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Atkinson-Krueger a non-event.

As I expected, the whole thing degenerated into semantics--they both hear differences in equipment, but Kreuger and his army of trained listeners not so much as Atkinson and his untutored faceplate-peekers. It was so bad I was embarrassed for both of them, and prayed for the thing to be turned over to the crowd for questions--boy, was I ever wrong! What a boring crowd! Mathematicians, music teachers, logical positivists... "Mr.Krueger, as a nuclear physicist, I would like to know the basic suppositions behind your postulations... " Please, somebody give me a gun and an alibi. We're talking about toys here. We all wandered in and out of the rooms on the ninth and tenth floors and heard the same speakers with different electronics and the differences were gargantuan. And a guy who compares equipment by playing the sound of keys dropping on a table is telling me it's all wishful thinking? Just drag the guy up there and make him listen. Play something in the goddamn seminar room! Powerpoint? Couldn't they get a fucking stereo in there? Wait, no, we're already listening to a dozen different setups playing in the background because the "room" was only a set of black curtains. Not a total loss, though. There was some pretty good sound coming from the Joule-Electra/Merlin room, real ballsy with startling bass and fortissimos that just kept on going with zero breakup or strain. Very impressive. The JMLabs Utopias had great sound, too, but I expect that from $50,000 speakers and probably $100,000 worth of electronics, so no awards for engineering mettle there. Blue Circle/Focus had an interesting room, too, incredibly transparent and musical, and not afraid to play gritty blues guitar on their system instead of another close-miked, whispering "female vocalist". Since when did "female vocals" become a genre anyway? Why aren't the Spice Girls "female vocalists?" How about Cher? And what about "male vocalists?" Why doesn't anyone ever admit to listening to them? Or do we just consider male vocalists "music" while females form some special category that transcends (or sinks beneath) genre? Anyway, the music was much more interesting this time. And Rebop won't be surprised that I bought about $300 worth of "crummy music for audiophiles".

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Topic - Atkinson-Krueger a non-event. - SalD 18:01:46 04/29/05 (70)
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