This is a recount of two of the coolest places to listen to music I've ever been to.
Years ago I was in a band with a guitarist who, for a short time, had a girlfriend whose parents were quite well off, living in a huge house in a suburb by the lake. Miraculously her parents never seemed to be home. Great times...
Due to the size of the place and the type of people we were back then, this home made for a great party venue. At the end of one of many wild nights, I found myself falling asleep in a very large downstairs room, a very wide open space only interrupted by a couple of plush, single-seat, white leather recliners.
The walls of the room held rows of stylish CD racks. The kind you used to find in record stores where they displayed the top selling CDs - stored in horizontal rows showing the full face of the CD artwork. Very cool.
Of course, this room was replete with a gorgeous surround sound system which was just perfect to listen to as the night drew to a close and sleep set in...
The other room I remember vividly was a completely different experience. Some friends of mine a couple of years back were in the process of house-hunting. On one of their explorations, I joined them for a brief inspection of a rather old home, adjacent to thick bushland, with none of the opulence of the aforementioned property.
One room in this place could only be described as a "listening room". It was a fair sized room, not overly large, but certainly not cramped. In the middle of the room was an old, single-seat, dark green leather chair. The chair was perfectly placed among the surround speakers of a magnificent stereo system. There were no other decorations or distractions in the room. No coffee table, no vases, no other chairs. Just a seat among the speakers.
This place has stayed in my mind for several years now, though I was only in the room for a minute at most. The scarcity of objects in the room highlighted a dedication to its purpose - listening, without distraction.
It was not a "media room", a "cinema room" or a "home theatre". It was just a seat among the speakers. And I loved it.
Years ago I was in a band with a guitarist who, for a short time, had a girlfriend whose parents were quite well off, living in a huge house in a suburb by the lake. Miraculously her parents never seemed to be home. Great times...
Due to the size of the place and the type of people we were back then, this home made for a great party venue. At the end of one of many wild nights, I found myself falling asleep in a very large downstairs room, a very wide open space only interrupted by a couple of plush, single-seat, white leather recliners.
The walls of the room held rows of stylish CD racks. The kind you used to find in record stores where they displayed the top selling CDs - stored in horizontal rows showing the full face of the CD artwork. Very cool.
Of course, this room was replete with a gorgeous surround sound system which was just perfect to listen to as the night drew to a close and sleep set in...
The other room I remember vividly was a completely different experience. Some friends of mine a couple of years back were in the process of house-hunting. On one of their explorations, I joined them for a brief inspection of a rather old home, adjacent to thick bushland, with none of the opulence of the aforementioned property.
One room in this place could only be described as a "listening room". It was a fair sized room, not overly large, but certainly not cramped. In the middle of the room was an old, single-seat, dark green leather chair. The chair was perfectly placed among the surround speakers of a magnificent stereo system. There were no other decorations or distractions in the room. No coffee table, no vases, no other chairs. Just a seat among the speakers.
This place has stayed in my mind for several years now, though I was only in the room for a minute at most. The scarcity of objects in the room highlighted a dedication to its purpose - listening, without distraction.
It was not a "media room", a "cinema room" or a "home theatre". It was just a seat among the speakers. And I loved it.
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