Aaron Michael Studios Photography: January 2007

Saturday, January 20, 2007

Sunday, January 14, 2007

small bird along the provo river

Saturday, January 13, 2007

Friday, January 12, 2007

Thursday, January 11, 2007

yes, it's real

Someone needs to buy this German company an English slang dictionary...

Everyone was laughing, but no one seemed to be telling the Germans what was going on.

Wost In Show

Yeah. So...these things were so ugly I almost didn't take the picture. It just doesn't do it justice. They sounded like a good speaker playing inside a metal trash can with the lid on.

This was a very nice sounding, over-priced rig. The standout features, however, were the giant, room baking amps. These huge tubes consume power at a constant 400 watts. Whatever the speakers don't use (most of it unless your killing the speakers) get's converted to heat.

Avantgarde

The Avantgardes are very well regarded. Every time I hear them, however, they're playing classical music on slightly scratchy vinyl and man, when you here a little pop from a record on those horns you feel it in your spine. They're interesting, they're just not for me.

Oh, and they're really stupid looking.

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Ugly, yes, but boring sound, too!

Headphone Amp

Jim's testing out a headphone amp here with the Goldring headphones. The Goldrings were quite good at low levels, but got quite harsh as higher levels on this amp. I think it was the cans. I need a headphone amp! I own no fewer than 4 very good to top of the line headphones and no amp. It's just...embarrassing.

Green Mountain Audio

This is Green Mountain Audio's Calypso. We just loved these things. It's funny looking when you walk in, but by the time the drums are going full steam you could swear it's Natalie Portman sitting back on the porch with a cold lemonade and the Sunday Times...or was that just me?

Anyway, these were being driven by the very reasonably priced Flying Mole amps (4 of them). It was such a relief to see a $10k loudspeaker sound great on $400 amps! The amps are usually so over the top expensive (the little Burmesters were $25k each and you need two!) that you just want to throw in the towel after a while. The $400 Flying Mole mono blocks are on my list.

Jim Slips Away...

The King!

No really, that's it's name. Well, it's big brother's name. If I were naming it, it would have been called "Your Rich, Screechy, Fat Neighbor". Actually they weren't that bad, but these huge speakers so often leave me flat. I'll bet those little ones there sound great, but I didn't get to hear those.

Escalante Research

Scanspeak

This is the Scanspeak ring radiator tweeter. We saw it often in the high end audio rooms of C.E.S. and it's a favorite. This particular rendition appeared on the Escalante Research loudspeakers designed in Provo, UT. I enjoyed listening to Regina Spektor's disc on these and the boys in the room were great to chat with, but I'm afraid that $20k is mighty steep for a speaker that just wasn't very interesting. Sometimes a speaker just has too much science and not enough heart...