Crutchfield: The Podcast Ep. 46

Hello and welcome to another episode of Crutchfield, the podcast. I'm your host jay are joined in studio by my good friend and co host eric graduated good friends, good friend. Now we've been doing this long enough. I'll take that. I've been called worse, Let's do this. I have called you Worse enough, Welcome everybody to the show. We've got a great one for you here today. We've got a pretty cool interview with Terra. She here is in charge of all things social media and video production and a whole bunch of stuff. And she's been at Crutchfield quite a while. She's written articles, She's been in videos with me and uh, and she sort of leads the charge on a lot of our creative content and she's got a really cool system, so no speakers, lots of headphones. She's got a treehouse filled with audio and I'm jealous of that. Her gear is fine. Her treehouse, that is cool. Did you know, I try to build it, you know, I try to build a tree house. Yeah, I remember that. I've actually got some treehouse. Yeah, let's just go right off on a tangent. That's what podcasts are right, you're here to talk about one thing, but then you talk about something else, like when you broke your ankle. Well that wasn't treehouse, that wasn't, no, that was related to other up in a tree or something on a ladder playground. Some other for some reason I thought it was you building the tree house. No, no, no, no, this was, that was something actually smaller. But yeah, I had a tree house uh you know started building that in 2019 and um this is the tree that came down. Well You're not supposed to put the punch line at the beginning of the story. Yeah. Yeah that's what happened 2019 started building a treehouse and then 2020 came along and I don't know if remember 2020 but it was an interesting year what happened here and where I live. Anyway uh yeah we had a little tornado come through which this isn't an area that normally gets tornadoes and it came through my neighborhood and took a top of a tree off and that tree happened to be the one I was putting a treehouse and So now I kind of have a totem uh tree stand thing, I kind of decided I wasn't going to go all full treehouse, but there's still an area for the kids to go up in this slowly decaying large stump in my yard and it's kind of just at this point it's an homage to 2020. Um But that's okay, we make the best of it and kids still have fun in it, so remember that it was it was like early mid pandemic when this happened and I don't think we had like seen each other in person for quite a while. Yeah. Yeah I think I showed you some some pictures, Well I showed up at your house with my chainsaw. That's right, you did to help me take the the top of that tree that had fallen into my brand new shed. Um And ruined my shed. I think that's the worst news. Not only did the treehouse become not so much of a thing now but big big humongous branches through the roof of your shed of a pretty tall oak came right down into the shed. So so yeah that was a fun day, It was eventful. Um But that's okay, everyone was safe. No one got hurt. You know at the end of the day we replaced the roof on the shed and you know kids still have something to play with. So all of that because Terra has a tree house with an amazing home theater audio video system in it. So yeah I'm jealous of that. That's that's pretty awesome. So we're gonna get to that interview here shortly. I do want to address the fact that this episode drops on black friday. Today is not black friday. That's the beauty of podcasts. You don't they're not live mostly right so we can record this any day we want for example, like today's november 2nd Halloween, Halloween did just happen and uh you know, I do uh I do my own personal podcast if anybody's interested. It's called Three things with J. R. And I think eric just listened to my Halloween themed episode of Three things with J. R. Which dropped on Halloween Day. You said I had the Good mike today. You do have the good mike Sm seven B. That thing is awesome. Canonizes Rolling. Be heard through the mike can catch facial expressions. That's how good it is. That's what's happening right now. So I'm glad that's coming through. Yes, I listen to you speak not fondly of Halloween, which happens to be one of my favorite holidays. Um so, um yeah, I called it a holiday, whatever. Um it's a fun day. I enjoy it quite a bit. We had a good Halloween heck. We did crutchfield stuff at my house once for Halloween. We put some speakers and pumpkins. I remember I came to your house. We, we got some video and everything you are way into Halloween. I like it. I couldn't care less. You know, I guess you don't have to, but you're wrong. But you don't have to find, hey, let's talk about Tara's treehouse. I brought that up. Dear listeners for you to understand the anger and vitriol that you're going to hear deep into eric's voice throughout the show today. He's having trouble hiding how mad he is at me for crapping on his Halloween. Well, not on my, my Halloween was lovely. Thank you. We had a very good alloy. I took the day off of work and cleaned out my garage. How about that. I wore a wig. So there you have it. Nice. So uh no, you're hearing this dear listener on black friday. That's when this episode actually comes out. So hopefully you had a wonderful thanksgiving. You've recovered from all of the food and uh, and maybe, I don't know, maybe you're out driving around shopping. That's a thing people still kind of do on black friday. Right? I hope so. Yeah, I think some people actually enjoy that. Yeah, that's another another holiday thing. I don't do many of black friday in retail. I remember one black friday, we went out and handed tickets out to people standing in line out front of the Crutchfield retail store and I was the ticket handed hander outer because we had like some promotion where they would get a free mp three player at the time. Yeah, we gave out. That was really cool. So people showed up early and they were lined up and we were worried about maybe getting over overwhelmed. So we uh so I went out and handed out tickets and assured everybody that had a ticket they could go home and come back at some point during the day and we would have won for them. So that didn't exactly work. They still, but they came in slowly organized and so, you know, trying to beat down the door or anything. So for those that are out there