R Johnson

Thanks very much for the tip!

A long time ago, I mentioned that the date+time format for posts was a problem for me. I find that "Today, Yesterday, Saturday," etc. is much less convenient than a simple mm/dd/yyyy hh:mm am/pm format. I came back to visit CA today. I see that quotes are time stamped that way now. Any possibility of seeing posts time stamped that way too?

Chris, does this mean that the forum software does not permit any choice of timestamp format? A real bummer if true. I use Firefox bookmarks and save the timestamp in the "name" of the bookmark. This forum's timestamp makes that virtually impossible.

I guess I must be the only person who has a problem with the current dynamic, fancy timestamp system. I'd much prefer a simple mm/dd/yyyy hh:mm scheme.

Would it be possible to have a simple time stamp of "mm/dd/yy hh:mm am/pm"?

I like to keep bookmarks to threads and include the date and time of the last post I've read - for instance as "thread title 3-22 6:58pm". The new date format makes that very difficult. What do I do with "7 hours ago"? "Yesterday" I can deal with. But "Monday" forces me to look at the calendar. I would appreciate just a simple mm/dd/yy hh:mm posting date+time display. Perhaps a user setting?

The photo in this review shows why I'm not fond of seats behind the orchestra.... Muti and CSO are back and in peak form with Rossini, Mendelssohn

I'm looking forward to checking out the new showrooms, Brian. Ron

Has anyone here experienced concerts in a "vineyard" style concert hall from different seating areas - front, side, rear, etc.? If so your observations please about the variation in sound in different areas. I've only attended such a hall -- the Berlin Philharmonie -- once. I was front right, fairly far back. My impression was that the sound was fine, but not particularly special or different than I'm used to in Chicago.

An interesting article on the acoustician for the Elbephilharmonie and other halls: Concert Halls Call on this Japanese Engineer to Shape Sound https://www.washingtonpost.com/pb/entertainment/music/japanese-engineer-sought-out-by-concert-halls-to-shape-sound/2017/02/06/cb3945b4-ece5-11e6-a100-fdaaf400369a_story.html

Many of the new concert halls, such as Disney, Paris and Hamburg, have been built with the "vineyard" concept. This puts a large percentage of the seats to the sides, and to the rear of the orchestra. This brings the audience closer to the orchestra which is great visually, but what about the sound balance from those seats? The seats behind the stage are great for watching the conductor but good luck hearing a vocal soloist facing the front of the hall.

Charlie Rose interviews Neil Young: Charlie Rose | charlierose.com Discusses Pone, Vinyl at about 7 min, 30 seconds

I watched the video and listened to the blathering. The really interesting section is about from 11:45 to 12:15 where they show signal amplitude and sound comparing "uncompressed" and "compressed" audio. All through the film they seem to to be complaining about MP3 lossy compression. But the comparison shows gross dynamic range compression (and at a greatly reduced level). Bizarre. Why did Harman International produce this film? To promote their Clari-Fi music restoration technology perhaps. Maybe Sean Olive can clarify....

New link: Bowers and Wilkins Society of Sound - Blogs - Computer Audiophile

You can download AUDIO in high quality, though I think there are slim pickings for opera, except perhaps for the big arias. But once you throw VIDEO into the mix.... What's wrong with a $100 Blu-ray player and $25 or $40 for a full opera in high-definition and high quality stereo and/or surround sound? Not much in my view.