Cheap Bedroom Audiophiling, Wireless & Bluetooth Audio Streaming, How to listen to AFL live Radio on your IOS device for $1.19 at home,Multiple Speakers, streaming dvd's to IOS, Netbooks & other tech

AUDIO PLEASURES

I have really been impressed with my DAC (Firestone Libby) lately.  I have resurrected my trusty 10 year old Yamaha YST MS30 2.1 bose-copy speakers for the bedroom. They are connected via my Firestone Libby headphone DAC and Airport Express via an optical cable. The Sub is under the bed and the tiny satellite speakers are on either side. The speakers are very non-obtrusive & almost invisible which is what I am after, yet they are quite powerful. They are loud enough for what I want (30W RMS), as I don't want to have music too loud, while I am falling asleep or listening to podcasts and football. Listening to Tiesto late at night with a SUB pumping under the bed and a spatial sounding DAC is mesmerising & DAC-Magical, even from these cheap speakers (it is nice to get a even sound from single speakers, Yamaha always give a good sound even if they are cheap, they have some great active crossover circuitry as well as excellent stereo imaging). The other enjoyable activity is playing Infinity Blade in bed and having the game-music & fx stream out using airplay, so I dont have any cables connected to my ipod touch 4G. Cables are major suckage when playing games on the ipod touch 4g in bed!!!!The sound is not interrupted whilst playing Infinity Blade, unlike the blue-tooth connection (but more from that later). Infinity Blade's soundtrack & FX does sound amazing BTW!

Ugly but cheap, practical, decent sounding & affordable--the Yamaha YST MS30

I am impressed with the spatial imaging and fullness of sound from the Firestone Libby DAC. The vocals really cut through clearly and there is plenty of room in the high end, so that I am perfectly happy with a flat EQ. Mid Range is sweet too with clear definition between instruments and an excellent reverberation trail. In fact I think the DAC is more important than spending $400 more on speakers and then using the crappy onboard DAC of either the ipod touch or Airport Express. All my complaints of a harsh static digital sound seem to go way with a good DAC. I always want to turn treble up using cheap dacs because they lack detail, and even then they need treble because cheap DACS have poor output stages. The only problem with the Libby is an audible 60hz hum, but it is only heard when there is no sound.

MULTIPLE SPEAKERS IN ITUNES

Because I have a separate wi-fi n network for audio than my internet, I don't get drop outs and I am able to use the multiple speaker option in itunes without any delay (for two sets of speakers). It sounds fantastic. I have tried setting up 3 sets of multiple speakers with an Apple TV, but there was a noticeable delay on the Apple TV which was the furthest away (possible 50-100ms but I haven't measured it), maybe a wifi N 5ghz would fix this, but as I use 2.4ghz N to be compatible with the ipod/iphone, I haven't really got a need. It would be nice to have an adjustable time difference between multi-sets of speakers, so hopefully the next version of itunes will have it. If the ipod touch/iphone could have a dual wifi chip @ 2.4 & 5 ghz then you could have a sonos type setup with adjustable time settings on each speaker as well.

Bluetooth Streaming Audio

Sometimes I have a need to use bluetooth with my speakers in the bedroom, when I want to save power from my airport express or save time from waiting for it to boot.  Also sometimes I want to download something from the internet to the ipod and I want to listen to tune-in on my ipod touch 4G at the same time, when I can't access itunes via IOS remote to my laptop to my airport express (which is what I usually do).

So I decided to buy a Belkin bluetooth receiver but it sounds so crappy, that I really only use it for podcasts. I tried playing infinity blade but the sound would cut out all the time, and music sounds like a fish underwater or a bad skype call.  My Sennheiser MM100 bluetooth headphones sound awesome and Bluetooth is acceptable in the car so I know it isnt the bluetooth format. Considering it cost just under half of a refurbished airport express it is a rip off. I have my doubts over Belkin as it markets itself as a premium brand, but is usually really cheap & crappy with a nice design & package. I often have a lot of cognitive dissonance with the brand.

The non-impressive Belkin B/T Receiver

Netbooks & WOL (Wake On Lan)

Sometimes I want to use a little laptop in bed rather than my ipod touch 4G and I don't want an ipad. I also want to have WOL so I can turn my laptop on from my ipod touch (using remote desktop & magic packets) in bed and stream music through to my airport express, as 750 gig of music won't fit on an "i device."

I have been looking at the Toshiba nb550d as it has WOL and features the new impressive AMD Fusion chip. 

