Enjoying Art

How do you feel about your favourite art, whether it be music, photography, or any other medium?

Over on 35Hunter, Dan James is always serving up interesting conversations triggered by the questions he asks. I find myself writing longer responses in the comments, and at the end, I realise I have written a short blog post. You can say that Dan's blog posts generate writing prompts for my own.

One of Dan's recent posts was entitled, The Purity Of Enjoying Art Detached From The Artist. Would you please visit the link to read it? Dan put this question at the end.

How do you feel about your favourite art, whether it be music, photography, or any other medium?

Do you also have a keen interest in who created it and want to know all about them? Or are you interested purely in the art alone?

From my dad, I learned the joy of listening to the entire record album. Dad loved his Hi-Fi; sometimes, it seemed more than his kids, and he preferred listening through speakers. His stereo was a Sunday morning alarm clock for us boys.

While we enjoyed the music, Dad and I also enjoyed reading the record liner while discussing some of the technical aspects of the performance, the reproduction quality via his equipment, etc., but mostly appreciating the music and being in awe of the creativity of the musician. This is active listening.

I have Apple’s music streaming service and Spotify and tried Tidal, and I think they’re great for background music at a party, etc. But it doesn’t give me the same feeling. It’s not satisfying. These are things I’ve only come to realise recently.

So I have decent Open Air headphones from Grado, which I use for listening to albums on Apple Music. I’m building out a kit. Schiit Audio makes acclaimed headphone amps and DACs, which I’m considering purchasing.

It’s the same for photography. Instagram is a nice distraction when I’m bored. One of my joys is photo walks with fellow photo geeks chatting about the artist, process and technology. Another is reading blogs like this one where the author puts outs questions that inspire long comment responses.

If we are having a cosy evening with a small group of close friends or family around a fire, we bring out the Highland single malt. Hosting a party for work colleagues? Lowlands blend.

Grado Labs GW100 Wireless Headphones

Grado Labs - GW100 by Grado Labs (Grado Labs)

Inside the GW100 are none other than our signature Grado drivers. These speakers are the same ones we build for our wired headphones, which are finely tuned for the different enclosures we use. Grado Labs' first wireless headphone is no different, with drivers configured specifically for them. The desired sonic capabilities of the GW100 would not be possible without decades of experience in driver design.

I wants! I think the GW100 would be an excellent replacement for my ageing[^1] H/K Bluetooth headphones and would look good next to my Grado Labs SR60.

Grado

Here’s How a Family Business in Brooklyn Handcrafts Top-Notch Headphones by Stephen Heyman

Rather than being built with the snapped-together, machine assembly process used to make other high-end headphones, Grados are built primarily by hand and fused tight with special glues and bonding agents that John painstakingly tests to make sure they don’t hurt the sound quality. He is fanatical about prototyping, always rechecking new models against the same three tracks. One of them, from Eric Clapton’s Unplugged album, begins with a round of applause. "With some headphones, that moment sounds like one giant clap," he says. "I’m not happy until I’m able to hear each person clapping."

I bought my first (and only) set of Grado Labs headphones, SR60, several years ago. I love them.