Blog Q

If I asked you to shut everything down to see if you could arrive at complete silence, would you be able to get to a state of absolute silence? Absolutely no noise? I used to hang out with a whole lot of DJs who did a lot of dance parties and raves, with pretty big sound systems, most of which were not high grade peices of technology, and the distortion and ear-damaging pressure levels were best approached with earplugs firmly in place. So when I asked them if they could find silence, I got a universal 'no', which brings me to beg the question; 'is there value in total silence?' I used to regularly go to a silent place in my head, especially in the eighties, when I laid off the recreationals, and studied the process of detoxing my body, to try and eliminate the odd annoying maladies that came my way. That was a good process, and once I'd achieved some noticeable improvements, I decided to investigate where else I could focus and 'retune' my body. When I again moved into the executive echelons of industry, I was marketing computing/IT/networking systems to corporate New Zealand, and, for want of a better place to carry it, wore a Motorola 'Brick' phone stuck in my belt. The flip 1500 model then came along and I was happy to have it in my pocket. Those phones didn't perform very well, and the networks were still fragmented, so I leapt at the chance to have a Blaupunkt mobile that one could switch to double the normal power, to 1.2 Watts, in fact, to increase performance in fringe areas. Great; I could even get signal in tunnels! But I found that my quiet place in my head had gone, replaced by a mixture of high frequency hisses, which have stayed with me to this day. I got rid of the phone, and, apart from a brief use of a MicroTac about six years ago, have done without the cellphone in any shape or form, till I came to Europe. I've had several phones here; regrettably they've never worked in the places I've needed them to work, and the quality of these flash little products, often badged 'Sony Ericsson' which, I would have presumed was a decent indication of quality, has meant that a lot of my time was spent returning great distances to the office where the contract was signed, to get a replacement. I have thrown them all away now; my partner has one, but my need for this annoying technology has completely disappeared; she can puzzle over the missed calls; I pay it no mind, but the constant reminder of the price I paid lingers in my ears. It is on my mind a little because I have had my attention brought to the fact that Slovenia is the home to Kuzma Audio, and as I spent many years of my life in the HiFi business, and prided myself on having the bestest sound system imaginable, the idea of a visit to Kuzma Audio, to 'audition' their astounding collection of record playing equipment, has me wondering if there would be any point with my residual low fi 'noise' in my ears constantly.... (and for those of you asking 'records?' let me assure you that you'd have to sell your sportscar to afford a CD player even attempting to approach a record, 33rpm, vinyl, in quality.) 'Deafening silence', is what it's all about. I challenge you; in your head, on your hifi, in your home environment; I've been there; am working on getting there again.. Quiet....How about you? Nuff said.