WishTree said:
Actually, that's not unique to ADM. There are a lot of cults in HiFi. You should see the way the Audio Note fans carry on over on the US audio forums or the Open Baffle guys, plannar guys, Set/Horn guys, etc...
Actually, that's not unique to ADM. There are a lot of cults in HiFi. You should see the way the Audio Note fans carry on over on the US audio forums or the Open Baffle guys, plannar guys, Set/Horn guys, etc...
I can understand how it seems like a cult, but I think it's mostly just enthusiasm caused by discovering genuinely special gear at a very low (relatively) price.
Not everyone sees this as a hobby. There are lots of people who just want equipment that works as it "should", i.e revealing what's in the recording as far as possible. The emotion should come from the music, not be added somehow by the replay gear.
Many of these people have realised that active speakers do this better than passive and have stumbled upon AVI who take a "purist" engineering approach to the problem of music replay and produce remarkable products at extremely competitive prices.
(I'm well aware that this reads like an advert but I can't help it, I've been brainwashed by the cult!)
Not everyone sees this as a hobby. There are lots of people who just want equipment that works as it "should", i.e revealing what's in the recording as far as possible. The emotion should come from the music, not be added somehow by the replay gear.
Many of these people have realised that active speakers do this better than passive and have stumbled upon AVI who take a "purist" engineering approach to the problem of music replay and produce remarkable products at extremely competitive prices.
(I'm well aware that this reads like an advert but I can't help it, I've been brainwashed by the cult!)
The_Lhc
Well-known member
atticus
Well-known member
When I left cruise ships in 2000, I brought back a collection of about 100 DVDs I had picked up in the US and other faraway lands. I felt a little like a Bringer of Fire to our Hominid Ancestry. Of course, this wore off quickly as DVDs started trickling over to the UK.
I got a Christmas job in MVC while I tried to figure out how to best put to use skills that involved dressing up as pirate and wearing a burnt cork moustache, eyeballing 1000's of negatives on a Durst 5000, drinking 2 litres of Vodka every 24-hour period and having sex with anything that moved (and quite a few things that didn't, as well). During my first week in this new, slightly less-exciting job I fell into discussion with a character who had learned that I had a number of Stanley Kubrick films. He was initially enthused and adamant that he wanted to see A Clockwork Orange. I was on the verge of lending it to him when he asked if it he soundtrack was in stereo. I said it was not and he said that in that case he would not bother since he was not going to waste his time watching a film with a soundtrack in mono. It had not even registered with me that this was an issue; I was still entranced by the super quality of the picture. Anyway, he left (with a puzzlingly victorious air about him) and so I thought him harmless, if a little sad.
A year or so later, with an MBA under my belt, but having still failed to locate an employer who valued the ability to judge ambient light levels without the aid of a light meter, operate two minilabs simultaneously whilst drunk and smoking (me, not the minilabs), and to terrorise overweight Americans whilst dressed as a Mexican Bandit; I went to work at the London Camera Exchange. Digital Photography was still fairly new and exciting and we had a crew of Regular Visitors, who were either pipe-smoking, cardiganned 35mm Flat Earthers or wide-eyed Early Adopters who would salivate over every new digital offering and come in hourly to ask when the new Minolta Dimage A1 was coming in. In addition to these largely inoffensive types, we would also get harangued by a number of individuals who seemed to share the following characteristics:
Gore Tex clothing
Hiking boots
Long woolly socks pulled over their Gore Tex trousers
Bicycle clips
Beards
Rucksacks
Unkempt hair
Bad breath
Fogged and greasy spectacles
This lot would generally send us scrambling for the stairs that led to the comparative safety of our dingy basement office. Last person left standing would have to deal with the twit. Generally the conversation would consist of the visitor asking a series of questions, but without listening to the answers. Should the unlucky sales assistant hesitate for a nano-second, the twit would pounce gleefully and ANSWER THE QUESTION FOR HIM. So the whole exercise was simply to establish the superiority of twit over sales advisor. And I should point out at this stage, that we were not on commission at LCE, and were all pretty knowledgable and well informed about our products.
On one occasion we had a Super Twit who was demanding the most intricate and technically specific detail, such as who had made the 'chip' or CCD that was the camera's digital sensor (effectively the 'negative' onto which light would fall). When my colleague told him it was made by Toshiba, the twit laughed in derision and walked out, leaving our shop sweeter-smelling and my colleague fuming.
But not once did I see a photograph that any of these characters had taken. NOT ONCE. They all seemed to be more interested in the acquisition of the Latest, Most Advanced Thing; but clearly had little or no intention of actually using it as, other than as some kind of twits's conversation piece with other like-minded twits.
