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AlexDeGruven
Jun 29, 2007

Watch me pull my dongle out of this tiny box


qirex posted:

runner up is this, a bargain at one thousand eight hundred of your earth dollars


TBH, that's a pretty cool way to do a clock, and gives me some ideas.

But yeah, with an arduino and a couple of repurposed VU meters, it could be done for a few (not thousand) bucks.

Oh, wait.

That's probably what's inside there, anyway.

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qirex
Feb 15, 2001

I ranked it below the sign because even a tacky clock still does something useful.

Mr. Wiggles
Dec 1, 2003

We are all drinking from the highball glass of ideology.
I hope this is the right thread, but if not please redirect me.

I'm trying to upgrade my home stereo system. Currently what I use is my old Akai AM-U33 amp with my turntable on the phone input and my TV running into an analog converter and then into one of the aux inputs. Sound comes from a pair of old Sonic speaker cabinets that I re-speakered with celestions years ago, and these speakers also serve as small tables for some vintage lamps that are part of our 1960s living room setup. This system, while it has served adequately, is not where I want to be. So, please direct me to a better amp and speakers that can a) handle both turntable and television inputs, b) sound super clear, and c) possibly still serves as small tables for my lamps. I'd also like to keep things to under $1000 all together if possible.

Help?

GnarlyCharlie4u
Sep 23, 2007

I have an unhealthy obsession with motorcycles.

Proof

Mr. Wiggles posted:

I hope this is the right thread, but if not please redirect me.

I'm trying to upgrade my home stereo system. Currently what I use is my old Akai AM-U33 amp with my turntable on the phone input and my TV running into an analog converter and then into one of the aux inputs. Sound comes from a pair of old Sonic speaker cabinets that I re-speakered with celestions years ago, and these speakers also serve as small tables for some vintage lamps that are part of our 1960s living room setup. This system, while it has served adequately, is not where I want to be. So, please direct me to a better amp and speakers that can a) handle both turntable and television inputs, b) sound super clear, and c) possibly still serves as small tables for my lamps. I'd also like to keep things to under $1000 all together if possible.

Help?

If you're not looking to spend $1000 on a single cable, this is the wrong thread.
You want to be here: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3021252

Or here: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=2389259

or possibly here: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3384469

Fantastic Foreskin
Jan 6, 2013

A golden helix streaked skyward from the Helvault. A thunderous explosion shattered the silver monolith and Avacyn emerged, free from her prison at last.

Alternatively, if you would like to spend $1000 on a single cable I have some lamp cord coldish-temperate treated cable made of secret wonders of the natural earth with a space age polymer surround to protect the signal from negative interference from bad thoughts and damaging skin oils to sell you.

taqueso
Mar 8, 2004


:911:
:wookie: :thermidor: :wookie:
:dehumanize:

:pirate::hf::tinfoil:
Does it also protect from tigers? I can't upgrade unless my new cables have that feature too

Fantastic Foreskin
Jan 6, 2013

A golden helix streaked skyward from the Helvault. A thunderous explosion shattered the silver monolith and Avacyn emerged, free from her prison at last.

Tiger repelling rocks are an optional accessory. However, some find they reduce the vertically of their music, so they pick up some of our entallener cable lifts to offset this. If you're using uncompensated tiger protection in your current set up, call now and we'll give you a special deal so you can see what you've been missing.

taqueso
Mar 8, 2004


:911:
:wookie: :thermidor: :wookie:
:dehumanize:

:pirate::hf::tinfoil:
Thanks for the help, the phone call really cleared things up. Love the chance to join the $100k customer club! I think I can feel the tiger effects already, it's like they know the tracking number has been accepted by China Post. Anyway, they have been keeping their distance even though I started the decompression soft landing protocol on the microblimp uavs suspending the old cable through the local wildflower crtyobiome cable terrarium.This will be the best USB cable ever, can't wait to see what the ole Marantz does with this crystal clear signal. I think I have the tuning really optimized now, I mounted the usb-fm transmitter upside down (MegaCrystal organic jute cable hangers, 12mo aged, repurposed for the transmitter with some RF pheremone spray, I've got a guy if you need a hookup) and the blacks really opened up.

5stars, live to see science improving lives! keep up the good work

Mr. Wiggles
Dec 1, 2003

We are all drinking from the highball glass of ideology.

Thanks!

