AV Adviser

The main reason why I advise the iPhone over other smart phones

I'm having this debate with my son right now.  Which smart phone platform do you prefer?  He's taking the side of Android while I'm in Apple's corner.  There's the Windows phone which, from many reports, is good and is probably getting short shrift.  Microsoft is used to that these days. 

It's not surprising that my son is an Android fan.  The phones can be easily jailbroken and designed to an individuals needs or whims.  That is if you're techie enough.  The platform plays right into a techies hands.  Plus the fact that anyone can make an app for the Android platform.  And there's the big problem.

Android fans complain about the lockdown, closed system nature of the iPhone.  The fact that iPhone apps have to be submitted to Apple who then run them through a vetting process to determine if it's worthwhile, functional and not harmful to their device.  Since anyone can make an Android app and sell it or give it away directly to the Android user, apps can be glitchy or downright bad.  It makes for a poor user experience, something Steve Jobs abhorred. 

At worst an Android app can have a virus or spyware causing your phone to malfunction or quit working entirely.  Here's a story published yesterday from MIT's Technology Review, Attacks on Android Devices Intensify.  It suggests that 2012 could be a bad year for Android users. 

Is that what you want?  Having to defend from virus and spyware attacks on something so personal as your smart phone?  You know how miserable an infected computer can make your life.  My son lamely suggests that he simply runs an anti-spyware/virus program on his phone. 

I'm winning the debate though.  And I think this story from Technology Review will cement my case.  I'm quite sure my son's next smart phone will be an iPhone. 

If you have a question or if I may be of service email me at radiohannibal@gmail.com

John Hannibal

Pogue's list of 'duh' statements

Last week New York Times tech writer David Pogue came up with a list of absolutes in technology that were once "amazing" but now are old news.  Still, you'll hear these statements from people everyday.  Pogue tells us to get over it already.

Here's the story, Things That Were Once Amazing.

If you have a question or if I may be of service email me at radiohannibal@gmail.com

John Hannibal

Spotify growing but slowly amongst oldsters

Spotify isn't perfect.  There's some great artists missing from its library like The Beatles, Bob Dylan and Led Zeppelin.  Yesterday it was announced that Paul McCartney, who had some of his catalog on the streaming music service, has pulled all of his music including his new standards album.  It's not surprising that an oldster such as McCartney would miss the signpost leading to the future.  And just as some of the older musicians don't get Spotify, the older demo of music fans just don't get it either. 

I just read a story about the growth of Spotify here in the United States, Spotify hits 3m subscribers to improve conversion rate.  It looks as if Spotify's membership is beginning to accelerate.  The number that struck me was that half of the Spotify customers who pay for the premium service are under 30.  It tells me that the subscription fee of $10 a month isn't very objectionable.  After all, twenty-somethings don't yet have a great deal of disposable income. Oldsters are late to adopt because they can't wrap their heads around new technologies as quickly. 

Yet again I was surrounded by my peers at a Super Bowl party.  The party was held at a friend's home.  A friend who is a music fanatic, like myself, I might add.  He had tunes playing before the game started.  Unfortunately the music simply eminated from one room, where the stereo was located.  There was no music in the kitchen where the majority of people always gather for a party.  Why are some people still without distributed audio? 

It is so easy these days to get music playing in any room you desire.  And the options run from inexpensive to moderately expensive.  And it is so worth it to have music, sports or even talk playing through out your abode as you go about living your life. 

The perfect music source for distributed audio systems these days is a streaming music service such as Spotify.  So I took a poll of the roughly 30 people attending the party, all of whom were over 50, to see how many had Spotify.  The answer was none.  It's mind boggling to me. 

You'd think I were a bad salesman or something.  After all, some of them had heard me speaking highly of Spotify over the past months.  Here's what it is though.  They are luddites.  Most of them aren't on Facebook.  They just don't seem to grasp the ease of obtaining this service and using it. 

So I'm offering to set it up for them.  And I'm offering to set it up for any of you who just don't feel you're technically savvy enough.  I'll also come up with a proposal to get that music playing throughout your home.  This is not some sales pitch.  This is my life's mission, to enrich people's lives through the sharing of music.  Let me help enrich your life. 

If you have a question or if I may be of service email me at radiohannibal@gmail.com

John Hannibal

Affordable home theater receivers

I came across a story from the International Business Times giving recommendation and short reviews on four affordable surround receivers.  Of course the receiver that I recently purchased was among their picks.  Wink.  It is nice to get validation though.

