Home General Asylum

General audio topics that don't fit into specific categories.

[ Follow Ups ] Thread: [ Display  All  Email ] [ General Asylum ]
[ Alert Moderator ]

I find that place a kind of Boschian Hell- a sentimental shell over a lonely, ritualistic non-human space

LoudandClear,

I find the photos of both this person's audio building and the room interiors a bit disturbing, a very lonely place. Externally, the building itself that has a kind of cartoonish, sentimental quality- it wants outsiders to think it's a friendly, fun place, but appears to be a way for someone to be locked away- to lock himself away- from an unsympathetic family.

And it contains a room that is emotionally austere and seems prepared for ritual sacrifice. The audio gear is so neatly arranged in a kind of heightened altar form and obsessively replete with odd, hyper-carefully placed and detailed devices. To me there's a kind of Medieval torture chamber quality with the walls austerely and oddly monumental, brutal forms that only serve the needs of the electronics. In the centre is an excatly placed torture chair where someone must sit ritualistically, rigidly staring ahead to a more or less blank wall- with a blank convex bulge in it with no accomodation for anyone else to share the religious experience of contemplating the expensive perfection. In fact, the possible human presence is as de-emphasied as possible and one senses nothing can change- it's frozen and denies time, the various instruments of self- torture laid out for selection by the inquisitor- the exquisite choice of pain from Dynavector, Koetsu and Van deHul laid out in careful display. "Show the accused the instruments" but here we have a self-inquisitor constantly vigilant to imperfection.

We might admire the gear the person chose for his lonely, self-torturing perfectionism, but to me it resulted in a place of obsession and alienation, more rigidly attentive to itself than an exponent of anything as human as music. This is Ebenezer's Scrooge's audio system, the chains forged in life. This fellow will a visit of three ghosts,...

The person who brought this place into being has obviously made a lot of money, moved to a place where obsessions and alienation can be expressed and in the wake of total self-indulgence created an expensive prison.

I appreciate your posting of this as it provides me a new iconography of the pain and lonliness of obsession- a sublime warning that is both perfectly still and screaming. Sure, everyone will say, "But ol' Todd is the nicest guy and loves his 9 children", and -that's what the neighbour's always say when the nice person next door turns out to have gone on a rampage of serial murder.

I don't mean to go overboard in reference to this particular place, I find a lot of these dedicated audio rooms to have some of this "servant to the machine" anti-human quality, but this is an extreme example and even here in the Asylum no one ever talks about it!

The only cure after looking at these photographs is some "Marriage of Figaro" -on a hand crank 78 player and with the cat in my lap.

Cheers,

Bambi B

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:
  Parts Connexion  

Follow Ups Full Thread
Follow Ups
You can not post to an archived thread.

[ Top Top of Page ] [ Contact Us ] [ Support/Wish List ] [ Copyright © 2025, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]
[ General ] [ Speakers ] [ Tubes ] [ Vinyl ] [ Digital ] [ Hi-Rez ] [ Video Asylum ] [ Cables ] [ Tweaks/DIY ] [ Music ] [ Films ]