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  February 2008
I am certain a lot of the trouble I get in (both as a kid and adult) must be caused by how I manage to deal with circumstances or what mood I am in. Or maybe it's just that I have a few screws loose. So yesterday I am returning to Boulder on a United Airlines flight from Boston. Things weren't going well from the start of the day. After getting to the airport I realized I left my shaving kit and cell phone charger at the hotel. Then I waited in line at the airport for a salad from a shop called 'Fast and Green' only to find out they don't have salads. 'We got no salads'. Confused by the what the sign implied, I ask the lady 'what do you have that's fast and green?' 'Sandwiches.' She answers. 'Green sandwiches?' Never mind, it's ugly after that. I seem to remember something about a sandwich and a waitress in a Jack Nicholson movie that didn't turn out well, so I went hungry. I am now grumpy. Then there's the plane trip on United. United and I no longer like each other. I used to be quite a fan of the airline until they got in trouble a few years back. Since then, their employees seem miserable; they cram too many seats in a tight space and, well, suffice it to say I fly them as little as possible. But...here I am in seat 29F way in the back. We take off and the guy in front of me is moving his seat back and forth in some type of wild oscillation. He has headphones on and seems oblivious to anything around him. It's like he has ants in his pants. I go from knees in my chin, to just cramped- all within the space of about 10 seconds as he fidgets around with the seat. Me, I am only trying to read. My only defense against 'Mr. Seat' is to firmly plant my knees in such a way that he can't put the seat back all the way. Apparently he can't figure this out and keeps jamming the seat back and fourth. I tap on his shoulder and ask if there's something wrong. He turns to me and says 'oh, sorry, I didn't know I was bothering you.' Right, how nice to be so oblivious of your surroundings. Sigh. Meanwhile the guy next to me has about 10 airline size bottles of bourbon stashed in his pocket and proceeds to start drinking them while playing video games on a PS2. I don't mind alcohol but it's kind of like cigarette smoke; ok if you're the one doing it but the person next to you isn't happy. The sweet somewhat sickly smell of cheap bourbon 6 inches from my nose is not enticing. I turn up the overhead blower.  Then there's the kid. Ah yes, the kid two rows in front of me. Not sure where he's from or how old but I am guessing Boston and maybe three or four. I look through the space between seats and see him staring at me. I smile. He smiles. I make a face he makes a face. He sticks his tongue out and I do the same. We laugh, we're entertained. About an hour into the flight he sticks his finger in his nose and pulls out a booger and shows it to me. Now, that is disgusting. He laughs. Actually, he's pretty funny. I laugh. I stick my tongue out, he flips me the bird. Whoa! They raise some rough boys out there in Boston. I mean, he's just out of diapers! I scowl and shake my head at him in a disapproving father-like manner. He does it again. This time, I return the gesture (yeah, I know, I know....) only this time mom turns around and sees me doing it. If looks could kill.... The kid starts to cry (a pretty fake cry at that - but Mom's buying it) when she scolds him for turning around. I think I sat in that seat for the next two hours terrified the flight attendant would have me handcuffed or something but nothing more happened until we arrived in Denver where junior managed to stick his tongue out at me again in triumph. I, being the 'responsible adult' here, kept quiet and didn't acknowledge his gesture. So the little guy scored one. GCPH We've made a few changes to the Trio line of audio products and I wanted to share these with you. Both  the GCPH phono stage as well as the P200 preamplifier have been improved upon.First the GCPH. The GCPH is our stellar sounding phono preamplifier which garnered high praise indeed from the UK's premier magazine Hi Fi News. Voted one of the 'Outstanding products for 2007' HFN wrote: 'Timing was fantastic on everything tried, from the disturbing electronic fantasies of Pink Floyd's 'On the Run' [The Dark Side of the Moon/EMI], which had real drive, images thrown well beyond speaker boundaries again. to the background rapped knuckle rhythms on the MJQ's 'Golden Striker'. Vocal and instrumental colours were consistently correct; and old Decca monos, with their often acidic, whiskery string-tone became musically involving.' 'VERDICT: An outstanding design, the GCPH gets more from LP than anything I've heard and consistently brings one closer to understanding both the music itself and the manner in which it is performed. It's a 'must have'.' Wow. Nice words and you know what? This is absolutely one of the best sounding phono preamplifiers ever made (if I do say so myself) and we've been making phono preamplifiers for over 35 years. So what's new? Well, one of its coolest features just went remote. The GCPH has a built in gain control for the internal Gain Cell that allows you to use the device directly into a power amp. The front panel gain adjust is unique to this phono preamplifier and if you've never heard the sound of your vinyl going directly into your amplifier - with no preamp in the middle - then you really have a treat in store for yourself when you do. But now the GCPH has a remote control. With any modern GCPH you can control not only the power but you can make fine or major adjustments to the listening level from the comfort of your seat. The GCPH makes a great standalone system; all you need is a turntable and a power amp and you're in business. If you have a chance, call us at PS for details or simply head straight to your dealer to audition it.  