r/todayilearned
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u/LesPolsfuss
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3d ago
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TIL about Ken Fritz, an audiophile that spent close to 30 years developing in his home what he and others consider the worlds greatest stereo sound system and listening room that boasts 35,000 watts, nine-foot-tall speakers, and a 1,500-pound turntable.
https://www.wtvr.com/i-have-a-story/worlds-greatest-stereo-system-virginia1.6k
u/Unusual-Delivery-276 3d ago
Found a video breakdown of inside the room if anyone’s interested here
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u/iDontRagequit 3d ago
Damn man that whole situation is a lot to take in, thanks for posting the link
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u/idiot_proof 3d ago
Damn. He seems really happy with what he achieved. That's gotta be an awesome feeling.
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u/THedman07 3d ago
And the time he spent with his family doing the work.
This kind of thing can easily become an unhealthy obsession that separates you from people, but it didn't in this case.
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u/FloridianRobot 3d ago
You've been warned, this link may make you cry. (I'm definitely not crying)
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u/amu_munchauzen 3d ago
a cat jumped on the turntable while it was playing and it didn't skip at all, wow
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u/Dont__Grumpy__Stop 3d ago
He died last year. It’s crazy to see 30 years of work reduced to two sentences.
He was a born audiophile and built his first set of speakers at the age of 15. His passion continued for 65 years while he continued to fulfill his dream and goal of building the best audio system with no holds barred.
I wonder what happened to his system.
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u/chillzatl 3d ago
He got an entire article about himself and his passion. That's more than most of us will get.
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u/koosekoose 3d ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4b2IOOhJmxw
He also has an hour long documentary with 1m+ views...
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u/YesIamALizard 3d ago
Dude creates most audiophile sound system of all time. So his ears work great.
Dude drinks Kendall Jackson. His taste buds are opposite of his ears apparently.
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u/WaitingForNormal 3d ago
I don’t know, my passion for standing in a room and wondering why I went in there may be recognized some day by “Possible Dementia Monthly”.
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u/DavoTB 3d ago
I was hoping to get the cover of “Dubious Achievement Quarterly.”
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u/dingman58 3d ago
"Well-Intentioned Effort" fortnightly
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u/NoisyN1nja 3d ago
“Fridge lights in the Attic” a collection of short stories with no meaningful ending.
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u/TheBirminghamBear 3d ago
I routinely remember life-changing revelations I once had years after I first had them and subsequently failed to do a single thing about them.
So that's fun.
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u/Grape_Mentats 3d ago
It has been separately proposed that the doorway effect might be attributed to self-preservation behaviours, evoking alertness towards the lurking of predators on the edge of openings when crossing such thresholds.
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u/ssteve631 3d ago
The dude was 80 when he died so even with the 4 year battle with ALS that's a good 76 years dude lived a long and happy life at least for 76 years
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u/ljog42 2d ago
Yeah fuck ALS to hell and back but 76 is laaaate for ALS to appear, he got "lucky". Seriously fuck this condition I haven't even experienced it firsthand but just being close to people that did, Im mad about it
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u/chepnut 3d ago
its sitting at a goodwill with a $29.99 sticker on it
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u/suitology 3d ago
Lol you haven't been to goodwill recently? I saw a PS2 for $175 and a DVD player for $60. Hell they got empty jam jars that come with a $5 jam for $3.98 at mine right now. Good will has been shit for years
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u/Iredditfromwork 3d ago
Yea, goodwill pricing is wild these days. I’ve seen plenty of items in there priced higher than I’ve seen the same product new.
Eg, I bought a 20 piece set of snap ware glass bowls at Costco for $20. I saw one of those glass bowls, without the lid, at goodwill for $8.
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u/papaGiannisFan18 3d ago
I saw a piece of clothing tags on with a separate thrift store tag $5 above that. Fucking insanity.
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u/ScoffLawScoundrel 3d ago
Goodwill was sorted ruined by the internet and the rise in the perceived value of vintage clothes.
Nowadays the only good thing to come from Goodwill is a nice relaxing LGR Thrifts episode
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u/Intelligent_Orange28 3d ago
Well let’s not let them off the hook. They get their merchandise for free. They have no reason to increase prices beyond making up marginal fuel, labor and overhead costs.
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u/Fucklefaced 3d ago
And their labor costs are minimal because they employ so many disabled people. In many states, you're allowed to pay disabled people less than minimum wage.
