It sounds like we have the same experiences, @tomcarr . It’s nice to have a site such as this to virtually meet fellow enthusiasts.
How Has Your Finely Tuned Audiophile Dexterity Helped You in Your "Other" Life?
Listening. Observing. Trying. Failing. Perceiving the nuances. And, sledge hammer impacts. Developing a new vocubulary. (As well as using very familiar terms when things don’t go as expected), Sorting through tons of data. Skillfully differentiating between the things that matter, and things that don’t. To us, anyway.
So, how have these skills (and, being a generally good person) helped you in life? Or, others?
Here’s one to start:
Wine Pouring:
My wife and I like to drink wine. Landing a enjoyable wine in the single digits (after all discounts applied) is a big win for us. Our evening of wine allocation and enjoyment generally takes on the following cadence: Pour One. Pour two (making sure to save just a little in the bottle). Then, the highly anticipated "desperation pour". The last 2 sips for each poured from the bottle. This way we take a pause, and take the time to fully appreciate those last two sips. Silly, but it’s what we do.
Frankly, I’ve gotten pretty good at this wine allocation thing. Equal pours, every time. For a while there, I thought I was just "lucky" and timed it just right. But, recently, I’ve concluded it’s something more. My "finely tuned audiophile" dexterity.
As we have all observed, when you fill a vessel with liquid, the frequency of the sound changes as the space in the vessel becomes occupied with more liquid. I was unaware that I was paying attention to those frequencies and my brain remembered the frequency at the conclusion of the last pour. So, when filling the second glass, I just listened and stopped when the frequency of the last pour was matched. Seems to work for me (within a tolerance of a few Hz/Mls). This doens’t help when you’re camping in near darkness and miss the glass completely, but has worked for us in a workable domestic sense for quite some time. Now I thank Sal Marantz, Frank McIntosh, and others after those (nearly) perfect pours.
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Yes it does, @mahler123 . This is an isolating hobby. I'm also grateful to have this site. |
"The really funny thing is for decades, completely by accident I ended up working in companies that are primary sources of high end subcomponents for high end audio… Burr-Brown Corp and Texas Instruments. So all wrapped together for me." Back in the 70's when I was working at a "consumer electronics" store, I was reminded by someone that we were selling products from the company that built the planes that bombed Pearl Harbor (Mitsubishi), and the company that made the chemicals that killed people in death camps (BASF). Not exactly a "feel good" moment in my audio career. |
Yes. Times change. Vietnam is now a great tourist destination. I’ve worked in Japan for a couple years finding the Japanese to be incredibly friendly, especially to Americans. Walking around Hiroshima was humbling. I worked in Germany as well. I became really good friends with some executives. One looked and acted as you would imagine a nazi officer would be like. In a gray suit with brilliant intelligent blue eyes, he could wither people into submission with a look from across the room. A really scary individual… well, unless you got to be friends. So, I asked him, what he thought of World War 2. This was in Stuttgart, he was 8 years old when a bomb landed in his front yard giving him a scar on his face. He said, “We started it, we deserved it, got our asses kicked.” There is a graveyard in Singapore that is on a distant hill overlooking the city. There are hundred of graves of the Indian Gurkhas troops that attempted to defend the city. Even the thought of this place brings tears to my eyes. What a waste. When I was young and stupid I thought different cultures were naturally prone to do bad things. I have little recourse other than repeat, I was young and stupid. It is a terrible flaw in humans with the right circumstances.
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@y'all....I have too many 'other lives', damn few have made any rational use of my audiophilia... Actually, the inverse is more likely....woodworking relates to cabinetry or shelving or racks....knowledge and practical experience with plastics and metal? Ditto. I just finished installing a mini-split system into a motor home, VAC wiring and all. Oh, and the compressor had to be on the Other side of the chassis, and all the pipes, wiring concealed ...of course. Not saying the audio detail devils are simple, no. But i've got complicated this 'n that to burn up the balance of this existence already....not prone to volunteer at this junction of the function....*mock growl* |
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