shopping today, uh maybe they're listening to the podcast on the way, you know, to uh someplace, hey, check us out online. Why? Why you're standing in line to get into the building. Check out Crutchfield dot com. I'm sure we already sound like a commercial now. Yeah, yeah, like that's gonna come back. Yeah, that's exactly what it is. So um, yeah, I might be sound a little bit like a, I think that's okay. Hey, check us out. Maybe we have, you know, something for a stocking or for a loved owner for yourself. There's always deals, right? And the way it's gone in the last, I don't know, several years is black friday is not necessarily the day all the deals started. They start so far in advance of that. It's kind of crazy. So chances are you've already got your black friday deals and maybe you did that here, Crutchfield, maybe did it elsewhere. Either way shop smart. Uh, and if you have any questions about what it is you need for your gift that you're giving or that thing you're buying for yourself, whatever it is. Let us help you use the website. Talk to one of our advisors. Uh, and uh, and you know, we'll help you get the right stuff. Last black friday, we had advisors available most of the day. So we have folks stand by if you want to talk to human about that thing, you're into give us a call. You know, we probably have people ready to pick up the call. I'll be there. I'll be there in the call center this black friday. I'll be answering supervisor lines and stuff. So I'll be helping our advisors help our customers. I'll probably be going to Costco to get food for the advisors that are actually doing the work. You get moon pies because I feel like they haven't gotten moon pies for the snack table at work. Enough lately we used to get moon pies every christmas season. We've been seriously lacking in the moon pies. I guess I just gave Costco a shout out, not a sponsor, but you know, if you're interested in sponsoring Crutchfield the podcast, you know, we're not you're not taking sponsors and one sponsor. His name is Bill Crutchfield. That's it. You know, I figured, you know, a little joint, probably not a good idea. Let's move on. This is an ad free podcast unless you count what we just did. And the entire show as an ad so far, we've plugged your podcast and did I mention to be fair dot com is my band's website. I think we should get into this terror now. Uh, we both listened to this and I recorded this with Terra a few months ago and we both really listened to it today just to re familiarize ourselves with what terra and I talked about in this interview. And um, I think we both noticed that I, uh, this this interview. Yeah, very different energy level than what you and I have going on right now. I am on caffeine and anger right now. So I'm riled up. That is not what the gentle listeners are about to hear. Gentle, that's the right word for it because terra has a gentle calming effect on literally anyone. She's talk and that's exactly what happens to us in this interview. Is that we just bring it down to a very low key mellow hang when we cut in all of our energy. Cool. Alright, let's get into it. Here is my interview with Terra about her treehouse or headphones and her home network and stuff. Here we go. What year did you start at Crutchfield 2004 2004. Yes. been a little while. I was trying to add it up last night. Yeah, I think it's 17 years. Okay, 17. Yeah, that sounds right right. According to math. Closing in on 18 years. Yeah, it was October 2004. So I think I just started my 18th year. Yeah, feels like it was yesterday. I was looking through uh through articles on our website and if you go to the articles and videos section and just search for your name. Tara, you get two articles. One of them is terra's terra WS 2004 Honda CrV in which you are showing us how you upgraded your factory stereo to a Sony with built in ipod control and you're holding your ipod. Yeah, that was pretty legit. Which ipod was, it was like a big white one with a click wheel on. Oh yeah, they had like 100 and 60 gigs, All of the smallest MP three files I could put on there. So were you all about more songs? Not necessarily the best quality of the songs? Yeah. I don't think I knew what I was doing in the beginning. None of us did back then. Yeah, we were all were it's a whole different world now, right? I mean one you can fit more stuff on more stuff with memory and all that and to we understand more about how much compression kills sound quality, right? Even, you know, I got with the pandemic, I got into cohibas and so now that's what I'm listening to music on and it just makes such a huge difference. And it's so different from 2004 tera or 2006 terra, whichever. Terror. That was Hey eric did you have an ipod? Uh My first ipod was an iphone. I've never really considered myself an Apple person, whatever that means. Although now I've had an iphone ever since that and that was like an Apple iphone four I think. So that's been a hot second. Yeah, so you never had an ipod touch and ipod nano and ipod shuffle. My wife had a nano. That for uh you know working out and stuff. A nice small form factor. I kind of had like a full sized ipod. It was the 30 gigabyte ipod video. Uh And I had music on it. I tried downloading some tv shows to watch on it but the battery didn't last long enough to actually use it. Um But yeah yeah I mean I used it to listen to music while mowing the grass. That is what I use my ipod for. Hey do you think someday you know there's gonna be like a vintage market for it? Probably already is for like iphones ipods. I bet we could find that if we google that. Yeah I bet I bet it already eggs and it's only going to grow hey eric you want to tell everybody what co buzzes, Tara mentioned it just now. Hi res streaming. Um So I'm currently not a co buzz member subscriber I should say. But uh it's gonna make your it's like Spotify only way better. Yeah. Yeah. The big difference there is the bit depth and sample rates that are available on Cobra's far outperform anything on any other streaming network streaming service except maybe title right there. Those are the two that are considered high rez streaming. Uh And uh and yeah I mean it's a way to get any song on earth just about in the best quality possible. You pay a monthly subscription. It's called kobus. It's spelled Q. U. O. B. U. Z. Z. That I say that I spell that right? I feel like there's one Z. I need to check