| Meetings and other Notices |
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| The
February
Zoom
only Meeting |
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Date:
Saturday,
February
28, 2026
Time:
3-5pm
EST
Where:
Online
Only!
Featured
Guest:
Ken
Wacks
Topic:
CES 2026
Report:
Robots,
AI,
Flying
Cars,
and More
Ken
Wacks
has
prepared
a
multi-media
presentation
about
CES
2026,
the
Consumer
Electronics
Show
held
last
month in
Las
Vegas.
Billed
as the
largest
US trade
show,
CES has
expanded
well-beyond
TVs and
hi-fi
equipment
to
showcase
a wide
variety
of
consumer
electronics.
Ken will
provide
an
overview
of the
4100
exhibits
with a
diverse
sampling
spanning
robots
as
servants,
entertainers,
and
companions,
AI at
home,
personal
flying
machines,
automated
food
preparation,
and
audio/video.
Ken
Schwarz
is
inviting
you to a
scheduled
Zoom
meeting.
Topic:
BAS
Standing
Meeting
Time:
This is
a
recurring
meeting
Meet
anytime
Join
Zoom
Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86530168861?pwd=ibtWPYYHWj1x80pMswaw6vklevfeaP.1
Meeting
ID: 865
3016
8861
Passcode:
867871
---
One tap
mobile
+16469313860,,86530168861#,,,,*867871#
US
+13017158592,,86530168861#,,,,*867871#
US
(Washington
DC)
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Hope to see you
there.
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THE BAS MESSAGE
February 2026 |
Miscellaneous News
President Message
February 2026
1. Peak Noise
In an episode of
This Old House a
hearing doctor
reviewed the issue
of hearing
protection for noise
exposure.
Nothing new here.
Then they showed a
hammer striking a
nail, measured with
a free app on a
smart phone.
It showed 124.1dB.
No mention that it
was undoubtedly a
peak measure and no
indication of how
harmful it was.
I measured about 136
dB instantaneous
peak with a
sledgehammer hitting
a splitting maul
(BASSv44n2).
I always use hearing
protection even when
pounding nails.
2. Weight Loss
Drugs
A study found that
for people on weight
loss drugs, 35 to
45% of the loss is
lean body mass, i.e
muscle. This is not
good news,
especially for older
people. An
exercise program can
restore some of
this, however those
people who can carry
on a rigorous
exercise program
indefinitely are
probably not going
to be overweight in
the first place.
Boston
Audio
Society
PO BOX
260211
BOSTON,
MA 02126
978-944-6481
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Below, other meetings and notices which
may be of interest to BAS members |
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JUST RELEASED !
A fantastic historical video!
Ken Berger and Kenton Forsythe are the founders of EAW (Eastern Acoustics Works) and they discuss, with terrific overlaid graphics, the history of, well, pretty much every audio thing Boston from the early 70's.
18 minutes and right here: https://youtu.be/fPfQEK0b0mI
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A Boston issue - As MIX magazine reports:
Sound Museum owners cry foul as their tenants likely secure new spaces without them
While the headline sounds like someone has sour grapes, the complete story of how the closure of this crucial Boston rehearsal studio is being handled is far more nuanced and complicated -- particularly since it brings up issues of gentrification, government support of the arts, non-profits' ethics and more. Full Story HERE (WBUR-FM Boston (1/11/23)
And here's an update:
www.wbur.org/news/2023/01/25/charlestown-rehearsal-studios-musicians-boston
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MAHLER 3
In the recent (April 2022) performance of Mahler’s Third Symphony at Boston's Symphony Hall by Ben Zander and his Boston Philharmonic, the recording was done with the three main spaced omnis with two more farther back. No accent mikes or chorus microphones were used nor, it turns out, were they needed. Remarkably, this produced a recording that is as close to the Symphony Hall experience as may be possible.
The info is here: www.bostonphil.org/concerts/2021-2022/bpo4-mahler3
Here is the recording in its entirety as a single .WAV file; 44k / 16 bit; 1hr 47 min
Mahler Sym 3 CD.wav 1.1GB
(For those of you with editing software note that the .wav file HAS markers to denote the movements.)