For those of you who are wondering what on earth I am going on about, it is simply this: the DVD Guy and the Camera Guy were basically the same person. And here in our little world of HiFi, peppered amongst the largely intelligent, good looking and sexually active people (who certainly include those in THIS thread) are the equivalents of the DVD Guy and the Camera Guy, who care little or not at all for music, but only for the kit that reproduces it.
And I think that is harmless, if a little sad.
I got a Christmas job in MVC while I tried to figure out how to best put to use skills that involved dressing up as pirate and wearing a burnt cork moustache, eyeballing 1000's of negatives on a Durst 5000, drinking 2 litres of Vodka every 24-hour period and having sex with anything that moved (and quite a few things that didn't, as well). During my first week in this new, slightly less-exciting job I fell into discussion with a character who had learned that I had a number of Stanley Kubrick films. He was initially enthused and adamant that he wanted to see A Clockwork Orange. I was on the verge of lending it to him when he asked if it he soundtrack was in stereo. I said it was not and he said that in that case he would not bother since he was not going to waste his time watching a film with a soundtrack in mono. It had not even registered with me that this was an issue; I was still entranced by the super quality of the picture. Anyway, he left (with a puzzlingly victorious air about him) and so I thought him harmless, if a little sad.
A year or so later, with an MBA under my belt, but having still failed to locate an employer who valued the ability to judge ambient light levels without the aid of a light meter, operate two minilabs simultaneously whilst drunk and smoking (me, not the minilabs), and to terrorise overweight Americans whilst dressed as a Mexican Bandit; I went to work at the London Camera Exchange. Digital Photography was still fairly new and exciting and we had a crew of Regular Visitors, who were either pipe-smoking, cardiganned 35mm Flat Earthers or wide-eyed Early Adopters who would salivate over every new digital offering and come in hourly to ask when the new Minolta Dimage A1 was coming in. In addition to these largely inoffensive types, we would also get harangued by a number of individuals who seemed to share the following characteristics:
Gore Tex clothing
Hiking boots
Long woolly socks pulled over their Gore Tex trousers
Bicycle clips
Beards
Rucksacks
Unkempt hair
Bad breath
Fogged and greasy spectacles
This lot would generally send us scrambling for the stairs that led to the comparative safety of our dingy basement office. Last person left standing would have to deal with the twit. Generally the conversation would consist of the visitor asking a series of questions, but without listening to the answers. Should the unlucky sales assistant hesitate for a nano-second, the twit would pounce gleefully and ANSWER THE QUESTION FOR HIM. So the whole exercise was simply to establish the superiority of twit over sales advisor. And I should point out at this stage, that we were not on commission at LCE, and were all pretty knowledgable and well informed about our products.
On one occasion we had a Super Twit who was demanding the most intricate and technically specific detail, such as who had made the 'chip' or CCD that was the camera's digital sensor (effectively the 'negative' onto which light would fall). When my colleague told him it was made by Toshiba, the twit laughed in derision and walked out, leaving our shop sweeter-smelling and my colleague fuming.
But not once did I see a photograph that any of these characters had taken. NOT ONCE. They all seemed to be more interested in the acquisition of the Latest, Most Advanced Thing; but clearly had little or no intention of actually using it as, other than as some kind of twits's conversation piece with other like-minded twits.
For those of you who are wondering what on earth I am going on about, it is simply this: the DVD Guy and the Camera Guy were basically the same person. And here in our little world of HiFi, peppered amongst the largely intelligent, good looking and sexually active people (who certainly include those in THIS thread) are the equivalents of the DVD Guy and the Camera Guy, who care little or not at all for music, but only for the kit that reproduces it.
And I think that is harmless, if a little sad.
atticus
Well-known member
A funny and brilliantly insightful post. Thanks Atticus. Scarily I agree with everything you said.
Is there ever such a thing as a 'non fat' American on a cruise?
I have stopped using my £800 CD player in favour of a £160 Squeezebox Touch. Now it may not sound quite as 'hifi' but I'm really enjoying it, and I think that's fairly important.
Mind you, I am currently considering some AVI ADM's because sadly the technology does also get me excited.
Is there ever such a thing as a 'non fat' American on a cruise?
I have stopped using my £800 CD player in favour of a £160 Squeezebox Touch. Now it may not sound quite as 'hifi' but I'm really enjoying it, and I think that's fairly important.
Mind you, I am currently considering some AVI ADM's because sadly the technology does also get me excited.
atticus
Well-known member
Xanderzdad said:
Thank you, Xanderzdad. There are non-fat Americans on cruise ships, but they tend to get trampled.
As for HiFi, I ditched my Cyrus 8SE, Pre-Vs 2, Mono X's, PSX-R power supplies, Tannoy DC 8's, Genesis Silver Spiral and a Gore Tex rucksack for an iPad, Apple TV and a pair of ADM40's. I can now just listen to music again, rather than listen at it.