Unfortunately with netbooks, they only come with 1gig of ram, and by the time you upgrade the ram, HD and the version of windows, you might as well get a full functioning and more powerful laptop for a similar price.  The Sony Vaio YB has the more impressive ZacateAMD fusion, which gives it more grunt than the Atom dual core for CPU intensive tasks (kills it of course in graphics). The other bonus with Sony is that it comes with 2 gigs of ram and full windows.  So by the time you spec out the Toshiba it will not be much cheaper than the Sony which is a far better laptop!!!! Also the Toshy has poor battery life and I would like to have a MacBook Air type of battery length, so I can stream music at length whilst the netbook is in its laptop bag (that i havent taken out of!!).

The problem with the netbook market is that they are underpowered with Windows 7.  Windows 7 is best with at least 4 gigs of ram. 1 gig doesn't cut it and Windows 7 starter is crippled. Netbooks should come with 2 gigs of ram and I think with the coming Intel Atom "Cedar Trail" it will be on its way.

So at the moment netbooks are best to be avoided. I really wanted a cheap laptop for $250 & 2 gigs of ram with WOL and none at the price even have WOL. You have to start spending the price of a cheap 15" laptop which is far more powerful. I am considering a Macbook Air, might as well get a good performing laptop with a good screen and battery life.

The Magically magic netbook MBA or Mac Book Air

MUST HAVE APP FOR IOS

Australian Rules Football has a live football radio stream on its website www.afl.com.au  Unfortunately for IOS devices they have disabled their internet radio station so I can't listen to it with Tune-In.  As there is no Adobe  flash for IOS unless you jailbreak it, I have been unable to listen to live AFL radio. But I have discovered an app called Splash Top Remote that is completely awesome and only $1.19. It is the best Remote Desktop App going around for IOS.

http://www.splashtop.com/remote

It will stream whatever is on your laptop to your IOS device including sound.  I have even been able to watch my DVD collection from VLC streamed over it.  Now I can listen to live AFL without having to pay a fortune buying the IOS AFL app with a huge monthly prescription!!!!

Headphones Sennheiser HD 598

It seems like these days I have become a Sennheiser & Apple fanboy to a high degree :-)

I really have a liking to these headphones...HD 598

The Senn 5XX have always had a reputation of being bland and boring and my HD555 certainly have that look. But the tacky look of the HD598 really appeals to me ;-)

The Boring & Bland HD555

The posts I have been reading about the HD 598 are by in large very positive. But as I recently purchased a set of HD 650 I will not tempt myself to listen to the HD598. In fact as a result I have been listening to my HD 555 again and they are great value fones.  I have been enjoying the lightness and comfortability of the phones and the single cord. A great new feature of the 518/558/598 series is that you can replace the cord with something shorter for more portable listening. The HD650 are heavy & sacrifice some speed for that extra bass & detail.  I have heard the HD 598 have a great soundstage. Recently I have just been using a set of Yamaha YST M8 for my headphone amp and it is surprisingly quite good (although lacks bass of a dedicated headphone amp). So I am entering a new phase of thought on headphone amping.

Creative Zen m300 ipod nano copy

If you can't wait until September for the new ipod nano or have a feeling they won't introduce bluetooth with the next generation, there is the recently announced Creative Zen m300 coming in June that features bluetooth 2.1 EDR.

I have recently become a convert to bluetooth with the Sennheiser mm100 that I use with my iphone and my espow watch phone.  Bluetooth has finally come of age and with the popularity of podcasts such as Tiesto's club life and A State of Trance, the difference between bluetooth and cable is minimal, particularly in mobile contexts. I prefer the convenience of not having cables and I particularly enjoy the Sennheiser mm100 whilst riding my bike (this is the only neck bluetooth headphone I am aware of and therefore fits well with a bike helmet).  My watch phone has bluetooth, but unfortunately has dropouts which does not occur from my ipod touch/iphone.  The ipod touch or iphone is too large for bike riding and running and I am looking for something smaller hence an ipod nano with bluetooth.  I have been using nike + lately but maybe it is a gimmick as it is quite inaccurate, particularly if you change your speed of running, so that feature perhaps is not so important as being built in (like it is with the ipod touch).

The problem with the Zen is lack of use with my existing itunes library.  This is where Apple is quite smart by locking you into their ecosystem as I like to keep all my podcasts synced, as I listen to them across multiple devices.

