Boring day today. Nothing to report. I’m still fine. No virus here.

I have so many things to do! And new things seem to be adding themselves every day. I have far too much junk, things I want to get rid of, but the “shop” at the rubbish tip is closed. I think I’ll just start advertising on Neighbourhood and giving stuff away. I don’t want to get into haggling and such.

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I’m linked into two groups on Facebook, High End Audio for the Passionates and Loudspeakers. What I’m noticing, mostly in the first group, is how ridiculous is the “Passion”. They obsess over power cables and interconnecting cables, for example. How do they assess these? It’s well known that any comparisons have to be done under strict conditions with levels matched to 0,1db and no switch noises so that the test listeners can’t detect when the switching takes place. Everything must be controlled to eliminate any room differences, any listener biases and so on.

How can anyone properly assess the difference between power cords? How do you switch between one connecting cable (the RCA types that carry the low level signals between pre and power amps, for example) when you have to break the signal to switch cables?

Their simplistic ideas, their lack of knowledge, their wishful thinking make me laugh. Yet they are willing to spend hundreds, thousands of dollars or pounds just on cables! They even sing the praises of one type of RCA connector over another. Usually the shiniest one with the laser engraved logo wins, and the more expensive it is, the more chance it has of winning.

And the cost of hi-fi these days! You might think I’m spending a fair bit on my amps and CD and Mini Disc players, but this is loose change compared to new modern equipment prices. Almost every item costs $4,000 – $5,000 upwards. Most amps cost at least $10,000 – 100,000, most speakers cost $20,000 to $100,000 a pair. It’s madness but the makers must be laughing all the way to the bank. Funny how there are so many makers these days. Obviously this is gold mine territory. How do people afford it? Not me.

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https://bullsnapper.picfair.com I added another 20 images yesterday and another 20 today. Use Ctrl-+ and Ctrl-minus to change the number of thumbnails per page.