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Chrissy and I have had a fun year. A road trip across the country to visit Chris’s niece in California, we have re-discovered the joy of live concerts, and have had some nice day and overnight trips so far this year. We are looking forward to a couple concerts, a Broadway play or two, and a trip to tour the Frank Lloyd Wright Falling Water House in PA. Still, we can’t be on the road all the time, and when I’m home, I like to spend time in my favorite room. But which room is my favorite?
A few of the HumbleDollar regulars who know me might say, “well duh, it’s got to be the Vinyl Resting Place (VRP)”. That’s the room that houses my vintage hi-fi and a library of tunes from my youth all the way up to new releases from Paul McCartney and Willie Nelson. The VRP also serves as a great place to put my feet up to read a book, take a nap, or watch some college football.
Still, there’s the living room. The place where Chrissy and I drink our morning tea and coffee while catching up on the news, and where I attempt to compose entertaining posts for the HumbleDollar. It’s also the room where, in the evening, we settle in to stream a great movie. The space also includes the kitchen and dining room, which hosts gatherings of friends and family.
Don’t forget the bedroom, a source of much contentment. Snuggling with the missus, watching re-runs of Holmes on Homes or Million Dollar House Hunter, or just getting a much needed night’s rest; those are compelling reasons to vote for the bedroom.
And no discussion of favorite rooms would be complete without mentioning the bathroom. So there, I mentioned it.
Moving on, what about the garage? It’s not just for parking the car, you know! It’s also my putter-around place. The garage is extra deep, so I was able to install a nice workshop. Nothing fancy, mind you, I’m no carpenter or mechanic, still, I enjoy simple projects, and being a child of the 60s/70s, when muscle cars roamed the roads, I still enjoy pampering my wheels.
At the end of the day, I really don’t pick favorites, although the other rooms accuse the Vinyl Resting Place of being the ‘chosen’ one.
Whether still working or already retired, life can be like a pressure cooker. Our homes should be the place we look forward to returning to at the end of day to let the steam out.
If you think political discussions are spirited, just for fun try logging on to sites dealing with topics like “Vinyl versus CD or Streaming” or “Analog versus Digital”. Lots of interesting technical and scientific data exist, but strongly held personal beliefs reign. My non-expert advice: Buy what you enjoy listening too, never mind what others say.
I have zero musical talent, but I love listening to music, both live and recorded, and I know a little about the neuroscience of audio perception and basic acoustics. Dan Smith below mentions the important fact that the room will interact with the speakers.
The late Siegfried Linkwitz’s goal was to produce a home speaker system which worked with the room, not against it, to create a convincing sonic illusion that the recorded performers were in the room with you. For details, engineers and enthusiasts on this site might enjoy perusing: http://www.linkwitzlab.com
I have his flagship system in my basement which is a very large space (about 16,400 cubic feet; they perform better in large rooms). If I’m busy with something on the main floor or am just too lazy to go downstairs, our far less expensive but convenient system is good enough. The brain is clever about enhancing and filling in when listening to less than state-of-the-art systems. And while my ears are 73 years old and I can’t hear as well as I used to, I can quickly tell whether the reproduced sound approaches a level of realism.
When I moved into my Connecticut condo, I found the living room was not suitable for music – the cathedral ceiling steals away the treble.
So I installed my system in the bedroom, which is about 10 x 20 with an 8 foot ceiling. It sounds OK, and I haven’t even put up any room treatment. I keep my 4000 records in a walk-in closet. I am currently only using one turntable, my Basis 2001, but I am going to get my VPI going once my buddy makes a second rack for me.
Ormode, people don’t realize how a room can mess with sound. I use a subwoofer to gently augment the bass. It sounds perfect in my normal listening location, but can sound muddy in other parts of the room. I don’t want to ugly up the space with bass traps. One of my winter projects is to play with different locations for the sub in order to find a solution.
We recently installed an infrared sauna in a spare bedroom. It’s quickly becoming our favorite room!