Fielding The Sound
Posted on | November 4, 2009 at 7:05 pm | 8 Comments
Yeah, I know. I thought I was getting back into this whole blogging thing when I started in with the CD Archiving posts. But then there was a family crisis (ask me for the password), and the aftermath of that has been taking up a lot of my time, and will continue to do so for awhile. It’s been hard to get back into a regular routine.
And at the same time, I’ve had to deal with another life change. The company I work for closed the office I was working at. Since they closed the previous office in April, I had been going into the further-away office two days a week and working from home the rest of the time. Now I’m working from home 100% of the time. I don’t like it. I need the occasional social interaction, plus I like having at least a semblance of a separation between work and home. But there’s no real choice.
Those of you who work at home know how important it is to have a comfortable work environment. There’s a lot of problems with mine, but until I get a new house or get the basement finished, I have to deal with what I have.
One thing that helps me get through the day is listening to music while I work. Not only does it help to block out other sounds and distractions (the neighborhood kids can be pretty noisy), but listening to music I like just makes for a more pleasant work environment in general.
I’ve also found that I’ve been really getting into music lately, like I haven’t for a long time. I think that’s partly because there’s just so much good new music out there these days – I’ve been downloading like crazy from eMusic, AmieStreet and Amazon lately. More on that in future posts. It’s easy to do, almost too easy, when you’ve given up physical media and are going all digital – which I’ve talked about in recent entries. And the CD archiving project has renewed my interest in music I already own. It’s a kick to hear something cool I haven’t listened to in years.
I’m sure there’s a fad aspect to this. I tend to go in cycles with my interests: music, video games, comics, blogging, movies/TV, etc. At any one time, I’ll be bored with all but one those. And right now, that one thing is music.
It’s important for me to listen to the music in the best possible way. I’ve got my music library (downloads plus ripped CDs) in iTunes on the PC, and that’s my primary listening venue these days. I also still listen on my iPod nano when I work out at the gym 3-4 days a week, but I no longer have the all-important car listening experience, since I don’t have a commute any more. My iTunes library is over 23,000 songs and growing quickly. When I’m working, I alternate between playing the entire library on shuffle play and listening to whole individual albums at a time – usually ones I’ve recently downloaded or ripped.
The problem is that iTunes is on my home PC and not my work one. The two computers are at a 90 degree orientation from each other in my computer room. My home office stereo was setup to optimize the listening experience at the home computer. I tried playing around with the stereo balance when at my work computer, but the experience was just not optimal. Headphones work okay, but I can only wear them for so long, the cord gets in the way, and I’m not crazy about the sound quality with comfortable phones.
Then I had the brilliant idea to hook up another set of speakers to the stereo. Because of the work space limitations, I would need some pretty small ones. I have a couple of pairs of small computer speakers that I could’ve just hooked up to the headphone/speaker jack of the home computer, but I don’t really like the sound of any of them, and the cabling for that presented some obstacles.
So I looked around in my basement and found an old pair of Realistic (i.e. Radio Shack) speakers that I had bought a long, long time ago for some long forgotten reason. I probably used them for rear speakers or something back in the dawn of surround sound. I did however remember that I liked the sound of them, even though they were small 4-inch cubes. So I strung some speaker wire and placed a speaker on each side of the work monitor.
Wow – I was blown away. I don’t know if they’re actually good or if my hearing is just really going in my old age, but I’m extremely satisfied with the sound these tiny things pump out. Yeah, I do have to crank the bass a bit on the amplifier, but no big whoop. What really gets me is the sound field. The stereo separation is fantastic, and I feel totally enveloped in the sound. Maybe that’s just because of where the speakers are placed in relation to where I’m sitting, and I would get the same effect with any speakers that fit in the space. But I don’t know – there’s just something about the sound of these things that I really like. Perfect for digital music.
I can’t believe how much this has improved my work situation in general. I feel more energized and productive having these things surround me with my tunes all day. Thank you, Radio Shack of old!
Latre.
Note: I’ve joined last.fm and have installed their Scrobbler, so you can see what I’ve been listening to by going to my profile. The most recently listened-to tunes are also displayed on this blog over to the side.
Pet Peeve of the Day: Brokers, lawyers, accountants, and plumbers.
Poignant Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “why do contact lenses for distance mess up my close up vision”.
Videogame(s) Played Since Last Blog Update: Batman: Arkham Asylum (PS3)
Comments
8 Responses to “Fielding The Sound”
November 4th, 2009 @ 9:01 pm
I have that set of speakers too from the ALF era. I think JR discovered those or possibly SteveW.
Get a Herman Miller Aeron chair: http://www.hermanmiller.com/Products/Aeron-Chairs
They are fantastic. I had one the entire time I worked at The Q. I will never do eight hours of coding without one again. They are $$$ but consider the amount of time you spend in your coding chair. It’s probably number two after your bed.
November 4th, 2009 @ 9:36 pm
I’ve been working from home more often (although not exclusively), but have been hampered by problems with Comcast. My internet connection cuts in and out all day long, which can make a person insane. Two techs and one electrician later it worked for four days, then reverted back to the old ways.
I’m not one to miss the social interaction. While at home I never think it would be nice if someone came in and said, “Guess what I did this weekend.” When that happens I have visions of scenes from Airplane! where people are killing themselves because Ted Stryker won’t shut up.
I, too, am spending a lot more on music these days through Amazon. I’m discovering a lot of music that I had missed.
November 5th, 2009 @ 10:23 am
Bill, those chairs look cool, and I’ll have to look into getting one once I have a proper home office and not this makeshift area I’m using now.
Lisa, yes I don’t necessarily miss that sort of social interaction (though I do miss some of it), but I miss the opportunity to brainstorm with co-workers in person about issues and problems. Somehow it’s not the same over e-mail or IM or virtual rooms.
November 5th, 2009 @ 4:57 pm
I just like that it’s my 2007-2008 mix CD directly beneath the pictured speaker.
November 5th, 2009 @ 11:06 pm
I was curious about the Herman Miller chair – yipes, really is pricey. But if you spend all day sitting, it might well be worth it: if you have a local dealer (you can find one digging around the site linked), you can actually sit in one. Never buy a chair without sitting in it!
(Pet Peeve: what the hell is up with Target putting their chairs in places no one can sit on? Sorry – but yr nuts if you buy a chair you haven’t tested, unless you plan on only sitting in it a few minutes at a time. Pamper the ass! and the back…)
November 6th, 2009 @ 3:37 pm
We sell various types of small PC/laptop speakers, USB-powered or sometimes not, where I work – and a frequent question is “how good do they sound?”
I use to really wonder how to answer questions like that, given how I’m almost completely uninterested in that sort of thing yet I know more than one person like you, for whom audio quality is a “consuming passion”…
Then I realized, anyone who really cares about sound quality would not be asking “what do they sound like” about a pair of $17 speakers. So I just say “they sound fine!” and everyone seems happy.
November 8th, 2009 @ 12:53 am
I mostly miss going to lunch with folks from work! I find windows help a lot. When I worked in the basement, I felt like I was in a dungeon, or like I was a basement troll.
I’m on year 2 of full time work from home, and I still don’t have my office optimized. Of course, I’m on my third physical home office…. I have tendinitis and a bad back, so I need to get a much more ergonomically oriented set up ASAP.
November 10th, 2009 @ 7:23 pm
Sounds like you missed your chance to sell some magnaplanar speakers and make a huge commission!