Bono, Steve Jobs, etc.

[Monte Davis]

A few more silly data points in a silly matrix:

Imagine yourself unfamiliar with any personal computer, starting from zero.
You'd find 95%+ of what you'd need to learn a PC *or* a Mac is the same.
I've used both as long as they've been around, and -- other than
professional respect for Apple's ability to market the remaining <5% into
such a big deal -- couldn't care less. Five minutes after I start *doing*
something on either, it's transparent.  

I used to be a moderate audiophile, but at 60 I've lost a lot of
high-frequency response and most of my ability to obsess about hardware (see
above.) In terms of hours, the great majority of my listening these days is
(1) via earbuds from a pocket player or a PC at work, and (2) CDs in the
car. For (1), if there's a difference between AAC and high-rate MP3 I can't
tell through earbuds (if I ever could have). For (2), wind & road noise
swamps any fine detail. When I sit down at home and concentrate on music,
it's mostly with deep-cushioned Stax electrostatic headphones made c. 1965
-- they eat watts, but I've never heard a pair I liked better, and I'd have
to drastically remodel the room and upgrade $2K worth (long ago) of amp &
speakers to $10K or more to come close to that clarity in open-air
listening.

Bottom line: the Firm successfully markets graphite skis and tennis rackets
to a hundred consumers for every one who is skilled enough to use the extra
few percent of performance they enable. In the same way, they market the
narcissism of small differences in user interfaces and in music
reproduction. And we eat it up, don't we?        

 
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org] On Behalf
Of Robin Landseadel
Sent: Wednesday, January 06, 2010 7:17 PM
To: pynchon-l at waste.org
Subject: Re: Bono, Steve Jobs, etc.

On Jan 6, 2010, at 7:06 AM, Bekah wrote:

> I'm going back to my old cheap but trusty Sennheisers.



Sennheiser makes some seriously fine headphones.