No math classroom should be without one. Great! I wonder if it is a real chalkboard surface that you could write your own formulas on.

Man, I've been building these for years. I love them. Although acrylic has gotten pricey. Now-a-days I build in quarter inch MDF to save money, but it's all good anyway.

I consider myself to be both a computer geek and an audiophile since about 1966. My audiophile creds peaked with a pair of Ohm F's. (How I long for their sweet sound!) When they died and I didn't have the $10K to purchase a suitable replacement, since I had kids by then, I mostly stopped listening and focused on computers (and how to raise decent human beings). But recently I have come to find myself listening to music more and more often and looking at the current "state of the art".

First off the two hobbies supplement each other quite nicely in that one provides a more mental form of satisfaction, while the other is more emotional. But, that they can also complement each other is an area I am just beginning to explore. Should be fun.

Anyway, back to audiophiles; They come in many colors, some pompous blaggards and others true searchers for emotional arual satisfaction. I like to think that I belong to the latter group. I studied and appreciated the finer technical aspects and spent many wonderful hours listening/auditioning all the latest equipment/media/recordings as it appeared. I bought the best stuff I could afford and was very happy, but I was never satisfied.

No audiophile ever is. As an fellow audiophile explained to me, early on, when I asked him why he keeps upgrading his equipment, "Because a better system will improve your ear". It took me about a decade to confirm the truth of his answer.

He was not referring to just my physical ears but to my inner ear as well. My ability to become a better physical, emtional, and spirital (strickly non-religious) soundboard for the artist's musical statements. I know it sounds so ephemeral and all, but I found that as my equipment became better and I listened closer and broadened my musical experience - I grew. I bathed in the musical experiences. I wept, cried, tingled, warmed, laughed, danced ... and sometime felt lonliness or even disgust. I would focus completely on the music and follow all the different threads and nuances.

The live performance is the defacto standard of the aural experience. The musician(s) expressing him/her/them self(s) directly to the audience, and the more intimate the setting, well... it can bring a great deal of pleasure.

Audiophiles want to be able to accurately reproduce that aural experience, over and over again, and want to feel the resultant emotions to the same depth each time. So I would buy new equipment and listen to my recordings and experience each anew. Finding a new and more faithful reproduction in each one, thus allowing a more emotional impact than before. After awhile though, I would start finding flaws because my "ear" had gotten better. Damn! Alas, I'd start listening less and saving my pennies for my next upgrade. Humm, the word narcotic may be coming to your mind, but it was more a passionate struggle for perfection than a need for a higher-high.

Thank goodness I was saved by age. The last system I bought I never got tired of, my ear never got better. It served me until I found another emotional roller coaster to ride - the challenge of raising kids.

We have a lot of music in my household. I insisted that each child learn an instrument and how to sight-read. My kids are not above listening to my old albums and CDs. Although they are not as convenient as their iPods and Zunes, they have admitted that they do sound better (but not as loud - damn earbuds!). But instilling my love of music into them was truly confirmed when one of my kids said "I wish my (generation's) music was as good as yours was."

I shall die happy!

Sorry for the shitty post. I am not a good writer. Alas.