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New Loudspeaker Eliminates Distortive Influence
fejrskov writes "The Danish audio/video company 'Bang & Olufsen' announced a new loudspeaker which promises to eliminate the bad influence from walls, floors and ceilings on the sound. This is achieved by using two technologies: ALT (Acoustic Lens Technology) uses sound dispersing lenses to make sound travel equally in all directions. ABC (Adaptive Bass Control) involves sliding a tiny microphone out at the base of the speaker, playing a series of test sounds, and adapting the bass according to the measured acoustic response. Each active loudspeaker contains amplifiers for a total of 2500W (!) output using B&O's patented ICEPower concept. The price? Approximately 55.000 Danish kroner (8.000 Euro) each."
Then I remembered that European countries have the odd habit of using decimal points to seperate thousands rather than commas... blah.
Username taken, please choose another one.
Drug addicts will at least leave you in peace, shooting their arms up in abandoned alleyways and passing out with friends around the bong.
Moreover, when drug addicts throw their money away, they're usually pumping it back into the local economy instead of shipping it off to hardware manufacturers overseas.
Audiophiles, in contrast, aren't content to waste their money in private or among other like-minded individuals. Oh no. They have a compulsive need to prosthelitize about their audiophilia. As if there weren't enough of their kind in this world as it is, they will openly moan and complain about the quality of others' audio equipment and wax on end about the relative merits of whatever their latest hobbyhorse format is over mp3 which is far too lossy or whatever they're bitching this week.
In all my years of knowing dope smokers and heroin addicts, I've never known any to spend half as much time trying to justify the benefits of their drug of choice as audiophiles do about their wares. It just isn't done. Drug addicts are content to enjoy their recreational substances and leave it at that. Audiophiles feel a need to go so much further.
The other day, I was reading about the US Supreme Court's latest court case upholding the constitutionality of religious groups' use of public school space for after-school bible classes. But what I think was left out of the debate was how religious groups are such a small threat when compared to other secular groups. Whereas the liberals would like to bar the Good News club from coming to elementary schools, they would happily and cheerfully admit an audiophilia club. Whereas the Good News club is just trying to save your soul, the audiophiles are both trying to steal your soul and bilk your wallet at the same time. That is the true threat in our society today.
I'm glad someone is finally casting the light of public scrutiny upon this pestilence in our midst. Audiophilia must be banned and criminalized as it has no place in the land of the free and the home of the brave. Our forefathers did not give their lives to found a nation where we could scamper around with our goldplated headphones and 10 megawatt amps in one giant aureal masturbatory frenzy.
When will we get this?
Then there was a slight whisper, a sudden spacious whisper of open ambient sound. Every hi fi set in the world, every radio, every television, every cassette recorder, every woofer, every tweeter, every mid-range driver in the world quietly turned itself on.
Every tin can, every dust bin, every window, every car, every wine glass, every sheet of rusty metal became activated as an acoustically perfect sounding board.
Before the Earth passed away it was going to be treated to the very ultimate in sound reproduction, the greatest public address system ever built. But there was no concert, no music, no fanfare, just a simple message.
"People of Earth, your attention please," a voice said, and it was wonderful. Wonderful perfect quadrophonic sound with distortion levels so low as to make a brave man weep.
"This is Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz of the Galactic Hyperspace Planning Council," the voice continued. "As you will no doubt be aware, the plans for development of the outlying regions of the Galaxy require the building of a hyperspatial express route through your star system, and regrettably your planet is one of those scheduled for demolition. The process will take slightly less that two of your Earth minutes. Thank you."
The PA died away.
Do not read this sig.
Are you sure you weren't in a Bose store?
-dk
Eight Thousand Euro???
Wow.
That's what I call getting a Bang for your bucks.
(Spudley Strikes Again!)
Just because the USA does it one way doesn't mean it's right.
Dear brainwashed hostage,
Please tell me what country you are living in that promotes this viewpoint, so that I may send the United States armed forces to liberate it.
Sincerely,
President George W. Bush
Approximately 55.000 Danish kroner (8.000 Euro) each. Since when has either of those currencies been considered real money? pfft
When anger rises, think of the consequences.
Confucius (551 BC - 479 BC)
Sounds like you need some bumperstickers for the cause!
Here's my first contribution:
Use vials, not tubes!
Jory
Who the hell uses Euro or kroner? Please. Tell me in terms we know, such as Fish Market exchange rate, or cantelope or concubine women or something USE-FULL!
I suggest you read Slashdot
That's $4.8 million Canadian
He did mention he was using the US separator. In other words, those were decimal places, not hundreds.
Or the guys with the magic marker to run around the edge of your CDs to make them sound better.
Jory
Reading this I'm reminded that before the era of the personal computer, it was mainly audiophiles who spent a large percentage of their time writing about things most people couldn't give a shit about.
You're right, it is arbitrary psychological crap. When it's 25 C (77 F) here in Lisbon, most locals are wearing coats and most tourists are wearing T-shirts. When it's 40 C (104 F), most locals are wearing t-shirts and most tourists are melting.
I suspect that if we move to other planets we'll change their atmosphere to match the Earth's. Either that or we'll live inside closed biospheres with Earth-like conditions. So we'll still be using centigrade. And x86. And a DOS compatibility layer. And complaining about the CowboyNeal option in polls (or the lack of it).
RMN
~~~