Along with the Yamaha I bought they suggest looking at one by Denon, Onkyo and Pioneer.  Now that's a line up of usual suspects.  4 High Quality Yet Relatively Affordable 7.1 Receivers for a Home Theater Setup

If you have a question or if I may be of service email me at radiohannibal@gmail.com

John Hannibal

More on Neil Young's battle against MP3s

Last week I wrote about Neil Young's talk at a conference in which he discussed the poor quality of MP3s and how he and Steve Jobs had talked about the alternatives.  The talk spurred on a great deal of internet buzz which makes me hopeful for the future of quality sound. 

After all, better quality digital files necessitate better quality equipment to play them back on.  It's such a shame that a couple of generations seem to have lost any interest in steadily improving their music systems.  It's worse that many have no idea of what they're missing. 

Anyway, here's a great story from Wired which goes into depth on Neil Young's distaste for the MP3, Why Neil Young Hates MP3 — And What You Can Do About It.  Better yet, the story explains steps you can take to improving the music you listen to.  All of which I've discussed before. 

If you have a question or if I may be of service email me at radiohannibal@gmail.com

John Hannibal

The comfort of listening to sports

I was perched on a barstool last Saturday afternoon enjoying a cool one and conversation with a friend when the topic of sporting events came up.  He said that there's something very comforting about a live sporting event.  "Exactly", I exclaimed. 

It wasn't until I got my iPhone a few years ago that this idea of live sports as comfort formed in my mind.  Being that I'm such a fan of radio, I often prefer listening to sports rather than watching them on TV.  This is especially true of baseball which is a great backdrop to washing the car, gardening or grilling. 

My friend and I agreed that the comfort comes in the fact that somewhere in this world, at the time of the sporting event, there's a large group of people with a passionate interest in something, coming together as one.  The joy of the overall event outweighs the fact that someone has to lose.  That joie de vie is infectious and, yes, comforting. 

The smart phone has allowed me to listen to some sort of live sporting event nearly anytime I desire.  That's mostly while in bed at the end of the day.  But I can get up early in the morning and listen live to, of all things, cricket matches happening in Australia.  I've even taken to reading up on the sport on wikipedia. 

I've talked about my love of the Major League Baseball app that runs about $15 per season and allows you to listen to any ballgame.  Better yet, you can choose which teams announcers you'd rather hear.  There's nothing more soothing than listening to Vin Scully call a Dodgers game as I drift to sleep. 

If it's an afternoon sporting event, and I'm working at home, I simply plug my iPhone into my distributed audio system and let it play throughout the house.  Maybe it's a soccer match in Europe or, soon enough, a spring season baseball game from Arizona. 

It had taken some searching steps in order to find out what I could listen to at any given time.  I'd open the ESPN app and see what games were going on in various sports.  Then I'd google search what radio station carried the team's broadcast.  Finally I'd open a radio tuner app and search for that station. Sometimes the station's radio stream is shut off during a sporting event.  The NBA works at locking down their games.  The same goes for the NFL.

Recently I realized that my Tune In radio app makes it much simpler to find live sports action.  You simply select sports from the categories and it will show you what games are able to be heard right now.  It displays all the different sports as you drill down to specific games. 

I'd said that some of the leagues try and block broadcast of their games online.  Tune In does a good job of finding that small station on a franchises network that may be streaming the game anyway.  Sometimes it'll lead to a dead end and sometimes the stream isn't very robust and buffers too much.  But if you're not picky about what game you listen to it's easy to find something, somewhere.  And then bliss sets in.

If you have any questions or if I may be of service email me at radiohannibal@gmail.com

John Hannibal

Watching the Super Bowl on the big screen

I've expressed my reservations on a projector and screen as your main viewing television.  It kind of takes over a room.  If you do have the space to integrate a ceiling hung projector and either a fixed or retractable screen and it doesn't ruin your interior design, well then, I'm on board. Especially if you're planning a Super Bowl party.

I get invited to a Super Bowl party every year but not once has the host had the "big screen" treatment.  I'm not complaining.  I don't have such a set up but I do have a 55" HD television.  It may be a good idea to ask the host what sort of TV and surround set up they have before you accept the invitation.  If it isn't 50 plus inches, high def, and more than a home theater in a box audio system you may just tell them you have other plans. 

