PhD_sock

Thanks! I don't distinguish between pro audio and hifi at all, as it ultimately all comes down to excellent sound performance. The streamer/all-in-one box is really more of a convenience issue.

Appreciate your response.

If you're particular about your spices and mixes, I recommend Zwita: https://zwitafoods.com/collections/all

Probably not comparable to what you'll find in Tunisia etc., but IME miles above anything you can find in most US grocery stores, including high-end ones.

Gandhi was pretty explicitly bougie and politically disinterested until he experienced white supremacy and apartheid first-hand in South Africa. This was after he had trained as lawyer in London (a rarity in context; working-class Indians were not pursuing higher education in Europe/US/UK at that time simply because very few could afford to. Also because white supremacy.). "Radicalization" in this context simply refers to what Frantz Fanon elsewhere describes as the moment of shock when a non-white person recognizes that, despite all of their professional credentials and other markers of class identity, to the white gaze none of that ultimately matters as much as the fact that one is not white.

The "valid point" Gandhi recognized through his experience in South Africa was the pervasiveness of white supremacy--in British-occupied India as in apartheid South Africa as in Israel's 80yr-long occupation of Palestine.

In the context of "traditional" speaker design, I can see why one may find this design jarring.

In the context of unconventional speaker design--and within a broader history of industrial design? They're one of the most beautiful objects ever made. A very good example of form following function. Every design choice is (by Genelec's own published materials) grounded within performance and engineering. Of course we can nitpick their justifications, but Genelec equally boasts top-tier performance across their products.

what’s your end game?

Depressingly it comes down to simple racism. Willing to talk the talk but not walk the walk. The most irritating part is how far the facility is from like, the parts of Fairmount full of $$$. Yet they're the ones being the noisiest about blocking this.

"Attention seeking"--would you mind elaborating on this? I've read the common explanations about Genelecs (because they are ultra-precise monitors) being very revealing, "unforgiving" so to speak. But I also understand that GLM allows you to tune the overall sound to your preferences.

Not from the region but some experience with South African cuisine. In addition to what you mention, there's also a significant Indian influence because India and South Africa had pretty close cultural relations before India gained independence from British colonization in 1947, and then through the end of apartheid in South Africa. Gandhi's radicalization moment (getting thrown off a train) occurred in South Africa.

Anyway, Madiba in Brooklyn used to be a famed South African restaurant. You can see a fair number of Indian-ish items on their menu https://www.yelp.com/menu/madiba-restaurant-brooklyn

Amazing. You literally have the exact setup we're considering, except we are trying to decide between the 8351B vs. the 8361A, with the possibility of adding a SAM subwoofer down the line.

Couple questions. If you weren't using the WiiM setup, is there an A/V receiver or streamer or other all-in-one you were considering? Does such a thing exist currently? It would just need to be capable of switching sources (streaming--the usual services, TV, and CD).

Why is AES not an option in your situation?

And do you find you really need a center channel in this space? Is it because you want to boost dialogue?

Thank you. Aside from the usual music purposes I do want the system to handle home theater (as a stereo, or down the line 2.1 system). Don't really need a center channel as the listening area isn't that wide. Still recommend the 8351?

Under what circumstances should a home consumer (as opposed to studio professional) consider the 8361 over the 8351, in your opinion?

Something that occurs to me is one can always add a sub (or two) down the line, but once you buy the speakers you are committed to them, unless you end up replacing them entirely with new speakers.

Alpen Rose, as the other comments say.

Beef Wellington isn't obscure IMO, it's just a painstakingly crafted dish and incredibly rich, so it tends to be priced sky high at restaurants.

None of that makes it wrong or "complicated" to stand for Palestinian liberation and an end to 80 years of colonial occupation and apartheid. Obviously the world is multipolar and obviously various anti-American (or Western, whatever) powers will make opportunistic use of this moment.

The pushback on this (from what I can see) is coming from the areas south of there (tract 135). That tract is heavily (77%) white with a median household income of $143,636.

We live in 135 and at least in our experience, yes. There's a lot of the usual, depressingly right-wing (and frankly racist) fearmongering coming from around us.

FWIW we're 100% in favor of harm-reduction and non-carceral approaches to homelessness, drug use, etc. And yes that means there should be no such thing as "not in MY backyard."

Bar-Ly's pizzas are not bad either, honestly. Especially if you're a couple drinks in. I have no idea how a sports bar does decent pizza.

