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Paul's Posts — 07 September 2012

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I try and run each morning before work because it helps my energy levels stay up during the busy day.

Sometimes it’s a real struggle to get moving and stick with it, but music helps keep my mind somewhere other than with the effort of the run.  I tried using my phone and a pair of good aftermarket headphones for a music source without much success – the phone’s too heavy and the headphones block all the sounds around me (as they should to give good sound).  But this just wasn’t going to work, especially running in the city where you need to hear what’s around you to stay alive.

In May I was given an iPod Shuffle for my birthday and on it was a book the giver wanted me to “read”.  Using the supplied Ear Buds that allow me to hear everything in my environment plus what’s on the Shuffle, this little flea-weight device clips onto my shorts and I don’t even know it’s there.  It changed everything for me.

The sound?  It’s mediocre at best, sometimes just plain bad.  But after finishing the book I was able to put several days worth of compressed AAC encoded operas by Mozart, Puccini, Verdi and other greats I so love – creating a virtual treasure chest of the finest music on earth.

I feel so privileged each and every morning listening to some of the greatest performances and music ever written.  Arias, duets, laughter, melody and harmonies so well done as to set the stage beautifully for the rest of my day – and all from a set of mediocre sounding Ear Buds and compressed music on an MP3 player.

High-end?  Not a chance, but sometimes when the music is this magical it really doesn’t matter.

Tomorrow we start into streaming audio.

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About Author

Paul McGowan

Paul McGowan is the CEO and co-founder of PS Audio Inc. a Boulder Colorado design and manufacturing company of high-end audio products and services. McGowan has been designing and building high-end products for nearly 40 years. Hobbies include skiing, music, hiking, artisan bread baking, kick boxing and cooking. He lives in Boulder Colorado with his wife Terri and his 4 sons.

(5) Readers Comments

  1. Soundminded

    September 7, 2012 at 5:38 am

    Did I hear something around hear? I could have sworn…..must be my imagination. I thought…..Didn’t I post just the other…..never mind.

    As I was saying before I lost my train of thought, there are at least two ways to judge a product. One is by the degree of pleasure, enjoyment, enrichment it brings regardless of its technical merits on either an absolute basis or compared to other products of the same type that compete with it. To those families in the 1930s who came together to listen to one of those big old console radios did it really matter if it was an Atwater Kent or a Capehart? The family with the Atwater Kent might have enjoyed it as much or more than say the more affluent disfunctional family with the Capehart who rarely came together at all. I sure loved watching those old vinyls spin round and round and the glowing tubes and lights of my earliest audio equipment. Watching the record changer infallably go through a stack, watching the tape reels spinning round and round together was its own kind of entertainment apart from the sound.

    And then there’s the other way, the way where the manufacturer of the product sets out a specific stated goal and the degree to which his product meets that goal. Hits the mark every time. Often hits the mark. Sometimes gets it right. Once in a while produces what it promised. Never entered the right galaxy let alone landed where X marks the spot it’s supposed to have. Well, do these sound systems, some costing more than a very large expensive house ever sound like you’re hearing live music at a concert from a recording? Not in my experience, not if I’m honest. Why? Frankly if you ask “the experts” and you catch them in a weak moment or you find one that is unbiased and really knowledgeable he’ll probably confess that “we just don’t know enough.” He might add that it’s impossible. That last part BTW is a defeatist attitude I don’t accept.

    I have what may be by far the world’s worst high end car sound system. It came as part of my car installed by the manufacturer. I had to take the sound system with the car which I bought used. It’s not the first from this car manufacturer I’ve owned (it may be the last) and it’s as bad or even worse than his previous efforts IMO. It’s a Ford JBL sound system. What does it do wrong? Well for starters with the tone controls set flat it’s got a boomy chesty bass that doesn’t really go very low (there’s nothing not working about it, that’s just they way it is) and inadequate treble. You’ve got to boost the treble and cut the bass to make it even listenable. The radio has very poor sensitivity and when you have a signal that’s weak and noisy you can’t defeat the stereo demultiplexer, it’s always in the circuit adding its noise (I live and travel a lot in rural areas which makes its shortcomings even more irritating.) The CD player has a ten disc magazine that loads in the trunk (I think it was made by Sony.) When you hit a moderate bump the laser loses lock and the only way to get it to play again is to stop the car, open the trunk, eject the magazine and reinsert it. Does it bring me any enjoyment. No, only on rare occasions when I hear something I’d enjoy from a portable radio to find out what it is and get a copy to hear on a real sound system. I’d be just as satisfied, mayebe even moreso with the manufacturer’s standard car sound system. I’m sure if I complained to Ford about it they’d tell me…yes but that was years ago, you should hear what we install now, all those problems are ancient history. “And when she’s bad she’s very very bad…..”

  2. Steve Parry

    September 7, 2012 at 9:09 am

    Paul, if you get a chance try the Skullcandy Titan earbuds. For only $40 at Best Buy they sound pretty good to me! I have used them for years on my light rail commutes and at the gym…

    • September 10, 2012 at 6:17 am

      Thanks Steve. If they allow me to hear the environment as well as the music they’d be worth a try. I don’t like the ones that block out all the sound around me.

  3. oliver T. Finch

    September 7, 2012 at 11:20 pm

    It’s been mentioned many times that accomplished musicians have some of the most mediocre sound systems. Why? Simply because they do not need great Hi-Fi systems to produce every nuance of a performance. They are so familiar with the real thing that their brains fills in the gaps very effectively and what they hear is a performance which is complete in every way.Also, listening to music while your mind is distracted while running on a busy road is not the same as listening to the same performance on your excellent home stereo. In the case of the former music is not concentrated upon but heard as a pleasant distraction while in the case of the latter all of one’s faculties are concentrated on the music. That is why the inferior sound is acceptable in one situation but totally unacceptable in the other.It happens to all who listen to good music on really good systems.Regards.

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