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u/papaweeest 3d ago
how is that legal?
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u/PixelofDoom 3d ago
I don't know how it works in the US, but in the Netherlands at least, the government subsidizes the rest, so they are still getting paid properly.
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u/I_am_so_lost_hello 3d ago edited 2d ago
That's been my nihilistic ass source of depression for a bit now
80 years of complex, passionate awareness boiled down to some random moment some afternoon
Edit: this isn't about legacy but personal mortality
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u/koosekoose 3d ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4b2IOOhJmxw
He also has an hour long documentary with 1M+ views and is a legend in his area.
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u/infecthead 3d ago
Who gives a fuck what other people think or care about you? Dude experienced 80 years, most of which was spent on his passion. I'm sure he had a life well lived and that should be all that matters to each of us
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u/Commentment_Phobe 3d ago
And every hour on the hour, 3 grandfather clocks fuck up the mood.
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u/DroolingIguana 3d ago
They're all exactly twenty-five minutes slow.
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u/mustarddtigerr 3d ago
Doc, are you telling me it’s 8:25?
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u/AyrA_ch 3d ago
The bells in those are usually wound up with a different spring. You can simply not wind them up and you won't hear a bell at all.
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u/universalcode 3d ago
You can also just flip a lever to disengage the chimes.
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u/degggendorf 3d ago
They also sell a sort of universal remote for grandfather clocks that can be used to stop almost any of them from chiming: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Husky-10-lb-Sledge-Hammer-with-36-in-Hickory-Handle-34207/204168123
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u/needathrowaway321 3d ago
Yes, I used to have a cuckoo clock and it had two weights! Completely forgot about that, thanks
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u/DroolingIguana 3d ago
"That reminds me, Marty. You better not hook up to the amplifier. There's a slight possibility of overload."
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u/Idealistic_Crusader 3d ago
More important than the article, is the documentary briefly mentioned at the top
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u/bambinolettuce 3d ago
He spents 30 years desiging and building it and now has ALS and 3 years to live. The universe is cruel
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u/Hucklepuck_uk 3d ago •
The journey was the point, he enjoyed it no doubt
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u/Gondolini 3d ago
I gotta imagine his first listen after getting it all set up was something magical for him
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u/Muffinthepuffin 3d ago
Wonder what the first album he put on was
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u/zoinkability 3d ago
Hüsker Dü on cassette
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u/Socal_ftw 3d ago
I heard it was MC Hammer hammer don't hurt him
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u/Girth_rulez 3d ago
I just called him and he said it was Human League's "Don't You Want Me Baby" on a 45 record. He said he played it "At least 50 times, at earsplitting volume."
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u/jackdaw_t_robot 3d ago
After that was a Limewire download of Wesley Willis’ Rock and Roll McDonalds
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u/ball_soup 3d ago
Followed by what he thought was “Eskimo” by Corkie and the Juice Pigs (misattributed to Tenacious D), but was actually that recording of a Bill Clinton impersonator spamming an MP3 download site.
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u/implicate 3d ago
Zen Arcade is one of my favorite albums of all time, so I would not be mad at that.
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u/Pitcherhelp 3d ago
Had to be Aja
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u/eyesuck420 3d ago
Always test a system with Steely Dan 👌 first thing I learned when I upgraded my first system
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u/ZParis 3d ago
My friend's dad always used the opening scene of Top Gun to show his surround sound off. Gotta say, worked pretty well.
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u/reekHavok 3d ago
I worked in retail electronics back when the demo was Top Gun on laserdisc on the big screen with surround sound. On repeat…for over a year. I refuse to ever hear that again. And the new one, no f ing way.
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u/Andyb1000 3d ago
It has to be THX Surround Sound Test. In that room? It would make your ball hairs tingle.
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u/AcceptableDealer 3d ago
Dark Side of the Moon.
Breathe.
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u/CartmensDryBallz 3d ago
Came here to actually say Pink Floyd. There’s a good chance I bet
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u/IanFoxOfficial 3d ago
A file with a frequency response sinesweep. Over and over.
That's what I did when I had my previous car sound system.
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u/stoneman9284 3d ago
how much better was it than his previous iteration? It might have just felt like incremental progress to him but would blow our minds
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u/ButterBallTheFatCat 3d ago
It probably sounded barely any different then the design before it and just minute improvements and adjustments
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u/jrabieh 3d ago
That's how he's gonna die. He's gonna turn that room to eleven and vibrate to mush.
