New gear for old tunes

Part of my "transition solution" to moving from Switzerland to India was to bring the smallest, most "value dense", "comfort-oriented" material that I could put together so that I could "feel at home" in what promised to be a very foreign land. We were not moving house, so to speak; rather temporarily relocating the family to embark upon an adventure. My survival kit consisted of, inter alia, my wife's laptop, a 500GB hard drive with all our music and a wireless MP3 music player. Once in India, all I needed to purchase would be a wireless router and eventually a desktop and - obviously - speakers.

Within two days of arrival I had snatched an apartment; and by Saturday morning my boss picked me up at the hotel and drove me to install myself in my new place. On the way we passed by Khahn Market - an up-scale market in an up-scale part of the city. Consider it part of the obligatory ex-pat "tour de ville" to identify those isles of western civilization where I could get things like European cheeses, meats, peanut butter, olive oil, imported coffee, chocolate and all sorts of food products NOT "contaminated" with Indian spices. Believe it or not, many western brands are "adapted" to the local tastes which can be a real shock especially if you are desperate for comfort. I will always remember the time I purchase some Act I popcorn only to find out that it was laced with hot peppers, paprika and curry... Poah...

As we passed store after store of western goods, I spotted an electronics shop that had a JBL Creature II speaker in the window. The Creature II has to be one of the nicest sounding computer speakers for under $150. I was already a devoted follower, having already purchased three of these little marvels in Switzerland. Matched with a music source (preferably a wireless MP3 player), you have a instant, reasonable quality music point wherever you can get the power and signal. I knew what I had to do and quickly made my purchase. Now I must have made an impression on the boss - I mean my first priority (even before toilet paper) was to pick up speakers?! Indeed these speakers are so good at what they do that several colleagues have followed my lead and purchased their own, indicating they have "transformed their listening".

One year on and three more JBL Creature II's in my possession (though not comparable to the Dynaudio Contours aminated by Krell amplification that I was used to) I felt we were nonetheless is pretty good shape acoustic-entertainment point of view. That was until I went into a clothing store in Vasant Vihar which had what was arguable the best in-store music systems I've ever heard. B..O..S..E..

Now I had visited the BOSE store in New Delhi. And I did the "demonstration" - it brought tears to my eyes. No doubt as much due to the carefully designed demo film as much as the sound of the music. Compelling, until I saw the prices of the top-end systems in India. At almost double the price of that in the US, one effectively would be purchasing one audio system for oneself and one set for the Indian tax man. No thank you. That was until I went to the clothing store.

The store had what appeared to be four Acoustimass 5 III systems running in parallel - two downstairs (front and rear) and the same upstairs. Believe it or not, the sound was so good that it didn't bother me a bit that my wife was shopping.

So this weekend, with the family off for the hot and humid Indian summer I had to go out and get the Bose Acoustimass 5 III speakers. I know their not audiophile quality, but their not audiophile priced nor do they require a Krell/Goldmund/Carver or other similar amplifier. And, most importantly, my wife will like them as they are visually minimalist. According to some ravers on the web, they could have been sonically "minimal" too - but fortunately not. In the Bose store they sounded excellent. But make no mistake, these are "I want to listen to music and live" type speakers; not "I want to listen and hear the breathing of the players in the orchestra".

They need an amp and Bose does not like selling their amps unless you purchase a very expensive system from them. One system for you; one for the tax man. Fuck that.

My solution was to go to Lajpat Rai - the local electronics neighborhood - and try to pick up an amp. Ideally, I wanted a minimalist tube amp, but the high-end audio market is virtually nonexistent in Delhi. Even finding an integrated amp is difficult and expensive. So I decided I was looking in the wrong places. Lajpat Rai was a good candidate spot to look. Furthermore, it would be my first venture into Old Delhi. My wife refused to ever go with me to Old Delhi. It has to be the most dense parts of the city and is filled with panhandlers, beggars, hucksters, people wanting to help you and to be your friend. As I'm an American, I was born looking like a tourist, so I would have to go it alone. No better time.

I counted about 30 seconds I was "on the ground" (i.e., outside the protection of my car) than a little street girl came up and started asking for money for food. I've graduated to the stage of virtually ignoring this type of activity. The girl was persistent and followed me through the twisting passages, narrow alleys and small streets that make up the electronics market in Old Delhi. She said "watch out" when I approached a ladder; and when I looked at her, she said "car that way" as she pointed in a direction that I would not have intuitively attributed to the location of my vehicle. And it was in this gesture that she got herself a job. If I was going to really explore the market, I did not want to have to pay attention to where I was going, so her job was to help me find my car.

Over the next hour I sized up about 50 stores and another 50 stalls and entered some 10-15. Finally I settled on this one store with amplifiers. Indeed many of the stores carried amplifiers. Pretty much all locally assembled in the same factory but with different labeling. The big choice: transistor vs. IC. Transistor models were more expensive than the integrated circuit models. Since I wanted to push power out, I opted for the transistor model. Cheap components, potentiometers that stick, cases that don't fit quite right - take your pick. I had the fellow fire up two models and finally opted for the one with the larger transformer. It cost about USD 31 and sounds OK. Of course when the music gets complex, the amp produces the sonic equivalent of oatmeal. But thankfully techno is forgiving... By the way, the Bose speakers sound just fine ;-)