your asking me how to spell something, it's one Z. It's called co because it's Q. wait wait wait wait wait wait wait. So we're gonna let you retake that when you sound like you're trying to go for a retake there. Like if I say something stupid and leave it in, make sure we leave that in. You say something stupid. We're gonna let you re cut. It's a matter of whether or not it was entertaining fare was my misspelling of Cobus entertaining to you. All right, leave it in lex but Cobus is spelled Q. O. Buz Cobus dot com. Go there to subscribe. We do recommend it. We use it here at Crutchfield as many we set up demos and stuff all the time. And it is a way to get the best sounding, streaming and allow you you know are our sales advisers whoever wants to demo new speakers to listen to any song they want to listen to at the highest quality possible without it being a headache. We don't have to go find the cd or the record or download a high res download music file, that kind of thing. It's just ready to go uh Cobus is pretty awesome. Uh So you started doing video at Crutchfield when it was late two thousands and then became more involved with video right became manager of the video team And then most recently managing video and social media. I like to think I started the concept of video at Crutchfield. Do you? I like to think it I don't know if anybody else thinks it, but I think it, there was some really early on videos that before I, maybe before I started at Crutchfield and um, like we have VHS tapes of early Crutchfield videos. Yeah, I guess there were videos before I started done by jim ross people that used to work here with some, you know, animation graphic stuff like that. Yeah, I guess I'm not even thinking about this. I'm thinking more of the modern era of our videos. You are a huge part of the modern era. Well, I am now, but back then I was like, we need videos on these product pages. And so I took it upon myself to grab a Sony point and shoot very compared to today, low resolution camera and shoot videos of Bruce who used to go around doing like, like Guerilla style trainings on the sales floor and I would get video of him showing people products and their reactions and close ups, other products. And then I edited it. I did all this on my own time and produced some videos and I think like one of them made it out to the public somewhere somehow. Okay. That might have been before my time to like, I don't, I don't remember that was a long time ago. Um, I do remember being in video with you when we were in the, uh, install bay and it went, we went through our jewel tone phase, we wore a lot of jewel toned clothing. Um Kind of sounded like we were in a cave because the ceilings were a little bit too high. Hi I'm J. R. And I'm Tara and we're here in the Crutchfield video studio to talk about the Zyvox Z base 5 50 sound system. You know if you're like most people you've recently purchased an HD Tv and so you've got a high definition and your picture looks fantastic however you might want your sound to be just as good. Of course you could do a big home theater with speakers and a subwoofer and all that and that's great. Or you might need something simpler for some rooms. Right And that's where the 5 50 comes in because it simulates surround sound. But just from this one piece that you see here and then the question that's amazing. Isn't that great? And so echoey yeah in the install base no sound treatment in there whatsoever. Uh and the highest ceilings in this whole building. Yeah tall ceilings. Very echoey sort of big humongous bathroom sort of sound. Right that was that was that's a gem. Yeah. Yeah that's from May one of 2009. Okay so I wasn't far off. Yeah. Uh And uh yeah videos videos have come a long way and thanks to both you and me and a bunch of other people. All right leave it to you to think you invented video here at Crutchfield. You don't believe me when I say that. Um, I believe that you believe that you did. So let let me, let me be clear about this because I heard myself say that and I was like, whoa, hold on. I just, I just claimed I invented video. No, I did not. There was a person at Crutchfield doing very high quality, very well produced videos. Um, his name was Jim. He was in our, he was our trainer and he did videos and he like, he made like graphics for like showing where to put an amp in a car and stuff like that. Those were some of the first Crutchfield videos that were produced and put out on our website at the time. Um, so no, I was not the first to think of, hey, wouldn't videos be a neat idea. It's really big of you to acknowledge that I did start pushing hard for what we now think of as product spotlight videos, the style in which we edit them and all that now isn't exactly what I came up with, but it's more like what I came up with and what we were doing previously and there was a lot of fun. I went around and like with a point and shoot camera and filmed our advisors talking about products and we made a video and I can't actually find any evidence of it right now. But I'm pretty sure one of those videos actually got on the website and it was made me so happy. It's not there anymore. So I can't prove it. But I'm sure Terra here's all the time. All the people coming to her claiming to take responsibility for, you know, the success of her department. I'm sure she's used to that loves it. Hey, I am happy been that person before. That's how I know I am so happy to be included in video in any way, shape or form. It's not the main part of my job here at Crutchfield. But if you've seen a lot of our videos, you've probably seen me and I really thoroughly enjoy it. And the reason I get to do that is because terra allows it. That's right. One of the main things I wanted to talk to you about was the other article that comes up when you search terra on articles and videos on crutchfield dot com. And that would be Tara's treehouse sonos system. Yeah, that's real. So that was that article came out? What last year or so? It's about a year or so now. Is that about right? I think so, a year or two ago. So somewhere in 2019, early 2020. Yes. So pre pandemic, you had a tree house. Yes. We actually um bought this property. My husband was most excited because it had a treehouse. Treehouse was already there. Yes it's a selling feature jr I think so um because it's not just like a run of the military house? It is a tree house that has