Counting down the days now until my trip out to Chicago for two Rush shows at the United Center! Damn, that went by fast. I think I’ve managed to do a solid job of avoiding setlist spoilers. I wasn’t 100% successful, as I did inevitably stumble across a few thumbnails for audience POV YouTube videos. Written reviews on social media were easy enough to scroll past without learning too much.
In other news, I decided to jazz up the sound system for my TV and bought a sound bar and speaker with Blutooth and surround sound capabilities. Up until now, I had been using only the speakers built into my Roku TV. The bar and speaker pair weren’t too expensive, so they arrived yesterday and after hooking them up and pairing them with my TV, I tested out the sound quality with my surround mix of Marillion’s Misplaced Childhood. I own a number of special edition surround mixes of different albums, although most of them are back in California. Also, I haven’t had the equipment needed to truly appreciate the scope of the surround sound listening experience. Within seconds of the album starting, I heard the difference. It easily puts the built-in TV speakers to utter shame. The bar comes with a remote that offers different options for adjusting the audio quality, so I played around with the settings until I found a mix that sounded best to my ears. I know it’s not exactly the same as having a multi-speaker surround sound system like some of my friends do, but it’s a major improvement over what I was hearing previously.
I’d love to pick up more surround/Blu ray versions of albums somewhere down the road, though they’re kind of expensive. Even without that, my whole viewing and gaming experience has improved 10-fold, so I’m starting off great!
The Girl in the Scarf 
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