Just use hosa cables. They plug and unplug easily, the cables are really flexible and I've never broken one. But for some reason people turn up their nose... (don't use their XLR or 1/4" cables unless you plan on replacing the connectors with better ones)
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# ? Jul 21, 2013 01:35 |
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# ? Apr 26, 2024 12:17 |
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Mister Macys posted:They grip so loving tight, I pulled the wire right out of the jack once. I think Monster Cables come with a lifetime warranty. I read a post by a touring musician who explained that Monster guitar patch cables are actually a good deal for him because he breaks them all the time while playing gigs, and as long as he can find a music store that sells them, they'll just replace them under warranty. Edit: While we're talking about cable companies, one that interests me is Blue Jeans cable. I posted about them once in this thread and people basically said that I was dumb and should just order from monoprice for half as much. If people are having trouble with monoprice cables they may be worth the extra money, although I checked and they don't have microusb. I've never ordered from them, but I've read a bunch of the technical articles they have posted and it seems like they know their poo poo. Here's one talking about problems with HDMI. http://www.bluejeanscable.com/articles/whats-the-matter-with-hdmi.htm Opensourcepirate fucked around with this message at 06:09 on Jul 21, 2013 |
# ? Jul 21, 2013 06:05 |
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Opensourcepirate posted:I've never ordered from them, but I've read a bunch of the technical articles they have posted and it seems like they know their poo poo. Here's one talking about problems with HDMI. Don't ever read 'articles' or even articles by manufacturers/vendors.
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# ? Jul 21, 2013 06:17 |
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Oh god, what have I done?!?! I've exposed myself to filth like this by reading their 'articles'bluejeanscable posted:Oxygen-Free Copper
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# ? Jul 21, 2013 06:26 |
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Opensourcepirate posted:Oh god, what have I done?!?! I've exposed myself to filth like this by reading their 'articles' Now quote the passage where they tell you what they have done to make their cables good. e: Found it myself: quote:But attention to these questions is what makes the difference between American broadcast-quality cable and the cheap Chinese stuff which is so very common on the consumer audio/video market. Oh well yes let's compare our non-cheap product to the cheapest possible product. 3D Megadoodoo fucked around with this message at 06:35 on Jul 21, 2013 |
# ? Jul 21, 2013 06:30 |
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Fair enough. A lot of their articles are about technical specifications (like the first one I posted), and don't talk much about their products. I'll post their entire article on their welded speak wires though.BlueJeansCable posted:Ultrasonic Welding and BJC Speaker Cable Edit: You'll notice that they recommend in the article just buying bare speaker wire from them if you don't want the welded option, rather than going with their optional screw on banana plugs or other terminations. Opensourcepirate fucked around with this message at 06:37 on Jul 21, 2013 |
# ? Jul 21, 2013 06:34 |
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I checked their prices on the site and even though I have no idea how long 10 feet is, I'm fairly certain 48½ USD for a 10 foot stereo cable is way too much. (It's too much for 10 metres of stereo cable and I know a foot is less than a metre.)