a wood burning stove in it. It is a treehouse that has french doors and a balcony. Um So we it was definitely one of the reasons that we bought this property. I've seen the pictures of your treehouse in this article. Somehow the wood burning stove didn't make it into these pictures, I didn't realize. Yeah, it's um it's like a whole tiled in corner of the treehouse. That's awesome. Yeah. Um I gotta have you, I was gonna ask you if you is this a summertime only thing or if this is a part of the property you enjoy year round year round, it actually gets kind of hot in the summer. So we're trying to we're trying to figure that out, but it does have windows that open in a skylight that opens and um so it's it's awesome. But it was just a tree house when we moved in. And you know, I didn't have an audio system, no audio, it didn't have power before you moved in? Or did you guys install the power? It did have power. Um So that was when I started talking to our catalog editors about, could we put a system in this treehouse. Um It had power, we didn't have internet out there, so that was something I had to sort out and just some better wifi network was able to extend it out further? Yeah, we got um an Eero system and so are our house is kinda at the top of the property on the hill and we've got um like one of the nodes down in uh in our workshop which is near the tree house so we now have wifi like through about 75% of so the node in the workshop sort of bridges the gap from the house to the tree house, so it sort of extends that bubble of wifi. Yes, it's about three quarters of our two acres has wifi now got it, it's very convenient yeah and so wifi in the house in this article you, it shows that you guys installed a set of outdoor speakers and then a set of speakers inside the treehouse all powered by a sonos amp. Yes, they're both both pairs are outdoor speakers there, so nance speakers so nance by so knows or so knows by so nance, they have a nice relationship, those Sony speakers are kind of made to work with the sonos amp. Yes and they do work very well. So we've got a pair of speakers out on the balcony facing into the yard and then we have a pair of speakers inside the treehouse that so we're inside the treehouse we can um listen to, so knows and if we're in the yard we can turn up the volume a little bit and listen to So knows too. So there's a there's a picture of the two volume knobs and there's actually a custom view reader comments on this article that they had some questions. I thought maybe while I have you here, we might answer some questions about the, how you guys actually have this wired up. So the sonos amp is designed to power two speakers uh but it's capable of driving more than two speakers and what you have is four speakers tied into volume controls that are then connected to the sonos amp, correct? And the reason for that is because it's basically one zone of so knows right? Yeah, it just shows up in our Sonos app as treehouse. That's it. And there's never a situation where you like want something different playing inside the treehouse than outside the treehouse. It's if you're playing one and it's going to serve either location right? And if we are like watching a movie up in the tree house because we have since put a tv up there and tv and um we just turned, we use the volume control to turn down the outside um so that like the deer in the yard don't have to listen to the movie. I don't know no one else is out there. Um if you had it loud enough, could you disturb the neighbors or are they too far away? Have we tried really hard maybe and they were outside, I think all those things would have to happen uh but but you know, so we've got the volume control so we can we can turn it off outside if we want to or we can I always leave it at a level where we could hear it outside if we want to and it's not glaringly loud inside. Um and that's key because you know, if you didn't have that volume control and it was loud outside and we went up in the tree house, it would just be so crazy loud up there. Yeah. Um so so that's been really nice and that was, that was a nice thing to talk through. We talked to norm as we were setting everything up and and that was great. Yeah, kind of walked us through. Okay, what are your use cases out here? Yeah, let's use one sonos amp, but let's add some volume control to give you a little more flexibility. So there was a couple of comments, One of them from, from somebody named google google. I'm not sure Google google from Bellevue said, nice article. I'm thinking of doing something similar from my deck with the exact same. So knows equipment. My understanding was that for more than one pair of sonos outdoor speakers, you have to wire them in series back to the amp. How does the volume control work independently when doing this? Can you post a wiring diagram please? Oh, don't do that. I know if if you are thinking about doing something like this, just call us uh talk to one of our advisors, we have a V design advisors who can do more complex stuff. So if you need a complex so no system we can we can absolutely design it for you. I don't think there's a wiring diagram for this specific system that we can just post, but if you need we got you. Yeah, I would think depending on the situation, just calling and talking to a V designs, the best way to go. That's norm, who I'm talking about is from our design group. So he came out, checked out our our, you know, space and he'll talk anyone through it on the phone, come up with whatever they need for that specific scenario. Yeah, norm is pretty amazing. He can come up with some crazy system designs that we'll incorporate things nobody else thought to do and give you functionality you didn't know you could get and he's been doing it for years, he is just makes quick work of all of it. So let's talk about the timing of these episodes here a little bit eric, we had norm on the podcast just a few weeks ago. Uh and in this episode, I was talking with no, no, we we just let him go, he turned off the lights, he's still in there, answering people's exactly, that's how it goes with norm. Now we had crutch, norm was on a Crutchfield live and we took advantage of him and totally talked about tv installations, home theater running wires in wall speakers. And uh boy he, I mean he really did give us more than we bargained for, which is what you get when you deal with norm. Uh