Sonic Boom

Listening to: Tegan and Sara, "Call It Off." I lean toward being a Sara person, but this track is Tegan. If you can't tell them apart, NPR is here to help. I didn't need the primer because I just knew.

The first day back in San Francisco, I spent the better part of a work day listening to my CD for testing audio, a task Ameer had set before me earlier in the week. He said that I needed to pick a few songs and use them exclusively for testing speaker quality. After spending an hour or two assembling my dozen songs, I was psyched to try everything out on Ameer's various audio setups.

For the record, most of my music is sent through generic iPhone headphones, which are pretty crappy. I travel light so having a speaker setup is beyond my means. The best quality I usually get from my audio setup is whatever speakers my car is outfitted with. Tragically, my one week in San Diego was speaker-less as my Honda's stereo is mysteriously out of commission. I like my music loud and overwhelming usually.

Anyway, earlier in the week, I shared this video of Jimmy Iovine talking about the Beats lineup of headphones (an interesting listen if you care about the music industry) and that got Ameer and I talking about all sorts of related items. He insisted that we test out his new purchases and I was more than happy to join him. At dinner post-airport, I got a mini-education on analog versus digital and afterwards we perused his collection of old speaker manuals.

Ameer's dad had saved all his manuals from the 1970s and they were preserved in perfect condition. Like father, like son! These things weren't simple set up and play instructions in a few different languages like you'd see today. They were more akin to manuals that taught you about how stereos worked, with lots of graphs and charts and techy language.

Informed and learned, I'm ready to change my listening ways. Ad ingenium faciendum.

In the movie The Secret In Their Eyes, a theory is proposed: "A guy can change anything. His face, his home, his family, his girlfriend, his religion, his God. But there's one thing he can't change. He can't change his passion." One of Ameer's many passions is music so I'll let him tell the story of his speakers. And of our continued search for something called the MQ101 or MQ 102. Right now those equalizers are Ameer's Moby Dick, and I'm his Starbuck. Ahoy.

Also, if you haven't seen The Secret In Their Eyes, it's kind of great. I rewatched it for Sam's For the Love of Film series last month and was reminded of how fantastic the film was. Now to find my passion, the thing I can't change! Goodness I hope it's not oversleeping. Can that be a passion?