Man Cave in a Pocket

Yeah, I'm a nerd.  Everybody knows what a nerd looks like now but only true nerds (of a certain age) know what nerds looked like forty years ago, before computers were everywhere.  Instead of computers, they were into electronics.  Often belonged to ham radio clubs.  Knew morse code and how to replace the tubes in your radio or tv.  And they were aspiring audiophiles.  It was a widely accepted fact that the most lavish stereos on campus weren't owned by the party crowd but the electrical engineering students.

Audiophiles would listen to music a lot and were very particular, especially about the equipment.  The goal was the "ideal listening experience."  This would usually consist of very expensive speakers and a receiver of at least 100 watts (rms!) placed in a rectangular sound-proofed room.  The speakers would be placed at one end of the room, the listener at the other end, facing the speakers.  I took this seriously and in my youth I dreamt of having enough money set aside to someday have a room like that to listen to music as much as I wanted.  These setups nowadays are called man caves.

 

The sound proofed man cave never happened and I recently realized that such a setup is no longer necessary due to technological advances.  Pictured above is an ideal listening experience, within reach of most people which you can carry in your pocket.  It's actually a system which consists of three particular parts:

1.  Klipsch S4 in-ear headphones.  These headphones are so delicious that on their website, there's a logo warning you of counterfeits.  I know that some of this is personal preference, some people simply do not like headphones that feel like earplugs.  But the big advantage is that they block out other sounds so you only hear the music you want to hear.  No need to sound proof your room.  However, this particular model feels great and sounds great.  They run about $75.  Now you can get pretty darn good earphones for much less but they all have the same weakness particular to all cheap speakers:  bass response.  If you look at computer speakers, the minimum setup is two small "tweeters" and a gigantic, power sucking bass boom box that sits on the floor.  I am happy to report that the bass response on the Klisch S4 is fine.  They're a delight to listen to.
2. iPod.  This is the little device that revolutionized computing.  The iPhone was built on it.  The main problem is that it's $300.  But it's a great music player.  You can buy them with different memory configurations and the interface is great.  The only reason I plunked down $300 is because it was about the only music player on the market with over 4GB of memory.  The best thing about it though is that besides being a great music player, it does a ton of other stuff like internet, email and apps.  So you tend to keep it charged and in your pocket. 
3. Rhapsody music service. The wonderful thing about Rhapsody is that you don't have to buy anything, just pay your subscription and you can download anything.  Fill your memory with as many artists as you want and carry it around with you.  They boast they have "millions" of songs.  I suspect they lost count but they really do.

So that's it.  The iPod pretty much replaces the expensive high end stereo receivers of yesteryear.  Electronics have just progressed so far that just about anything perfectly recreates an input signal.  And since you're only driving a set of headphones, the massive power supplies and heat sinks are all gone.  Just a scrawny lithium battery is all you need.

The sound proofed room with a pair of speakers at the other end is replaced by just the headphones.  Perfect stereo separation since each ear has its own feed and there's no reflections from walls to worry about.  And talk about decorating the room.  I can create beautiful outdoor landscapes or blue skies just by going somewhere, laying down and putting in the earphones. 

In actuality, the sound proofed room with speakers, if it was really implemented, would require a huge rack of CD's or vinyl or whatever for you to listen to.  Thanks to computers, I can carry around "millions of songs" with me in my pocket.  All my dreams have come true.  Did I vote for Pedro?