“Steve Jobs was a closet audiophile,” Rene Chun reports for Wired. “Yes, the man responsible for the iPod and the global domination of low-res MP3 files had a serious Hi-Fi fetish. As musician and audio quality champion Neil Young said in 2012, ‘Steve Jobs was a pioneer of digital music. But when he went home, he listened to vinyl.'”
“This wasn’t a just wealthy man indulging in some hipster fantasy. Jobs’s analog roots ran deep, stretching back to at least to 1982,” Chun reports. “Although he would eventually upgrade to far more exotic equipment, like six-figure Wilson Audio speakers, this old school rig is still considered serious audio porn today.”
“It should have been shipped off to the Smithsonian, preserved behind glass. But, like so many of the toys that famous men collect, it simply disappeared,” Chun reports. “For the curious, if you were to put together this same stereo rig today by picking up the components on the used market, it would cost about $8,200.”
Steve Jobs’ long-lost stereo system:
• Threshold FET-One preamp
• Threshold STASIS-1 amplifier
• Denon TU-750s digital tuner
• MK1 GyroDec turntable
• Acoustat Monitor 3 electrostatic speakers
Read more, and see the photos, in the full article here.
Amazingly how young, handsome, intelligent as he was but in the end all that had gone. Life is beautiful, dead is peaceful; however, the transition is awful, horrible, terrible, troublesome!.
Being born can be pretty bloody, as is death, and the transition can be beautiful and peaceful, especially when along the way you come across some fantastic peace of music (some Vivaldi 4 Seasons would be nice) that you have the chance to experience and listen to.
That music has an eternal quality.
I love the Four Seasons …. Frankie Valli was an awesome front man 🙂
Ow Ow Ow. Will have to try that line on some unsuspecting audiophile one day.
lol, ya beat me to it.
Zounds good to me. Thanks for the smile.
Yes, Walk Like A Man (sing like a girl…)!
Wonderful. There is a stage play about them, ‘Jersey Boys’, it’s a hoot!
Finally, another picture!
(although you look uncannily like my daughter…really)
But she probably has clear skin and doesn’t require the coverup for a case of the freckles, that is a pain 🙂
Actually, she DOES have freckles.
I have spent years trying to convince her that men are interested in HEALTHY skin, freckles and all, not just tanned (usually over-tanned) skin.
So, by ‘coverup’, I hope you mean sun-block.
Good of you to say that, about healthy skin. I do use SPF 45 when I’m in Florida, even in the rain
Actually that is my niece, although there is a family resemblance. I don’t have her cute dimples though
Frankie Vivaldi and the Four Seasons?
Electrostatic speakers! I like the man even more now. Though of course by the time you can afford really good treble, you’re too old to hear it.
Ain’t that the truth?
What’s thatch y’say??
Yeah that’s why I don’t get hot and bothered by 24 bit sound. What’s the point if you can’t even hear the difference between 192kbps MPEG3 and 16/44.1 uncompressed audio? Doubtful even Neil Young can now hear much of a difference unless he has golden ears.
Like these?
http://www.goldenear.com/products/triton-series
Hmmm, nice.
Yes, and yet, these keep calling me…(in a red finish)
http://www.tektondesign.com/lore.html
While I am on the other line talking to these
http://www.svsound.com/speakers/ultra-series/ultra-tower#.U2G7aF6xFKg
(all the while my Wharfes are asking ‘who is that you’re talking to?’)
🙂 I feel your pain.
These are the ones I’ll never be able to afford
http://www.soundlab-speakers.com/
Yes, I have a list of speakers like that, along with a list of models I’ll never be able to, uh…..afford.
😉
Oh yes! Am still running 30 year old Quad ESL63s powered by a Naim NAP 250 amp fed by my direct cut vinyl library. Ancient but almost unbeatable.
A truly immersive listening experience.