and uh he capped it off with just a wonderful story about his side business hookups of Virginia and the phone number. So if you're interested in how fun that was because it was shocking and surprising and hilarious, go back and listen to that episode with norm. But you'll, you'll get great tips on home theater installation stuff, you'll meet norm who's a fabulous guy and you'll learn some fun stuff every time he's in a video, I learn like 14 new things I didn't know before about a topic I know pretty well there's, we have videos of norm like installing speakers in wall and things like that. And like, you know, you don't necessarily want to put out a video any longer than it needs to be. But norm's got so many tidbits that if you watch a 20 minute video of norm, you're gonna get significantly more installed tips, just how to use these tools. Why he's doing what he's doing all these things that he's learned from doing it in the field is in those videos and it's it's, you can't cut that stuff out because it's so helpful to people, even down to like put a piece of tape, painter's tape this way, it will catch the shape as you're drilling holes in drywall and then you won't have to do this kind of clean up around your house when you're done, it's like that kind of detail stuff that nobody that's not spent time doing installs would know or even think of to do. These are things he's learned like from real world experience. Yes, and it's it's fantastic. So did you get norm in the treehouse or did he just design it? Oh he totally came out to the tree house. Nice. Yeah. Yeah. Is the tree house like now that you've installed a tv, is it the main place where you go to like watch a movie or? No, so it's kind of it's not our main viewing area but it is definitely the best sound system in our house. Um And it's been wonderful to have throughout the pandemic where we just want to get away and so we go up into this extra room and watch movies, listen to music. I can work remotely from there and do sometimes. Um So it's it's a secondary, I would say it's a secondary system, but it is the best sounding system that we have. It sounds better than your I guess you don't have like a full on home theater surround sound thing going on inside. I mean those speakers and that are so great, we've got like a two channel system right now set up for our tv inside and I'm about to take home a sound bar just to see how I feel about that. Um even though we don't need it. Um But the that treehouse system is by far the best sounding system that we've got. And what tv did you put out there? Um We just put a little 32 inch because we don't have a lot of wall space which I immediately thought maybe I should have gotten something a little bigger. Um But but that's working for us and we were Roku attached to it. Um and and the audio goes out into the Sonos amp so just turn the tv on and the audio comes out through there just running like an H. D. M. I. With audio return channel over to the Sonos amp I believe so. I think we had no or is it an optical, I think you can go I think we've got an adapter. Okay optical. Out of the T. V. Into the so nos HTM. Aiport I believe so using the Sonos optical to H. D. M. I adapter. Yes we've definitely got the optical to HDMI adapter so somehow that that's involved. Yeah that makes sense. Yeah because yeah it's not every Tv has the H. D. M. I with enhanced audio return channel all that stuff. Yeah this one's a you know a little smaller and we didn't go honestly it's in a treehouse and I'm worried that you know the like what's going to happen out here sometimes the bird gets in or something and I didn't want to put a crazy awesome tv out. Yeah, I'm wondering like, you know for warranty purposes, TVs that are made to go inside houses as soon as you mount them outside the house, you've kind of voided your warranty I would imagine. So you think this counts as outside probably. I mean it's under roof, it is under roof but it's not temperature controlled. So I wonder if that's what they're thinking about. Their, that makes sense. And certainly like the moisture that's just out in the air is gonna get in the tree house more than it would get inside your home. I would imagine. Right. And so that's why you know having outdoor speakers inside the treehouse didn't seem like a bad idea. We were going through that install. No, that makes a lot of sense. Yeah. Um and and the sun was amP itself is protected but it isn't, it isn't temperature controlled out there all the time. We have gone um we kind of patched up any like drafts coming in from the outside and we're going to insulate it so that will, that will help. I mean I don't think we're ever going to run a heater all the time or an A C. Unit out there. Um but we're doing some things to, you know to gussy it up even more and make it more livable like full plumbing system. I mean that's the thing, it needs a bathroom, that's what it's missing at this point. Um But no, there's no no running water out there yet yet. You got a refrigerator though so we don't, we need a fridge. I thought the, oh that's what the article said. You were looking to add a tv and a fridge at the time. The article came out, added the fridge yet. You still haven't done that. We still haven't added the fridge, but we went right on ahead and got the tv. Yeah, priorities. I get it. Yeah, that makes sense. One of these comments, I'm wondering your thoughts on this, the first comment on this article or the top comment on this article, mary from Spokane says this is nothing but a slick advertisement, shameful. Okay, how do you respond to that? It sounds like a hater. I would say sorry mary. And you know, we it's certainly not an advertisement I guess. I mean maybe it is. I mean it went in the catalog, right? So sure let's say it is an advertisement of some extent to some extent, but it's a wonderful advertisement that we got to hold on to and we use all the time. Um So it's not it's not a fake use case, right? It's a it's a real use case. And and we were very fortunate in that when so knows heard about our tree house. They were like, oh yeah, we'd help you guys put some gear up there. Um, and so that's how that happened for us. I mean on the one hand, what Crutchfield does is sell products. So almost everything we do could maybe be considered an advertisement, right? I think it is right. We're gonna go ahead and sell all those speakers that we