John Duncan
Well-known member
So what you're saying is that anybody who argues that one particular technology is superior to another is losing sight of the end result and really needs to get laid more?
matthewpiano
Well-known member
Great post Atticus and in my sales career I have come across similar types of customer. I've had times where I've been in danger of falling into the trap myself. However, the last few months has been a period of realisation for me. I'm now using an affordable Canon compact camera (SX220HS) and taking the best pictures I've ever taken. I'm using relatively budget hi-fi kit including a consumer product front-end (the Squeezebox Touch) and I'm listening to more of my music collection than ever.
Speaking from personal experience it is easy to remain shackled to old fashioned ideals - 35mm film, SLR cameras with kit bags full of lenses, a mountain of boxes which don't visually match in the corner of the room etc. The trouble is you can end up spending all your time defending the old ideals that you miss the exciting new developments - the steps forward in technology that make your hobby more accessible, more manageable, more affordable and more focused on the essence of what it is about. For me now, photography is about the image and hi-fi is about the music and the technology is a facilitator.
Who knows what the next stop is for me? It could be actives. They could be AVIs. It could be a compact digital amp driving the passive Dalis I've come to love. It could be a neat compact system like the Denon RCD-N7 or Marantz M-CR603. My mind is open but one thing it is very unlikely to be is another set of full-size seperates. I just don't feel it is necessary any more.
Speaking from personal experience it is easy to remain shackled to old fashioned ideals - 35mm film, SLR cameras with kit bags full of lenses, a mountain of boxes which don't visually match in the corner of the room etc. The trouble is you can end up spending all your time defending the old ideals that you miss the exciting new developments - the steps forward in technology that make your hobby more accessible, more manageable, more affordable and more focused on the essence of what it is about. For me now, photography is about the image and hi-fi is about the music and the technology is a facilitator.
Who knows what the next stop is for me? It could be actives. They could be AVIs. It could be a compact digital amp driving the passive Dalis I've come to love. It could be a neat compact system like the Denon RCD-N7 or Marantz M-CR603. My mind is open but one thing it is very unlikely to be is another set of full-size seperates. I just don't feel it is necessary any more.
atticus
Well-known member
atticus
Well-known member
matthewpiano said:
Thank you, matthewpiano. I am still fighting the demons, however. Having seen photographs from the Fuji X-Pro 1, I want one. But I am resisting the urge since:
I will not have any money left
I will still be a mediocre photographer, just one with a nicer camera
It won't get used much after the initial fortnight
This model will be IMMEDIATELY reduced in price by at least £250 from all retailers
atticus said:
Atticus, I hope you hang around here more often....I thoroughly enjoyed your "filibuster".
John Duncan
Well-known member
atticus said:
Odd, i could have sworn your final paragraph seemed to suggest exactly that. Or at least that they need to wear less Gore Tex...
atticus
Well-known member
CnoEvil said:
Thank you, CnoEvil. Is a filibuster like a dambuster, but with lady horses instead of dams?
chebby
Well-known member
chebby
Well-known member
atticus said:
I think (with the possible exception of the breath and bicycle clips), you have just described Stanley Kubrick on location. (And he was an unashamed 'gearhead' too.)
chebby said:
Cunning plan methinks. "That ceiling needs painting" starts to wear a bit thin after a while.
Is there a photo somewhere in this triathalon of a thread so i can see what all the fuss is about regarding these AVI doo-dahs.
atticus
Well-known member
Ta mate. Bit like coffins in em 
.
Are the plinths integral ,so to speak, or are they chopping boards ?
.Are the plinths integral ,so to speak, or are they chopping boards ?
atticus
Well-known member
The plinths are integral, floyd droid.
There are even screw threads in the bottom should you want to attach spikes, although I am assured that this was an oversight on the part of the cabinet maker, TimberWorx. I attached some spikes but could not hear any difference so removed them again as the mem-sahib was complaining about holes in the carpet. Women, eh!? I put up with all her ruddy cushions everywhere........
There are even screw threads in the bottom should you want to attach spikes, although I am assured that this was an oversight on the part of the cabinet maker, TimberWorx. I attached some spikes but could not hear any difference so removed them again as the mem-sahib was complaining about holes in the carpet. Women, eh!? I put up with all her ruddy cushions everywhere........
atticus said:floyd droid said:
Here you go, floyd droid
ok, standomount 2-way speakers from AVI are 1200 odd GBP. floorstanding 2-way speakers are 3000 GBP... all that for a few planks more of MDF and slightly more tweakable active xover, which will allow you to turn your 40s into 3-way speakers by adding matching subs (yet to come AFAIK). is AVI starting to loose its way? :?
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