Listening Room

From the "about" page on my website:

"Vinyl Sundays" is a music appreciation concept. It was first launched as a public venture as "Classic Album Sundays" by Colleen ‘Cosmo’ Murphy in London in 2010 and has spread to cities in Europe, Australia and America.

The idea is simple: in an era where music is treated as a free commodity, or worse, like sonic wallpaper, music lovers should be able to A) enjoy the experience of immersing themselves in recorded music the way it is best heard: in its entirety, uninterrupted, on vinyl, and on a quality sound system so that the artist’s original intention is fully revealed, B) hear & discuss the artist & recording’s unique story, and C) share the experience with people from differing walks of life, united only by their love of music.

I had been wanting to give this idea a go in a salon-like setting, and gave it some trial runs in my NYC loft. With my move to Newburgh, I launched this as a monthly event. It has been going very well, so I may go for every two weeks.​

The best listening experience requires that I keep the seating for each event limited to five. Before entering the Audio Attic, guests will be required to turn off their cell phones and leave them at the door: there will be no exceptions. If you are tied to your phone by a umbilical chord, this experience is not for you.

If this concept interests you, go to the CONTACT page and tell me a little about yourself and the types of music you enjoy listening to. Your name will be added to a waiting list from which I will make invitations each month on a first come first serve basis and on an algorithm not quite understood by me. I will provide some wine: guests are encouraged to bring some wine and snacks.

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unreceivedogma

@gents I have a chair in the sweet spot. I move my head even a few inches left or right, the sound changes. I do not “do other stuff” while I listen. That’s not listening, and it’s a waste, imho, of the investment in both time and money. If you wanna listen while you are cooking or repairing the car, get a cheap Bose Bluetooth system. Sorry, dude.

Well, besides not getting a friendly of point of view, I see you’re not big on the conversational skills. I didn’t spend any of that money over the last few decades to listen to equipment - the equipment serves me. And I can’t find a good reason why I’d spend time enslaved to a seat waiting to see what tricks a CD might hold in order to congratulate myself on my (subjective) aural brilliance. I spent that money to enjoy some music in my home, where I happen to do a lot of stuff and enjoy some quality of life - all at once sometimes. You want to sit in front of the stereo monitoring your head movements, dude, do what you will with your life and money. Having lived a little bit, I have to say it doesn’t sound like value or fun.

By the way, do you keep logs on exactly which head and neck movements give you the best soundstage?

@unreceivedogma 

+1! 

@gents 

lol you are the comedian today, aren’t you? 

I am a cheap rat bastard: over 55 years, I have spent as little as possible to get as maximum as possible performance out of my gear. It’s come out to $850 per year on average over that time, mas o menos, less than some folks spend on cigarettes or booze. Yet I’m guessing that the sound I’m getting matches that of many, maybe most systems costing many - some, many many - times as much these days. 
 

The point of it all is to hear the music the way the artist intended. 
 

You like - or are at least ok with - music as wallpaper, and from your tone it seemed that you expect everyone to be similarly content with that approach. I’m simply saying that I am not only not content, but that these days - actually I’ve always been this way, it’s now more than ever - I block out and dedicate time to serious listening. It’s like zen, but it’s music. It’s out of respect for the artist. I’m an artist so of course I feel that way. As an artist, I have to be a cheap rat bastard about this, because I don’t have infinite amounts to spend as some here at audiogon do. 
 

As for head positioning, it’s an inside joke that you are not on the inside of. I have severe cervical stenosis that amazes most neurologists because it’s so bad that they think I should be dead, but I’m not and not only that, I’m asymptomatic except for one little thing so they won’t operate. But that little thing is not so little to me: it causes tinnitus. They didn’t believe me at first but the pitch and volume changes depending on which way I turn or tilt my head: if I took note of the notes I hear, why I could write a little symphony just from the sounds emanating from my neck. I finally was able to prove it a couple decades ago by taking an audiology test and holding my head in different positions and voila!: the hearing results were different depending on the tilt of my head. Now it is accepted science: a study was done in Germany on 97 patients with cervical stenosis with concomitant tinnitus and they found that by working around a particular nerve that they were able to relieve the tinnitus in 93 of them. 
 

But I digress.
 

When guests visit my audio room for the first time, the first thing that they notice is that the room is quiet, and things sound different. And that they sound different depending on where in the room you are. And that’s without any music playing. I live in that room, and so yes I can even hear the difference from just turning my head. 
 

and I got the room to sound that way for $0.00 spent for that purpose. What I did spend the money on was 6” in the walls and 14” in the ceiling full of rock wool for a thermal barrier. Since rock wool has excellent acoustic barrier properties, my architect - who had designed a few recording studios - said to cover the walls and ceilings with fire resistant burlap instead of drywall and I would have the equivalent of a $250,000 recording studio room. For nothing. He was right. 
 

In other words, I take listening seriously. As many here do. 
 

But I’m not anal. For example. I know people who log the hours played on their cartridges. That’s a bridge too far for me. I’m a bit more practical (or lazy): when I start to get listening fatigue, it’s time for refurbishing. 

What does "being an artist" have to do with your proclivity to spend money? I dont doubt you like your room, but I am very skeptical that you are getting the results you think from rock wool. A great deal of the improvement you hear is based on how the room was treated before. Also the dimensions of the room have a great deal to do with how simply your fixes actually need to be. So the improvements you attribute to rock wool may be the result of other factors, including how much experience you have spent in rooms which are exceptional. 

BTW, I dont think that using recordings studios as the benchmark for listening rooms is necessarily correct.