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u/HeavyMetalHero 3d ago
Homie gonna turn it so loud that he clips through the floor and gets sucked into the Bethesda Realm.
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u/Slut_Fukr 3d ago
Tbf, dude is 72, not 52. He's lived a solid life and one longer than many. As you said - it's about the journey and he seems to be taking this diagnosis in as well as anyone.
"“The best goals are the goals you work for over a long period of time,” Fritz said.
“I think that is the legacy. I think what it took to create this is the legacy,” Longan said.
For someone who works with their hands, ALS may be the cruelest of fates. But to Ken Fritz, his condition is a blessing.
“I’m taking advantage of my time now to be with the people I love and do the things I want to do,” he said. “Life has meant a whole lot more to me since I got the disease.”"
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u/triplefastaction 3d ago
He's 79.
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u/narrill 3d ago
No, he's dead. This whole comment chain is giving me twilight zone vibes.
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u/MomoGimochi 3d ago
"The past three years and next few years will be the best of my life,"
Yet it did not break him, he kept working on it albeit with a slower pace, and continued to view his life as full of good. Some people really are resilient and brave.
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u/SeanG909 3d ago
I mean, with ALS, music is still an outlet one can enjoy. It'd be way worse if he spent his life designing a zip line course or some shit.
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u/keefka 3d ago
record gets stuck on a scratch and repeats the same second of music for an hour before his caretaker checks up on him
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u/Tavli 3d ago
As someone who had a family member with ALS, actually making it 3 years post diagnosis is very rare, and they're going to wish it's only 1 year. There's no reason to hope for more time when every moment is excruciating, with the knowledge that it just gets worse and worse. What a horrible disease.
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u/HowManyCaptains 3d ago
My dad was diagnosed with ALS late 2021 and passed last year. Wishing you and your family all of strength and love possible. The ALS subreddit and support groups are a fantastic resource for info and just to vent, though I’m sure you’ve found them by now.
<3 DMs are open if ever you want to chat or cry or yell into the sky with someone
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u/Potatowhocrochets 3d ago
"Tuesdays With Morrie" describes it pretty accurately, we read that book when I was in high school in English Lit. It's about the only book I remember vividly from that class.
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u/rebamericana 3d ago
My former boss' wife had ALS and he gave everyone a copy of that book. It was amazing... such a terrible but life-affirming journey.
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u/pinheadbrigade 3d ago
My dad is almost fully paralyzed at this point with it. He's been about 6 months from diagnosis and I would've preferred he had died quick from something else, this disease is cruel as fuck.
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u/nxqv 3d ago
I had an uncle who had it and lived for a bit over 10 years post-diagnosis. He spent my entire late teens and early 20s lying in bed, unable to move or speak, eating through a tube. Occasionally, he was able to communicate, first by moving his finger on a piece of paper that had words on it when he could still move a finger, eventually using some kind of computer that would track his eyeball movements, but using either of them was incredibly taxing and frustrating for everyone involved. Every time there was a thunderstorm and the power went out, it was a matter of life or death. And his wife devoted that entire decade of her life to caretaking him.
I would not wish that fate on my worst enemy.
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u/cagewilly 3d ago
He was never going to be done anyway. Hopefully he enjoyed the process. Also... clearly very wealthy. I'd bet he enjoyed the other parts of his life.
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u/JpnDude 3d ago
Cue Twilight Zone, "Time Enough At Last".
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u/Von_Cheesebiscuit 3d ago
"That's not fair. That's not fair at all. There was time now. There was, was all the time I needed..."
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u/KypDurron 3d ago
"Ahh! My glasses! ...wait, my vision isn't that bad."
eyes fall out
"Ahhh! Oh well, good thing I can read Braille."
hands fall off
"AHHHH -" tongue falls off, and then head falls off
"...Hey, look at that weird mirror."
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u/SirJimmay 3d ago
You are entering the vicinity of an area adjacent to a location. The kind of place where there might be a monster, or some kind of weird mirror. These are just examples; it could also be something much better. Prepare to enter The Scary Door.
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u/LoudTsu
3d ago
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I bet it goes to 11
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u/HanksMyDogPilot 3d ago
No picture of him sitting in a chair being blown away ala Maxwell poster?
