I wasn’t sure if this thing worked at first.<\/p>\n
I used to be a stereo expert.\u00c2\u00a0 I could HEAR the difference!<\/p>\n
I remember after passing the bar exam, to reward myself I was finally going to buy a tape deck.\u00c2\u00a0 I went to Federated and A-B’d the Aiwa and the Nakamichi 582.\u00c2\u00a0 Even though the Aiwa was a grand, and more expensive, I was leaning towards it.\u00c2\u00a0 Because rumor was that whatever you recorded on a Nakamichi ONLY sounded good on a Nakamichi.\u00c2\u00a0 This turned out to be true.\u00c2\u00a0 I know, because I purchased (and still own!) that Nakamichi 582, which generated tones, which was the most fully adjustable deck extant, essentially a studio level cassette deck.\u00c2\u00a0 I had to buy it when we recorded the half speed master of "Crime Of The Century" on both decks and I heard that screaming guitar on "Bloody Well Right" on the Nak.\u00c2\u00a0 It was indistinguishable from the original.<\/p>\n
I don’t know exactly when stereo died.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe when every Japanese company known to man flooded the market with cheap all-in-ones, that didn’t DESERVE the appellation "stereo".\u00c2\u00a0 Then again, maybe it was the cassette itself, duplicated at many times its playback speed on shitty stock, it sounded terrible.\u00c2\u00a0 Who needed a good system to hear them?\u00c2\u00a0 It’s like owning a Ferrari in a third world country.\u00c2\u00a0 And then came the overhyped, less than perfect CD and the death of vinyl, and sound quality suddenly became irrelevant.<\/p>\n
But now it’s even worse.\u00c2\u00a0 Because we listen to FACSIMILES of CDs.\u00c2\u00a0 Known as MP3s.\u00c2\u00a0 Compressed to shit.\u00c2\u00a0 But no one seems to care.<\/p>\n
Now a stereo is the cheap speakers you purchase for bupkes with your Dell.\u00c2\u00a0 Or those tiny speakers you plug your iPod into.\u00c2\u00a0 Stereo shops are now home theatre emporiums.\u00c2\u00a0 I remember when my Sansui amp died and I went to Sound Center on Wilshire and told them I wanted a two channel NAD.\u00c2\u00a0 The salesman was incredulous.\u00c2\u00a0 You want STEREO?<\/p>\n
And what shocked me about that amplifier was that it came without a phono preamp.\u00c2\u00a0 I had to lay down over a hundred bucks for that piece of gear.\u00c2\u00a0 But when I dropped the needle, it blew my mind!<\/p>\n
But I don’t play much vinyl anymore.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s too much of a pain in the ass.\u00c2\u00a0 I just want to sit in front of my Mac and listen to my iTunes.\u00c2\u00a0 Through my Cambridge SoundWorks speakers.<\/p>\n
They cost all of $150.\u00c2\u00a0 A fortune for the hoi polloi, almost nothing to a stereo freak like me.\u00c2\u00a0 And I’ve had them over six years.\u00c2\u00a0 I used to want to upgrade all the time.\u00c2\u00a0 Now, what’s the point?<\/p>\n
And I’ve got these $1000 Italian jobs this dude sent me that I plan to hook up if I ever get the right cables, but time has been of the essence, and, really, I’m satisfied with the sound I’ve got.\u00c2\u00a0 Mediocre speakers for mediocre music.<\/p>\n
But going through a bunch of equipment today, I came across this Xmod, which some Creative employee I met in Vancouver sent my way.<\/p>\n
I don’t want to install any software, I don’t want to fuck up my system.\u00c2\u00a0 But the instructions said you just plug it into a USB port.<\/p>\n
So I did this, and selected the Xmod in System Preferences…but I didn’t hear a fucking thing.<\/p>\n
One thing I love about Apple products is you don’t have to read the instructions.\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t want to read the instructions.\u00c2\u00a0 Good products should be instantly usable.<\/p>\n
Well, I had to crack the booklet.\u00c2\u00a0 And I found out that what I considered to be the button, they did not.\u00c2\u00a0 But even when I followed every word, I heard nothing.\u00c2\u00a0 So now I had to read the booklet from cover to cover.\u00c2\u00a0 All for this bullshit product I didn’t really want anyway.<\/p>\n
Well, it turns out you plug the Xmod into a USB port, which I’d done, on the keyboard of my Mac, but if you’ve got external speakers, you’ve got to plug them DIRECTLY INTO THE Xmod.<\/p>\n
So I went into the rat’s nest, unplugged the speaker cable, pushed it into the Xmod and VOILA, sound!<\/p>\n
But I didn’t hear a difference.\u00c2\u00a0 Not a fucking thing.<\/p>\n
I was expecting to be blown away, to be REVOLUTIONIZED!<\/p>\n
I went back to the instructions.\u00c2\u00a0 I dialed the logarithm up and down.\u00c2\u00a0 To say the difference was noticeable would be charitable.<\/p>\n
How could they sell a product that didn’t work?<\/p>\n
Well, maybe they weren’t selling any.\u00c2\u00a0 I went on the Web to do research.<\/p>\n