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From: jaw@ames.UUCP (James A. Woods)
Newsgroups: net.audio
Subject: Re: wiring house for speakers (a shortsighted idea?)
Message-ID: <1345@ames.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 17-Jan-86 21:16:01 EST
Article-I.D.: ames.1345
Posted: Fri Jan 17 21:16:01 1986
Date-Received: Mon, 20-Jan-86 03:11:58 EST
References: <2782@ut-ngp.UUCP> <3072@glacier.ARPA>
Distribution: na
Organization: NASA-Ames Research Center, Mtn. View, CA
Lines: 49

#  fools ignore complexity.  pragmatists suffer it.
   some can avoid it.  geniuses remove it.
	-- perlis's programming proverb #58, sigplan notices, sept. l982
-----
     in the future, your grandkids will ask "mommy, daddy, what were wires?"

     in the near future, you'll mumble "wish i knew that company XYZ was
coming out with infrared/RF/what-have-you stereo xmission directly
to the speakers, or better yet, that model with the receiver chip built
right into the speakers themselves, ... before i wired that house."

     the future (in powerelectrooptics, or in consumer audio, at any rate)
is closer than most people think.

     seems like the technological overkill here is even applied to
the wrong subsystem.(*)

     ok, it's safe to go back to your collective 1985 unimagination now.

     but wait, before you do, try to think of a 1986 "high end" japanese
audio company schemeing to somehow get folks to rig up their nice
compact 6-tatami mat houses with "monster cable".  or try to
imagine them catering to the luxury of having corner klipschorns
or american-style 30" tv "tubes".  hell no, they're working like mad on
flat audio as well as video transducers (made out of ricepaper
for all we know), power systems built into amorphous roof tiles,
jukeboxes on bloch-wall bubble chips, remote controls that make current stuff
look sick (just say "osawa, four seasons, summer"), ad infinitum.

     so while we american brute-force audio dinosaurs (a good subject
for a gary larson cartoon) violate a very basic principle used by
art restorers everyday (never use materials or techniques which might not
be easily undone by future technologists with a better idea)
by "wiring" houses for "audio", they are chuckling at our fumbling
incompetence.

     sincerely,
	james a. woods (ames!jaw)

-----
(*)  actually, some would argue that power wires are as unsightly as
speaker wires are ungainly, albeit with the better placement independent
of the control box.  so, for you, we have high efficiency folded horns
powered by rechargeable batteries.  what? -- don't like to drag your
speaker across the room to be charged up?  well, then, in rodriguez fashion,
how about microwave beamed power xmission, modulated with the audio
now feasible as infrared carrier?  hmmm...settle for headphones?  no?
don't like the cocktail party sound cutoff...shoulder phones?...
ceiling beams?...