put up in my tree. I mean that's kind of the idea, but at the same time we are very, very, very focused on the idea of providing real world information. That is not just an advertisement. Yeah, I guess technically their advertisements, all these articles, all these videos we do are there to not only help you become aware of a product and to learn about how it works and what it does, but it's also a real world thing. Like we are not afraid to necessarily tell you what it doesn't do that we wished it did or things like that, right? Like we try to be as pretty fair and balanced about that stuff. Yeah, I think it is, you know, you can say everything we do is an advertisement because we sell this gear and then say that, but we're trying to help people understand what it is capable of doing. Um, and we do that in video too, right? We want to test everything out, we want to make sure people get the most accurate info. Um, and so going, hey, let's try and wire to two pairs of speakers to single. So no sam and let's see how it goes. Um, and that was part of what we were doing and oh yeah, let's throw some, some volume controls in here as well and, and see how that works out to. Um, and if it didn't work out, we probably wouldn't suggest people do it or show that it was done in the, in the treehouse, right? No, we certainly wouldn't. Yeah, I mean we're not here to show you how to not do things that were not here. We're not showing off the wrong way to get it done, but if we can show that it works and it doesn't void any warranties and the products worked as expected, then great. And I would think to, you know, someone maybe doesn't have a treehouse, but they might have some other situation, like one of the other commenters, right? He was like, hey, this makes me think about, I could do this over here in my house and that's part of what we're hoping to do. Right? Help everyone to figure out what's the next cool thing they could do with their at their house. Their car. The next comment on the article of right below mary is from Cindy, from Delray Beach. She says she's got the exact opposite reaction. She says it is lovely to read an upbeat column rejoice, nice to know, others are using their enterprising skills and building a sound house, keep smiling and if you come up with any new do it yourself ideas please share. So that's kind of what we're going for. Yeah definitely. So if I understand correctly the treehouse is not the only place you have so knows products. No. Um I so when I said I was a writer for a period of time I wrote for home audio categories for Crutchfield. Um And so nose was one of the things that I got into pretty early on and wrote about. And so I've got a number of zones in my house. We have um I'm adding right now my head is what's happening over here I think because if I understand correctly you can do up to 32 zones or 32 devices and if each one is in a different room technically you could be 32 zones. Yeah we have five zones including the treehouse and our house is like 1200 square feet so it's a bit overkill but it's awesome. So we've got um so nos move that is plugged in in our dining room but that goes anywhere we need um we gotta connect um which is in the living room, hooked up to the the T. V. And that audio system and also knows play one. Um And some of these are older obviously I've kind of got the history of so nose in my house at this point in time. Um And an original play five which I don't know maybe it'll be a collector's item someday, so there's a few years back so no sort of upgraded their platform and in fact there's now two Sonos apps that you can have on your device, there's the M one and the M two. Uh and newer devices have better processors, more memory, they can they work faster and better and sound better and but you need the new version of the app and if you have some of the older legacy stuff like it sounds like you might uh then you can't necessarily use that with the new app. Do you have a sort of a two different, so no systems going or if you are you just using the original M one app? Um I've got so almost everything we have is on the M two and then the play the original, Play five is the only piece that won't work with Play two or with the M two, So that is on the original app and and that's just a piece. I'm gonna have to upgrade, I think at some point. And I mean I I think I mentioned to you, I have at different points in time, I've had um Zp 80 zP one twenties, I had a Sonus controller before they went to all app control. Um I've tried out the so no subs I tried out the first, so no sub when it was in beta um in my old town house. Yeah. Um so there's, I've had a variety of so nose gear over the years, but I think, you know, we're gonna upgrade probably this play five just to get everything onto the same system by those numbers are a blast from the past. I remember when so nose first launched, we got him here at Crutchfield ZP 80 and a ZP 1 20 is what the newest versions of those. The ZP 1 20 was an amplified device. So it's basically the Sonos amp except 15 years ago and the so knows ZP 80 was like what they call a Sonos connect now, which is like how to get so knows integrated into like an existing audio system. Uh And back then it was all like before smartphones and the only way to control your, so nose was to use the Sonos app on your computer or a dedicated so nos controller and it had a little clique that I do. It sort of took some ideas from how ipods worked and looked and it went for a very nice sleek design. That Sonos controller was solid uh and had a nice screen on it and it was not cheap. It was like 350 bucks all by itself. Uh Do you still use that to control the old Play five? I think that I don't, it's been a long time. All that stuff. We kind of swapped in newer gear for, I don't know that that controller would even work anymore. I thought they went out like all that base because it was, it was a thing when they stopped with the desktop controller, you know, that was pretty convenient to have to, yeah, I'm sure it wouldn't work any of your newer so nose gear, but I thought maybe there's a chance it still operates the old M. One, like the play five. Yeah, I don't know, unfortunately. Yeah. Not that you need to know, I mean you're mostly using the newer stuff. I would imagine. Yeah, everything but that that original play five and that's gonna, that'll go at some point, you know, they've