Steve Guttenberg: I am an Audiophile

[Sal1950]

I will say that that was certainly a very nice video done by Steve. But I too cannot relate to him when he makes statements such as "turntables sound the best" on CNET. BTW, I'm new here. I'm an electrical engineer and a lifelong audio enthusiast. And I have to say that I crack up when I read some of watchnerds responses to other posters! Well done watchnerd!

OH NO, another one of dose guys that don't believe in Santa Claus, magic dust, and rare earth grounding boxes.
Welcome to the Dark Side Andy.

 

[glenesis]

It's nice that he likes his gear. I don't like all of my gear, but I'm working on it

Nice to meet you all; I'm Glenn. I'm an engineer. Thanks for posting this. I miss Radio Shack and Bowie. Dark Times, people, made brighter by cheap gear of some quality

 

[amirm]

Welcome to the forum Glenn. I too miss the original Radio Shack! Was great to be anywhere in the world and be able to go and buy a resistor or transistor.

Bowie reminds of the gear years of MTV.

Amir

 

[tomelex]

I concur. Given the choice of hearing music on a radio or on a serious audio system, I would always choose the seriois audio system. I didn't intend to suggest that a portable radio provides a more pleasurable listening experience, only that it sometimes seems I'm more readily able to appreciate on the overall musical message via a decidedly non-audiophile system. Maybe basic playback system listening simply lacks the expectation of high fidelity, and so, frees the brain from sub-consciously entering analytical sound assessment mode. Whatever the reason, I find it an interesting and puzzling musical appreciation phenomena.

Actually I think that are some reasons why that less than full range system may sound better. A stereo pair of speakers that is just one speaker each side, can image quite well. Also, there is some pretty serious compression on radio, and that in itself can sometimes sound better initially. Also, like LP, less at each end of the frequency system can be "more", that is less of the "stereo" effect. Sometimes, you hear a groovin new song on the radio first, and you're delighted emotions mean you are enjoying the song, not so much analyzing it. These are just some things that I note and agree with your basic premise. Simple can often be "more". A full range "stereo" system can sound, well, like it is, too much and disjointed due to all the extra speakers and timing issues with multiple speaker wave front launches and crossover issues, and our expectations of more and better that may not just be in the recording to start with.

 

[Thomas Savage]

It's nice that he likes his gear. I don't like all of my gear, but I'm working on it

Nice to meet you all; I'm Glenn. I'm an engineer. Thanks for posting this. I miss Radio Shack and Bowie. Dark Times, people, made brighter by cheap gear of some quality

I miss only having four tv channels to chose from and being able to relate to the technology around me

 

[amirm]

I miss only having four tv channels to chose from and being able to relate to the technology around me

Four channels? How did you arrive at that? From what I recall, most of the day they showed nothing and even in the afternoon it would be some boring tennis match or something. I would count that as two channels if you are lucky!

Had it not been for the great physical comedy in the evening, it wouldn't even count as that.

 

[Frank Dernie]

Welcome to the forum Glenn. I too miss the original Radio Shack! Was great to be anywhere in the world and be able to go and buy a resistor or transistor.

Bowie reminds of the gear years of MTV.

Amir

In the world? AFAIK there were no Radio Shack shops in Europe or the UK, I doubt most of Africa and Asia too. We did get Tandy for a while.
OTOH I do remember Radio Shack fondly from my visits to the USA, there would always be one nearby.

I miss only having four tv channels to chose from and being able to relate to the technology around me

Me too.
We have gazzillions of tv channels now and I almost never come across anything worth watching, just background dross and multi-episode rubbish for people with nothing to do who need hours and hours filled up for them.
My tv tuner (for freeview) broke a while ago and I seriously considered not replacing it.

 

[fas42]

In the world? AFAIK there were no Radio Shack shops in Europe or the UK, I doubt most of Africa and Asia too. We did get Tandy for a while.
OTOH I do remember Radio Shack fondly from my visits to the USA, there would always be one nearby.

At one stage we had 4 chains down under: Tandy, Dick Smith, Jaycar and Altronics! There was a street in Sydney where one of each were next door to each other - if it wasn't in one shop ...

Dick Smith and Tandy are no more, but Jaycar in particular is thriving - every major shopping area and town will have an outlet.

 

[RayDunzl]

I didn't watch the original video.

I tried two or three times. I skipped the Legends of Audio, too, so far. Well, skipped through it.

So I need an app:

You give it a link and it does speech to text while you take a nap. Or listen to something else.

