Wha'choo lookin' at?


As I relaxed to Charlie Haden’s Quartet West on the stereo last night, I thought how much I enjoyed my view when sitting in my main listening position, and I got curious about what others’ eyes came to rest on when listening. My system is in the living room. Much of the front wall is a big picture window. If I want to, I can pull shades down and draw curtains to cover just the first reflection points behind the speakers and not cover up the center part of the window. The main attraction between the speakers, however, is a large floor-to-ceiling plant stand made of oak. (Equipment rack and TV are off to the sides.) It’s a very open affair – no large, solid surfaces -- and on it are a couple of large geranium varieties, an aloe and some other succulents, a cast-iron plant, and assorted other greenery. It’s a very restful composition for my eyes to look absently at and get lost in as I listen. Passive but full of depth, interesting shapes and subtle colors. I swear it enhances my listening experience, and I like it lots better than closing my eyes. I’m gonna call it a tweak. Have not, however, experimented with varying the mix and positioning of plants on the plant stand ;-) .
jayboard
Garfish - Not really a strange experience so much as a non-audiophile one. More of an end-of-a-hard-work-day experience. Most weeknights, I'd last about 5 minutes if I sat in my recliner and put on music and just sat and listened. I'm a complete hoops junkie, so I don't need the commentator to tell me what's going on. But, definitely, it detracts from the intensity of focus that can be placed on music listening.
Elizabeth, it's a Tsuru (crane family). The national bird of Japan, official or otherwise.
hey david,

can't see the toobs in that rogue 99 preamp, eh? well, that's another reason to get a cary slp98, besides better sonics! ;~) the cary is a bee-yoo-tiful preamp, w/those babies out in the open for all to see. if only it sounded as nice as my melos, which also has hidden-toobs...

re: what *i* look at -a li'l slice of the potomac river, w/the blue-ridge & harpers ferry gap behind it. at nite, the black-boxes which make up my amps, speakers & x-over; also a li'l stone sculpture, carved into man-woman-two children...

I have my rack against a wall which has one slim floor to ceiling window at the far left. The entire wall is bare. We removed a bookshelf from the wall in December to make room for the Christmas tree and since the tree was taken down we felt the wall looked better without the bookshelf. Not very attractive. This thread got me thinking though and I remember I have these two large watercolor paintings I received as a gift about a year ago and have not gotten around to framing. I am going out this weekend though and getting those puppies framed. They are beautiful paintings of the seashore. One is of a boat on the beach and the other is of a small harbor with a bait shack and a few boats. I can't wait to get them up on the wall! Thanks Jayboard for getting me going on this.
Nordostman, You've committed publicaly now, dude. We want pics of the *new room*. It's wonderful how things trigger us to do some things, isn't it? The paintings sound wonderful (of course I'm partial to those scenes!) and hope it is a fun project. Angela