One year, we went to [the Consumer Electronics Show]—we had the prototype MX-Rs. I said, "Let's go with Wilson [loudspeakers]." They sent them to us a month ahead of time. We took that system—it had been all dialed in, all broken in, and set up for a month in our listening room. I knew how it sounded. We drove it to the show, and set it up, and I listened to it and I said, "Something's wrong. This does not sound the way it sounded back home." This was in a room we had been in before—I knew how it sounded. I spent five hours trying to figure out what it was. I was trying everything I could—room treatments, moving the speakers around. I was so frustrated. The show's about to start—it sounds wrong—something's wrong with the system—it's broken.
I lean my head against the wall, and I'm practically in tears and exhausted. I'm ready to kick a hole in the wall. And I'm looking at my feet. We put all our cables on these little wooden blocks. But guess what? The power cord going from the wall to the preamp was missing one wooden block. So there was two inches [of cord] that looped down and touched the carpet. I said, "Why is this cable touching the carpet?" There were only two guys left with me at that point, as everyone else had gone to sleep. And one said, "Oh yeah—I was setting it up and I ran out of wood blocks. I meant to get another one, but I forgot." I said, "Go get that other wood block, please." We put that one wood block underneath that one power cord, and I listened to it and I went, "Aaaahhh. Now it sounds right—now we can go to bed!"
[גם הוא פייבוריט לא קטן שם] ישב והאזין לאחת מיצירותיו של הנסן (מול המונובלוקים שלך), והודע שלמרות שהמדידות (של זה של הנסן) היו רופפות למדיי, הצליל היה הרבה יותר משובח.
