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Updated: 5 days ago

Oh, the stock market has gone crazy about the prospects of AI. 


The stories are everywhere about how everyone is going to be replaced by it so you better buy stock in it if you have any hope of making an income.  A fine bit of misinformation in my humble opinion.  Fear mongering for profit, actually.


Our first experience with it came as a result of a customer doing some research about a product of a company we represent.  The President of that company was trying to resolve a situation with a product and there were various proposals discussed.  The customer's choice, however, was influenced by incorrect information provided by AI.  This caught the attention of the company triggering an attempt to correct it with, in this case, Google.  The customer made a good and correct choice, mind you, but with the wrong information.  It could have gone the other way. 


Being curious, I decided to set the wonderful new system to the test.  What else is AI saying and so I searched my own company, Audible Elegance.  What I discovered was, to say the least, disappointing and, in some aspects, harmful to the reputation of my business.  Peppered in the AI response was all sorts of nasties not about us, but about a company with a similar name, Audible, which is a podcast company of entertainment, principally books.  We, ourselves, are quite familiar with that company and every week we receive 10 to 25 calls from their subscribers wanting to talk to them and, as we can gather from the AI review, well, they are not happy campers.  So, the reality is that Google AI is publishing negative and frightful information related to Audible, the podcast company, and not us.  Yet, there's our name attached to it.  I have little doubt that this is happening to many companies and many individuals. 


What is so equally common about these mega-distributors of information, or misinformation, is that it is nearly impossible to hold them accountable for harm they cause.  Multiple attempts have been tried and failed.  They just do what they do and you can go screw yourself.  Yet, they will net immense stock gains every time they mention what they are doing with AI all to the benefit of both management and large investment houses like BlackRock. Who gets harmed in all of this doesn't matter because they will never be invited to their country club. I have sent feedback to Google about what I saw but who knows if and when they will ever correct it.  So, what does this all mean?


I have said time and time again, review the reviewer.  I, myself, place little credibility in AI at this time.  Maybe in the future, yes, but certainly not now based upon multiple other searches.  Some information can be correct, yes, but there is also bad information contained there-in. Like I say, "there's no sense in idiot-proofing anything because they will always build a better idiot." 


Now we have one that many will simply falsely follow like the Pied Piper and Rats.  Remember, he eventually led all their children away too.  Be careful not to be led astray.  Use multiple sources and, if possible, talk to a human.  We are still needed and waiting. 


-AI Lou


 
 
 

Take a step forward (or quit being afraid)


I have been remiss in writing a monthly blog although it has been on my mind.  I have been, like many, watching and reading the news and thinking about my place in it.  It was only recently that all the pieces fell into place.


With the way news is being handled, it is causing many people to crawl into a corner.  The news has become a mirror of political campaigns or visa-versa.




  Yet, we all are pretty disgusted with political advertising as it is always negative and what's wrong with the other person.  We are all relieved when elections are over because we don't have to listen to it any longer.  Oddly enough, however, common news is given a passing grade when the very same type of negativism needs to be followed.  


Years ago, as many of you know, my wife began to suffer from a genetic heart disease known as Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (or HCM).  Notwithstanding all the attempts to fix the problems (which required multiple surgeries), it began to fail.  This required a heart transplant which she received Thanksgiving Day, 2020. In the 4 years following that event, Deb eventually forced into retirement by her employer as she no longer had the steady hands needed to draw blood.  This was caused by the medications to prevent rejection.  In addition to this, over the next four years, she nearly died 8 or 9 times.




Through this, I made about 65 trips to the Cleveland Clinic from Virginia to be at her side not knowing the outcome. It was difficult on both of us.  Yet, through this all, a seed was planted.


Shortly after she was "retired" Deb began to plan her future and decided to pursue the path of being a social worker to help other transplant families.  As Covid protocols were still rampant, she chose Mary Baldwin University of Viginia as they offered on-line courses.  Working with them, they pieced together a path using credits she had previously earned nearly 40 years ago from another university combined with their program. 


Over the next few 2 ½ years Deb worked away on getting this degree and in the process held a GPA of 3.98 with honors.  In April of 2024, her transplanted heart began to fail.  The Cleveland Clinic offered the chance at a second heart transplant.  So, amazingly, while she was lying in bed from that time to August 21st, Deb continued to work away at earning her degree.  I, for my part, continued all the support necessary to run a farm, keep a household and run Audible Elegance which I have been visiting when I can. I made multiple trips during that time to continue the emotional support. On May 18th, she graduated from Mary Baldwin with her degree.  She plans more....  

