ScottFromWyoming wrote: 
Stinky always makes a certain sound before he jumps so at least he gives a warning

 ScottFromWyoming wrote: 

 jagdriver wrote: 
A cat to the midsection has a similar effect.  

 jagdriver wrote: 
I can tell you from experience that once you hear electrostatics and get used to the incredible sound quality and detail going back to cone speakers sounds like a bucket of mud.

 ScottFromWyoming wrote: 
The problem is in getting so ensconced in the music, and then having SO pop out of nowhere, say something, and spook the livin' crap out of me.

========

On another note, I was a stereo salesperson for half a day (until I learned about cleaning the store). I demo'd a pair of great electrostatics in their soundproof room and have to say that they were so "live" that I thought one could easily have a truly ethereal experience with them. In fact, they were so authentic that it spooked me. To this day I wonder if one could be transported, a la Jodie Foster in Cosmos, without hallucinogenics.

(And the only way I'd ever enjoy owning such a pair would be to be assured that no one was going to "pop out of nowhere" during aural transportation. But there again, I like to share music; knowing that I'm the only one immersed so deeply in the experience is too lonely for me. Having a purposeful listening party with a few like-minded friends on the patio, with the JBLs, is how I really like to roll.)

 jagdriver wrote: 
Really listening to an album is a solo activity, for the most part, like reading. I don't do either often enough.

 KurtfromLaQuinta wrote: 
What's this mean? You can use 1 extension cord for 2 speakers?

 cc_rider wrote: 

 KurtfromLaQuinta wrote: 
When I worked at Musicraft back in my college days we hooked a pair of Altec Voice of the Theater folded horn speaker to a variac and slowly brought it up. Now that made a nice loud hum. Damn near took out the front windows of the store, the glass was vibrating.

 islander wrote: 
It was very brief and loud.

 cc_rider wrote: 
 I did that also only at first with Reel to Reel. 7.5 ips 1/2 trk made for very little generational loss and the record only got played once. I still have the tapes. Its also one reason so many of my LP's are in such nice shape. I later copied to cassettes also but from the r2r copy if I already had one as the cassettes for me generally only got used in the car.
I get it that digital is much more convenient, Right now I spend very little time driving so I dont need it for the car, in fact I dont even have a working stereo in the Alfa. It would probably just get stolen or messed with anyways here. 
And to be sure vinyl can be a pain. Back in the day not everyone kept their lp's or stylus clean. Even fewer made sure their tables were set up properly or even knew anything about VTA, tracking force, anti-skate etc. The average vinyl listener usually never came close to getting all they could from their lp's and many didn't care as long as they could listen to the music. Just looking at condition of many records at yard sales and GW tells the story. Every now and then though you run across some that are pristine. That means they never played them or they were owned by someone that actually did care. I actually dont mind the ritual involved in the care and feeding of records and associated equipment. Its kind of therapeutic to me in a way. It helps me focus on the music I am about to listen to. If I spent more time out of the house and more time driving I'd almost certainly break down and get some portable digital stuff and a decent car player. 
One thing that really shows up the difference in sound between an MP3 and CD is playing it through an electrostatic speaker or electrostatic headphones such as the ones Stax made. They are fast enough to articulate the differences very nicely. The disadvantage of using electrostats is that they are very brutal in showing the actual quality of your source material and equipment. Bad recordings sound bad (as they should) and great recordings sound thrilling. I built a set of cone driver speakers for my home office computer system pretty much just for listening to RP. Trying to listen to RP on the main system and it gets grating to the ears pretty fast and listening fatigue sets in.

 Lazy8 wrote: 
Not to mention that, for me anyway, the real pleasure comes in surprise afforded by random play... much like the old days of underground radio (before it became homogenized AOR).

From Floydian Slips:

"Dixon had a 'golden ear,' introducing attentive listeners to cross-cultural music on a world scale. Only on his show could one be exposed to such gems as Paul Horn's Inside the Taj Mahal, Gandharva from Beaver & Krause, Richard Harris singing MacArthur Park and Harry Nilsson's The Point (a complete LP side). In between, he might have mixed in a cut from John Mayall's Blues From Laurel Canyon, some Savoy Brown (with original vocalist Chris Youlden), Cat Mother & the All-Night Newsboys and a track from Tim Buckley's Happy Sad release. Toss in some Brian Auger Trinity (featuring Julie Driscoll on vocals) and Laura Nyro singing Eli's Coming for good measure. Not to be overlooked, Detroit artists such as Frost (Dick Wagner), the Amboy Dukes (Ted Nugent), SRC and the Stooges (Iggy Pop) would also be integrated into the mix.

 KurtfromLaQuinta wrote: 
Did you get a nice 60Hz tone briefly?

 cc_rider wrote: 
I have an old one (no digital display) in the garage. I use it for occasional testing now. I used to have the amp plugged into it and did the slow ramp thing on the rare occasion that I turned it off. I'm not the audio geek I used to be. But I am about to refoam the Infinity RS-IIIs that' I've had forever. They're not quite "Dave" gear, but they do sound sweet with enough amp on them.  Mine even have the original grills.

 Lazy8 wrote: 
Not bad for a dumb construction worker.

I did that so I could get good radio stations from San Diego and L.A. with a very sensitive FM tuner.

Thank you 91X and KROQ for those great years of music.

 KurtfromLaQuinta wrote:
Now that's clever. I'm gonna remember that trick.

 cc_rider wrote: 
Yessir!
See my edit below.
 

 KurtfromLaQuinta wrote:  Nice idea. I may do that whenever I get that old Toyota rig mobile again. I might use 'Speakons' though, to prevent some idiot (me) from plugging speakers into 120V AC...

 Lazy8 wrote: 
Oh, I'm sure that's the case: I was listening to crappily-recorded MP3s. I don't notice anything annoying about RP's stream, for example. It's not that different from the old days of cleaning the vinyl and tweaking the tone arm, is it? It's a matter of spending the time/money to get good quality.

 cc_rider wrote: 
When I did production drywall taping, I used extension cords for speaker wire plugged into a standard wall plug mounted in the bed of my truck.
I cut the 1/2 hot clip on the plug that allowed left and right channels.        
I wired it to a 100% fader in my cab that let me turn off the speakers inside to "outside" speakers.
That let me put the speakers into the house I was working on.
Unlike some guys who backed up to the house, opened the doors and proceeded to get radios banned from the job site.

This was a very durable system.
Well until I accidentally plugged my speakers into 120.