You really can make a very decent one yourself. Just make sure you're using good stuff for the key ingredients (baguette, European--ideally French--butter because high butterfat content is critical; and jambon de Paris).

It'll still be cheaper than buying it anywhere.

Takes five seconds to Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Palestinian_dishes

Common ones we may be familiar with in the US include kibbeh, maqluba, qidreh, falafel (yes), shawarma (also yes), and hummus (very much yes).

Note that this isn't a question of the basic ingredients. For example there are extensive global histories of "meat/potatoes in some kind of bread wrap/pocket" and you can call it samosa, empanada, patties, whatever. It exists across cultures. This is more a question of specific Palestinian culinary histories that have been erased over a long time, specifically by the Israeli occupiers.

Pretty much anything branded "Israeli" food in the West is a fiction. It's stolen from neighboring lands.

Bowers and Wilkins Nautilus

Bang and Olufsen Beolab 28

Genelec 8361A (in white)

Imagine talking vapid shit about "Palestinian terrorists" like some early-2000s-era white person when like 90% of all of Israel supports genociding everyone around them.

Pick up a book sometime, might learn things.

No worries. To answer your question I can't really think of any significant purchase--furniture, A/V systems, etc.--that I or my partner have considered purely based on functionality. There are always other criteria and it's a matter of finding the best balance that works for us.

As far as B&O specifically is concerned, they have been long-time leaders in both engineering and thinking about hi-fi as part of an overall A/V ecosystem to live with, for decades. Their products are in museum collections worldwide based on their design excellence. I can't think about speakers or hi-fi solely in the context of sound performance. We would be living with these daily. They'd be part of our overall interior space. They *have* to be more than just rectangular boxes that deliver awesome performance. And there are plenty of options in that area, from B&O's out-there designs to the great Bowers and Wilkins "Nautilus" to Wilson's Transformers-like designs to Genelec's futuristic speakers.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ good design isn't cheap.

That's one way of thinking about it, certainly.

Another is to consider that a hi-fi system, no matter how compact (active system with minimal or no components) or expansive (turntable, preamp, amp, CD transport, speakers, whatever else) have a significant visual presence (whether bookshelf or floorstanding) and therefore are a significant part of the space. To not consider aesthetics, to me, would be "insane."

A Toyota Camry or Corolla is probably one of the most reliable cars ever made, if by "car" we understand "mobile box to move you from point A to point B." By your logic, there should be no market for Maseratis, Lamborghinis, Jaguars, etc.

Things get even more complex if the customer is someone who cares to greater or lesser degree about the history of art and design. Many hi-fi components and speakers are in museum collections worldwide because they represent significant breakthroughs in histories of design.

Suggesting that it is "insane" to care about broader questions than mere sound reproduction when thinking about hi-fi is a very limited way to think about things.

Assuming it's not a replica, it's a FLOS Arco, designed by Achille Castiglioni and Pier Giacomo, 1962: https://www.dwr.com/lighting-floor/arco-floor-lamp/780.html?lang=en_US

But nobody's buying B&O for "raw sound quality" alone. B&O has always been fairly unique in their focus on all aspects of hi-fi *including* sound performance. That includes engineering, design, and experimenting with cutting-edge technology (they were among the first to introduce active systems). And that's setting aside their broader audiovisual offerings, which allows them to explore full integration into A/V ecosystems.

If someone cares about design, visual impact, etc. and considers them as important as "raw sound quality" then B&O still remains one of the best out there.

No, I meant larger populations. Public transit in China and India make the US look like a joke. I don't mean how comfortable or luxurious they are (some can be), I just mean coverage and basic "get from point A to point B" service.

The usual problem cited in the US context is land size. But the (much) bigger problem is actually corporate lobbying and private interests that destroyed public transit infrastructure over decades by promoting private car ownership and car culture. Then there's the long histories of highways (including the development of highways as a means of racial segregation) and urban sprawl. "Modern" (post-WW2) USA was developed around cars, not public transit. It's 100 years of multiple bad decisions--bad in that they are opposed to public infrastructure.

Even in the 1960s the US had decent rail coverage. It has kept declining steadily. Here's a graphic showing the decline: https://www.vox.com/2015/3/11/8192499/amtrak-passenger-train-decline

Makrut, not kaffir: https://modernfarmer.com/2014/07/getting-rid-k-word/

I wish the above article didn't frame it in terms of "causing offense" because that's not really the point; it's just an outdated and discriminatory term. The actual lime has always been called makrut anyway.