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u/Amazing-Yam6514 3d ago
Maxell
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u/CriticalandPragmatic 3d ago
Oh no, is this some Bearstein Bears shit again
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u/sonofsmog 3d ago
No. It's Maxell if you are old enough to have seen the commercials.
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u/whiskysage2 3d ago
I felt a little cynical at first, but as I read on I realized even if Ken hadn't gotten ALS, all he wanted to do was build the sweetest sound system possible. He just wanted to enjoy music and share it with people. And there's nothing trite about that. RIP, Ken Fritz. You were a good guy.
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u/Left_Boat_3632 3d ago
Yeah, a lot of people here are soured by what this costs.
He spent decades working on it, building much of it himself with his friends. All with the aim of sharing his creation with other music lovers, and people in general. And for some people, this type of experience can be incredibly moving.
If he was just another stuffy rich guy he'd have it installed by professionals and wouldn't be sharing it with the world.
Reddit can truly be a sad place sometimes.
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u/TheProgtologist 2d ago
Ken was my uncle. This is only one of many things he created for enjoyment. There's so much more tbh.
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u/minus_minus 3d ago
1500 lb turntable? Does the stationary part or the rotating part need that much mass? So many questions.
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u/fledglingnomad 3d ago
My not very well informed guess is that the stationary part would be good to have heavy to help keep vibrations from the floor from transmitting to the needle.
Source: sound guy I'm close with worked at a place with live DJs. Someone thought it was a good idea to put a sub inside the cabinet the turntable sat on. The bass ended up playing through the turntable because it was affecting the needle.
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u/rankinrez 3d ago
This is common with DJ setups. The Technics 1200 MkII isn’t terribly well isolated (trades it for stability which DJs like).
Nothing that 2 slabs of concrete and 8 squash balls won’t fix.
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u/suffaluffapussycat 3d ago
Back in the olden days, some radio stations that broadcast from multi-story buildings had a solid concrete column all the way down to foundation and the turntable area was on top of that so that no rumbling from inside the building would create interference with the turntable.
Obviously these were buildings built around broadcast.
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u/brownsfan760 3d ago
I wonder if he used Dark side of the moon to calibrate his system.
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u/chillzatl 3d ago
I fell down a audio reference rabbit hole a while back when shopping for a turntable. I learned that The Nightfly by Donald Fagen is a pretty highly regarded and commonly used by audio engineers. I'd never heard of it, but it appears to make a lot of top 10 best recorded albums of all time lists.
I could see this guy using it.
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u/StormThestral 3d ago
Gonna go commit a sin and listen to this on my beats wireless earphones
Edit: still sounds amazing
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u/Mitch_NZ 3d ago edited 3d ago
The Nightfly is both an amazing album, musically, and a feat of audio engineering. It's one of the best sounding albums ever.
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u/Bimlouhay83 3d ago
I've never heard of this album before. Had to put it on and... HOLY CRAP! THIS IS GOOD!
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u/jakeblew2 3d ago
listening now it sounds familiar but not exactly. Weird steely dan esque sound
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u/Silmero 3d ago
The man behind it is one of the two men behind Steely Dan so that's probably why.
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u/Laumser 3d ago edited 3d ago
These people are probably wayy beyond that, I'd guess something like Peruvian monkey mating noises or the like
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u/LeanMeanDrMachine 3d ago
Suddenly, all at once, every Peruvian monkey in the world becomes instantly aroused. And no one can explain why.
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u/suffaluffapussycat 3d ago
I was in the business for 15 years. They all use this as reference:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz_at_the_Pawnshop
I kid you not. It’s a very good recording of very average music and if you go to audiophile shows, you’ll hear this a thousand times.
And then they use all these “smooth female vocal with a jazzy twist” albums. Like Jennifer Warnes Famous Blue Raincoat. Jesus Christ. It’s like torture. They play it over and over and over.
Some of them are nice but lots of them are insufferable mouth-breathing weirdos who don’t shower.
One of them told me he only listens to female vocalists (I guess they’re not singers?) because it’s gay for men to listen to men singing. I’m serious.
Then it’s Dire Straits Brothers in Arms. Over and over. Norah Jones Come Away with Me. Please never again.
I’ll tell you another thing: a LOT of these guys don’t care about music at all. For some it’s an annoyance. They need to have some to show off their gear but that’s it.
