Last Exit Before Oblivion

One day while looking for a way to play music at bedtime I ran into a new concept: the Network Music Player. Of the various available devices, the Squeezebox seemed the best fit with my needs. Its server software handles Windows Lossless files. It got good reviews. I finally bought one and it arrived yesterday.

Hooking it up was no problem. I bought a long cat-5 cable and strung it along the ceiling with the Christmas lights. It found my PC. I introduced the server software to my scattered music library and I was in business.

This all started years ago with a Sony portable CD player. I kept it by my bed, with a stack of CDs that would grow until they started to fall off. Then I'd remove that stack and gradually build another. When the neighbor broke in and stole the CD player I bought another and used it until it wore out. The replacement clicked between songs as it turned the amp on, which was annoying.

Over the years I've tried various headphones. The original Sony MDR-CD7 set got stolen with the first player. Those were no longer available for the replacement, so I bought Sony MDR-CD6. I still have those but they're old now and the earpads aren't available. I tried some Etymotic ER-4S, which have wonderful sound if you get them installed correctly. They have to fit just right. Too much hassle, so I kept using the CD6. I tried the noise-blocking headphones I use for live recording but they aren't comfortable. I tried a Sony MDR-V600 but their sound wasn't as good as the CD6. Then, in looking at other things, I started reading about Shure's E500 triple-driver "in-ear monitors." I decided to try them. They turn out to be outstanding: sound better than the Etymotics, easier to use, and less cable noise. Everything that's in the music gets to my ears.

This actually has turned out to be a problem because they show the deficiency of the source audio. There's a lot of talk nowadays about headphone amplifiers, and you can spend a lot of money for one. It turns out that my Archos AV500 portable music player has a good headphone amp built-in, and using that device with the Shure headphones is a real treat. Except for the hard-disk spin-up noise. Thus, the Squeezebox.

I plugged the Shure headphones into the Squeezebox and the first thing I heard was noise. Hiss. No disk drive noise like that of the Archos, but a constant hiss. Well, maybe the music would cover it up. That didn't work. In this age of digital recordings and 90-dB signal-to-noise ratios I'd pretty much forgotten about hiss. This thing sounded like an old cassette player.

Not only that, but the amplifier has no guts. Bass just wasn't there. I'm not the kind to want to rattle the windows--in my head or out--with bass, but music needs bass to be fully formed and this device just didn't do it.

Well, OK, maybe it's the headphone amp in the Squeezebox. I got out my Sound Devices headphone amp and hooked that up to the Squeezebox's line output. This solved some of the noise problem, and also has real bass, but the midrange sounds as if it's coming from a cardboard box. The Sound Devices amp is designed for field conditions, and loud is more important than accurate.

I know there are many ways to fail in other aspects of life, but... bedroom music? I really don't want that much. In the old days it was easy. CD players just played CDs as if they were records. No clicks, no pops, no smart switching of an amplifier. Now everything tries to think for me and all they do is mess things up. Maybe I should just move the turntable to the bedroom and play records.

It's a simple problem. Why do I get the feeling that I'm swimming against the current all the time?