry's for less than $200, but the problem is that it isn't worth $200), produced a recommendation for a CD player and an amplifier from Marantz and speakers from Usher.
It then remained to set it up. Unlike my old equipment, these devices are not supposed to sit directly on top of each other, so I had to find an appropriate small modular shelving system at a storage store, plus the dreaded task of attaching cable connectors to the end of lengths of speaker wire.
But that finally got completed today - I'd somehow blanked on realizing that I needed eight cable connectors and not just four, so back to Fry's - and I have been happily listening to Chopin, Alexander Glazunov, Kurt Atterberg, and Steeleye Span on my new speakers, which are a lot smaller than the old ones and hence fit where I want to put them. Great rich sound, even at low volume, and there's even a remote control, so I may make adjustments at ease from my chair. I am very pleased.
[oh my ghod, this conductor hums along. Must he?]