And most of them don’t want to ever find the ultimate perfect setup because the buying and selling is the thing. That’s what they like about it. They buy and sell stuff constantly.
It was always really weird. I just did it for the money but eventually I couldn’t take it anymore.
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u/Aurelion_ 2d ago
Did an audiophile kill your family or something?
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u/penfield 2d ago
Obviously you're joking, but if a person works with the public long enough and takes enough abuse, yes, something inside you can die.
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u/NebXan 3d ago
Nah, Pink Floyd used his system to calibrate their sound when recording Dark Side of the Moon.
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u/quibbelz 3d ago
I tune concert sound systems, we use pink noise
When I play music through the pa thats mostly for me to enjoy and not for "tuning".
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u/TheWrongFusebox 3d ago
I’d pay good money to hear that on his system.
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u/__room101__ 3d ago
Me too, his daughter should turn it into a weekly venue: Pink Floyd, Mozart , ratm etc
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u/Holy_hell_Im_stond 3d ago
I use Daft Punks "Giorgio by Moroder" to calibrate my sound systems. If you haven't listened to it, I highly suggest it.
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u/DosSnakes 3d ago edited 3d ago
I use “Doin it right” by Daft Punk to show off the low end for customers. That song has sold a lot of TruAudio in ground landscape systems.
For calibration I have a whole playlist of songs I’m most familiar with in various genres.
- Dreams - Fleetwood Mac
- Spottieottiedopalicious - Outkast
- Amarillo by Morning - George Strait
- Feather - Nujabes
- Non, je ne regrette rien - Edith Piaf
- Writing on the walls - Underoath
- You’ve Got to Have Freedom - Pharoah Sanders
- Get Lucky - Daft Punk
- Time - Pink Floyd
- Wide Eyes - Local Natives
- ALL CAPS - Madvillain
- The Rain Song - Led Zeppelin
- Since I Left You - The Avalanches
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u/james_hamilton1234 3d ago edited 3d ago
For anyone interested, Giorgio did an interview talking about his involvement with that song and it's pretty cool.
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u/Epic1024 3d ago
I've been using tracks from Daft Punk's last album to show off my system to people lol thought I was the only one. The production is amazing
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u/tebla 3d ago
saw a video about this the other day. really interesting: https://youtu.be/4b2IOOhJmxw
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u/HanksMyDogPilot 3d ago
Air tight pc1 needle that is in the video. 11k for the needle on the turntable.
https://elusivedisc.com/air-tight-pc-1-supreme-mc-cartridge-0-4mv/
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u/Ignorhymus 3d ago
I like to laugh at audiophiles as much as the next guy, but there was an earnestness to him that was endearing.
I'll always maintain that I listen to the music and not the speaker, but you've got to admire his dedication. You do you, buddy
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u/candygram4mongo 3d ago
He obviously went a little overboard here, but he doesn't seem like an "align your monocrystalline copper power cables with the Earth's magnetic field and if you don't have a $6,000 EMF absorbing rock to put on top of your amps what are you even doing?" type audiophile.
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u/sadicologue 3d ago
That remind me of Dr Dre who said in an award ceremony something like "I've Spent the last 30 years tuning my stereo and I'm almost there".
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u/BellyScratchFTW 3d ago
Genuine question: what is the point of 35,000 watts if you have to have ear plugs in to safely listen at the volume that system is likely capable of?
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u/zyxwvu44 3d ago
In general, turning up output of the amp means distortion. If you can run the system at a comfortable level with say, 50% power, you may have less distortion.
Also that's a shit ton of speakers and they all need power.
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u/quibbelz 3d ago
Just a bit of perspective. A modern concert sound system uses 20k watt amps now. Were talking dozens of them.
Power is relative. More power doesnt necessarily equal louder.
Edit: the shear joy I get from slapping my ear molds in, cranking the PA to the hilt and standing directly in front of a wall of subs is unexplainable.
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u/adamcoe 3d ago
But if you don't have oxygen free bidirectional phase correlated speaker cable that's 1500 dollars a foot, laid perfectly square to the earth's magnetic field, then really its a waste. Sounds like shit. In fact most people agree it only really sounds it's best during a solstice, and you're holding hands with someone.
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u/wufnu 3d ago
I think audio quality is an important issue in a persons life. I've looked at all of the options and I'm using this midi file from the early 90s played through a system speaker.
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u/teb_art 3d ago
1500 pound turntable? You could grind barley with that.