GonadTheBallbarian
Jul 23, 2007


We really should be handing out dunce cap avs for advice-asking

LRADIKAL
Jun 10, 2001

Fun Shoe
What a deal! 10$ a watt, includes tubes and solid state!

https://www.whathifi.com/news/ps-audio-stellar-m1200-mono-power-amp-marries-valve-input-with-class-d-output

GnarlyCharlie4u
Sep 23, 2007

I have an unhealthy obsession with motorcycles.

Proof

$5/watt. It's $6k for the pair and each does 600W@8 OHMs or 1200W@4 OHMs, so $2.50/watt if you're running 4ohm speakers.

The 12AU7 is just an input buffer I think. The THD specs are decent enough and that's a fuckton of power with a nice feature set. I'd say this is only boarderline Audiofool when you consider that you could spend 3/4 that much on some Pro Audio PA equipment to achieve the end result and it wouldn't look nearly as nice and might not have remote trigger capabilities.

It's still in beta though so we'll see what this looks like when it actually drops.

Combat Pretzel
Jun 23, 2004

No, seriously... what kurds?!
I've just ran into some AI experiment that tries to generate novel audio based on existing songs that you input into the machine learning algorithm, which made me wonder, is there anyone that has tried to do ML based audio codecs? Train an autoencoder to figure out on its own how to compress audio the best?

nielsm
Jun 1, 2009



Combat Pretzel posted:

I've just ran into some AI experiment that tries to generate novel audio based on existing songs that you input into the machine learning algorithm, which made me wonder, is there anyone that has tried to do ML based audio codecs? Train an autoencoder to figure out on its own how to compress audio the best?

I think a prerequisite would be to train a network to recognize the same kinds of quality loss humans accept, i.e. a measure of quality of audio compression that's more predictive of human ratings than PSNR and other algorithmic measures.

polyester concept
Mar 29, 2017

they're doing it for video, just a matter of time until it's done for audio (if not already)

nielsm
Jun 1, 2009



I predict if an AI was given free reign to design an audio or video codec end-to-end it would eventually become a Turing-complete system where the encoder produces a program that will reproduce the input.

Combat Pretzel
Jun 23, 2004

No, seriously... what kurds?!

nielsm posted:

I think a prerequisite would be to train a network to recognize the same kinds of quality loss humans accept, i.e. a measure of quality of audio compression that's more predictive of human ratings than PSNR and other algorithmic measures.
You could feed the network the original as input and a decoded high bitrate AAC file on the output side, during training, or something like that. That'd probably do the job.

KOTEX GOD OF BLOOD
Jul 7, 2012

https://www.audiogon.com/listings/lisa151f-acoustic-revive-rd-3-cd-demagnetiser-220-240v-new-in-box-cd-sacd-players



quote:

ACOUSTIC REVIVE RD-3 CD DEMAGNETISER Demagnetize RD-3 demagnetize any optical Disc (such as CD, DVD,MD), Audio/Video Cable Receptable, and it can helps to return to the original sound quality vividly and lively. Firstly, it is thought that ferrous ingredients contained in the printing ink of the label side of the disc is one of the causes of magnetizing discs. For example, iron oxide is used for red, yellow or brown ink, cobalt is used for blue or green ink and nickel is used for silver ink. These materials, iron, cobalt, nickel, are called ferromagnetic substances, and they are relatively easy to magnetize. Second, problems are caused by the use of aluminum used for the recording side of CD. Currently, the JIS (Japanese Industrial Standard) states that the purity of the aluminum used must be 99.0%. The other 1% contains ferromagnetic substance such as iron, nickel and cobalt. Aluminum is a weak magnetic material, so it is easily influenced by magnetism. CD players contain magnetic substances, when a disc is played, the rotation of the mechanism, magnet and motor generates a flux which quickly causes discs to become magnetized. The multi-purpose audio demagnetizer RD-3 is a ground breaking appliance which can easily treat and completely demagnetize all kind of optical discs (CD, DVD, etc). If you demagnetize your disc by RD-3, sound and picture quality are much improved and you will be able to hear aspects of the recording that were inaudible from magnetized discs. RD-3 also has a remarkable effect on digital recording media such as CD-R, DVD-R. If a disc is demagnetized by RD-3 before recording, the sound quality improves greatly regardless of the recording device or software. For this reason, the RD-3 is widely used in the mastering rooms of major recording studios.

