Fred Manteghian Blog

A good friend called last Saturday morning seeking A/V advice. Lots of friends do that. Very few of them actually <i>take</i> my advice though. Why? Preconceived notions, for one - once you think Bose is the best, the road home is a slow go. Polk? Don’t they just make car speakers? Rotel? Sounds like Mattel. Then there’s price. You say $500, I counter $1,000. That’s my rule of thumb. Always spend twice what you wanted to spend, and you’ll never be disappointed. But mostly, it comes down to wives. Mine is an angel. She just steps over wires and puts her tea mug down on the only corner of the end table not covered by a projector and remote controls. Boys, eat your heart out.

Three shows, “Invasion,” “Threshold,” and “Surface” all made a big splash with their hyped-up summer ad campaigns. I bit. Before the first episode aired, I had moved them to my Tivo’s “Season Pass” list, meaning each episode would be recorded, non-fail, each week. After eight or so episodes, here’s the prognosis.

Okay, it's been 3.5 weeks since WUHR became WMRQ and I'm going to take the unprecedented step of both eating crow and taking partial credit for what's happened since then which is, ugh, not much really. Yes, there's still a DJ named Fish who was so horribly obnoxious on D-day, but unanswered emails from me and doubtless countless others got new management to hose him down. As for Wednesday being biker day, that's still true, but it just means Fish is stuck out in the boondocks on a live feed trying to corral listeners into a Harley dealership. You almost feel sorry for him. I said almost.

Okay, this blog isn't <i>really</i> about audio or video. Not directly at least, but I wanted to mention that we've been in search of clean power, cheap power, non-global-warming-controversy-inducing power, for a long time. Nuclear is clean (you know, in the beginning), and so is hydroelectric power, but only a few of us live near enough a river to take advantage of that. Besides, the amount of paper needed to complete the required zoning permits and environmental impact statements to install that bright red waterwheel you've been eyeing would negatively impact your carbon footprint, so forget that.

We saw several studios within JVC's Aoyama facility. Each has its own unique acoustical properties and features. This one, studio 401, has a wood floor and the top of its two story high walls are also adorned in wood.

When you’re young, life is exciting and you're full of verve, or diet-verve at least. Then you get older and start noticing how crappy things really are. And so goes the TV season. Way back in early November, I penned a blog called <A HREF="http://blog.ultimateavmag.com/fredmanteghian/110805slyfi/" Target=New> Sly-Fi </A> about three new shows, all of them available in high definition, that fell, albeit broadly, into the realm of science fiction. The fact that I originally trashed the shows is no reason to assume I'd stop watching them. Here's the late season prognosis.

There isn't much to complain about this year, but that won't stop me.