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In Reply to: RE: Recorded-Music Listening Room for Liberal-Arts College: Speaker Choices posted by John Marks on October 04, 2007 at 15:41:42
You never mentioned whether this was going to be a state-of-the-art home theater / surround sound audio room or just an "Audio Amish" two-channel vinyl room.
Two-channel audio is the wrong choice, IMHO, even if implemented perfectly.
Sorry to burst your two-channel bubble, Mr. Audio Amishman, but the professor will have to tie the kids to their chairs, stuff their mouths with cotton balls, confiscate their cell phones and IPODs, and probably threaten them with "F's", to get them to sit still for more than five minutes listening to two-channel music from vinyl records NO MATTER HOW GOOD THE SPEAKERS ARE!
After one minute of listening, these kids will realize they strongly prefer the surround sound music they hear while watching films at their local SURROUND SOUND cinema ... or in their rich friend's Dad's expensive SURROUND SOUND home theater!
With two or three rows of chairs planned, many listeners will NOT be in the optimum location for the best possible sound quality from ANY two-channel system.
If there is more than one row of listeners, surround sound is more likely to be a better choice than two-channel audio, because seating position will have a considerably smaller effect on sound quality.
Of course there may be a few weenies (probably a few token conservative students recruited to the liberal arts college for "diversity") who really want to sit still, and quiet, for one hour of listening to boring string quartets, and LOUD operas by German composers!
Of course, I could be wrong.
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Richard BassNut Greene
Subjective Audiophile 2007
As the subject line says, the main room will be two channel. There are many good reasons for this.
The school has received a bequest of approximately 17,000 mint LPs. E.g., the complete L'Oiseaux-Lyre catalog on LP. Nearly every DG and DG arkiv LP from the late 1950s through the end of LPs. Many unopened.
This is a listening room in a library that will soon have a stellar classical-music collection. It is not a rec room on Fraternity Row.
I find your characterizations insulting to many college students, although I readily admit that it might apply to some students at colleges other than this one.
Some time ago, I lectured at Thomas More College on Elgar's Dream of Gerontius, and played excerpts on a Shahinian/Jeff Rowland/Sony SACD player system I brought in for the purpose. The entire student body attended, it was a mandatory Friday Night Lecture Series event. At the end of the presentation, I said that seeing as I was staying over, if any students wanted to reconvene mid-Saturday morning and listen to the whole thing and not just excerpts, I was willing. There was a show of hands, and six or eight students showed up and listened for their own edification, no course credit involved. And because I was a guest lecturer, I could not hand out Brownie points or increase anyone's grade.
While some students may fit your "profile," I can assure that based on my decades of experience, there are students who would rather listen to a succession of Bartok quartet movements played by different string quartets than hear the latest from Bruce Springsteen.
There will be a smaller room with projection and surround for opera Laserdiscs and DVDs.
There will be carrels or cubicles for headphone listening.
By the way, I am aware of surround sound. I produced an award-winning surround sound recording, and have contributed articles to Surround Pro magazine.
JM
I'd say about six or eight students.
Oh, and you have no sense of humor.
Maybe you laughed once in 1972.
Evidence that six or eight students would listen to string quartets when listening was not mandatory for a grade:
YOU POSTED:
"The entire student body attended, it was a mandatory Friday Night Lecture Series event. At the end of the presentation, I (asked) ...
if any students wanted to reconvene mid-Saturday morning and listen to the whole thing and not just excerpts ... six or eight students showed up and listened for their own edification ..."
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Richard BassNut Greene
Subjective Audiophile 2007
The basic point from Richard's post is correct, any 2ch system (irrespective) of media is inferior to the equivalent MCH system. I suggest the money here will be more wisely spent looking for an effective means of archiving these LPs to DVD(or CD). 2ch is in the past, the listening room of library will be better served by a "rugged" MCH system, by all means have some vinyl playback if you want (for reference) but not as the primary means of playback. This is 2007! That's silly.
Music making the painting, recording it the photograph
Yeah, maybe a better passtime for the students, and a better use of the funds (which are probably just...endless) would be for them to all get together and burn those LPs to CD or some other type of digital playback for enjoyment in a MCH system!
That would be SO much more 2007 than LISTENING to and ENJOYING music on vinyl on a fine 2 channel system! Especially when 2008 is right around the bend.
"...You're all welcome to stay for the next set...we're going to play all the same tunes, but in different keys..." -Count Basie
It will be interesting to see how long the turntable system, it's ancillaries (short of DJ jobbie) and the LPs survive in a public library. Interested in getting a wider audience to listen to great music, archive the LPs the disk, better accessibility, much superior ruggedness etc.
Music making the painting, recording it the photograph
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Penalty!
Penalty!
Mommy says no dessert for little bjh tonight.
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Richard BassNut Greene
Subjective Audiophile 2007
...it's him. The guy is really twisted.
(Who else would go on record and recommend Wilson Sophias?)
;-)
TL
someone that is SO clueless as to use the term "Audio Amish" in conjunction with the electricity-powered audio hobby. His view of students would also seem to be consistent with many of the stereotypes that pepper his posts.Nice of him to stick to the subject and recommend some speakers, what?
I'm sure he felt he was being humourous. Yet again...
"...You're all welcome to stay for the next set...we're going to play all the same tunes, but in different keys..." -Count Basie
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