Is it out there and I missed it?

Well, whaddaya know...

 

[Thomas Savage]

Four channels? How did you arrive at that? From what I recall, most of the day they showed nothing and even in the afternoon it would be some boring tennis match or something. I would count that as two channels if you are lucky!

Had it not been for the great physical comedy in the evening, it wouldn't even count as that.

Umm... how very 'American ' of you.

 

[amirm]

In the world? AFAIK there were no Radio Shack shops in Europe or the UK, I doubt most of Africa and Asia too. We did get Tandy for a while.

Oh there were in London because I shopped at them in early 1980s. Indeed that is what I was thinking of when I was typing this as I was in London visiting my brother and needed a part and went there to buy it.

They were often called "Tandy" by the way in some overseas market. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tandy_Electronics

"Tandy was founded in the United States in 1950 as Tandy Leather Company. In 1963, Tandy changed its business to electronics when it acquired control of RadioShack, a forty-year-old electronics business with nine stores and a mail-order arm. From 1963 to 1986, RadioShack grew to more than 6900 stores and dealers in the US, with a further 2100 stores and dealers in Canada, England, Europe and Australia.[1]"
​

While I did not go to any outside of north america and europe, looks like they did try to expand into Asia: http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/business/Radio-Shack-Continues-Expansion-in-Asia-158138565.html

 

[Mivera]

Seems like a normal down to earth guy to me. Not a guy who deserves any negativity thrown his way for enjoying life and having a balanced view.

 

[Frank Dernie]

Oh there were in London because I shopped at them in early 1980s. Indeed that is what I was thinking of when I was typing this as I was in London visiting my brother and needed a part and went there to buy it.

They were often called "Tandy" by the way in some overseas market. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tandy_Electronics

"Tandy was founded in the United States in 1950 as Tandy Leather Company. In 1963, Tandy changed its business to electronics when it acquired control of RadioShack, a forty-year-old electronics business with nine stores and a mail-order arm. From 1963 to 1986, RadioShack grew to more than 6900 stores and dealers in the US, with a further 2100 stores and dealers in Canada, England, Europe and Australia.[1]"
​

While I did not go to any outside of north america and europe, looks like they did try to expand into Asia: http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/business/Radio-Shack-Continues-Expansion-in-Asia-158138565.html

I see, so the Tandy shops we had were really Radio Shack under a different name? I had never seen a Radio Shack here, but we had a Tandy in Oxford.

 

[amirm]

I see, so the Tandy shops we had were really Radio Shack under a different name? I had never seen a Radio Shack here, but we had a Tandy in Oxford.

Yes and if I am not mistaken even in US we had some parts with Tandy packaging. An example was Tandy Color Computer (or also known as "trash 80" after its model number TRS-80).

 

[tomelex]

Radio shack and Tandy and the trash-80, yep all above true. Thing is, most of the stuff they had was really cheap, I think seconds or worse as far as most of the components they sold. However, in the days before the internet and next day delivery, I fully admit I depended on them whenever I did a project. Although Digi-key was my mail order source, at first their catalog was only like 8 pages long and came in the form of like a newspaper paper, and mostly semi-conductors. Now there is a company that rose to the top of the heap. Still use them to this day over Farnell and Newark and others but Mouser is pretty good though as well.

 

[amirm]

The scale of inventory at Digikey and Mouser are mind boggling. I go look up an IC that costs $10 and they have 10,000 of them in stock. And that is one part out of millions. I hear they have a complete shortage of labor where they are. They have hired and trained everyone they can.

 

[Andysu]

I wonder where it was taped, that video? You can hear the background noises, cars horning.
Did you see a Cat Stevens album?

I like cats where was the cat?

 

[Ismapics]

Just like this guy there are many who have built careers out of using adjectives in sentences. Each time looking for others to describe what they hear, never ever do they discuss any technicality, proof or testing. Its not their business model. They don't bother me in that sense. When they get in claims with no substance, that's when it really bothers me. Because for some reason consumers of audio gear in general, seem to want to explore more, see them as opinion leaders or they are probably the only ones reviewing what they are interested in.

just like Guttenberg here, most YT reviewers have no technical background what so ever. So our mission should be to educate consumers to be (in audio and life) more decreeing of who is talking and who to listen. Its difficult task as these YT Reviewers live on these same consumers that even send them money monthly. One even bought a $685K house on a hill with adjectives and Patron Money. So its a daunting task but all here who follow ASR are the soldiers of truth and we should make ourselves present.