Trio P-200 Next is the Trio P200 preamplifier. This little beauty is a killer preamplifier based on two of our Gain Cells. You might remember that the Gain Cell is our unique gain block amplifier that has no volume control. Instead, the Gain Cell is a variable gain amplifier that allows the user to set the gain of the system anywhere you want – without the use of attenuators or pots. Using this method of gain control gives us stunning openness and clarity with no change in micro or macro dynamics with level change - something most preamplifiers cannot rightfully claim. So, what's new with the P200? We listened to what you wanted and added a pair of balanced XLR inputs to the rear. Now this means that we're finally taking full advantage of the P200's balanced configuration inside. See, the Gain Cells have always been fully balanced but since we never had a balanced input, one couldn't take advantage of them in the P200. The price of the P200 as well as the GCPH remain at $995 each, so these added features are not going to cost another nickel. That's our part to keep inflation down. And speaking of Trio audio products, in my office I have a killer little system with the Trio C100 integrated, the DLIII and a cheese ball CD transport with a pair of Mark Schifter's little Rocket loudspeakers. It's really a terrific sounding system when I get to listen to it (which isn't often). Quintessence closeout Sad to say but the Quintessence, which sort of garnered the nickname 'Q lady' is going to be discontinued.  The problem with her is she's too expensive for us to build with low volumes. I think the Quintessence would have been a big hit and provided us plenty of numbers to meet costs, but the Premier Power Plant just overshadowed the poor girl.PPP's have been hot items and remain hot items. Now that the Premier's teething problems have been fixed and people are falling over themselves with words of praise for the PPP - the great results the Quintessence brings people have been lost in the mix. The truth is the Quintessence provides some of the blackest and quietest background to a system I've ever heard. It's almost scary how good she is and the Super Filter is really stunning in its ability to lower background noise, and all manner of bad stuff on the line. The Premier is just better. So, we have a limited number of Quintessence available through several of our dealers for the drop dead price of $699 (gulp). Obviously, when these are gone they are gone - and since the retail of this piece is $1195 this is a stunning deal that comes around only once in a great while. Harvester applications Lastly, just a little note about our Noise Harvester. I have been finding great results in my home by placing these little beauties near appliances and televisions. I have two behind my fridge, another down in the furnace room but the place I find them really effective is near the big screen television in the living room and near the dimmers throughout the house. I have placed a small piece of electric tape over the light on the ones near the dimmers since their  incessant blinking drives me crazy (but they sure are doing their job).In any case I bring this up just to remind folks that if you can place these in areas not in your listening room, they really do seem to make an improvement quieting appliances, dimmers and TV's (especially TV's). I have them in the listening room of course, but on the advice of several customers starting placing them in various strategic positions throughout the home to great advantage. Funny story about power cords I got a note from WA Young a few weeks ago and just had to share. 'You may remember that I e-mailed you awhile ago about the improvement that your power cord made to my cable box. Last month my cable box bit the dust, and Time Warner came by to check out the box. They wouldn't replace it until they unplugged the power cord and tried their cord. Eventually he replaced it, but only if he used their cord. A few weeks later the new box failed. This time another tech showed-up, but he already knew about my power cord. I guess the tech was totally baffled by the cord and asked other techs if they ever saw one. This time the tech was SURE the cord caused the box to fail! He told me that there was no rating on the cord and he could not tell if the cord was rated for the correct volts amps and hertz. He went into a long explaination about how cords have to have the correct ratings and using a DC cord on an AC device can cause problems. As an electrical engineer, I could hardly contain myself! I tried to explain the difference between a power cord and an outboard power supply (wall wart) but I could see that he had no clue, or any interest, about what I was saying. He would not connect the box to your cord, and told me that Time Warner would NOT service any box connected with that cord in the future! I guess I'll have to disconnect the cord next time I call them! Don't you just love the technical savvy of the mainstream home entertainment industry, and the expertise of the service staff? The sad part is that I bet he helps all his friends with their TV and audio issues because he's an EXPERT!' Till March Here in Colorado we've been inundated with snow this year and skiing up in the hills has been some of the best ever. But, we're getting tired of the winter and looking forwards to Spring. Hope life's good for you and yours. Paul McGowan |
