The above image could be described as a portable hi-fi system with Anker power source. Certainly it qualifies as portable, the detached control unit (encircled in cable) is a mere 8 cm long (2.25 in. for those living in Trunkasia). But the system's minimality is at odds with the adjectival phrase "high-fidelity"; good quality sound reproduction tends toward bigness.
And big cost. The Marantz amplifier I use - inter alia - to increase and improve TV sound cost £500, some 15 years ago.
Nevertheless the little darling you see cost about £50, all told, and has touched my heart.
VR is not happy in the nursing home. This is understandable and her stress is infectious; I visit her most days and I come away heavily saddened. Maintaining any sense of optimism in our conversation is often impossible. So why not swap words for music?
For tedious reasons assembling this mini-system took more time than I expected (VR refused earphones) and although I had willing permission to use it in the nursing home I was never able to arrange reasonable listening conditions. Today I did. And within three or four minutes of play there was confirmation I was on the right track. One of the patients - quiet yet distracted by her awful malady - pointed at the speaker (ie, the white circle) - and said. "That's the fourth piano concerto." Turning, she added, "Beethoven." and wandered off-stage.
She was right.
VR seemed at rest, a rare occurrence. She remained silent for the piano concerto (it lasts 34 minutes), a favourite of both of us, Bach's Goldberg Variations (over an hour), and a handful of English songs by Dame Janet Baker (say ten minutes). No gloomy predictions, no complaints. I emerged into the afternoon rush-hour; maintaining my patience via the car's audio system playing Beethoven's Waldstein piano sonata.
Yeah, music.
Well done then. We have an Anker speaker- a small brick - 6x2x2”. I can remember when Bluetooth first arrived on the scene and I was beyond skeptical of a “thing” so seemingly flippantly named. It was to be twenty years before I fell into using it. Short range radio technology - a WiFi precursor - the Wiki is fascinating.
ReplyDeleteSORRY ABOUT THE LENGTH
ReplyDeleteMikeM: I shared that initial reaction of yours towards Bluetooth which - in my case - was demonstrated by various members of my family over several years. Starting, like you, with the strange christening it had received. Later I was shown it intervening in my use of the car media player/radio, then things on the TV. But whence came this curious magic? And how did one generate it?
MikeM, you can speak for yourself. But in this instance I do have what the police refer to as "priors". During my two years national service I spent eight months coming to terms with electromagnetic waves and their application. Concentrating mainly on a VHF transmitter/receiver that, as far back as WW2, allowed plane pilots to to talk to each other - a huge step up from stuttering away in Morse code. Mostly the RAF used multiple-choice questions in the 25 exams I took over those eight months (less than 60% was failure) but the ultimate exam on that trans/rec was much more severe.
Two students sat at a small table, the examiner on the other side. In between what most people would have have regarded as a forbiddingly complex circuit diagram which, I must boast, had by now become somewhat more familiar. Examiner: "Reception first. The signal arrives at the antenna - there. RR tell me what happens to it?"
After three or four minutes, the examiner indicated the other student. So it went.
And I passed. Hey, if I'm anything I'm liberal arts. But briefly I stood in admiration of my new self; Yeah, I could expatiate on metaphors used in Moby Dick. But ta-ra-di-boom I also understood the principles of an oscillatory circuit. And, it was to change my life though that's another story.
Perhaps music would get through to VR in her nursing home. I needed a system with which I could hold and play the 7600 tracks (some 3 minutes long, some 45 minutes) of the music VR and I had accumulated over our 65 years of marriage and which was now stored on a 128 GB chip, a quarter the size of a postage stamp. But please don't talk about phones; I'm talking about reasonable quality sound. Earphones (two pairs with a splitter so that I could listen too) were out because VR wouldn't wear one. Also I needed to be independent of power from wall-plugs.
The larger rectangular thing is an Anker rechargeable storage battery which will easily cover a two-hour visit to the nursing home. The cylindrical thing is the speaker; it's made in China, has several push-buttons with functions that are imperfectly identified. The smaller 8 cm thing is the player-cum-Blueooth remote transmitter; amazingly it has a teeny screen which can take me all the way from Music, to WMA folder, to composer, to piece title, to individual movement, with intermittent identification of the artist(s).
Fairly simple. Plug the Anker into the speaker. Using the teeny thing to remotely select and play the music. First nightmare: understanding the inter-relationship of the Chinese buttons on the speaker; I had it going for the first visit where it had to compete with a fairly noisy background. Second time: transmitter playing music but no sound from speaker. Fiddle for over an hour: Heck, there are only five buttons (but ha-ha you simple-minded Occidental - that's me) what about the light which may be steady state or flashing. Ye Gods - who'd've known?
But First Nightmare was preceded by the even more testing 0.5 Nightmare. Did you know there are three variants of the micro-USB plug? Unavailable in Hereford. Online then, me grinding my teeth with impatience.
That's enough. Nobody's going to read all this but I, at least, feel purged. More accurately: reamed out
Praise be.
ReplyDeleteThe Fécamp trip sounds wonderful.
xx