The picture says it all about ESl speakers: you need lots of room, no furniture and there is only one spot in the room where the sound is truly good
My first job, my first credit card, my first purchase… Speakers. 🙂 Circuit City, 1988…
However being just a kid, I didn’t know much. I got the best I could afford or thought I could afford. $300 (might be for the pair or each), Infinity… However buyer’s remorse set in quickly. The speakers $/P=V, was not much different than cheap Radio Shack Realistic speakers I got on special, some thing like 50% off, less than $100 OTD. I mean the $300 speakers were better, bigger and louder, but my gut sank when I realized I wasn’t satisfied. I returned them.
Maybe the value would be worth it to some people, but not to me. $8200 for a sound system, I think would make me throw-up.
“the man responsible for the iPod and the global domination of low-res MP3 files…”
That’s a bit of misrepresentation. Jobs isn’t responsible for “low-res” MP3 files. There are better digital files than those found on iTunes, but Apple has done a pretty good job of providing decent files. I certainly wouldn’t categorize them as “low-res”.
Time for iTunes to start offering Apple Lossless tracks. Maybe even 24 bit for those that can still hear the difference.
Indeed, he was responsible for creating a legitimate way of purchasing songs in higher quality that what was being freely shared back then via napster, kaaza etc. It was no-taste windows users bandying crappy mp3s about. At one point, iPods were derided precisely by “how few songs they held” compared to other manufacturers of MP3 players, but upon close inspection, this was only due to the lower quality bit-rates (by half or more) everyone but apple was using.
I agree… and don’t.
On principle, I find it fairly accurate that Jobs was responsible for the digital file domination. Yes, Apple tried to provide better digital files than most, and did so in the AAC format, rather than MP3s. But it still doesn’t hold a candle to even CD quality, much less true audiophile level (for those who can hear the difference – I can, but only rarely. I suspect it has to do with the method of digitizing the material more than the media/format itself. Yes, I understand 44.1 kHz and 16 bit, and I record at 96/24, but other than reverb tails, the difference is mostly lost on me, even after I convert my own material.)
My biggest disagreement, though, is not in the MP3/AAC difference, but in that Apple pushed “low-res” at all. That was Napster and their ilk. The low-res “domination” that happened was more from illegal file sharing than legit downloads, especially from Apple. Apple pushed a much higher quality than others. Still not audiophile level, as above, but better than most.
Commenting about Neil Young and iTunes. I suspect for Steve, iTunes is as much a compromise as anything else.
For Apple, not only is quality important, but also cost effective (the 99 cent, sweet spot) and scaleability. So in the beginning that left us with a ho hum audio format, if at least he went with MP3 it would be worse. So with AAC, it was better, but also DRM… They did the best with what they had to work with.
Today, they could up the quality and price, without loosing much in the way of sales or scalability. Which I think is what they are doing away. No more DRM, and Lossless audio.
If they want to listen to Neil Young, they would go with FLAC. I think lossless w/compression is good enough for most, but the audiophiles.
“the man responsible for the iPod and the global domination of low-res MP3 files”
Low-res? Obviously Rene Chun never tried a Sony mp3 player.
BTW – I don’t miss all the clicks and pops of vinyl.
The thing about all that astronomically priced kit is that a good set of headphones sounds better than any speakers money can buy for a fraction of the cost.
No, they don’t.
(but I do love my Beyer DT 990 Pros….)
Love my Bowers & Wilkins headphones (P5).
To be truthful, I rarely use my component system these days. More commonly I listen to my iTunes audio through a Focal 2:1 kit that has a built-in DSP- much better sound than the MacPro’s built in audio.
I use a Fiio E17 Alpen and Audirvana on my MacBook Pro when traveling and my Peachtree Nova/Mini combo w/Audirvana when at home (for speakers and cans).
I regret my spousal unit can’t stand base. My Definitive Technology subwoofer sits forlornly in the basement, unplugged. 😰
‘Spousal unit’? Maybe this planet is Trantor after all
I do not see the Threshold Stasis 1 mono-amplifiers