奧運城市

上兩個月就想介紹一篇文章，關於奧運城市在申奧成功後往往大興土木，建球場體育館宿舍等等，但在奧運結束後即荒廢，其頹敗情狀認真不堪入目，是不折不扣的勞民傷財大白象！政府落得負債累累，受害的當然是市民；而事前政府所指的經濟效益，也只是空頭支票，真正撈到油水會是貪官和朋比為奸的承建商，難怪每次申奧都有不少城市樂此不疲。

奇怪的是，2024及2028這兩屆，竟然無人問津，巴黎和洛杉磯輕易取得主辦權！還記得十幾年前遊巴黎，見不少和申奧有關的橫額海報，不過輸了給倫敦。今天聽體育台的Happy hour節目討論此話題，原來洛城是少數辦奧運真正有錢賺的城市，皆因校際體育活動及旅遊業本已相當發達，大部份設施可使用現成的：包括大學宿舍､體育館､大球場及酒店。希望到時不用加州或美國政府倒貼吧。

California Audio Show 2017

I wrote on this blog the last 2 times I attended the show (2011, 2015) It was on hiatus last year. The 2017 show was at Oakland Airport Hilton (instead of SFO) with fewer rooms (I guess it helped to manage the cost) Still, the manufacturer line up was impressive and I spent a solid 3 hours listening to various systems. The show was "divided" into 4 areas and roughly equal to 4 different classes of equipments:
1) the "sky is the limit" class has 2 rooms: the ultra-expensive Von Schweikert speakers + VAC tube monoblock amp is no doubt the best system of the whole show (well, for that price tag it gotta be)

2) the "still too expensive" class has 1 floor of bigger rooms: the Margules group is the winner here. The system was able to generate a huge soundstage with its own turntable, tube amps and (a very conventional dynamic) speakers. For electrostatic speakers, Sound Lab and Martin Logan were both there. The latter had a pair of huge ones named Neolith (for some reason I just don't appreciate it as much as the smaller systems I listened to before. Maybe the music they played turned me off :P) I would give the edge to Sound Lab. The Acapella spherical horns (speakers) sounded great with vocals too. You can't really go wrong with anything on that floor.

3) the "not too expensive" class is on the 2nd floor with smaller rooms: Audio Note UK has complete tube amp/speakers/turntable system that sounded great as usual (and doesn't require a ton of space behind the speakers) but my top pick went to Volti Audio. The design of having a horn in the middle used by the Rival speakers seem to be the way to go. And it costs less than eight grand! They were also placement-friendly like the Audio Note speakers.

4) the "affordable" class features, finally, equipments that I may buy, i.e. headphone/DAC/amp that I could listen to often. For some reason I am less "in love" with the Audeze planer magnetic headphone this time. I did find some very interesting product by SCHIIT (yeah, weird name) First, I AB-compared the headphone out on a M$ Surface tablet vs Fulla 2 DAC/AMP using a song I'm very familiar with, No Doubt's "Don't Speak" The latter sounded more detailed and fuller with an entry-level Sennheiser headphone. One step up was SCHIIT Modi 2 (DAC) and Vali 2 (AMP) combo (using a pair of Beyerdynamics DT-880. All three combined costs <$500! You can't have a better deal than this)

After checking out hardware, of course it's time for software!  I found THE deal of the show: 5 for $15 vinyl from the "guitar music"  bin of the Audio Nerd. I joked with the guy if he had something against guitar :p He said they just happened to have extra inventory. 

I  hope the show will be back in 2018!