It has been a while since I started up this blog :-) Although I did have that big long break in the middle.
So what have I been up to over the past couple of days ? One of my targets of things to buy has been a bag for the laptop - which has led to me joking about handbag shopping :-) Still getting a bit of mileage out of that one but I'm having to start watching out there cos the joke's getting stale and expected. So I need to find me a new joke.
I've been enjoying the iTunes -> Airport to decent speakers quite a bit over the last week or so and I've finally got the setup tweaked to absolute satisfaction. When I first hooked it up, I'd not long since watched Iron Man, so my speakers had crept into being a little bass heavy. Not me - the subwoofer dial crept up on its own ... honest :-) The problem was there just a little too much bass for music. You need some bass in there to make the punchy bits punchy but too much tends to drown out the subtle parts of the music.
It's just about right now and is showing off one of the new albums I got yesterday extremely well. That's Rockferry by Duffy, I grabbed the deluxe edition with an extra 25 minutes of Duffy. I'm not so impressed with the other one, which was Snow Patrol's Songs for Polar Bears. I think my Snow Patrol expectations must have been raised quite a bit by Final Straw and Eyes Open, which are both outstanding albums.
What's the big deal about having the music on the decent speakers ? If you haven't heard decent, well set up hifi sound, then you really don't know what you're missing. Honest :-) A good setup brings out all the subtlety that the artists put into their music plus you're able to pick out the individual parts a lot better. Things like the trumpet solos, the drums and strings on Gloria Estefan's Oye Mi Canto (current iTunes track). And Mark Knopfler going "1,2,3" when kicking off guitar on Making Movies. Tori Amos and the pedals of the piano.
All good stuff, which people tend to miss out on either because their speakers aren't up to it or aren't set up properly. My speakers aren't great (I'll be looking to replace them with the HD upgrade I'll do) but they mostly do a good job. They're a set of surround speakers made by Creative Labs about 10 years ago, which aren't available now but cost me about £200 when I got them. They're designed for being hooked up to PCs, with 5 small speakers to surround you and 1 subwoofer to deliver the bass. I haven't actually had mine connected to a PC for 7 years now. Since I moved into this house, they've been permanently hooked up to my dvd player, with the Airport Express now letting me get iTunes music across to them.
What's on the playlist at the moment ?
I've picked up albums by Paramore, Hoosiers and Goldfrapp as well as the Snow Patrol and Duffy ones, so I'll be listening to those soon as albums instead of as the individual tracks. Duffy's is the best of that collection. Arctic Monkeys has been a very pleasant surprise, their cheeky sound will be gracing my Party Shuffle and iPod for quite a while. Lene Marlin has another album out as well as the two I have, that'll be coming from Amazon some time :-) Evanescence is another where I'll be hunting more albums.
There's also the old favourites like Mark Knopfler's Dire Straits, Kate Bush, Gloria Estefan, Alisha's Attic, Pink Floyd, Tori Amos and Edie Brickell. The iTunes library is currently sitting at 2287 songs for 6.5 days of music and I've actually listened to 1112 of those over the past fortnight.
PS No handbag yet. Friday's centre of Bristol session got pushed into being a Saturday session because I was getting pain from my right hip. No handbags on show in the centre, which was kinda expected. I aborted the trip up the hill to Borders though cos of traffic and didn't peek in the Staples. Kinda unsure about how to get into the Staples near Cabot Circus, there doesn't seem an obvious way in from the main roads. Not too bothered there cos I'll be very close to a different Staples at the end of the month when I go to wish my dad a happy birthday :-)
PS2 No dropouts whatsoever on the Airport audio link ... the only issue has been that this laptop can be a little slow to find the router again after I need to reset it. (Router issue) Will be checking out a utility called Airfoil sometime, which will let me throw any audio to the Airport, not just iTunes. Could be handy when I get a decent telly to let me take advantage of the HDMI output :-)
You obviously like music a lot. :-)
ReplyDeleteYou are cordially invited to
ReplyDeleteA 'Hearts and Flowers' Party
from 8pm UK time
Friday 13 February 2009
until 12 midnight UK time
Sunday 15 February 2009
at the Palace of the Crazie One
http://craziequeen.blogspot.com/2009/01/hearts-and-flowers-party.html
cq
I have a separates system with Wharfdale speakers and it really does make a difference. However, you have not heard anything unless you've played music through a decent professional system. We used to do this all the time in the theatre while we were setting up shows :)
ReplyDeleteI think I have a bit of Number 5 in me (from Short Circuit). He's a robot who gets turned sentient by a lightning bolt and when he's learning, he craves new knowledge. So he goes "InnnnnPUTT!" to try and get the person he's fallen in with to show him new things.
ReplyDeleteI get bored easily, so the music satisfies part of my own craving for "InnnnnPUTTT!" :-)
I'm reasonably happy with the surround speakers I have at the moment but they're not quite as good as the system I used to have ... That's a Rotel amp coupled to some rather large Tannoy speakers :-)
That pairing is a little too large to fit comfortably where I live now though. Will have to see what turns up when I eventually replace my kit with HD stuff :-)