got a recycling program or or something that I think where you can get some credit towards some new stuff. Yeah. And I have some credit sitting out there that I just have to figure out how I'm gonna, I'm gonna spend, what is the next thing you're going to get? Like what's the next piece of? So yeah, so I thought, well maybe it was Rome, I don't know, that's kind of cool. But I currently have a sonar beam in my office that I'm about to borrow to check out. That's the sound bar on the smaller sound bar, the smaller sound bar. I was gonna just take a listen, you know, give that a shot at the house. I took the sonos Arc home, which is their newest biggest sound bar, the dolby at most sound bar and uh it it performed significantly better than I thought it would compared to my like dedicated separate speakers receiver, home theater system. I totally disconnected that connected the sonos arc with the, so no sub and I could easily switch from having speakers mounted all around the room to just having those two devices. I know, I feel like I should try that too. You know, it is, it's something where around here you just see the latest and the greatest and the new stuff all the time we have coming through the video studio and oh, I mean maybe I should just borrow that. Maybe I should, yeah, maybe I should just listen to this while it's set up, which is what you do first. Right and go, well let's hear it set up. I might as well listen to this and then you start to make the case to yourself why maybe you should upgrade your gear at home and then you end up with like me who, you know, I've got, I've got a surround system that's not currently hooked up because I don't have another home theater room for it. Got however many pairs of speakers that aren't currently hooked up because I've just run out of space. That's a real problem. I think. Yeah. In addition to so knows you are obsessed with headphones if I understand correctly. Yeah, I think I just, again, it's one of those things where something new came out. Okay. Yeah, I should probably get a pair right And in this case it's a um I'm into Bose headphones specifically. Um And so I think you know it started I had a pair of QC two's back in the day. Quiet comfort two's like second generation quiet comfort headphones. Yeah the wired ones that they they weren't they also had a battery it was like a triple A. Battery in the Q. C. The the original quiet comfort headphones had like a wire from the left ear cup down to a battery pack that you would like clip onto your belt. And then from there it would click into the headphone output of a device. And they're what bluetooth wasn't a thing for those types of headphones back then that was it. Uh And they can have continued to get smaller and smaller the batteries built into the headset then and they continue to keep getting smaller. Yeah so I had Q. C. Two with the triple A. Battery right? And there's no bluetooth at that point in time it's all a wired connection to whatever you're listening to. Um And then I ended up getting a pair and still have in ear noise canceling wired headphones wired in ears. Okay. Yeah and I love those I mean they're they're just fantastic and um So after that I got a pair of the first Bose sound sport that came out. Is that the ones with the wire that connects the left one to the right one or true wireless. That's the first true wireless, but there's no noise canceling, but that's the first true wireless. Um and I picked up a pair of quiet comfort 35 over the pandemic because I want something new to listen to. Um and then most recently got a pair of Bose quiet comfort earbuds. So true wireless noise canceling. Um and those are now my go to is, but I keep everything else around because you never know. Yeah, totally. Uh and I'm in a very similar situation for years. I used the quiet comfort. I think 35 is the last pair I've purchased that. I use those like when I'm mowing the grass. Uh, my, my general, what I do when I mow the grass is I put that on, turn the noise canceling on. You don't hear the mower anymore. Crank Hambleton and listen to Hambleton and walk around my yard wrapping Hambleton at the top of my lungs. I mean the horses get quite a show because I'm really good actually at rapping Hambleton. I kind of want to see this now. I know there should be video of this. Yeah, yeah, do it. I have since purchased a pair of the true wireless noise canceling in ears and they are even better because if I walk under like a couple of tree branches, the on ear over ear Qc. 35. Sometimes the branch will hit the headband and knock them off my head. That kind of stuff. There's a couple of low hanging branches and these in ears just never have that problem. And they never budge like they stay put better than any true wireless any had any in ear, but I've ever had these stay put better than ever. Yeah, they are great that way. I mean I can exercise with them, I use them in the office and anywhere I go and walk around the house, walk the dog, it's all fine. They don't, they don't move, you know, I've tried, I've tried other pairs two and and it's up to your individual ears, you know what's like the right fit for for somebody. Um but Bose has like time after time just fit well. So that's that's my preference. So um what else have we not talked about? Because that's everything I had on my list that we were going to discuss. Is there other stuff we need to make sure we talk about while I have you here? I think the only other stuff I have is smart home. Right? So I mentioned Euro, Euro? Yeah, that's the, I went with their three nod ma node three nodes system. I also expanded my wifi network at home using a Hero instead of my old Centurylink router, which is all DSL so I still use that as the modem hero is now my network much better coverage in the house than I ever had before. It's a great system. Yeah. So I have that, I've got the two nodes with it. So one is on the other side of our house to make sure our conference calls are crystal clear than the other one. Like I said, it's down on our workshop to give give us wifi like into the backyard to the treehouse, watch youtube videos if we're working on some sort of project out back. So the backbone of setting up a smart home, is there, what are some smart home devices that have improved your life? So we have a nest thermostat, we've got the nest smoke detector as well, got a ring doorbell camera and then