By Juan C. Ayllon The hum was driving me nuts. At normal listening volumes, it wasn’t apparent, however, when I played HD TV movies or music shows like “The Voice”, I had to turn up the volume on my PrimaLuna Prologue 3 preamplifier to at least the 10 o’clock position due to the lower gain on my cable TV feed -- and that’s when I’d notice it: a notable 60 Hz hum during quiet moments or when shows were paused.
Now it wasn’t a ground loop between the AT&T cable hardwired to my system, as a router and wireless access point fed the signal to a wireless TV receiver, which then connected to the TV via HDMI cable and out to my Lampizator Lite 7 DAC (Digital to Analog Converter) via optical (Toslink) cable.
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Text and photos by Juan C. Ayllon CHICAGOLAND -- It was a teenager in 1977 when seven-time Mr. Olympia winner Arnold Schwarzenegger -- also a burgeoning actor at the time -- denounced my hero, Steve Reeves. Bodybuilding was as socially acceptable as midget wrestling, but wanting muscles, I mail-ordered the Universal 12 Week Bodybuilding Course. It worked. Then on a hot summers night in Greenbriar Elementary's parking lot, former classmates Troy and Jeff took drags from their cigarettes and, looking around, slipped the over-sized book, Pumping Iron, out of a paper bag and showed me photos of Arnold. My mind blown, I became addicted to weights, muscle magazines, protein powders and the annual Midwest Open Bodybuilding Championships -- which I attended all four years of high school (I actually met Arnold when he guest posed there).
"All my friends were more impressed by Steve Reeves, but I didn’t like him," he wrote in Arnold: The Education of a Bodybuilder. "[Mr. Universe] Reg Park had more of a rough look, a powerful look while Steve Reeves seemed elegant, smooth, polished. I knew in my mind that I was not geared for elegance. I wanted to be massive. It was the difference between cologne and sweat." (Schwarzenegger) |
Juan C. AyllonA writer, artist, educator and owner of Prairie Audio Man Cave, he lives with his wife, Isabel (AKA Belle), and their Goldendoodle, Liam, enjoys listening to high fidelity music and all things hi-fi at their home in the greater Chicagoland area.. Archives
March 2024
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