My machines have been upgraded to the most recent .NET Framework,
so hopefully they’ll run faster, although I haven’t noticed any difference.
Last Friday I went on a Saturday night dinner cruise on the Hornblower
in San Diego Bay. That was quite fun. The food was so-so, but the boat
was beautiful. More on the food in my dining reviews.
I’ve
been in the market for a new desktop stereo system for my room. So,
while at Good Guys this Saturday, my roommate Justin pointed out the
Nakamichi
CMS-5. I was a bit hesitant at first, as the system only delivered
25 watts of power to each speaker. Next to it sat a Phillips system
with "wOOx" (which is this crazy sub-type-thing that points
up out of the speaker) that put out 50 watts per channel. Well, 50 is
greater than 25 so the math pointed to the Phillips system, until we
ran them through some CDs, and well, damn. The Nakamichi system sounded
crisper, more accurate, "warmer" as Justin would say, and
just better. Plus, it was 1/2 price for a deal at $299.94. I just checked
online and it’s going for over $400. I brought it home and ran it through
Brad Mehldau’s Exit Music (For a Film) off of The
Art of Trio, Volume 3. Man, oh man! Audio was so much more clear.
I could hear instruments fills that I hadn’t caught before. The imaging
is so accurate that when I put some MP3’s on that were recorded at 128Kbps
they sounded like trash. So, I have my Aiwa system that was doing nothing,
so I took the speakers from it, put them under my bed, and ran a 1/8"
splitter from my computer out the Aiwa and the Nakamichi. The Nakamichi
sits on a shelf on top of my desk, and the Aiwa sits below by bed about
8 feet back. It’s turned out to be quite a cool setup, because the Aiwa’s
are not accurate at all in the mids and the highs, but deliver some
pretty decent bass. So, when using both, I get really sharp and clean
mid and highs out of the front of my room and some tight and delicate
bass out of my bed, so to speak. I’m excited. Next step, McIntosh!