Here is the exact same Symphony 3 with the movements separated as FLAC files, 48k / 24 bit as a ZIPped file: Mahler 3 Zander as FLAC.zip 1GB
IF you'd like further Gustav Mahler info... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_Mahler
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Shop Talk
Shop Talk was a WBUR program about Hi Fidelity, music, speakers, tape recorders, etc. Enjoyed by many during the 1970s, the program's format was ‘talk’ and interviewing major audio luminaries. It was a forerunner of the popular program Car Talk!
Peter Mitchell and Dr. Richard Goldwater were the original hosts. They were later joined by Brad Meyer. Here, John Allen interviews Scott Kent:
Shop Talk John Allen talks to Scott Kent on SPEAKERS.mp3 (81Mb 1:27)
Shop Talk John Allen talks to Scott Kent on TAPE RECORDERS.mp3 (79Mb 1:26)
There is also an episode track on the BAS CD and here is that Description:
Track 12. "Shop Talk", WHRB-FM, November 5, 1984.
Peter Mitchell (on the left), Richard Goldwater, MD (center) and E. Brad Meyer (right) introduce the show with a 1932 stereo recording and prepare to talk with guests Mark Davis and David Moran, both then of dbx corporation.
Shop Talk, which through most of its ten-year life on WBUR featured just Mitchell and Goldwater, was the precursor of Tom and Ray Magliozzi's "Car Talk". As we finished our 9:00-10:30 stint every Saturday morning, Tom and Ray would take our places and begin joking with each other. Eventually the station manager figured out that they were funnier than we were, and that more people drove cars than owned hi-fi equipment, and fired us. Until then, the show publicized the Boston Audio Society, vastly increasing attendance at our monthly meetings. The show came back for a time during the '80's on the Harvard station WHRB, where we appeared once a month as guests of HRB stalwart David Elliott. [EBM]
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| BAS MICROPHONE CLINIC REPORT ! |
| In September 2009 the B A S held a microphone clinic, testing 37 different microphone models. The ambitious nature of the clinic effort, the extent of data collection, the number of individuals involved in microphone testing and in writing various sections of the report, and the complexity in determining how to construct the clinic report and make it available to members resulted it not being published until now. The dataset is extensive.
Representative samples were included in the abbreviated report in "The B A S Speaker"
(Fall 2015; v37n3)
Go to the MICROPHONE CLINIC PAGE for more...
...and don't forget, here is the master list of microphones in the world
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When collecting and plotting "noisy" data it is often useful to have Microsoft Excel plot a Trend Line through it. If that data is to be used for further work, it may be necessary to have an X-Y table of the Trend Line. That is not easy to get and this paper will show how to do it.
Joseph DeMarinis has an article here: Extracting Numerical Data from an Excel Trend Line
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Foster's Test Bench !
by Alvin Foster ! Click the logo: —> |
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The rapidly-becoming-famous BAS Headphone Test Article is now available in the BASS VOLUME 25, ISSUE 4, on Page 17, available HERE  PDF 3mb |
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Visit our PODCAST PAGE for:
The LIVE video podcast of our meetings,
Archived video of past meetings (only one so far!),
and Audio Podcast interviews by Alvin Foster |
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There is a supplemental and further explanation addendum paper to the E. Brad Meyer / David Moran paper published in the September, 2007 issue of the AES Journal. That page, which documents the experimental protocol and audio systems/source material is here:
www.bostonaudiosociety.org/explanation.htm |
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| There is a Power Point Presentation of the lecture given by Dr. Barry Blesser at the March 2007 Meeting. The Meeting page synopsis is HERE; the Power Point Presentation (as a web page) is HERE |
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Some earlier BASS issues, previously available only directly by mail, are now available online, on the BAS SPEAKER page, HERE
Show your appreciation for the immense amount of dedicated work that went into both the original writing, gathering, editing and printing, PLUS the more recent scanning and conversion to PDF format, by joining the Society, HERE !
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A L L O F F S I T E L I N K S O P E N I N T O A N E W T A B O R W I N D O W
- AND FOR CONVENIENCE -
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