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# ? Jul 21, 2013 06:37 |
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This will be my last post on the subject so I don't run it into the ground. These are the things I have to say. 1. I've found their articles to be interesting. A lot of them talk about technical specifications for various standards and have very little to say about their particular cables. Obviously they talk about themselves in a good light, but it's not overblown. 2. They are US based and manufacture as much as they can in the US. I and other people are willing to spend more money on US made goods. If you're not, that's fine. 3. The item you quoted is a custom length item. You have to enter 10 feet, and then they make a cable to fill the order. Other products they have come in pre-made lengths, and generally seem to be priced more closely to what you would find from other sources. 4. I strongly disagree with your statement to not read articles by anyone. I think it's a much better skill to be able to read articles and figure out what is and is not bullshit, rather than just cutting yourself off from biased material completely. 5. As best as I can tell, this company does what they can to make a high quality cable without using any bells or whistles that don't actually improve quality. One of the things that lead me to them is that I was looking for HDMI cables that will actually do 50+ feet reliably. I absolutely go with Chinese mass produced poo poo for my 6-10 feet HDMI cables, but I've had HDMI cables not work for me at lengths as short as 15 feet. Finding a long HDMI cable that will work is a harder task than you may realize, and this company claims to have made a cable that will go 150 feet. Edit: To give an idea of the markup: they charge about 10 cents a foot (20 cents per foot you enter, but you're getting two cables) for their Belden 1505F stereo cable when you put in a large length. That cable is available in bulk from tons of places, at about $100 for 100 feet or $700 for 1000 feet. So 10 cents a foot for 100 feet and 7 cents a foot for 1000. Opensourcepirate fucked around with this message at 08:45 on Jul 21, 2013 |
# ? Jul 21, 2013 06:55 |
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Opensourcepirate posted:Fair enough. A lot of their articles are about technical specifications (like the first one I posted), and don't talk much about their products. I'll post their entire article on their welded speak wires though. I've seen their sonic mumbo jumbo welded cables, they're actually really cool. The wiring basically looks like its part of the connector. No solder or anything.
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# ? Jul 21, 2013 20:24 |
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Opensourcepirate posted:This will be my last post on the subject so I don't run it into the ground. These are the things I have to say. $100 for 100 ft is $1 per foot, not 10 cents. 10 cents per foot would be 10 bucks.
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# ? Jul 21, 2013 20:30 |
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The owner of Blue Jeans Audio is the guy who pretty well told Monster to gently caress off when Monster sent them a cease and desist letter when the latter was in their litigious phase. I recall that the whole thing ended up as a pretty big public humiliation for Monster.
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# ? Jul 21, 2013 20:39 |
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I bought a set of blue jeans' ultra low capacitance RCA cables for my turntable, since interference actually makes a huge difference before you hit the pre-amp. Build quality is great, and they are still a fraction less than other high end audio cables. Even less than what you'd pay for "high end" stuff in Best Buy.
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# ? Jul 21, 2013 22:08 |
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KillHour posted:$100 for 100 ft is $1 per foot, not 10 cents. 10 cents per foot would be 10 bucks. Oh yeah, that was dumb of me. So 1 buck a foot for Blue Jeans and 70 cents a foot for a 1000 foot spool. Anyway guys, thanks for the validation. It's good to see that we can discuss actual differences in quality in the audiophiles thread. Opensourcepirate fucked around with this message at 23:50 on Jul 21, 2013 |
# ? Jul 21, 2013 23:47 |
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I don't generally pay a lot of attention to Audiogon these days but this caught my eye: http://hub.audiogon.com/amarra-symphony/ How about a $500 "high end" music player for your Mac that's likely a frontend for iTunes anyway? The switch to file-based listening must have been a great boon for audiophile companies now that they don't even have to actually manufacture something. e: also I like the conspicuously placed AC/DC track with the stupid "Best of" Mozart tracks. We are smart and cultured but we know how to rock and be cool too guys!!!
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# ? Jul 24, 2013 05:33 |
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Detroit Q. Spider posted:I don't generally pay a lot of attention to Audiogon these days but this caught my eye: http://hub.audiogon.com/amarra-symphony/ Or maybe the / just throws off the alphabetization ? (OK we all know that's not what happened.)
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# ? Jul 24, 2013 06:18 |
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Detroit Q. Spider posted:I don't generally pay a lot of attention to Audiogon these days but this caught my eye: http://hub.audiogon.com/amarra-symphony/ If it works and they sell some copies, all the more power to them.
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# ? Jul 24, 2013 06:48 |
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According to the site, its EQ even has a bunch of "presents"!
