We recently
upgraded our entertainment equipment after the premature death of our Sony Home Theatre Receiver. The only items that we did not replace were the speakers, including the pair of front, much beloved EPI speakers which have been with me for well over twenty years. As sure as the sun will come up again tomorrow… Yes, in the weeks leading up to Christmas one of them started distorting. At first I thought it was occasional crummy source material, or feline vandalism, but when I opened up the unit it was obvious that the butyl rubber [polyisobutylene, or PIB (C
4H
8)
n] supporting the main cone and providing the air isolation from the front-to-back was falling apart.
Since then it has gotten worse, with resonance setting in at some frequencies. Quite unbearable to ears that used to be paid to rent evening dress (tuxedo) to go to classical music concerts. There was no way, however, that new speakers were going to be acquired in the run up to the holidays.
The after Christmas sales provided a nice discount on a pair of Polk Audio monitors and they are on their way, with free shipping, westward across The Rockies. I hope they and the room will get on well. With their 48 Hz lower frequency response limit, our subwoofer will now play an even more important role in the sound we get.
This consumerism was forced on us and it led me to wonder whether the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) would provide any indicator of when we might crawl out of our economic doldrums.
According to Gary Shapiro, Executive Director of the Consumer Electronics Association (but to me always the shill pushing NHK’s 1125-line 5:3 aspect ratio
analog HD system, in development from 1964 and finally named Hi-Vision in 1985), the show will have the
same number (2700, though the number touted a year ago was 3000) of exhibitors as 2008 (but occupying 5% less floor space in the Convention Center and The Sands Hotel), and that the number of visitors would be down about 8%.
In a reality check, I just (on the evening of January 5) did a Travelocity search for a hotel room in Las Vegas for arrival tomorrow and departure January 10. I received 78 returns with quite low prices for a major trade show time, with the lowest at $54 for Palace Station (well, it at least has a bed) and prices like $95 at Circus-Circus. I also checked in with Southwest Airlines and they could offer me a choice of 11 flights tomorrow (4 nonstop) from Seattle (where some software people come from?) to Las Vegas and a choice of 6 on the way back on January 10.
I think reality and Mr. Shapiro may be at major odds in this case.
No, I think excess may be scaled back a few notches this year. 150 inch TVs are probably not on very many shoppers’ agendas; green might be, but the definition of green is soured by marketing fluff which most consumers probably recognize in the manner of the presentation.
The indications that I have heard suggest that a lot of companies, maybe 10%, have abandoned the expense of a booth presence in favor of a meeting room where they have more hope of actually seeing a purchase order signed. The aisles, certainly, will be freer to move around in compared to past years. It doesn’t bode well for a recovery by the 2009 holidays.
One of those companies that is retaining its floor presence is Monster Cable, which, as regular readers know, is one of my
least favorite businesses, conning so many people out of their hard-earned money by the pretense of improving audio quality by reducing skin effect below 20 kHz. But, lo! They might actually be introducing a useful product, or two…
For a while Monster has been plugging a couple of power line conditioning products under the tag Monster GreenPower. Expensive (what a surprise!) but useful. The byline of “Monster Power for better picture and Sound” may even be applicable in this case. Now at this CES they are introducing
power strips under the label of Digital Life PowerCenters that are actually
smart.
You plug your PC into one specially designated outlet and it recognizes when the consumption of the computer falls to a sleep level, or is actually turned off. When it does so the other outlets are disabled so that all your peripherals are turned off as well.
The three models are the MDP 900, MDP 800, and MDP 650. Presumably, they are for different lengths of power cord running to the strips, or for different load capabilities (there is no further information on the Monster site)?
But get the prices: $129, $99, and $69.99. How many years do you have to save peripheral power before those get paid back?
If you are in a really masochistic mood, however, go for Monster’s infra-red remote control power strips. Turn off your whole HD system from your theater seating for only $499.95. Instead I think I’ll just teach one of the cats how to pull a $9.95 strip out of the wall socket with its teeth – the one who has already disabled a section of the Christmas Tree lights, perhaps…
