Monday 21 July 2014

Quiet Nights



6 comments:

  1. I would occasionally ride my Silverwing while wearing ear plugs inside a properly-fitted helmet. That kind of silence is almost unsettling. The old Honda was so well-behaved that the engine was just a humming sensation.

    Even so, I'm living with the hearing damage from twenty years of industrial manufacturing work. The funny part is that I have a "dead spot" in my auditory range, right where female human speech is. Anything except a nagging gets through, just fine.

    As for Astrud Gilberto... I had difficulty learning Spanish, a couple of years ago, because I had listened to so much Bossa Nova in my earlier years. Brazillian-Portugese lyrics sound a lot like Spanish, unless you're learning one as a language course.

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    1. Like I say, it isn't really the engine so much as the wind noise. Short fairing screens send a nice jet of air mid-visor at cruising speed and the decibels go up to unhealthy levels. Of course there are always tunnels to ride through when you want to hear the thunder. My sister works in a noisy print room and wears multi-flanged silicone plugs but I don't like the feel of them and they don't seem to cut off the ear canal as effectively as these E.A.R. Classics. With or without them, I get that same "dead spot" in the frequency range too :-)

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  2. I never wore ear plugs on my bike, never had a noisey one, Hondas mostly. I did wear plenty of those plugs when I worked rock and country music concerts, even as the sound man. I had long hair then and those plugs were easy to hide. Made everyone wonder how I could stand in front of the stacks when I worked security. I used to tell then I like to feel the music, and feel it you can; just wear baggy anything and the SPL will move your clothes. I also nearly always wear them when flying (all depends on the SRL of the headphones, even as a passenger.

    The 'Girl' was one of my favorite songs I used to love to listen to in our FM studio. If it were not on the air I would play in in Audition and sit back and listen to near perfect stereo. Our program monitors were small versions of the Altec-Lansing VOT speakers made especially for close field lisenting.

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    1. I had to give myself a crash course in close field monitors when the boy child upgraded his keyboard synth. Hardly understood a word of it but the sound is powerful and tight for such a small unit - Wharfedale Diamond Pro. When it is all a desk exercise and with little means of doing a whole lot of listening tests, you really have to put your trust in the hands of experienced and impartial reviewers and personal recommendations. You won't be surprised that Altec Lansings and Yamaha units came with top marks for neutrality but the Wharfedale was in reach, price-wise.

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  3. They're also useful when you're hammering away on a noisy electronic wedge, not that you'll be into that, Rob. ;)

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  4. The wind noise is definately a big problem. But I was stunned when I used a shoei helmet a few years back and discovered how damn quiet they are. Just wish I could afford one every time I replaced my helmet.

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