Of course I'm kidding...somewhat.  To me, unless the Cleveland Browns get in one day (hear me Lord), the Super Bowl is about getting together with friends and eating delicious but unhealthy food.  And, of course, watching the commercials.  The game is the least important aspect of the day unless you're gambling or it's a close affair.  But seriously, a decent sized TV and surround set up should be a prerequisite to throw a Super Bowl party. 

One such writer for the Washington Times talks about how important her home theater is to the Super Bowl party, Super Bowl XLVI: Watch it on TV or in a home theater?

If you have a question or if I may be of service email me at radiohannibal@gmail.com

John Hannibal

 

Was Steve Jobs working on a better sounding digital format?

Neil Young, a big proponent for better sounding music formats, says that Steve Jobs agreed with him and they talked of developing such a format for iTunes.  He also said that when Jobs was at home he preferred to listen to vinyl records. 

Young talked about this at a technology conference in California on Tuesday.  He said the format would be lossless, containing 100% of the original data, instead the poor sampling rate of an mp3.  It would mean far fewer songs on a portable device and the download would take a long time.  The reward would be a much richer music listening experience. 

The Wall Street Journal's tech writer Walt Mossberg confirmed Young's comments.  He said that Jobs was surprised "that people traded quality, to the extent they had, for convenience or price". 

Here's the story from the Huffington Post, Neil Young: Steve Jobs Listened To Vinyl.

If you have a question or if I may be of service email me at radiohannibal@gmail.com

John Hannibal

Used speakers are tricky to price

There's not much to a speaker.  I should say that compared  to an av receiver there's not much that goes into a speaker.  You have the drivers, tweeters and woofers, a cabinet, circuit boards, some insulation, a grill.  That's simplified and hardly scientific but I'm trying to get a point across. 

Your speakers usually last much longer than other audio components.  There's just not much that can go wrong with them.  That is unless you overdrive them and blow out the drivers themselves.  You can tell if a driver is blown by just listening to it.  Or, if it's a woofer, carefully push the cone in with your hand.  Do you feel or hear a grinding or crunching.  If so the speaker is blown.  You'll need to replace it. 

In fact, it's quite easy to replace parts of a speaker that goes bad.  The most common ailment is that the "surround" which attaches the speaker cone to the basket becomes deteriorated.  Here's a diagram.

You'll first notice a bad surround as the speaker will begin to buzz or make a fart sound when there's low bass tones.  On inspecting it you might find that there's actual holes where the surround has decayed.  Simply touching the surround with your finger may cause it to disintegrate as you touch it. 

I've got a pair of McIntosh XR6s that had bad surrounds in the largest of the woofers.  Here's a couple of pictures. 

In the old days surrounds were made of cloth, and though the sound may not have been as good they didn't go bad. 

I removed the woofers from the cabinet and took them in for replacement of the surrounds.  It's much better than trying to transport huge speaker cabinets. 

There's a few places in Cleveland that repair drivers.  I took mine to Audio Craft.  Another downtown shop is Empirical Sound.  I believe that Elctra-Sound on Brookpark Rd. also offers this service.  It's best to call a store first to see if there's a surround available for that sized driver. You could do it yourself but it's a bit difficult and the glue used is somewhat toxic meaning a ventilating mask is needed. 

Once the surrounds are repaired the woofer is as good as new and that's where pricing on used speakers becomes tricky.  If you go by Bluebook, yes, just like cars AV gear has a Bluebook, the price on used speakers aren't reflective of any sort of repair work you may have had done.  Speakers can last a long time as long as you take care of the cabinet and don't crank them too loudly.  It's just that in the used market you won't be able to sell them for too much.  On the other hand, you can find some great deals on used speakers. 

If you have a question or if I may be of service email me at radiohannibal@gmail.com

John Hannibal

 

Macworld shows interconnectivity with home audio and video

Lately I've been showing how Apple's operating system is being integrated into home audio and video products the same way Microsoft's internet explorer has been for years.  It's nice to get confirmation on this trend from someone else. 

The popular tech insider site, Gigaom, writes about this melding of Mac's iOS and home theater as seen at Macworld 2012, Macworld | iWorld 2012 highlights for home theater nuts and audiophiles.  In the story are topics I've discussed in recent months like Epson's projector and digital to analog converters (DACs).  It's really not surprising and mirrors the fact that Apple has overtaken Microsoft in revenues during the past year. 

If you have a question or if I may be of service email me at radiohannibal@gmail.com

John Hannibal