Why house cats make Hifi sound better

[VinylRob]

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That, or when they come up and mark your nose with theirs. Usually, there's a pretty good purr heard at the same time. :thmbsp:

So cool isn't it? I just got the nose mark, to cheek rub, to full body side rub right to the end of the tale from my orange tabby Zoe tonight. That was a pretty good, hi, I missed you. My does absence make the feline heart grow fonder (was just gone to my friend Jeff's for a couple hours listening to how his Graham Slee has burned in to perfection).

Sabrina looks like quite a charmer. Feed me more Hifi Bozzman!

Happy Listener!

 

[chicks]

Getting some love right now. Lying on my back, cat on my chest, purring, rubbing her face on my chin, licking my 3-day stubble with her rough-ass tongue, and digging her claws into my chest. Love hurts!

 

[Mr. Lin]

Getting some love right now. Lying on my back, cat on my chest, purring, rubbing her face on my chin, licking my 3-day stubble with her rough-ass tongue, and digging her claws into my chest. Love hurts!

Haha! I feel you're pain, literally. In my mind this has often raised the question: "Does it actually feel good to cats to be on the receiving end of this?!"

And with the headbutt thing, sometimes I'm concerned one of us is going to end up with a concussion.

 

[VinylRob]

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Well, I caught Wheels in the act of rubbing his cheeks down the rows of albums in our record room again today. The secret lives of cats, including the audiophile varieties, are not that much different then we are, really... Some say the rubbing thing, it is to leave their mark, I think it just feels good and he may even (with a far greater sense of smell) be able to sniff out some of the stories trapped in those album covers. The smell of different cover art ink, the smell of mold release, and especially the second hand ones, the smell of someone else's house who owned the record before I did, maybe they had a dog, maybe they were enjoying a snack while perrrrrusing the liner notes, maybe they smoked, maybe a little stash is still trapped in the fold out seam. I can't fault him, he seems to be having a good time.


Ah, the smell of vinyls!

Happy Listener!

 

[Mr. Lin]

We used to have a tuxedo cat that looked very much like your Wheels. She arrived at our doorstep one day (I was two years old at the time), and my mom named her "Fibi" because my dad was away at a police conference taking place at the FBI Academy.

 

[bobbyonions]

I've been thinking of a feline for the next upgrade in my system. I was considering wires (interconnects), but I think a well placed cat or two will probably have a greater impact.

A couple questions though.

Do they need break-in time or are they good right out of the box?

I'm a little fuzzy on the positioning. Generally where are they best placed and how do you get them to stay there?

Can they be hung on a wall as long they are anchored to a stud?

I need help.

 

[VinylRob]

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I've been thinking of a feline for the next upgrade in my system. I was considering wires (interconnects), but I think a well placed cat or two will probably have a greater impact.

A couple questions though.

Do they need break-in time or are they good right out of the box?

I'm a little fuzzy on the positioning. Generally where are they best placed and how do you get them to stay there?

Can they be hung on a wall as long they are anchored to a stud?

I need help.

I think you are embarking on one of the hugest impacts on your audiophile existence. And like some say about subwoofers, one is nice, two are better (please excuse all the canine references).

They are good, right out of the box yet, like most thing, a little break in and a good warm up always yields a preferred performance!

You may find that the fuzziness never subsides but tranquility and happiness overcome you. Everyone has different ideas about how to get to that perfect placement... I have studied and tried such things as the Fibonacci's sequence, machined points, sand boxes, constrained layering, Velcro, blue-tac etc... and all applied to house cats will yield (from the feline) deleterious sonic results due to the fiercely independent feline demeanor, and I have come to the hard earned conclusion that you can force a situation too far. My recommendation for free roaming is the most practical answer. This would include detouring you from the seemingly good idea of hanging them from a stud as there are too many instances where you will become a slave to your passion (although sonically remarkable), food breaks and that other break as a result of the previous. Let's just say, cat's take a lot of breaks, even so they are still a huge addition to good listening and you will completely miss out on rewards of having your little Hifi buddy(s) join you in the sweet spot otherwise.

bobbyonions, I hope some of this helps in properly setting up a true audiophile rig and experience and sets your mind to rest knowing that you are on the right track.

Happy Listening!

 

[bobbyonions]

I think you are embarking on one of the hugest impacts on your audiophile existence. And like some say about subwoofers, one is nice, two are better (please excuse all the canine references).

They are good, right out of the box yet, like most thing, a little break in and a good warm up always yields a preferred performance!

