New Speakers

I recently brought home a new set of speakers and a pretty nice Rotel receiver, and effectively upgraded my system from 'virtually no stereo' to 'STEREO!' The nice thing about that first jump into the realm of home audio, and building your home system from scratch is that you're also, in a sense, buying your entire music collection all over again. That is, listening to your old CDs becomes a completely different experience - especially if you're like me (and I know many people who are), and have, for years, only listened to new music via their computer, iPod or, at best, their car's CD player. As a music lover, nothing beats the feeling of playing an album you thought you knew by heart and hearing new elements that were always there, but just out of your system's range. Whether it's an interesting bass line, a Hammond organ humming in the background or the actual sound of saliva breaking in the singer's throat (if that's your thing), it makes for an awesome experience.

The bad thing about that first jump is the realization that for everything you hear, there may be that little bit still hidden on that disc which you still don't hear. It's that whole "the more you learn, the more you realize you've yet to learn" paradox which department heads at universities love to talk about. But the quest for new horizons begins with being happy and experimenting with what you've got. That last sentence might make no sense whatsoever, but what I mean is you can wind up chasing your tail before you've had a chance to enjoy what's literally in front of you. I know I'll have these speakers for years, and I look forward to it.

However, that brings me to the only thing I can already complain about. If you look at the close-up of this tweeter, you can see a small dent on its dome. These speakers sat on the showroom floor and were in a dimly lit demo room where details such as these are hard to spot. This picture was taken after I had already popped the dent out with a bit of tape which I knew would leave no residue. It's still there, though. No worries so far, however; the store said they have another diaphragm on order for me to switch out whenever it arrives. Do I hear any difference between the two speakers? No. Might some imperceptible difference exist? Almost definitely. Although my ears don't hear it, I'm afraid my subconscious mind does. Even if it's just cosmetic, it's a free fix, and therefore, a no-brainer.

Now back to listening.