I have a bone to pick with the high-end audio industry. No, it's not about escalating prices, fantastic marketing claims, or dead-end products that have no upgrade path. It's about the damned blue LEDs that you all seem to be so infatuated with!
I'm fortunate to have a very nice system which affords me an opportunity to sit back, relax, turn the lights off, and enjoy recorded music. Unfortunately, due to the layout of my room my equipment rack is located just to the left of my listening chair and, once the lights are out, I'm presented with a blue glare in the corner of my eye. Left unchecked there is almost enough light emanating from this sea of blue LEDs to read the newspaper. I fear that one more upgrade to my system will result in enough light to perform surgery or assemble a watch movement.
Seriously, this is getting out of control. During a normal listening session I have the following:
1) Volume display (two digits) on my preamp along with all of the status indicators
2) Then there's the 3 (very bright) LEDs on the phono preamp to tell me that the unit is powered OFF (oddly it produces less light when its powered on)
3) Finally, there's the backup for the Fox Searchlight that has been crammed into the Basis turntable motor controller.
4) Up front there's the glowing logos on the ML 53s. Fortunately, those are RED and I can dim them!
It seems like this all started about 12 years ago when the blue LED was "discovered" by the audio world. This wonderful invention was just what small manufacturers needed to make their products stand out in a sea of red and green LEDs. It was the dawn of a new era and blue was obviously the color of the new millennium!
Short of having my equipment modified the only solution that I've come up with is a combination of black electrical tape (the only thing that will tame the Basis) and Post-It notes.
I'm usually not one to b*tch and moan about little things like this, but for an industry that pays an inordinate amount of attention to the crystalline structure of copper wire I'm disappointed that the following logic was ignored.
1) Most audiophiles like to listen with the lights dimmed or the room completely dark.
2) Our eyes are most sensitive to blue / green colors in dark conditions so a tiny bit of blue light goes a long, long way.
3) Therefore, perhaps, the best color to use for an indicator which only serves a purpose during a very limited portion of the listening session is any color BUT blue!
Now I'm all for status indicators, but if the lights on my stereo can be seen from space then there's a real problem.
So, audio manufacturers, pretty please.... with sugar on top...
1) Choose indicators which are better suited for the environment in which your product will be used.
2) Provide some means (physical or electrical) of dimming those indicators
3) Ask yourself the question, "does this function REALLY need to illuminate another LED?"
... or ...
Please pay more attention to the ergonomics of your products. After all once the new and shiny aspect wears off we actually have to live with this stuff.
