Does this image give you claustrophobia?

I thought Claustrophobia was a fear of Christmas.

Typical of how I've found Mac owners, they'd rather gaze at their equipment than listen to it.

Cheers George

"Typical of how I've found Mac owners, they'd rather gaze at their equipment than listen to it."

Typical condescending remark from george. Expected nothing less.
That looks more like a showroom than a listening room. 

+1 Kalali, a feel good moment for George, has to do something to try and make himself happy....

I know a guy with an industrial rack full of amps and streaming digital stuff. Floor to ceiling. Expensive and impressive. But all it powers is small ceiling speakers throughout the 1800 foot home. And the volume is always low like mall background music.

Audiophiles are nuts. How can you expect half decent SQ from anything less than pictured?

George Carlin once said something to this effect: Anyone driving slower than you is an a--hole and anyone driving faster than you is an idiot.

This seems like it applies to the extremes of hi-fi equipment too.

;-)

"Nothing Exceeds Like Excess" - Reubent

"If it Makes You Happy, it Can't Be That Bad" - Cheryl Crow

"George Carlin once said something to this effect: Anyone driving slower than you is an a--hole and anyone driving faster than you is an idiot."

This actually applies to just about everything nowadays. Seems like so many people want to point fingers at others and it doesn't even matter what side of the difference it is, so basically just because of the difference. These finger pointers should realize that same hand has more fingers pointing back at them.

Attempting to communicate all this stuff about our emotions (music is about emotions, relatively speaking) via the written word only - is bound to go sideways. Almost every time.

We ’get’ only 10% of the communication package, when we read the written word, 90% is literally MIA compared to speaking directly, in front of one another.

This is why it gets ugly. We have to fill in the other 90%. Which we do. Mostly unconsciously.

The first trick in understanding how to fix it or not respond negatively, is to constantly live in the conscious aspect of 90% being missing and do not respond in kind to what you FEEL and THINK is in the written text, as the filled in 90%, essentially comes from inside you.

We can get the gist of what someone is trying to say, but their response may not take in or cognate that the written word on forums...has this deep underlying problem.....

DE-escalate, don’t escalate. And remember that the vast majority of the ’give and take’ of intake and response....is within us - not the text or screed that we read.

Miscommunication. Literally. And at the 90% initial level. Literally.

Imagine trying to play a game of catch. And being 90% inaccurate. Permanently. always.

Which means, slow it down. Take your time. Analyze carefully. Overcompensate, explicit motions, signalling, and so on - as nothing else will work when things get charged up.

If not, it’s just never-ending fisticuffs ...where, in reality, we are only punching ourselves in the face.

The internet has taken over and this written word thing/problem/issue is going full force.

People are no better or worse than they were before "da interwebs", but our understanding of the conditions and nature of this communication method is woefully inadequate, and this is the result. On-line internally generated garbage we contribute to, or endure, or read about, each and every day.

teo_audio  "This is why it gets ugly.  We have to fill in the other 90%.  Which we do.  Mostly unconsciously."

All forms of social media including sites like this one is wrought with selfish negativity, not the majority but a significant amount.  This new form of communication is impersonal, most times not tactful, sometimes uncivil, and as you mention not well thought out most of the time.  

My initial reaction is "look at all that expensive McIntosh gear showcasing some 32-inch tv".  

Maybe the 32 inch TV is just the menu screen for streaming service??? Might be.

Hahahaha. 

But it seems there are 3 speakers wrapped around it. 

Seriously hope this was the distributor's home. 

I'm reminded of a story I read, perhaps here, about a guy who collected reel to reel decks, but never listened to them, just liked to see them spinning and have the meters light up and move. Had a dozen of them. 

I don’t get a claustrophobic feeling at all. I saw another picture of the guys listening room in another ad and it is actually quite deep. I think it’s the cameras close up that gives you that feeling.

 I have 2 McIntosh systems and listen to both on a daily basis.

If somebody wants to blow large bucks for a wall of Macs I say COOL. It's like art...sort of...and I do like blue meters as I'm shallow and easily drawn to shiny objects. I know some people with too much money and they tend to put their housing specific sound bucks into multi room systems they can run from their iPhones, and I don't care...the good news is that a GREAT sounding system can be assembled for little money (relatively) and enjoyed by the "active" listener...most very wealthy people in my orbit are too busy for that.

Didn't make me claustrophobic, just felt the need to get busy, real busy.

