Chilly Ski Outings 02Jan20

Dave Sheldon came up and we skied Breck on Thu in the 7" of new stuff. Good outing but it was crowded and I did fall through the new to the ice on occasion. My knee twinged often on any drops or deep bumps... grrr.

In a rare but thankful Wilks ski sighting, Tom and I raged on Outback. Tom clearly wanted value and probably doubled up my 17Kft of vert on a very chilly day.

 

Happy New Decade 01Jan20

Happy New Decade and New Year all. Kala and I were the 13% of Coloradans who stayed in and made it to mid-night! Even the elderly can party. Of course we were in the spa overlooking the Natl Forrest and of course I devised some new cocktails for the occasion.

The first taste was my Spyglass Variant; the recipe for two flutes starts by muddling 4 Luxardo cherries with juice of 1 lemon, splash of cherry bitters, 1 oz of orgeat syrup and 2 oz light rum in shaker. Add crushed ice and shake vigorously then strain into flutes evenly. Top off elixir with Champagne, Proseco or other bubbly (probably 2/5 of the flute volume) - we like the excellent but cheap Veuve du Vernay. Lightly mix then serve. Indescribably delicious.

The second cocktail was my Snailmail, an Airmail Variant. The recipe for two starts in a shaker with 1 oz of juice from fresh ripe pineapple, juice of 1 lime, a tablespoon of honey, 2 oz frozen vodka (or gin), and a splash of Angostura bitters. Shake contents well (honey will take a while to dissolve) and finish with some crushed ice and shaking again and then straining into flutes evenly. Top with bubbly and stir lightly to integrate. This one was even better.

Worthy of a new decade.

Tune A Room For Perfect Audio 27Dec19

Here I'll briefly describe how to "tune a room" for better audio... using only digital signal processing of source output signals with equalization filters. Here I don't consider altering the speakers or their placement, using wall treatments like bass traps, or even the audio source (except I assume it's digital and can be adjusted through equalization). This process is basically equivalent to a pro sound engineer's technique as he/she sets up any PA system in any venue... but one can simply apply it to home audio and theater systems and greatly improve "the sound." The simple tools I'll use are the donation-ware program REW and the $75 acoustic measurement mic miniDSP's Umik-1. The room/speaker setup I will adjust is the Nest study consisting simply of JRiver MC25 playing FLAC files from my MacBook via USB through a NAD digital amp to a pair of NHT SB1 bass-limited bookshelf speakers. This setup has been presented before.

Up front, I know deep bass is missing here and that, from simple listening, the whole low end is bloomy and distorted. It is the latter that I especially want to correct. First I connect the measurement mic to the Mac and REW and place it at my listening position - at the fly tying desk.

After assuring that REW is setup to capture measurement input on the Umik-1 and that my NAD amp is selected for output of test signals through the speakers, I shoot a simple 20-20K Hz freq sweep signal and capture it. I do that a couple times and then smooth the average of the responses. Next I load the desired "target" house curve - an ideal response is mostly flat, and somewhat declining throughout the 20-20K Hz range. I "line up" the house curve with my measured response. Yuck... see the weak sub-bass and see the blooming occurring in a number of spots in the 100-1.5K Hz range.

To adjust for these "problems" with my room and speakers, I use REW's EQ tool which "automatically" creates EQ filters. These will need to be applied to digital source material before it reaches the DAC in the NAD... one can alternatively apply the same filters to frequency bands of an analog signal on its way to amplification - but the digital domain is often easier and most of the audio sources we play these days is digital. Here's REW's EQ tool showing the filters and the resulting new, flatter, non-bloomy anticipated frequency response. The filters are actually a complex set of overlapping adjustments (as shown in the 2nd picture below) which mathematically combine to flatten the source material when played through the SB1s in the Nest study.

I then exported these filters as a text file. I am going to apply these filters through JRiver's parametric equalizer in the DSP section. Unfortunately there is no direct importer in JRiver so I have to type in all the filter adjustments and save the set as associated with Nest Study Listening. Of course I use entirely different DSP settings and adjustments when listening to headphones using JRiver on my Mac and there I employ a fully calibrated adjustment scheme via Sonarworks (this scheme has been presented previously). Unfortunately YouTube or Amazon Music output won't be equalized when played using this JRiver parametric equalizer because it is not applied system wide on my Mac. I could use a Mac sound plug-in like Boom 2 or Hear to apply equalization system-wide, and general solutions probably should do it that way but I really just use JRiver MC for playing music in the Nest Study through the SB1s.

The proof in the pudding is that the sound is so much sweeter and flatter and it's now much easier to listen for longer periods. Sure there are choices and tweaks one might want to make along the way here but in ~30 min I 1) measured, 2) analyzed and 3) adjusted to tune my room for the best audio the system can produce.

Machinations With Marinick, Measurement Mics And Magnificent Magnetics 26Dec19

Michael Marinick was in Breck to visit his ski instructor daughter Gabrielle for Christmas and we took some time together to set some records straight and formulate machinations for the future of America... and drink some beer. Of course I introduced Mike to ORB whether it was out of the can on our deck or on the patio of the spot itself. Very good times with an old friend.

The dynamic range of my originally purchased USB acoustic measurement mic, the Dayton Audio OmniMic, was insufficient for my needs and not suited to task. I had to exceed my THX reference levels a lot to make valid measurements and that required me to use earplugs and duck and cover during tests. I cross-graded to the miniDSP Umik-1 which is kind of the standard and works perfectly. I accessed my serialized factory calibration curve and imported that to REW for corrected measurements. Much better.

The Russians got the ViaWave SRT-7 ribbon super-tweeters to me via FedEx. Wow, they weight 3.5# each. I must say FedEx failed on several occasions to know when they'd deliver and missed by several days ultimately. Not good for them and I've heard of their weak 66% on time delivery record this holiday season from news coverage. Anyway, I wasted no time in fashioning a sophisticated package (not) for them and went right to listening. They are sealed in their own enclosure so nothing more was needed to really make them sing. They are awesome but I am glad I have an attenuator as else they'd take over the high end - somewhat as expected/planned. The next steps are to package it all up into a cleaner add-on for the Blodgett Theater sound system. I have all the parts now but need to cut, assemble and integrate my final DIY SuperTweeter add on.

Merry Christmas 25Dec19

Merry Christmas all. Kala and I enjoyed a visit from Matt & Alexa in Silverthorne this year for the holiday. We celebrated, broke bread, played games and watched some bad TV. Matt worked before and must work after this Wednesday Christmas so the visit was brief but fun.

Runs On All Peaks With Sheldon 23Dec19

Dave Sheldon & I hit Breck today. It was very nice weather and the snow, while not new, was pretty decent. We were able snag rides on all five peaks and did plenty of bombing and bumps. It was surprisingly crowded for a pre-holiday time. I even met up with Mike Sheldon, one of Matt's classmates, a guy I haven't seen in 8 years... cool. Too, the grocery was a mob scene as I pulled duty to get the holiday food. Merry Eve all.

Wow... Paste Studio In Manhattan 20Dec19

I'm trolling my channels, as I do, of strong radio streams, and I come to Paste Studios in Manhattan and they killed it today. Three spectacular concerts from the NYC uber-skilled: Common Jack, Samantha Fish and BRKN LOVE. Nods to great songwriting and sweet southern blues. Not a perfect style for me but these performers were great - Samantha Fish completely shreds a guitar and writes so down low.