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# ? Jul 24, 2013 07:57 |
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Detroit Q. Spider posted:I don't generally pay a lot of attention to Audiogon these days but this caught my eye: http://hub.audiogon.com/amarra-symphony/ There is a forums out there where they looped the output into a recording device on a secondary machine and then compared against other 'bit perfect' playback programs. The wav forms were identical, fully zoomed in. Basically you can buy JRiver Media Center for like 30 bucks and it'll do bit perfect output and that is the best you're ever going to get from a machine. Full stop. This came about because people were wondering if JRiver MC on Mac was as good as it was on Windows. So they did a test dual booting a Mac. And they threw in other pieces of software for fun. Then you run into people who paid ungodly amounts for these software pieces who will simply say they trust their ears more than anything else. Which may be true when you're unable to pipe digital output directly into digital recording. But for this? Sorry, you wasted your money. Philthy fucked around with this message at 19:22 on Jul 24, 2013 |
# ? Jul 24, 2013 19:18 |
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Philthy posted:Then you run into people who paid ungodly amounts for these software pieces who will simply say they trust their ears more than anything else. Which may be true when you're unable to pipe digital output directly into digital recording. But for this? Sorry, you wasted your money. The only people you can trust with their ears are the ones who play an instrument. Specifically ones where you make the sounds yourself ie. brass instruments.
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# ? Jul 24, 2013 20:26 |
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Philthy posted:There is a forums out there where they looped the output into a recording device on a secondary machine and then compared against other 'bit perfect' playback programs. The wav forms were identical, fully zoomed in. Basically you can buy JRiver Media Center for like 30 bucks and it'll do bit perfect output and that is the best you're ever going to get from a machine. Full stop. Foobar2000 does this for free, too.
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# ? Jul 24, 2013 23:24 |
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Wasabi the J posted:Foobar2000 does this for free, too. For Windows. Mac users not so much. A lot of older Mac Minis are being recycled into music servers stuffed behind TVs. JRMC + JRemote makes it a really affordable way to stream everything if you don't want to build a CAPS thingymabobber. Philthy fucked around with this message at 00:01 on Jul 25, 2013 |
# ? Jul 24, 2013 23:58 |
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The true hilarity in all this is that iTunes as a music player is just a front-end itself for quicktime, which is already bit-perfect with the right output settings selected.
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# ? Jul 25, 2013 01:29 |
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Unfortunately, it doesn't support many formats and wasn't bit perfect for Windows until very recently. I have no idea how the audio industry got what should be the easiest part of anything, so completely and totally messed up for so long. Philthy fucked around with this message at 05:37 on Jul 25, 2013 |
# ? Jul 25, 2013 05:35 |
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This is not so much audiophile but it still seems pretty daft to me and certainly 'just because we could'. http://www.theverge.com/2013/7/19/4537724/lcd-soundsystem-frontman-returns-to-his-roots-with-amazing-custom-speaker-set Guys from Soulwax and LCD Soundsystem create their own speaker setup. 8 stacks of these arrayed in a circular formation. What's up with that tweeter layout (among other things)??
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# ? Jul 26, 2013 13:25 |
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quote:Despacio, on the other hand, has been designed specifically to reproduce both modern dance music and "Hells Bells" as accurately as possible. To that end, the trio will only be playing vinyl through the system. "Vinyl sounds better," James says, simply, when quizzed why he's rejecting digital music. Edit: wait, i hope "vinyl vs digital" isn't opening pandora's can of worms around here. RoadCrewWorker fucked around with this message at 13:41 on Jul 26, 2013 |
# ? Jul 26, 2013 13:32 |
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RoadCrewWorker posted:I don't know, that sounds pretty in line with the rest of the thread. Vinyl sucks, argument over.
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# ? Jul 26, 2013 14:16 |
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I'm wondering how any needle will stay on a record with a system that large. Philthy fucked around with this message at 14:37 on Jul 26, 2013 |
# ? Jul 26, 2013 14:24 |
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The line about a modern dance system not being able to play anything other than dance also made me laugh, the dude claims to have been a sound engineer, how can he not know what the gently caress EQ is?
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# ? Jul 26, 2013 14:40 |
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88h88 posted:This is not so much audiophile but it still seems pretty daft to me and certainly 'just because we could'. http://www.theverge.com/2013/7/19/4537724/lcd-soundsystem-frontman-returns-to-his-roots-with-amazing-custom-speaker-set This thing is silly. It looks like a highschool kids woodwork project speaker box. Scratch that, kids are building folded and tapped horn bass bins as school projects now. With the space that thing takes up, one could be well into a Danley Soundlabs setup which would sound better than anything else available.