Debbie's Graduation May 18th 2025
Debbie's Graduation May 18th 2025

So, why write about this?  It is because she could have chosen to crawl into the corner and eventually die.  She not only chose to live but to see to others who are on this path.  It is, for both the patient and caretaker, not always an easy path.  She stood up and chose life.  It took 43 years to graduate and she did it after so many of life's distractions. 


Most recently she has been declared legally blind as a result of all the trauma her body has been through.  She has lost peripheral vision.  I am now her transportation to the future.  We are not giving up, we are not hiding in a corner.  We are looking forward. 


So, indeed it saddens me when I see perfectly healthy people crawling into the corner afraid to live life.  Afraid to enjoy the things of life, afraid to bring things into the life for enjoyment, afraid of what tomorrow may bring.  Well, from my experience, I can only say to you is to live life, enjoy life, and quit being afraid of tomorrow.  


-Lou

 
 
 

I received another question from a patron on our YouTube channel regarding one of several videos about using ASC Tube Traps. I thought I'd share the inquiry and a follow-up discussion:


"I'm sorry Lou but, I can be rather "basic" in my understanding about some aspects of audio reproduction. What do they do, for whom - what condition might they be needed? I'm assuming booming resonance in corners? If/when I ever get that, it's only when playing vinyl at high, high volumes (which I rarely use). I won't get any of that with my CD player."

The Standard ASC Tube Traps
The Standard ASC Tube Traps


Let me address your basic understanding from a different angle. The human ear locks in on the loudest (highest amplitude) sound for both location and understanding. When there are two sources (or more) of a sound, understanding may be difficult and it's location undetectable. Thus, when you are trying to talk across a gymnasium, for example, it is difficult to both understand and to know where the sound is coming from. As you walk closer to each other, there will become a moment when both "lock" in. That is because the direct sound (speech) is louder than the first reflections.


In both stereo and home theater, there is a steering logic. In stereo, it is provided by the difference in the arrival time of the sound recorded. In home theater, this is also true but there is also intentional delays to create the effects of things moving sonically. Where devices like ASC tube traps and others come into play is dealing with these reflections or imbalances in frequencies affecting both the clarity and location of the sound. The most common ones addressed are known as first reflections.


Think of sound coming out of the speaker and bouncing off the side wall like a billiard ball hitting the first rail. Thus, some form of control is used at that point to reduce (absorb) the amplitude of that signal. It is easy to find these points by sitting in your listening position and having someone move a mirror down the side walls until you can see the face of the speaker reflected in the mirror. That's a first reflection point. What many people forget, by the way, is that the same thing happens off of ceilings and floors.


Where devices like the ASC Traps come into play, which by the way was first created by Bell Laboratories, is providing a variable adjustment to the absorption or reflective needs. This is done by a tube with a slot in it and depending upon the specific frequency range targeted, the trap diameter changes. Smaller diameters address higher frequencies than say large diameter ones. Conversely, the larger the diameter, the less effective they are at higher frequencies. This is because each frequency has a known length to form a complete wave. Flat panel devices, say office dividers, are very narrow in the range they work and there is no changing their effect. That's why such things are used in call centers so that you don't hear other voices.


Does their "effect" depend upon volume? Not really although volume may make it more obvious. But rooms full of reflections usually disrupt both the sense of stereo imagery and the steering of sound in home theaters. Many original THX certified speakers, for example, specifically controlled vertical dispersion to avoid reflections off the ceiling (principally) or the floor. In theaters, it is quite common to have some form of damping material on the side walls to avoid those first reflections for any location in the theater.


The biggest risk of such devices is a combination of over-damping a room and/or not addressing the right frequency where the problem exists. In a funny sort of way, that's why many equalizers in home usually looked like a smile. They knew they had a problem but did not know how to fix it and sometimes it is the room itself.  Going about it without understanding what is wrong is like constantly adding things to a soup where you end up with a large pot is distasteful goo. 

 

Hope this helps you see (hear) the picture a bit better.


-Lou



 
 
 

513-793-3737

9462 Montgomery Road
Cincinnati, Ohio 45242

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