May 25, 2017
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Simaudio Mind 180, Part 16
To start the 92-93 school year, I moved into the college apartment I was sharing with 3 other guys. After my parents drove off, and I was left with figuring out where things should go, and what else was needed, I noticed that Ron had assembled his own PC. The dial-up modem made that blood-curdling scream. For updates, he did not download via that modem. Instead, he had to go out, buy software, and load multiple 3.5" floppies. Yep, those were the days.
As the school year took shape, Ron would spend hours on end, on that PC in his room. Meanwhile, his roommate, Tron, worked part-time at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. Because it took so long to get there and come home, when Tron did work at the Boardwalk, he'd be gone for hours. My own roommate, Will, was a biochem major. So when he had labs, he was gone all day. Thus, with Ron holed up in his room, and with Tron and Will out, I had pockets of time at home.
My most frequent guest was Kim. She lived off-campus. Similar to Tron's commute to/from the Boardwalk, it took a long time for Kim to get on and off campus. With her class schedule, Kim preferred not to make multiple trips to campus. So between classes, she needed places to hang out on campus. And that explains why Kim frequently came over to my apartment.
With Ron slaving away on his PC, Kim and I gladly stayed in the living room, where we used the Sony/Adcom/AudioQuest/Pinnacle stereo system. Update software and firmware? No way! If you wanted to upgrade your stereo, you had to go out, and buy new components or accessories.
It was hard enough, to cobble that stereo system together. So yes, we would have loved to have something even better. But really, Kim and my housemates wished we could upgrade the shower. More specifically, we didn't like the fixed shower head. Looking back, we should have skirted Student Housing's rules, removed that fixed shower head, put in a hose/head, but then put back the fixed shower head, in time for inspections.
We 4 guys complained about the weak water pressure. Even after we removed the flow restrictor (really, just a tiny mesh screen), the water pressure was still weak. It was Kim, who then said to go in the opposite direction. She suggested using the shower head's "misty spray" setting. She recommended using hot water, at maximum pressure. The resultant steam would then turn the shower room (the toilet and sinks were outside the shower room) into a sort-of mini-sauna or steam room. Yep, that was yet another reason Kim liked to stay at our place [her off-campus apartment's bathroom was larger and more open, so it didn't get as steamy as easily].
The Simaudio Mind 180 connects to the internet. The software periodically finds updates. Just like not knowing how long my housemates would be away, you don't know how long the Mind 180's updates will take. So you do have the option to decline the update, and do it later. I don't think this Mind 180 has gone less than 3 months, before the next update hands become available. And of these few updates, I think the slowest took about 10 minutes. Some updates took as little as a minute.
With some of the updates, I do not see a difference. But with others, you see added options and access to streaming services.