You may find that the fuzziness never subsides but tranquility and happiness overcome you. Everyone has different ideas about how to get to that perfect placement... I have studied and tried such things as the Fibonacci's sequence, machined points, sand boxes, constrained layering, Velcro, blue-tac etc... and all applied to house cats will yield (from the feline) deleterious sonic results due to the fiercely independent feline demeanor, and I have come to the hard earned conclusion that you can force a situation too far. My recommendation for free roaming is the most practical answer. This would include detouring you from the seemingly good idea of hanging them from a stud as there are too many instances where you will become a slave to your passion (although sonically remarkable), food breaks and that other break as a result of the previous. Let's just say, cat's take a lot of breaks, even so they are still a huge addition to good listening and you will completely miss out on rewards of having your little Hifi buddy(s) join you in the sweet spot otherwise.

bobbyonions, I hope some of this helps in properly setting up a true audiophile rig and experience and sets your mind to rest knowing that you are on the right track.

Happy Listening!

Awesome! All I need to do now is decide on a color and I'm good.

 

[VinylRob]

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cats and speaker grill cloth. Need I say more?

All my quality gear is covered in blankets and are on casters to move around easily

My cats love light classical and jazz music

What do you suppose THESE look like to a cat

Ahhh, really valuable vintage mid-century modern speaker towers???
Do I get a second guess?

Happy Listener!

 

[VinylRob]

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Acoustically treating a room generally only reduces unwanted frequencies at best and any kind of boosting is usually rather un-audiophile like, and then... While playing a piece of music the other day I was observing once again that when my little cat buddy Wheels joined me listening to my understandably, somewhat low level deficient but enjoyable, old Linn Sara monitors, if he chimed in by purring with the music in a frequency range from about 27 to 44 hertz there was quite a noticeable and pleasant improvement sonically, and with him sitting right next to me, there was even maybe a slight addition to the visceral experience. I must say, that is fundamentally pretty far down there at the bottom of piano and into bass regions. I found this quite charitable of my little feline friend and he made no big deal of it at all and continued to purr intensely (and in tune sort of) right through the entire Bach performance and I think he seemed to enjoy the contribution of his own accompaniment as well and then he really cranked it up along with the hollow body guitar and bass line when I followed up playing a Cowboy Junkies disc. Funny thing was by then, he is so good at this, he purred through half of the second CD in his sleep. So, for anyone experiencing a low frequency dip in their listing environment (that doesn't quite require a big ass subwoofer) I highly recommend inviting the house cat in to listen too and maybe, just maybe they will even contribute to the performance sonically. I wonder if like subwoofers, two are better than one for Hifi? I'm not sure I can count on that one.

Happy Listening!

 

[chef free]

I have noticed that the mass of the cat is proportional to the improvement of sound quality!

 

[jdurbin1]

If that's true, I am in sonic nirvana... that's a 17 pounder, though he feels more like 20+ lbs when he's on my legs like this.

John

 

[DC]

I'm not so sure I agree. Athena, here, is a svelte 7-8 pounds and brings with her a positive sonic signature unbefitting her diminutive stature.

 

[VinylRob]

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I think the mass thing has some validity for low frequency perrrrfection but not as a bass trap, like I suggested earlier in this thread, the girl friend weights in at a bit more than my two tabbies and Wheels (in his tuxedo pictured above) combined, and yet I would have to say (between us guys) the Hifi sound seems better when Wheels is there as apposed to having the Gf in the room and to top it off, the Gf doesn't purr so there is no low frequency enhancement... go figure.

Happy Listening! :beatnik

 

[VinylRob]

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Yes, I know Cat Power is playing the Royal Oak Music Theatre tonight,
Yes, I'm sure Chan Marshall is pro feline,
Yes, I know this is one of lives many ironies,
Yes, you're a cat, you dig Chan's Cat Power music, you live in a home that poses all of her records and ironically,
No, you would not be allowed to attend the show as management would never go for it, regardless of the logic...

not so Happy (feline) Listener!

 

[sony6060]

post deleted by moderator.
Jeesus, you guys start drinkin' early tonight?

 

[tyeeslayer]

post deleted by moderator.

 

[VinylRob]

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Well, like all good things, we have our brief moments to shine and share this experience. Last Sunday, one of my little music listening buddies Zoe shuffled off this mortal coil. After seventeen plus years of companionship, the cancer he had, left us with nothing further humanly possible to do, than let go of him. So he passed away at home, with the help of our vet, while the music was playing. For those who knew him and his dedication to being part of the audiophile experience, whether it was sitting for hours just with me listening, getting up when I got up, just to change the record side, then settling back in, or joining my SMAC friends and I, to take in the collective experience. Not meaning to anthropomorphize him too much, but he not only really seemed to enjoy the music quite a bit but, added to my enjoyment of the listening experience by just keeping company through long listening sessions. He would also often sit on the knoll post of our staircase, directly centered behind the listening couch in the living/listening room for a whole record side. He never once chewed a cable, scratched a speaker grill, nor put paw prints on a valuable pressing. Zoe will be missed, he was a rare one.

Happy Listening!

 

[mech986]

RIP Zoe, you'll see him again on the other side of the Rainbow Bridge. Till then,

 

[VinylRob]

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Thanx mech986!