Sound

Puttering

I use the YouTube music app on my smart phone to supply me with tunes both at home or when I am out driving around in my truck. The truck might have BlueTooth and I know my phone does, but I'm still not sure about this BlueTooth business. I use it connect to my portable speaker when I am outside on the patio, so I'm not a complete Luddite. But the truck also has a mini-stereo jack in the console, the phone has one as well, and I have a cable with the correct plugs on both ends. When I was growing up, everything was connected with cables. Wireless remote controls were something only the Jetsons had. I like cables, so I use the cable to connect my phone to the truck.

Volume control is iffy using the sliding volume controls on my computer. They don't give me fine enough control. I don't know whether it is the control or my fingers, but it doesn't really matter, the result is the same. The upshot is that I will use the two volume controls in tandem. I am tempted to say that I preferentially use one for coarse volume adjustment and the other for fine control, but I can't say which one is which.

With the truck I turn the volume control on my phone all the way up. Evidently that gives the truck a big enough signal that I can get decent volume control using the truck's volume control knob (not a slider).

AIWA NSX-V21 Stereo System
Looks just like my stereo

I connected my phone to our home stereo the other day when we had some people over and I used the same technique of turning the volume on the phone up all the way. The stereo was just providing background music and we were having a lively discussion, so I didn't really notice the music. Eventually the person was sitting nearest the stereo alerted me to the fact that sound from the stereo sounded like garbage. I think I switched to CD's or something.

Today I tried the phone with the stereo again, and now when I don't have big crowd of people around it is obvious how bad the sound is. Turn down the volume on the phone to half way or so, and turn up the sound on the stereo and it sounds much better.

I don't exactly how old the stereo is, it might be older than this house, which means it is like 25 years old. It came with a remote control, but I don't think we ever used it. I tried it out today and unsurprisingly it didn't work. Pop open the battery cover and we have dead corroded AA batteries. Take them out, shake out the debris, scrape the contacts with my pocket knife, load new batteries, and Oh wonderous miracle! It works!