OK so we arrive at our lovely AirBnB… as is our custom, the IT dept (me) starts setting up the temporary stereo (bluesound/audioengine/etc) with music library from home etc etc and computers and printers… meanwhile the Sousal Unit is impatient and since the ads for the house said that there are Sonos speakers, she figures she will connect spotify to one and play some tunes. But… no joy. She asks me for help … I say hey man, I don’t handle that kinda stuff, I am high-end. She tries a bunch of Sonos speakers, no music. Then after a bit she says "wait… i hear something coming from somewhere. We walk around the house trying to find it… upstairs, downstairs… cannot locate it. Finally in frustration we sort of give up and wander into the kitchen. It’s the refrigerator, playing Hendrix.
DOES THE WORLD REALLY NEED THIS???
Since then, a couple of times the fridge has spontaneously broken into song. (I have experienced this with Spotify in other situations on occasion FWIW.) She had to disconnect it from the LAN to shut it up, except now I bet it will start yelling about that and claiming it’s Being Silenced.
I keep cursing the Air BNB guests who jack with the Yamaha, Mcintosh, Bose 901system in our ranch air bnb. I am on my third set of stolen RCA cables. We offer free Tidal. But the fridge just spits out ice and water. Maybe time for an upgrade. nobody seems to take advantage of Tidal even when playing tunes when they check in They seem to bring the modern ghetto blaster blue tooth speaker with wifi.
In a store yesterday we saw… wait for it… miniature combination bottle opener/bluetooth speakers. The world is in a bad place. And when I talk to friends outside the high-end audio world, there is a nearly universal perception that this hobby is about chasing tiny and barely perceptible subtle differences. (which of course it sometimes can be, but from bottle opener bluetooth speakers to my Vandersteens is pretty non-subtle.)
