Love and Supermassive Black Holes

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I've posted before about how my wife is one in a million. She loves electronic toys. Loves Progressive Rock. Would rather talk to guys about guy things than women about whatever they talk about. I don't mean to stereotype, but in the circles I run with, there really is a difference. (The circles I run with also do NOT understand our music, but perhaps that's another post) She's the top of her class in World of Warcraft, and has made most of the purchasing decisions in our home on amplifiers, speakers, TV, etc. We spend time browsing record stores and looking for computer games that might hold our interest. It's not uncommon to find her sitting dead centre between the stereo speakers listening to something new. In many cases, it could be something I've never heard before.

She introduced me to Porcupine Tree back when they were just seedlings.

And so I wasn't that surprised the other day when I came home and found some of the living room furniture in the hall, while the rest had been rearranged. You see, our loudspeakers had been positioned on either side of our living room window, and as any audiophile knows, that's a big no no. The sound bounces off the glass rather than being abosorbed by it, thereby creating extra noise in playback that can be rather disturbing at high volume.

Something had to be done! We worked half of the day Saturday finding a new sweet spot for our beloved Yamaha's, and true to what I suspected would happen, I was soon moving the speakers to new locations. And of course that left a vacant spot, so I was then assigned the job of moving the amp, CD player, turntable and stand also.

This may all sound like "so what," but you have to understand that these speakers weigh in at 80 pounds apiece; we have them mounted on stands with floor spikes that sit atop of 50 pound granite slabs designed to reduce vibrations and ensure as clean a sound as possible. So moving these suckers is not a feat for the weak of heart or arms.

And believe it or not, an inch or two of toe-in, or an inch or two of leeway in distance from the wall can make a difference, she says.

I am convinced. After two hours of this we finally sat on the newly placed couch between the newly placed loudspeakers, and listened to this song.

After all that labor, I can honestly say that what we ended up with was new life in our sound. New volumes are now possible because the fatigue doesn't kick in for at least a few more decibles from where they used to top out. Voices come from dead centre, and the sound stage encompasses a wider range than I thought possible.

This little British girl has the ear. I have the good fortune. We both had a great time playing CD after CD yesterday listening to each one as if it hadn't been heard before.

They hadn't.

Ain't love grand?