Like I said everyone knows Mac owners purchase more for looks than for sound, quality.

And if you object, you probably own one, and also believe auto transformers on solid state amps are the real deal.   

Cheers George

The placement of the speakers certainly makes me edgy.

I mean...c'mon!

The seller didn't ask anyone's advice or opinion. Maybe it would be better to keep your opinion to yourself.

Well it does have a certain brutalist aesthetic ;-)
Seriously though when comparing multiple speakers in the range $2.5k to $5k side by side, I loved the Dali Opticon 8s but rejected them for their brutalist looks and went with the Spendors which both sounded great and looked great

The seller didn't ask anyone's advice or opinion. Maybe it would be better to keep your opinion to yourself.

You are entirely new to the internet I take it? 

Last I checked 99.9% of what this forum is about is solely opinion.

I can‘t help but wonder how many of his components are thermally  challenged due to their total enclosure.

So many switches
So little time...
My wife would prefer one switch that would turn on everything in the house.

I like the tv. Too small though. 

Not my idea of an optimum setup, but I always liked the cool blue effect.......a bit distracting though........Doesn't matter, I couldn't afford them if I wanted to. :(.............I'll stick with Vandy's, your basic black dress. :). She ain't the prettiest girl in the room, but she does know how to sing.

Last time I saw a line up of Mac like that was at a dealer whom I believe was what Mac called a Premier McIntosh Dealer, or something  like that.
Looks cool.....

What I don't get is buying all that and then forcing the left speaker into a corner. It seems like the goal was to show off the McIntosh gear. It all in all feels off.

Too small of a TV. 3 speakers around the TV AND the main L and R speakers ... from an overall balance and aesthetic and sound quality it is all sorts of wrong. 

Best

E

Not sure why - reminds me of a original Star Trek bridge pic.

What I don’t get is why the forum moderators allow @georgehifi to lob insults at people. It’s one thing to voice an opinion about this and another to generally insult a group of people on the forums.

Could have been worse, could have been a wall full of Bose ****
https://a3-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/94/d525e53d3c59eae66b4844b9a1c2f4bf/full.jpg

Cheers George

Thanks for posting your system georgelowfi, now I know why you are such an expert, in your own mind....

The first thing I think of is the heat load.

Wow. Impressive.  Somebody had them working just for them for a month up at the asylum.  No claustrophobia, though - just extreme organization.

A slight 'case' of over bombing.

Heat load? I'm sure there is a cooling room behind all that...generating perfect temp and humidity.

teo_audio: I think you might be right about written communication....but I do not believe it is ultimately a flaw of words. No, words are not sufficient for every nuance....nothing is. But the terrible ratio of intent vs understanding is more a product of poor writing and reading skills than an indictment of language.

Perception is probably the biggest problem. All of my cars seem to run just a little better after a wash and wax.....

There was a study once...done with color experts as subjects. They were shown the color red that Coke uses. Then they were shown a color palette of various hues and saturations of red. All done under the same lighting and medium. They were no better than finding the exact red among the palette of reds than chance.

Likewise, the abilities of highly trained and experience surgeons and gyns to palpate and accurately detect and characterize internal masses is pretty poor compared to modern imaging techniques.

The point being, so much of this audiophile stuff is subjective and subjectivity with the human senses is all over the place and is affected by so many real and not real factors. Often referred to as placebo and nocebo in the medical literature.

One study took people who were highly allergic to poison oak. They were told they were in a study testing reactions to various types of poison oak. They were blindfolded and an inert substance that felt and sounded like leaves was rubbed on their skin...........a certain percentage of these actually developed a rash............the mind is a powerful thing.

Looking at it mostly just makes my back hurt.

Looking at it makes me think I'd rather spend the money on a Porsche 911 GT3-RS.

tomcarr said:

"Looking at it makes me think I'd rather spend the money on a Porsche 911 GT3-RS."

Yep. Active participation and beautiful SQ too!

wolf_garcia4,241 posts10-05-2018 10:05amIf somebody wants to blow large bucks for a wall of Macs I say COOL. It's like art...sort of...and I do like blue meters as I'm shallow and easily drawn to shiny objects. I know some people with too much money and they tend to put their housing specific sound bucks into multi room systems they can run from their iPhones, and I don't care...the good news is that a GREAT sounding system can be assembled for little money (relatively) and enjoyed by the "active" listener...most very wealthy people in my orbit are too busy for that.

What he said +1