MUSINGS: On art, artist appreciation, and "core music"... by 24bitbob

I received a wonderful E-mail from reader 24bitbob in Australia just before the clock turned 2020; considering how the world has changed this year, it feels like the message came ages ago!

As I've mentioned over the years, it is wonderful chatting to audiophiles from all around the world. It's great to hear and consider the insights of others. Ultimately appreciate what the audiophile hobby has meant to them (you!) as a source of joy and love of the music...

Mon 12/30/2019 4:56 AM

Hi Arch,

I’ve followed your blog for a while and made a few comments / observations along the way under the pseudonym ‘24bitbob’. Truth be told I’ve enjoyed hi-fi as a hobby since 1970-something, and I’ve learned at various times the trap of getting caught having to upgrade things. If taken too far it leads to frustration more than happiness, so I dabble in the hobby; in and out, in and out.

MUSINGS: COVID-19 - "WE CANNOT LET THE CURE BE WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM..."

Thought I'd put up a post today as a bit of a "comment cleaner" for ongoing discussions. A few days have passed, I'm not seeing much change here in Canada. Yeah, more testing done, more positive cases, but so far so good in terms of emergency departments not being overwhelmed. Preparations looking OK and containment systems not being breached. Strong health policy seems to be working within the hospital system that I can see.

MUSINGS: COVID-19 - "Abundance of Caution" | "Abundance of Fear"

As discussed a few days ago, there is remarkable fear out there with COVID-19. Last night, as I was checking out the news, I clicked on Drudge Report to see what's going on in this world and got that screen above.

Wow. What a time we live in. I suspect if we checked Drudge on September 11, 2001, the top part of the screen with numerous headlines would have all been about the same topic as well!

COVID-19: A few thoughts... Finding tranquility in a time of panic.

Greetings,

For the most part, I talk about rather petty stuff like sound equipment and audiophile discussions on this blog. :-) However, nothing has stopped me from posting on other topics of interest over the years! I was supposed to be on Spring Break this week but with all the flight shutdowns, I'm staying put in Vancouver which gives me time to watch the news, check in on work once awhile, and think about the state of the world.

Needless to say, things have changed markedly within weeks due to the SARS-CoV-2 virus and the COVID-19 disease pandemic that it causes. I thought I'd put up a post this week to document a few facts and figures I've come across, many of which not seemingly focused on as much in the media. As usual, I'm interested in the big picture and let's try to see the context of what's going on.

As per audiophile discussions here, let's remain science-driven and not get off track into tinfoil-hat, homeopathic, conspiratorial, la-la-land, OK?

MUSINGS: "Which measurements matter?" Importance of considering the complete audio chain. And a listen to room DSP filters...

Very busy these last few days so I thought let's address an interesting discussion question I've seen over the last while about measurements and audibility. Here's a forum comment from tapatrick over on Audiophile Style the other day:

I think you have done a good job in your blog post of covering all the relevant areas involved from music production to listening. And maybe the conversation is now concluded. If only everyone would acknowledge and respect each others 'intent' as you put it then there would be a lot less misunderstanding. I am none the wiser which measurements matter but I have to say I'm now clear that measuring and analysing equipment outside of listening leaves me cold. I will leave that to others more qualified but I will keep an eye on developments...

MUSINGS: Audio & Music - The audiophile Big Picture view... (And "objectivists are no fun".)

It has been a very busy week at work and obviously the world this week has been going through all kinds of turmoil on account of Coronavirus and the very real effects it's having on travel, production, the economy, and of course health care!

Over the last week, I spent some time on Audiophile Style chatting with the folks there in the thread on "Why are objective assessments important...". As you can see, many topics were covered including subjectivity, objectivity, what is a "perfect" reproduction chain, whether objective results correlate with subjective experience, all the way to a discussion of neuroscience, the mind, etc...