For once Sloshy is right!

[Davey]

This new Andrew Bird album is damn good. First listen was a bit distracted and it didn't sink in much, leaving me thinking that The Swimming Hour was much better. But I've been sitting around this morning exchanging some ideas about The Decemberists with an English guy over at Head-Fi and listening to the remarkable Castaways and Cutouts, but then slipped in The Mysterious Production of Eggs and am very impressed listening this second time through. Very nice. Maybe not quite the dynamics of my favorites from The Swimming Hour, like "Case In Point" and "11:11" which both made it onto comps of mine back in the day, but still very cohesive. Sounding much like the recent (and maybe too syrupy) Mercury Rev, but when mixed with some of that old time jazz and cabaret feel, it's a pretty enticing sound. Very lush. Love song number 8, "Opposite Day", with some of the same feel of that "Case In Point" that I mentioned. Builds kind of like the Beatles' "A Day In The Life", but not really. Always lots of interesting lyrical phrases and turns to decipher. And that everpresent violin.

Anyway, I remember the days when Slosh was going by the name of Ms. Nomer and talking about silly bands like Train! Now he seems to be one of the most indie posters around. Hehehe, the times they are a-changing. Nice recommendation, buddy! This one is gonna be good for a lot of spins around my place

[Slosh]

Train?

Well anyway, I've been listening to that Andrew Bird album for more than a week now and already am seeing it as being one of my top five of oh five. I think he has found his sound on this album. It doesn't jump all over the place like The Swimming Hour but all of the songs are of very high quality, both musically and lyrically, and there always seems to be something else to pick up on with each listen. I really like that it sounds like no one else, exactly.

I finally got around to adding a sub to my main system last weekend and have been listening to a ton more music (at home) than usual. My speakers have clean bass down to about 35 Hz in my room so I didn't expect to notice the sub all that much on music, and I don't as far as deep bass is concerned, however I was pleasantly surprised to hear how much more 3-D it makes the sound. Before the soundstage only seemed to go out a couple or three feet beyond the speakers whereas now it seems to be twice as spacious. Very nice

Just today alone I listened to:
Fugazi - The Argument
Girls Against Boys - You Can't Fight What You Can't See (LP)
The Clash - London Calling (the recent remaster deluxe thingy)
Andrew Bird & The Mysterious Production Of Eggs (of course )
Jucifer - I Name You Destroyer
Roxy Music - Avalon (SACD)
Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter - Oh, My Girl
Super Furry Animals - Rings Around The World (DTS)

I'll probably throw the new Enon B-sides collection in next (it's okay but no guitar-heavy rawking songs ala Count Sheep, etc. )

[Swish]

I finally got around to adding a sub to my main system last weekend and have been listening to a ton more music (at home) than usual. My speakers have clean bass down to about 35 Hz in my room so I didn't expect to notice the sub all that much on music, and I don't as far as deep bass is concerned, however I was pleasantly surprised to hear how much more 3-D it makes the sound. Before the soundstage only seemed to go out a couple or three feet beyond the speakers whereas now it seems to be twice as spacious. Very nice

info. I have a Paradigm 14 incher which I think is quite fine. I remember doing some listening tests with my little brother when he was buying a budget surround system. We checked out the Paradigm Cinema Seriies that comes with an 8 inch sub. It sounded ok, but when the salesman switched to a 12 incher (they were sold out of 10s), it sounded at least 50% better in my opinion. It went from shallow and thin to a nice room-filling sound, at least that's was the effect when he switched back and forth. Needless to say, little bro sprung for the larger sub and also upgraded the center after listening to several of them. It's amazing what a decent sub does for the overall sound of surround system..

I ordered that new A. Bird as well since I really liked The Swimming Hour, but I have to wait for the delivery from deepdiscoundcd, so that could be another week or so, but I have plenty more to keep my company. How does the latest Decemberists compare to Castaways and Cutouts? I don''t recall seeing much about it here, although I haven't been very active on the board lately.

Swish

[Slosh]

I had a $100 Circuit City gift card that I wanted to use so my choices were very limited. Actually, I fully expected that I'd have return the sub since my friend has the Paradigm Active Servo 15 (the original series - purchased in '99) and even that well respected sub sounds slow and boomy with music to me (it's excellent for movies, though). In fact, he doesn't even use it for music since his Energy towers have plenty of bass on their own (two 8" woofers per).

Anyhow I ended up with an Infinity PS12. They also had a 12" Velodyne but it was a POS with a relatively flimsy cabinet with no internal bracing, a paper driver with a foam surround, an unflared port tube, and a 195 watt amp. The Infinity on the other hand is built like a MDFB shithouse with a 1" thick front and 3/4" for the other five sides, plenty of internal bracing, a port tube that's flared on both ends, an aluminum/powdered aluminum coated driver with rubber surround, and a 300 watt amp. All this for only $25 more than the Velo.

As I mentioned I didn't really expect it to sound all that great since I wasn't exactly impressed with a $2,000 sub, but I can't find any faults with its sound. Its bass is fast and tight, yet still goes deep enough for my needs. After calibrating my system with full-range pink noise to 95 dB with my old Rat Shack SPL meter, and then throwing in a test tone CD-R, it's flat down to 25 Hz (albeit, uncorrected) and still putting out a respectable 88 dB at 20 Hz in my room, and with no distortion that I can tell by ear. Pretty damn impressive for a $400 sub (which only cost me $300, of course). I thought I would have to spend a lot more on an SVS or Hsu, but I'm happy with the Infinity so it's staying.

That Decemberists album isn't due out until late March. I guess tentoze downloaded it from somewhere illicit? I'm not gonna even bother seeking mp3s. I'll just wait until I can get the real thing.