The Sweet Spot

This is one of my most poignant stories of Werner.

He put his house up for sale, on insistence of Cream Puff. In retrospect, he says, that it went on the market (and subsequently sold) for too cheap, because she was desperate that they get this house off their names.

This... the place that Werner had stayed home for on weekends, spent his time and money fixing up, just became another casualty of this thing called divorce.

He says - at the time, it is all unreal, and you don't really realise what is happening, it all moves too fast. I was so lucky in that sense. The Prof gave me the house, and I never went through the trauma of parting with my home and safe space.

But my story today, is about Werner's sound room. In the "Sound Industry" there is a term known as a "sweet spot". A "sweet spot", I have learnt (but never heard), is when the sound from all the speakers, in a closed room, hit your ears at the exact, precise same moment. There is not a millisecond delay in any of the sounds.

A room having a "sweet spot" will remain in exactly that state. IF you move a single article in that room, even if you bring in extra people - it changes the way the sound waves bounce off stuff - and thus disturb your "sweet spot". This is then, an elusive and difficult thing to achieve in any sound room. It requires dedication, hard work, experiments, measuring with sound equipment, disappointments, and above all - TIME, to achieve this. Some people never get it right. The shape of a room, the height of a ceiling - all affect the ability to get a "sweet spot" - or not, as the case may be.

Werner made himself a sound room in this house. He had the measuring guys there, he dropped the ceiling, put in double glass on his windows to stop vibration, raised and lowered speakers ... I think you get the picture. Huge schlep, huge expense.
And yes - FINALLY - he had a "sweet spot" in his sound room, after years of fiddling around to get it!

He called his dad and brothers, and they also heard the "sweet spot". Music was his very life, it was what got him through his weekends alone. This was a huge personal achievement.

And Cream Puff? She doesn't know what a "sweet spot" is. She never knew about it, and never heard it.

Selling a house, is kinda detrimental to a "sweet spot". They really hate that! You pack up that room, and the "sweet spot" moves out!

I guess it was the least of his worries at that stage, but his story made me really sad. I asked him once, if he would like to make a new sound room in our house, but he shook his head. The time, effort and money are too much. He had achieved it once, and that was it. It is a thing you only do once in a life time.

But, he said giving me a huge hug, YOU are my sweet spot now.....