Absolutely as new and 220/240v model NOT the 100V ones on eBay which are Japanese domestic versions. . Please ask any questions. Thank you

https://absolutehiend.com/index.php/product/accessories/acoustic-revive/acoustic-revive-cd-demagnetiser-rd-3.html
http://www.acoustic-revive.com/english/cd_dvd/rd-3_1.html
http://www.acoustic-revive.com/english/rd3/images/AcousticReviveRD3-Rio5.pdf

polyester concept
Mar 29, 2017


"RD-3 makes a further effect by combined use with our Negative-Ion generator RIO-5II. "

Our WHAT?

http://www.acoustic-revive.com/english/cd_dvd/rio-5.html



quote:

Place the CD and DVD etc. on top of RIO-5 II, and press the red button. This will run the electric fan about for 8 seconds, which irradiates the surface with natural negative ions on to the disc.

Other than negative ions, RIO-5 II also emits infrared rays which activate the surface of the disc and improves the transmission of the laser beam to the disc.

After treating both sides of a disc, the sound and picture quality will be dramatically improved. S/N ratio and dynamic range are improved and all instruments and vocals become vivid fresh. On the picture, it gives depth and excellent color contrast. Incidentally, a higher effect is provided when you use RIO-5II together with the audio demagnetizer RD-3.

Ridicule Audiophiles - all instruments and vocals become vivid fresh

UncleGuito
May 8, 2005

www.ipadbackdrops.com daily wallpaper updates deserving of your iPad
edit: wrong thread!

UncleGuito fucked around with this message at 17:31 on May 8, 2020

Fantastic Foreskin
Jan 6, 2013

A golden helix streaked skyward from the Helvault. A thunderous explosion shattered the silver monolith and Avacyn emerged, free from her prison at last.

The only way you'll get even remotely acceptable audio quality out of Bluetooth is to adjust the tonal color balance of the room you're listening in, otherwise everything will be too, well, blue. Smartbulbs produce too much interference so you'll have to hand-phosphor some bulbs (LEDs are far too digital for proper tonal color production). You need an appropriate number of black lights too to ensure you're not brightening your blacks from all the light sources, so invest in some skin protection as well.

ssb
Feb 16, 2006

WOULD YOU ACCOMPANY ME ON A BRISK WALK? I WOULD LIKE TO SPEAK WITH YOU!!


UncleGuito posted:

Pardon the noob question but i'm confused as hell about using my aptx HD bluetooth headphones on my PC and hoping someone could point me in the right direction. I'm currently using a Fiio dac/amp to connect them with a cord but sick of it dangling everywhere so hoping to go bluetooth instead.

I found this bluetooth adapter that seems to support aptx HD ( https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07ZB6S69P/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A3RA2WX93QPLXS&psc=1 ). I've tried one of those cheapo $10 bluetooth adapters but the quality/latency was too terrible to handle.

Will I actually notice a difference if I get an aptx HD adapter, and if so, should I plug it into my existing Fiio dac (which supports the highest bitrate on my PC) or straight into my computer case? And when the adapter is plugged into the PC, will it still only support 16bit/44k hz?

Go HERE or HERE unless you are making fun of audiophiles

UncleGuito
May 8, 2005

www.ipadbackdrops.com daily wallpaper updates deserving of your iPad

shortspecialbus posted:

Go HERE or HERE unless you are making fun of audiophiles

Thanks ! Realized it was the wrong thread after posting

Dirt Road Junglist
Oct 8, 2010

We will be cruel
And through our cruelty
They will know who we are

Some Goon posted:

The only way you'll get even remotely acceptable audio quality out of Bluetooth is to adjust the tonal color balance of the room you're listening in, otherwise everything will be too, well, blue. Smartbulbs produce too much interference so you'll have to hand-phosphor some bulbs (LEDs are far too digital for proper tonal color production). You need an appropriate number of black lights too to ensure you're not brightening your blacks from all the light sources, so invest in some skin protection as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmLp9Mn-5rg

That bit is extra dark in light of COVID-19 related labor issues.

qirex
Feb 15, 2001

Did you know you can tune your speaker wire using plastic spacers? It's apparently true and will only cost you around a hundred dollars a foot to experience the magic.

Olympic Mathlete
Feb 25, 2011

:h:

The fact they look like poo poo is brilliant

EL BROMANCE
Jun 10, 2006

COWABUNGA DUDES!
🥷🐢😬



funny thing is the ''tightness'' of the weave can affect the sound - i tried this on some home-made cables.......a looser weave gave a more relaxed sound

Malcolm XML
Aug 8, 2009

I always knew it would end like this.