I've got a couple of cameras, um, not from crutchfield, uh, that are down in the chicken coop so I can check on my chickens. I'm curious how smart is the nest thermostat? Does it really learn what you, you know what your, your habits are and when to heat and when to cool and all of that. Is it really that good at doing that? It is that smart, Right? And, but I mean for us to, we, we have it, you can have it scheduled to do that and to learn where you're going and when it should be warmer and when it should be cooler. Um, and, and it can go into eco mode. So if you forget to do something, you go on vacation, like it'll bump itself back to the temperature it needs, you know, you want it to be at when the house is unoccupied so you leave, you go on vacation, you forget to do anything with your thermostat because you're like most people and thermostat just notices you're not around for a prolonged period of time. So it brings everything down to an economical level without you know turning everything off. So you don't want to freeze pipes or something right? Or brings it up so your A. C. Is not like running on overdrive over the summer. Um And then it's also got scheduling features which we use a lot right? Like okay like the house to warm up a little bit before I wake up in the morning. Um And any of that can be done from the app too, so if I'm being super lazy, you know and I'm gonna have to get up earlier and I forgot and I didn't change the schedule, I can just pull up my phone and like knock it up a degree or two. Keep um like lazing and then like get up a little bit later. So yeah so you can like snooze the alarm once, turn the volume or turn the heat up a little bit uh And so that getting out of the bed is not a shock to the system and that might be a mental game more than anything else, but it helps but it's a mental game. Many people play whatever it takes. Yeah, I love it cold when I'm going to sleep, but if it's cold in the morning, it's really tough to get out of bed. All right. So the smart thermostat works ring doorbell camera, yep, that's on the front door. Um And it has helped us, you know, I mean keep an eye on when packages arrive or when someone comes to the door and or when like our cat used to sneak out the door. Um I could see that the door had been left ajar and the cat snuck out and one time I watched her sneak back in before anybody even noticed. Yeah, out and in. Have you gotten any videos that you're like, oh, this needs to go on youtube. This could go viral. There's a, I don't know, some crazy kid wrecking a bike in the front yard, people stealing packages, anything, anything really exciting like that. So the best when before I got the two cameras down by the chicken coop and we had just put our chickens outside. I want to make sure we weren't gonna get all kinds of predators. So I moved the ring doorbell down there, right? And my husband's joking, like the whole house is unprotected, but those chickens, they're going to be watched. Um And so I moved it down there and I could see what was coming at night to check out the animals, right? And because it smelled chickens or whatever it was. Um, So, raccoon possum, we could see all that, we have bears out where I live, but I didn't, I haven't caught one on camera yet. Um and I got, so one time this raccoon kept coming back and I was worried I was gonna try and get in, so it was there and the ring camera, you can talk through it. So the first time I yelled, the second time I got the dog to bark and the raccoon ran off. Nice. Yeah, that's a little bit extreme use case there. Um But uh did the job? Thank you so much for coming in and talking to me today, Tara, thanks for having. Alright, so that was my interview with Terra. And if there was one takeaway to get from out of that interview, I think it was that you've got to check on the chickens. Yeah, you gotta keep your eye on those chickens, you never know. You don't let them out of your sight. Yeah, Now we've got technology to help you keep an eye on your chicken, make sure your wifi is robust enough to get a camera out to where you can check on your chickens. That's right, that's consumer tip of the day. Not a commercial, nope. Not at all. Also chickens, not a sponsor, nope, not at all. This is not a commercial for chicken chickens live or dead. Uh man, we are loopy today. Uh We gotta get out of here. We should uh we should, you know, we had one thing we were gonna do today, but I think we should hold off because I'd love to hear more about what you the listener have to say or maybe questions you might have on a particular day topic and I was thinking how cool would it be. Uh I know eric with all of your days in retail and your demos and stuff that you set up in your home theater that I know you have thoughts galore on like good demo material for a home theater. Yes, the one thing I have is thoughts. Absolutely. So we were going to do this whole segment right now, but I think instead we're gonna save that because I think it's more than just, you know, three minutes at the end of the terra interview episode. I think it might be deserving of a bigger, bigger segment of a future show. And so I would love to know what you listeners want to either. Do you want recommendations for demos for your home theaters? Do you have recommendations? What would you play if you just bought new home theater gear and you invited your friends over, what's the movie, you're going to show them first? What is, what's going to show off your new subs your speakers? You're at most concealing, whatever, what are you using as home home theater demo material, let's talk about that. How to get the most out of your home theater with, with actual movies and tv shows and concerts and whatever it might be. Yeah. And if you maybe you had an experience in the theater that maybe you're thinking about putting together a home theater system, what would you be excited to listen to? What would be the first thing you fire up? That's a cool conversation. I'm thinking a home theater themed episode where that's the whole entire topic. Sweet, let's, let's do it. So that'll be coming up at some point in the future. I don't know exactly when we'll be back in a few weeks with another episode on behalf of eric. Thanks for being here with me today by the way. Oh, you're very welcome. Halloween is awesome. Halloween bah humbug. That's the wrong holiday. What are you talking about?