Lack of Innovation

I am not the only one to say this but there appears to be a lack of innovation in the consumer IT industry at the moment. I am surprised there isn't a PS4 or XBOX 720 being released soon. The PS2 was released six years after the original Playstation and yet they are announcing a 10 year cycle for the next  generation. Where is the Sega Dreamcast when you need it!!! No-one is able to compete with Apple in the itunes, ipod & ipad space, yet these products could be improved upon.

There are too many me-toos companies, spending their time waiting for what apple does and then copying them. *note Samsung Lawsuit*

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/04/24/apple_looks_in_better_shape_than_it_is/

There are moves from Microsoft http://www.itproportal.com/2011/04/24/windows-phone-os-75-update-mango/

but they are taking a long time.

Helldesk

Well I have been in & out of Helldesk jobs for the past few years and they have been tough.  It is not that I am incapable of the work, it has been the behaviour of the people in the workplace that has been the stumbling block.


I feel emotionally drained and exhausted.  Having recently come down with a MRSA I picked up working at schools I am now suffering a chronic illness.  It just seems that everything has gone wrong. No matter how positive I try to be it just seems I am going thru ever more difficult stages.


Just seems like my life is a whole lot of fits & starts that go nowhere.  All the things I ever wanted to do, I never got the chance to do. Everything just seems like a lot of random events that have no meaning or purpose. It is not like I have had a bad accident or cancer but just a whole lot of negative events happening silently in the background.


I have been reading motivational sites but they don't explain why accidents happen or chronic illnesses.  Also there are 3 million people a day that earn less than $2 so there a lot of people with bad luck. I guess our society only focuses on the winners, who remembers who came 3rd or 4th in the 100 metres?


It is a fine balance on blaming your circumstances or blaming yourself. My mind has been going through all the circumstances and they have been quite tough.  Not much room for error, and constantly at the mercy of those who really should not have any authority.


It makes me really understand that the current established society is no good.  There is no justice and the policies are increasingly atrocious.  As a result authors/personalities such as Alex Jones, David Icke, Zecharia Sitchin really have had my interest over the past few years; as there alternate versions of reality suit my predicament of a reality that has been sour at the behest of the merciless.


I guess that most people get caught up with their life & reality that they really don't think that it could be different or any better.  


One of the errors of our society is the pressure of growth.  Why is growth growth growth so important.  Too much growth causes overcrowding and a burden of work, it depletes its surroundings.  Balance is the key.


When you first look at a big city, the huge skyscrapers make an impression. But the deeper you look, the dome of pollution and the foul rivers of the city, gives you the true aspect of the death & destruction our modern societies cause.








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Disintegration Review (Audiophile & Musician's Perspective)

This was the first Cure album I bought at the time of its release in 1989.

It was a very successfully marketed product having an award winning film clip for Lullaby and The Cure also releasing  for the first time, separate introductory singles (Lullaby & Fascination St.) in the UK & US. The Cure here desperately trying to catch the US market. But it wasn't until Lovesong was released as the third single, that the Cure had their first & most successful US hit, reaching #2 in the billboard hot 100.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lovesong_(The_Cure_song) 

The Cure's marketing team worked into overdrive with this release, releasing a picture disc of the album, 2 Lullaby 12", many 7" & 12" of Pictures Of You with different covers and also releasing the Lovebox, featuring a tartan print and Lovesong 7" in a box (I used to own them all). This was right at the end of the Vinyl heyday!

I have not listened to Disintegration for a long time, in fact I didn't even own a digital copy as I had copies on tape & vinyl. After revisiting the album I have to say that this is The Cure's Magnum Opus. Even though I am a fan of their earliest work, there are some important key elements that make this album their best.

When I was a teenager I played electric bass, part of the attraction of the Cure for me was Michael Dempsey's Bass work on their first album Three Imaginary Boys released in 1979.  Matthew was renowned for playing bass solo's and part of the Cure's early charm was that the electric bass played an important melodic and atmospheric role. 10:15 Saturday night released in 1978 (the B side of their first single), highlights this the most from their debut Album.

The Cure at the Reading Rock Festival in 1979 where they played with bands such as The Police, & Motorhead.

http://www.ukrockfestivals.com/reading-79.html
http://www.cureconnections.com/cure-chat/2065-reading-festival-24-august-1979-20-pictures.html

A review of The Cure in 1978 at the Hope & Anchor

http://www.picturesofyou.us/78/79-1-uk-nme%2012-78-%20hopeandanchor%20review.htm

A Bass forum talking about Mick Dempsey's Bass
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f8/new-bass-im-guild-heaven-80303/

When Simon Gallup on Bass joined in 1980 (more of a punk rocker than funkster such as Dempsey), the importance of Electric Bass stayed. The Bass Guitar might have changed from a Guild B301 to a Fender Precision Bass (more of a fit with Robert's Fender Jaguar!!!), but the Bass Solo remained in the 1980 release 17 Seconds, featuring on the track At Night.

