Post by jasonward on May 16, 2016 12:50:23 GMT
I pressed play and for the first time in many a year I experienced the warm embrace of full hi-fidelity stereo sound running through my mind and the tears ran down my face.
As some of you may know, I have over the last few years become increasingly disabled, housebound, dealing with a whole gauntlet of ailments from depression, kidney stones (the latest hit in the parade), sometime extremely painful skin ulcers, sleep apnea, ah the list goes on. My week is punctuated by the visits of nurses and doctors and the days by visits from carers.
I get used to it, this is life, I get on with it. I forget, perhaps have the need to forget some of those things I used to do that gave me pleasure. Wishing after those things I no longer have doesn't seem like a good way to live.
I used to be an audiophile, I invested hundreds , nay thousands of pounds into my hi-fi separates. I still have them (I think) stored in boxes in my spare room, but I have to rely on people who neither care nor understand about hi-fi, and the spaghetti monsters they breed at their rear and in the years since I last made a serious investment into my audiophile hankering things and I have moved on, I listen for the most part to digital downloads or streams and I'd also need a setup I could control by remote control... so I gave up listening to great audio, I got used to it, this is life, I got on with it.
Other needs take over, I spend long periods of time talking over the internet, or at least listening, I listen to lots of BF and other drama, none of which is helped by the need to have air conditioner running for large parts of the day and night, the washing machine, fridge, freezer, bread maker, microwave, TV, phone and computer all share the same soundscape and hearing the things I needed to hear over the hum and bleeps of the things I didn't want to hear has been getting harder, and those that listen to me have the same issues, the ambient noise becomes the dominant sound.
So taking some of the money set aside to deal with my needs I purchased a new table top phone, one that supports bluetooth, and purchased a stereo, over the ear, closed back, bluetooth with two concurrent connections headphones - believe it or not, that little lot, being the cheapest I could find that would do the job properly cost me over £450 (ouch).
But it does work, and it works well, I can now hear what I'm listening to and people on the internet listening to me can now hear me, and not everything else that's going off.
But the bonus, the unexpected gold was putting on some Pink Floyd (The Final Cut) and finding out I am still an audiophile at heart, I didn't know I cared, but I cried as I heard for the first time in years the beautiful sound, I was finally home and I hadn't known I'd even left.
As some of you may know, I have over the last few years become increasingly disabled, housebound, dealing with a whole gauntlet of ailments from depression, kidney stones (the latest hit in the parade), sometime extremely painful skin ulcers, sleep apnea, ah the list goes on. My week is punctuated by the visits of nurses and doctors and the days by visits from carers.
I get used to it, this is life, I get on with it. I forget, perhaps have the need to forget some of those things I used to do that gave me pleasure. Wishing after those things I no longer have doesn't seem like a good way to live.
I used to be an audiophile, I invested hundreds , nay thousands of pounds into my hi-fi separates. I still have them (I think) stored in boxes in my spare room, but I have to rely on people who neither care nor understand about hi-fi, and the spaghetti monsters they breed at their rear and in the years since I last made a serious investment into my audiophile hankering things and I have moved on, I listen for the most part to digital downloads or streams and I'd also need a setup I could control by remote control... so I gave up listening to great audio, I got used to it, this is life, I got on with it.
Other needs take over, I spend long periods of time talking over the internet, or at least listening, I listen to lots of BF and other drama, none of which is helped by the need to have air conditioner running for large parts of the day and night, the washing machine, fridge, freezer, bread maker, microwave, TV, phone and computer all share the same soundscape and hearing the things I needed to hear over the hum and bleeps of the things I didn't want to hear has been getting harder, and those that listen to me have the same issues, the ambient noise becomes the dominant sound.
So taking some of the money set aside to deal with my needs I purchased a new table top phone, one that supports bluetooth, and purchased a stereo, over the ear, closed back, bluetooth with two concurrent connections headphones - believe it or not, that little lot, being the cheapest I could find that would do the job properly cost me over £450 (ouch).
But it does work, and it works well, I can now hear what I'm listening to and people on the internet listening to me can now hear me, and not everything else that's going off.
But the bonus, the unexpected gold was putting on some Pink Floyd (The Final Cut) and finding out I am still an audiophile at heart, I didn't know I cared, but I cried as I heard for the first time in years the beautiful sound, I was finally home and I hadn't known I'd even left.
