Grace Notes

Few people probably noticed a subtle change to Spotify that started a few weeks ago. In keeping with a standard already adopted by Tidal, YouTube and iTunes, Spotify has lowered the volume of its streams...

In honor of its upcoming 35th anniversary, THX hit Twitter with a post that sent music and movie fans alike into a tizzy. THX just released the written musical score of the THX logo theme, satisfying fans and showing us all how wonderfully simple, yet brilliant the piece is. 35 years ago, in time for the premiere of “Return of the Jedi,” Dr. James “Andy” Moorer created the THX musical icon, and it became one of the most recognizable scores in movie history. Now, we can finally see what they were talking about.

V-MODA is forcing me back to high school chemistry and I don’t like it one bit. I guess most people probably know that Zn stands for zinc without having to break out a periodic table, and the properties of zinc are great for making acoustic devices. The new Zn in-ear monitors are the first in-ears released by V-MODA in four years, and they’re aiming for the modern audiophile with a blend of features that balance convenience and luxury.

In the late 1960’s and early ‘70’s, psychologist Walter Mischel conducted a series of tests at Stanford University. The basic premise put a 4-year-old preschool child in a room with an adult, and two marshmallows. The adult explains that he has to leave the room for about 15 minutes. The child can eat one marshmallow while the adult is gone, but if the child waits until the adult returns, the child can eat both marshmallows. While the basic test is interesting enough, it’s the follow-up that proved most intriguing. The children who showed the most self-control/self-discipline by waiting until the adult returned grew up to have significantly higher SAT scores, lower BMIs, more self-control and self-discipline, and in general, were more successful in life. As music lovers, we failed the marshmallow test.

It’s that time of year—when kids cringe and parents rejoice. The school bus armadas have begun. Little ones are heading back to school, but the whole family is heading back to the malls and online to load up on school supplies for the year. What tops the shopping list? Technology. What is the third most popular back-to-school technology purchase? Headphones. Bizarre, right?