Simon's black Fender also featured in important melodic hooks such as the track Secrets. But it was the bassline for A Forest that stood out, which has since become a Cure trademark.

The Bass guitar was an important instrument for The Cure.  In fact the single Primary released in 1981 featured no guitars, with Rob Smith playing a black Fender Precision Bass as well as Simon Gallup. This can also be seen in their video on Countdown in Australia and Top of the Pops in the UK.

Why all of this talk with Electric Bass and early The Cure albums when reviewing Disintegration?

Because of this:

                                                          Fender Bass VI

Robert Smith playing his Fender Bass VI September 4th 1989

You first hear it @  1:28 during the first track Plainsong.

As taken from wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fender_Bass_VI

"The Fender Bass VI, originally known as the Fender VI, is a six-string electric bass or Scale Baritone Guitar by Fender.

The Fender VI was released in 1961, and followed the concept of the Danelectro 6-string bass released in 1956, having six strings tuned E-E, an octavebelow the Spanish guitar. Its other ancestor was the Fender Jazzmaster, with which it shared many styling and technical details. Its body and electronics so closely matched those of the Fender Jaguar, released the following year, that in all but name the Fender VI was a precursor to that model.

It departed from the concept of the Fender Precision Bass not only in having six strings, but also in having a shorter scale and thinner strings."

Notice that Robert Smith used a Fender Jaguar and Simon Gallup used a Fender Precision Bass during the first albums of the band.

The Fender Bass VI is used to great effect in Disintegration.  As mentioned
http://theband.hiof.no/articles/fender_bass_vi.html, the baritone guitar tone gives a melancholic spooky sound when used as a lead guitar, that helps enforce the atmosphere of the album. The Fender Bass VI is the icing on the cake that gives the album that famous "Cure Atmospheric & Melancholic Sound."

It just isn't the atmosphere and sound that is important but the vocals and lyrics. Robert Smith is at his best here, from the classic scary goth single Lullaby to the curious/dark side of human nature with Fascination St, the mellow meloncholic Homesick  or the ultra-emotional Prayers For Rain. I also suggest reading reviews elsewhere about this album (I particularly like Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic review who called it the "culmination of all the musical directions the Cure were pursuing over the course of the '80s." Other reviews will go into more general detail about the album, but my focus will be more from a musician & audiophile perspective.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/jqrj

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/14288-disintegration-deluxe-edition/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disintegration_(The_Cure_album)

http://www.allmusic.com/album/disintegration-r4933

Roger O'Donnell on keyboards adds an important dimension to the album that had been missing since the 1980 release Seventeen Seconds. Thankfully there he doesn't use Synths with digital sampling too much as the early digital sampling synths sound quite awful.

Instruments used on the album

http://www.impressionofsounds.com/equipment.html

1989

Robert Smith :National Val Pro 88 guitar
Ovation Custom Legend 12-string acoustic guitar
Dubreuille R.Smith Signature model (US tour only)
Fender Bass VI (black, previously white)
Boss pedals 

Porl Thompson :
Gibson ES-175 Bigsby modified
Gibson ES-345 guitar
Coral sitar 

Simon Gallup :
Washburn semi-acoustic custom bass 
Musicman StingRay bass

Roger O'Donnell :
Roland JX-8P synth 
Korg M1 synth 
Fast Forward Designs MIDI Step pedals
Oberheim sample player



The intentional lo-fi nature of the mix gives the instant melancholy in your face feel.



*****STILL WORKING ON IT*****

Thunderbolt & Cable Clutter

I am not sure what the benefit of thunderbolt is if you need this:

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/04/12/intel_to_release_thunderbolt_developer_kit_this_quarter.html

Having a breakoutbox will still cause a bit of a mess, the ideal solution will be having thunderbolt ports on every device such as Monitor, Hard Drive, Dac etc. It has become ridiculous having three monitor standards such as HDMI, DVI and Display Port.

I am currently enjoying a bluetooth mouse, but no bluetooth keyboard as it was too expensive, anything with Bluetooth adds such a huge cost to a device.

I think having a really fast wifi for a hard drive would be better than using thunderbolt. Also if the iphone & ipod touch could sync over wifi, that would also reduce the cable clutter.