Yes, we do have electricity in Hawaii, well, most of the time.
Out here, we're getting our juice from burning coal and bagasse at a "make work" sugar mill operation which hasn't been economically viable for years; a 30 MW wind farm, about to double in capacity; and some gas turbines. If the weather isn't too windy, if nobody drives into a phone pole, if there aren't any earthquakes, if it doesn't rain, and if everyone shows up for work at Hawaiian Sugar, the lights stay on.
Music and electronics have both played important roles in my life from an early age. I take great delight in a variety of musical genres, listening during the day to a computer-based office system, with a second reference system in the living room for evenings. If it's well-performed and well-recorded, that's what matters to me.
As a native New Englander, despite spending almost my entire adult life at least 5000 miles away from home, I have in fact enjoyed countless hours in Symphony Hall with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Haendel and Haydn Society.
However, the continuing prospect of six months a year enduring cold and darkness, plus the sale of my first high-tech scientific image-processing startup, prompted a relocation to Hawaii. Eventually I landed on Maui, where the music scene is quite lively: Willie Nelson lives there part-time, sometimes materializing in North Shore hang-outs unannounced. And Maui’s attractions bring in the likes of Björk, Aerosmith, Eddie Vedder and many others, looking for some R&R at the end of a long tour.
As a balance to my current “real” work in knowledge-visualization software, my hobbies include writing detailed, possibly interminable, reviews on high-end gear over at www.6moons.com. My goals in participating in 6moons and this forum are to help consumers, especially those new to this, figure out to tackle the complexities of digital audio so that they end up with really enjoyable, satisfying, engaging and low-maintenance music in their homes and offices. These days, sure, you can spend a fortune, but you don't have to in order to get truly excellent performance.
It seems like I've been doing this online, and in print, for quite a while, over 20 years (!), helping the enthusiast community understand new technologies and product categories. This all started with HDTV in the original incarnation of The Perfect Vision back in 1987 (“HDTV is just around the corner.”).
These efforts continued to evolve with extensive coverage of the emerging digital media technologies, including the first digital music server review in the The Absolute Sound, the Linn Kivor. Featuring a non-shiny-disc based product in TAS as recently as 2004 raised quite a few eyebrows, but the editor, Robert Harley, had (and still has) his eye on the future. In the past few years, TAS, TPV, and Mix have published 20+ columns, equipment reviews, articles and other contributions along these lines.
As Robert always reminded me (and I think he was reiterating one of the main principles promulgated by the late J. Gordon Holt), "trust your ears". If it doesn't sound right, to you, well, it probably isn't. But you can also figure out, with a little coaching, how to make it much, much better.
Out here, in the Land of the Lotos Eaters, I participate in the Maui enthusiasms of world-class yoga, meditation, looking off my porch into the jungle, swimming at Hookipa, hanging with the surfer dudes and dudettes in Paia, and attempting to train a pair of parrots.
Out here, we're getting our juice from burning coal and bagasse at a "make work" sugar mill operation which hasn't been economically viable for years; a 30 MW wind farm, about to double in capacity; and some gas turbines. If the weather isn't too windy, if nobody drives into a phone pole, if there aren't any earthquakes, if it doesn't rain, and if everyone shows up for work at Hawaiian Sugar, the lights stay on.
Music and electronics have both played important roles in my life from an early age. I take great delight in a variety of musical genres, listening during the day to a computer-based office system, with a second reference system in the living room for evenings. If it's well-performed and well-recorded, that's what matters to me.
As a native New Englander, despite spending almost my entire adult life at least 5000 miles away from home, I have in fact enjoyed countless hours in Symphony Hall with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Haendel and Haydn Society.
However, the continuing prospect of six months a year enduring cold and darkness, plus the sale of my first high-tech scientific image-processing startup, prompted a relocation to Hawaii. Eventually I landed on Maui, where the music scene is quite lively: Willie Nelson lives there part-time, sometimes materializing in North Shore hang-outs unannounced. And Maui’s attractions bring in the likes of Björk, Aerosmith, Eddie Vedder and many others, looking for some R&R at the end of a long tour.
As a balance to my current “real” work in knowledge-visualization software, my hobbies include writing detailed, possibly interminable, reviews on high-end gear over at www.6moons.com. My goals in participating in 6moons and this forum are to help consumers, especially those new to this, figure out to tackle the complexities of digital audio so that they end up with really enjoyable, satisfying, engaging and low-maintenance music in their homes and offices. These days, sure, you can spend a fortune, but you don't have to in order to get truly excellent performance.
It seems like I've been doing this online, and in print, for quite a while, over 20 years (!), helping the enthusiast community understand new technologies and product categories. This all started with HDTV in the original incarnation of The Perfect Vision back in 1987 (“HDTV is just around the corner.”).
These efforts continued to evolve with extensive coverage of the emerging digital media technologies, including the first digital music server review in the The Absolute Sound, the Linn Kivor. Featuring a non-shiny-disc based product in TAS as recently as 2004 raised quite a few eyebrows, but the editor, Robert Harley, had (and still has) his eye on the future. In the past few years, TAS, TPV, and Mix have published 20+ columns, equipment reviews, articles and other contributions along these lines.
As Robert always reminded me (and I think he was reiterating one of the main principles promulgated by the late J. Gordon Holt), "trust your ears". If it doesn't sound right, to you, well, it probably isn't. But you can also figure out, with a little coaching, how to make it much, much better.
Out here, in the Land of the Lotos Eaters, I participate in the Maui enthusiasms of world-class yoga, meditation, looking off my porch into the jungle, swimming at Hookipa, hanging with the surfer dudes and dudettes in Paia, and attempting to train a pair of parrots.