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# ? Jul 26, 2013 17:30 |
I laugh whenever someone talks about "reproducing" modern dance music. As if it existed in acoustic form at some point prior to coming out of your speakers. I think what the guy is expressing is that modern equipment and recording media are "too perfect" and as a result it reveals the flaws in old recordings. Socket Ryanist fucked around with this message at 20:19 on Jul 26, 2013 |
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# ? Jul 26, 2013 20:16 |
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Accurately reproduced flaws are considered worse than flaws that get hosed up even more?
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# ? Jul 26, 2013 20:48 |
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50kw in home audio style McIntosh amps would be very pricey. And pretty.
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# ? Jul 26, 2013 21:32 |
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22k each apparently according to one interview. Totals something like 1.07 mill for the amount they have. ....I guess that's why they skimped on the actual stacks.
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# ? Jul 26, 2013 21:59 |
Combat Pretzel posted:Accurately reproduced flaws are considered worse than flaws that get hosed up even more? Not the best example but one that I can think of: In "strawberry fields forever", the splice in the second pre-chorus is really obvious if you're listening to a digital copy on good speakers, but on vinyl the hiss and rumble kind of "glues" it together.
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# ? Jul 26, 2013 22:42 |
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There's more dorky details about the LCD/Soulwax soundsystem here. It's........ interesting. http://www.thevinylfactory.com/vinyl-factory-releases/dfa-and-despacio-engineer-john-klett-despacio-vinyl-only-soundsystem/ quote:Each system is 5-way and it’s kinda obvious what it is: There are two 15s and it’s about 9 and a half cubic feet and the vents are huge but they’re not deep. Early bass reflex cabinets didn’t have the big shelf going back or pipes or any of that stuff, so those are tuned ducts; it’s also a reflex, they call them reflex cabinets, but this is where the vent is the thickness of the baffle. Has something been lost in translation on that last bit y'think? 'cos in the next paragraph he states there's loads of dynamics... :?
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# ? Jul 30, 2013 16:27 |
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That doesn't make sense at all. I wonder if the term "dynamics" was not being used in the same context as crest factor. A misquote perhaps. Like, they're only using vinyl, so there is no dynamics with regards to readjusting gains when they play a vinyl then a CD or .Flac. As for using vinyl, CD has better capability for dynamics. Has there ever been music produced with crest factor of a movie ? IE 20db crest ?
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# ? Jul 30, 2013 17:52 |
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88h88 posted:There's more dorky details about the LCD/Soulwax soundsystem here. It's........ interesting. , but in audiophilese.
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# ? Jul 30, 2013 18:59 |
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88h88 posted:This is not so much audiophile but it still seems pretty daft to me and certainly 'just because we could'. http://www.theverge.com/2013/7/19/4537724/lcd-soundsystem-frontman-returns-to-his-roots-with-amazing-custom-speaker-set I heard this. It was average at best, god awful screechy on vocals and wallowy as hell on bass. Have heard plenty of systems in the same sized space sound a lot better for a fraction of the price. Oh and there were 7 stacks there, at a total cost of £1.2mil. So of course, there's another 25 stacks on order… Talking about watts and dB like they're totally interchangeable is just hilarious. In no way was that system anywhere near close to 4000 bloody acoustic watts of output.
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# ? Aug 1, 2013 19:45 |
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A screechy horn speaker?!?!?!
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# ? Aug 2, 2013 01:09 |
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# ? Apr 26, 2024 12:17 |
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Neurophonic posted:I heard this. It was average at best, god awful screechy on vocals and wallowy as hell on bass. Have heard plenty of systems in the same sized space sound a lot better for a fraction of the price. 3 Danley Soundlabs Jericho horns, providing good sound for 110,000 seats. That's Penn State's budget sound upgrade. Probably cost less than 1 of those stacks above. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_usTlJi2NA&feature=youtube_gdata_player
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# ? Aug 2, 2013 07:22 |