Independence

Many people know that over the last year or so, I’ve lost weight and got healthier – some of this might be due to walking, as I have a daily goal of 10,000 steps (tracked by iPhone). Occasionally, I run an App to GPS track my walk, which gives a more accurate snapshot of distance/speed.

Back in September last year I wrote that since I began walking due to my “sciatica”, I’d improved walking speed from under 3mph to nearly 4mph. Now “cured”, and with iPhone 6 providing better tracking – here’s a record from October 2014:

I’m well aware that I walk still faster now, and that I have to walk further to get my 10,000 paces; yesterday I walked the same route, for a good comparison record:

So from August 2014 to now (9 months), I’ve sped up from 2.8mph to 4.8mph; my steps are longer as well as faster, and I’ve pretty well reached the limit that I can increase, unless I start running (no plans for that!)

Almost five years ago, I bought a set of big (nearly five foot tall) Wharfedale speakers. From the beginning, I knew that these speakers needed a good amplifier, and I thought we’d been sold a good one – but they’ve really never sounded like I imagined they would.
A year ago we visited Crowne Audio and got some guidance for setting up our new home – use a smaller room, and get a better amplifier for the speakers. We did set up a smaller room for music; and finally now I’ve spent a crazy amount of money on a new setup with a high end Yamaha receiver, and a separate McIntosh amplifier that has the sole job of driving the Wharfedales! I had to get the new shelf unit because the McIntosh amplifier is huge and heavy, so the room looks a little more empty now – but the shelves look good especially with the equipment on them:

Arguably I could have kept the old receiver and just added the amplifier – but the old NAD unit had lots of trouble with HDMI syncing (I’d have to turn everything on ten minutes before I wanted to view anything), so the new Yamaha receiver replaced it. Configuration and features of the Yamaha are much better too, even including an iPad App! It’s rather overkill since it’s only being used to select the source and drive the rear speakers, but anyway …

The McIntosh amplifier itself is the star of this new install of course! This MC452 unit has huge power to fully drive the two Wharfedale speakers:

 

Clearly there’s no way to convey the sound improvements, but suffice to say I’m thrilled with the results! I had to use an old subwoofer to get anything like reasonable music quality before, it always seemed like it should not be necessary and today during setup it blew out – but it’s proved my point that there’s no need for it, if the amplifier can fully drive the speakers.

Thanks to Crowne Audio for getting everything set up for me, and special thanks to Margaret for letting me buy such a crazy thing 🙂

A quick picture from earlier today of the Heron nest. Note the adult in the tree to the left; I’m not sure but I think the two in the nest are young, judging by their “fluffy” head – if so, then the adults are doing a good job this year, bringing both young to fledge: