“Music is the divine way to tell beautiful, poetic things to the heart.” – Pablo Casals
Hello all
This week I want to talk about a £40 extension lead, and how my opinion differs on this bit of kit from my wife’s opinion.
I brought a Tacima CS947, which is a 6-Way Mains Conditioner with Surge Protection.
According to Tacima, the Mains Conditioners help reduce Radio Frequency Interference and so help to enhance the sound and/or picture quality. The Tacima CS947 uses sophisticated filtering that uses high-frequency capacitors and a single choke to suppress both symmetrical and asymmetrical mains interference. In addition to this, the mains cable is also thoroughly screened to help eliminate the effects of radiated noise interference.
“About the most startling upgrade to your system £45 can make.” ‘What Hi-Fi? Sound & Vision magazine said about it and gave it an award.
Being an electrician I understand a bit about electrical noise in cables and symmetrical and asymmetrical mains interference, but let me explain the effect in laymen terms.
Back at mum and dads many years ago, we use to have this hover and TV that did not like each other. When using the hover in the same circuit as the TV, the picture on the TV would go all funny. On a Saturday afternoon my dad would sit down to watch the horse racing, now I am not sure if my mum did this on purpose but at the same time the hover would come out, and my mum would start hovering the stairs. At first, I don’t think my dad did not understand that the issue he had was symmetrical and asymmetrical mains interference, but his way of trying to cure it was smacking the side of the TV. Once the stairs were complete the TV would go back to normal, and my dad would stop cursing and hitting the TV. In the end, a new TV was purchased as it finally broke down, dad was blamed for the number of times he hit the thing.
I have been reading that the Tacima CS947 also improves audio, people have claimed that they can hear an improvement to the bass. So back to the present day, and I explained to my wife the virtues of a £40 extension lead. Do you know when you have been with someone a long time, and you know what they are thinking, they don’t have to talk, you get that look? Yep, I that look, saying ” you are just an idiot who likes to waste money”, it was the same look my mum used to give my dad when he uses to hit the TV, or when he would swear at the TV when his horse never came in.
But where my mum was a little on the blunt side and would call my dad an idiot, my wife makes statements like “whatever makes you happy”
So can I hear any audio differences, hmmm, don’t tell the wife this one, nope? But there is a plus if the houses ever get stuck by lightning my Hi-Fi safe, but if the wife is hovering the stairs while a bolt of lightning strikes the house, she had it.
There is one problem with this, I hover the stairs, I wonder if the wife will believe me if I told her that a new extension lead will make the hover clean quicker!
I may get that look again.
It was our 27th Wedding Anniversary this week, and I treated my wife to a nice Rib Eye steak meal with all the trimmings, all cooked with my very own hands.
I spent Sunday morning cleaning up the house after the little get together we had on Saturday, so Sunday afternoon was spent chilling out to some Jaz/Hip-Hop in the form of Guru – Jazzmatazz Volume: 1.
Monday over here was a bank holiday, so I had a bit of a chilled day, and it was a great music listening session spent with three lovely ladies, Diana Krall – Stepping Out, Eva Cassidy – Songbird, Portishead – Dummy I had forgotten how good that Portishead album is.
Midweek listening was a bit of Country Rock or Alt-country whatever you want to call it. This boy from West London doesn’t know the difference, but there are some good songs on American Aquarium – Antique Hearts. This was followed by some Brit-pop in the form of Embrace – The Good Will Out.
Saturday was record cleaning day, artists in for cleaning today are UB40, Bob Marley and the Wailers, REM, and Janet Kay. Background music was a bit of Jazz with Herbie Hancock – Cantaloupe Island, this is a 6 track best of and is quite groovy in parts.
In the post this week Eva Cassidy – Live At Blues Alley and The Police – Outlandos D’Amour and Friday after work I picked up a copy of The Undertones – The Undertones from Sounds of the Suburbs. While I was in there had a chat with Tony about the Event that was coming up.
Desperate Measures live set, Rinsed album launch, a live stripped back set by NZ punk rockers Desperate Measures to promote the release of their new mini-album, Rinsed.
Desperate Measures were formed by Eugene Butcher in Auckland NZ back in 1981 playing a powerful but melodic brand of punk rock. Eugene moved to London, and now runs Vive Le Rock magazine as well as a few other mags, he has put together a new version on Desperate Measures a few years back, playing to enthusiastic crowds mainly in the capital, this will be a top performance from a man who knows his stuff, really looking forward this one, please come down and support what will certainly be a lively performance, around 2 pm start
FREE ENTRY
Copies of the album that has only just been released will be available for purchase and signing.
This week we lost Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, and I read a few tributes to him, one that stood out was, by Banbantonton.com, RIP Lee Perry.
They say you learn something new every day, well I learnt yesterday Don McLean’s song “Vincent” is about Vincent Van Gogh when I read Loving the Music’s, “Don McLean – More than just a slice of American Pie”.
Cheap Trick is a group I only know by name, but 2 Loud 2 Old Music is going to help me out here, as he is going over their albums starting with Cheap Trick – ‘Cheap Trick’ (1977).
Well, that’s it from me this week stay safe all, and have a good week.
Oh, I have been listening to this on my daily commute.
I have always been putting together these playlists, I normally make up a playlist from a variety of different music genres and see if they fit together. So lately I have restricted myself to the albums I have posted about and have decided to share them with you, as we did in the old days with tapes
The only way I can think of sharing playlists these days is with something like Spotify, so above is some of what I have been listening to this week.
