A new beginning…

Hello everyone.

My name is Eric and I’m starting this blog to document my experiences as I begin my journey into the world of high fidelity audio and visual entertainment.

I recently graduated with a degree in journalism from the University of South Florida, where I spent the last two years of my life working as Associate Editor for the University newspaper. While working for the exclusively student-run Oracle had its advantages — never having to leave campus, always having a reasonable excuse for being late to class, ect. — it also meant that as soon as I walked across the stage in my cap and gown, I was effectively “disqualified” from my job. As such, the hangover from my graduation party had barely passed before reality set in and I realized that, wow, I have to get a “real” job.

As a print reporter by trade, I began my job search at the local newspapers in my area. However, economic woes — even prior to the events that transpired in September of 2008 — had very recently forced many publications to lay off large numbers of workers. Thus, the only work I would be able to find would be as a part-time correspondent — meaning few hours, no benefits and only a small chance of upward mobility in an increasing shrinking industry. Keeping all this in mind, I expanded my search to include professions in other industries I thought might interest me. When a South Tampa-based consumer electronics sales and integration company named Audio Visions South offered me a job, I jumped at the opportunity to get my foot in the door with a company that would, at the very least, provide me with “some awesome stuff to listen to and look at.”

Like most people, I have always enjoyed listening to music, but I have never been what you would consider an “audiophile.” Sure, I knew MP3 files were compressed, lower quality versions of the original audio track and that certain types of speaker cables were considered superior to others but, honestly, I didn’t think any of that mattered much. I mean, music is music right? As obvious at it might seem, it wasn’t until I was exposed to the world of high fidelity audio that I realized how much having the proper equipment and setup could change your entire musical experience.

Now that I’ve been given a glimpse of this world, I can safely say that I see what I’ve been missing. This doesn’t mean that I have thrown away my iPod and now refuse to listen to anything that isn’t deemed “hi-fi” because, lets face it, when you need some good tunes to work out to or some background music while you clean up the house, the convenience and capacity of the modern MP3 player fits the bill perfectly. However, I have learned that if you choose to create a system that will allow you to truly listen to your music — something I have realized I had rarely done before — it can evoke the kind of visceral experience that makes one realize why the combination of sounds known as music has captivated humanity for thousands of years.

So, with this blog, I’m inviting you to join me in my quest to become the “absolute audiophile”. An inherently impossible goal I know, but, as the old Chinese proverb so aptly puts it, “the journey is the reward.”

I will make every attempt to update this blog as often as possible, with postings ranging from personal musings regarding emerging products and technologies to in-depth reviews and comparisons of products that I have the opportunity to test out first-hand.

I would greatly appreciate any thoughts, comments and even criticisms offered by you. The primary goal of this blog is to create a community of individuals that, like myself, find the audio/visual industry intriguing, exciting and worthy of discussion.

Thank you for reading and check back again soon!