EL BROMANCE posted:

funny thing is the ''tightness'' of the weave can affect the sound - i tried this on some home-made cables.......a looser weave gave a more relaxed sound

post your frequency response curves bithc

qirex
Feb 15, 2001

One of my favorite audiophile reviewer things is "tightness" or "organization" like one amp will just let some sounds float around in there. What Hi-fi is especially bad at this:

quote:

The One Cast finds timing a struggle and is less than adept at organising instruments so that their input feels beneficial. At best, it is all a bit messy; at worst, more intricate pieces can sound almost entirely unrehearsed.
They put in writing that this amplifier makes the notes come out at the wrong time :psyduck:

Zorak of Michigan
Jun 10, 2006

It's because they used the wrong model of vacuum tube in the violin circuits of the amp, obviously.

taqueso
Mar 8, 2004


:911:
:wookie: :thermidor: :wookie:
:dehumanize:

:pirate::hf::tinfoil:
It's circuits just can't handle the depth of a stratovarius, you need waaay more bits in the transmission lines

EL BROMANCE
Jun 10, 2006

COWABUNGA DUDES!
🥷🐢😬



Malcolm XML posted:

post your frequency response curves bithc



A compelling argument, I’m sure you’ll agree.

ssb
Feb 16, 2006

WOULD YOU ACCOMPANY ME ON A BRISK WALK? I WOULD LIKE TO SPEAK WITH YOU!!


just lol if you think that the most sensitive microphone that science can devise can detect the changes that my ears can, I found that my hearing of high frequencies in particular greatly improved after my second tour as an artillery gunner and I've proven this by hearing high frequency ringing in rooms that so-called "scientists" say doesn't actually exist.

Elentor
Dec 14, 2004

by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

shortspecialbus posted:

just lol if you think that the most sensitive microphone that science can devise can detect the changes that my ears can, I found that my hearing of high frequencies in particular greatly improved after my second tour as an artillery gunner and I've proven this by hearing high frequency ringing in rooms that so-called "scientists" say doesn't actually exist.

The talk about high frequencies reminds me of this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L34S4Tt1EuQ

Whenever I watch this I'm 100% convinced that the reason this headphone probably sounds so agonizing and sibilant is because it's targeted at people with super hearing loss and somehow Tyll got unscathed.

Like I imagine someone with really blasted ears just listening to them and going "I can finally hear the details again".

namlosh
Feb 11, 2014

I name this haircut "The Sad Rhino".

qirex posted:

This is the best McIntosh product:

It's a light up logo you can put on top of your sweet Mc stack because their normal branding is apparently too subtle. It can turn itself on and off with the rest of your system.
$1500

runner up is this, a bargain at one thousand eight hundred of your earth dollars


The only saving grace here is that nowhere does it say that these products improve sound quality. But I’ll definitely put taking idiots money in their court.

The other problem I have with them is that they caved and brought back tubes for some of their stuff. My equipment from the late 60’s/early 70’s proudly displays solid state on it.

It does not do a good job repelling tigers however

ChaseSP
Mar 25, 2013



I gotta ask, are there any good studies on the differences between higher end solid state and vacuum tube amps?

ddogflex
Sep 19, 2004

blahblahblah

qirex posted:

One of my favorite audiophile reviewer things is "tightness" or "organization" like one amp will just let some sounds float around in there. What Hi-fi is especially bad at this:

They put in writing that this amplifier makes the notes come out at the wrong time :psyduck:

It's so loving confusing to me. Same with any loving spacial things being the amp. What in the hell? It's amplifying a signal, not inventing one. It would have to be out of balance to cause any of those things.

ChaseSP posted:

I gotta ask, are there any good studies on the differences between higher end solid state and vacuum tube amps?

Tube amps add distortion, always. People just like the distortion. That's the gist of it. A higher end solid state will always measure better.

GreenBuckanneer
Sep 15, 2007

I usually just listen to my DT990 that I inherited from the 90's? off of my motherboard.

It seems fine but I'm looking for a cheap upgrade. What would be a good and cheap DAC with a decent upgrade here?

Olympic Mathlete
Feb 25, 2011

:h:

ddogflex posted:

Tube amps add distortion, always. People just like the distortion. That's the gist of it. A higher end solid state will always measure better.

Musicians use tube amps because they're flawed. Audiophiles use tube amps because their thinking is flawed. Combine tube amps with vinyl and yeah, you don't want to listen to anything accurate, you just want to feel superior because you've spent money.

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Dirt Road Junglist
Oct 8, 2010

We will be cruel
And through our cruelty
They will know who we are
You would think digital fidelity and "perfect reproduction" would mean something, but no, audiophiles love them some lossy, distorting, electrically unstable poo poo instead.

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