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Olympic Mathlete
Feb 25, 2011

:h:

Ok Comboomer posted:

no dude, if I’m gonna drop $10 grand on fun learning experiences in audio I have a laundry list of things I want to try first

...so why even post about 'low key' wanting to do it? :catstare:

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trilobite terror
Oct 20, 2007
BUT MY LIVELIHOOD DEPENDS ON THE FORUMS!

Olympic Mathlete posted:

...so why even post about 'low key' wanting to do it? :catstare:

to recruit a crew of goons, duh

njsykora
Jan 23, 2012

Robots confuse squirrels.


I want to know what headphones this guy is plugging this cable into.
https://twitter.com/gapingmaws/status/1391720346282127363
E: Never mind found the review it's an IEM cable. A $2,800 IEM cable.

njsykora fucked around with this message at 12:51 on May 10, 2021

strtj
Feb 1, 2010

njsykora posted:

I want to know what headphones this guy is plugging this cable into.
https://twitter.com/gapingmaws/status/1391720346282127363
E: Never mind found the review it's an IEM cable. A $2,800 IEM cable.

What is it with those clear stranded cables becoming super popular all of a sudden? The Hifiman headphones I just got came with one. A cheap one, but still, it would have probably been easier and at least as inexpensive to ship a regular cable.

Olympic Mathlete
Feb 25, 2011

:h:

Ok Comboomer posted:

to recruit a crew of goons, duh

Recruit goons? Isn't there evidence of multiple attempts at goon group projects going horribly, horribly wrong?

trilobite terror
Oct 20, 2007
BUT MY LIVELIHOOD DEPENDS ON THE FORUMS!

Olympic Mathlete posted:

Recruit goons? Isn't there evidence of multiple attempts at goon group projects going horribly, horribly wrong?

selection bias, there are tons of successful goon projects

you just never hear or think about them because they aren’t funny or worth gawking at

Dirt Road Junglist
Oct 8, 2010

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

strtj posted:

What is it with those clear stranded cables becoming super popular all of a sudden? The Hifiman headphones I just got came with one. A cheap one, but still, it would have probably been easier and at least as inexpensive to ship a regular cable.

What's funny is the other market for clear audio devices is prison.

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.

Ok Comboomer posted:

no dude, if I’m gonna drop $10 grand on fun learning experiences in audio I have a laundry list of things I want to try first

Edit: and they take up exponentially less space

Plus you need a crew, and places to gig and poo poo, and a subculture to participate in. I am a goon.

Why would you want something that takes less space? Audio is one place where bigger = better always holds true.

Olympic Mathlete
Feb 25, 2011

:h:

Ok Comboomer posted:

selection bias, there are tons of successful goon projects

you just never hear or think about them because they aren’t funny or worth gawking at

Is there a thread of goon projects hidden somewhere on this site? I'd actually be interested!

*successful ones or at least ones that don't end up with someone getting maimed or possibly murdered.

trilobite terror
Oct 20, 2007
BUT MY LIVELIHOOD DEPENDS ON THE FORUMS!

Olympic Mathlete posted:

Is there a thread of goon projects hidden somewhere on this site? I'd actually be interested!

*successful ones or at least ones that don't end up with someone getting maimed or possibly murdered.

there’s one that’s been moving from subforum to subforum for the last like 5 months documenting goon covid projects

all of them are really cool, many are serious creative or artisanal work

not sure where it is right now, it moved out of the Dorkroom very recently

Olympic Mathlete
Feb 25, 2011

:h:

Oh the BYOB spaceship thread? I mainly post in AI and it rolled up there after being in Dorkroom. I ran it back a bunch of pages to see what I'd missed and man, there was some beautiful artwork in there. A very cool thread that I'll have to dig more into.

Currently in C-Spam: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3918699

trilobite terror
Oct 20, 2007
BUT MY LIVELIHOOD DEPENDS ON THE FORUMS!

Olympic Mathlete posted:

Oh the BYOB spaceship thread? I mainly post in AI and it rolled up there after being in Dorkroom. I ran it back a bunch of pages to see what I'd missed and man, there was some beautiful artwork in there. A very cool thread that I'll have to dig more into.

Currently in C-Spam: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3918699

oh rad “everybody post your podcast” I guess

Edit- no this is a different thread.

https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3946255&perpage=40&noseen=1&pagenumber=12

Currently still in dorkroom

trilobite terror fucked around with this message at 13:48 on May 11, 2021

Mister Kingdom
Dec 14, 2005

And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

Olympic Mathlete posted:

I certainly wouldn't play anything I didn't want ruined for me.

https://twitter.com/ReaperHipHop/status/1390830469445455872?s=19

"Mary Had a Little Lamb" on Edison cylinder.

GnarlyCharlie4u
Sep 23, 2007

I have an unhealthy obsession with motorcycles.

Proof

Olympic Mathlete posted:

I certainly wouldn't play anything I didn't want ruined for me.

https://twitter.com/ReaperHipHop/status/1390830469445455872?s=19

Sinewave tests. Just like every other audiofool.

F4rt5
May 20, 2006

GnarlyCharlie4u posted:

Sinewave tests. Just like every other audiofool.
Autumn Leaves from Jan Johansson & Red Mitchell's "Blaus" - it's almost all bass anyway, and I'd love to hear the upright oomph on this.

Shumagorath
Jun 6, 2001
I saw today that Apple is announcing "lossless" tiers that start at 16bit/44.1kHz, 24bit/48kHz and 24bit/192kHz. How influential is bit rate, because I remember reading that anything above 44.1kHz is effectively wasted on human ears and your speakers are unlikely to have a good response curve anywhere the extra resolution really matters.

taqueso
Mar 8, 2004


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

:pirate::hf::tinfoil:
Yeah for human ears that last bump is worthless and the middle one at least iffy

Shumagorath
Jun 6, 2001
Well since everyone loves to follow Apple right over the cliff, Spotify announced a "lossless" tier and I think Amazon were ahead of both. Lets use 4x the bandwidth to cram everything through the digital drinking straw of Bluetooth audio to a lovely pair of airpods.

Endless Mike
Aug 13, 2003



Muh bandwidth!!!! Where will I find the 1's and 0's to stream a song?

Apple's actually behind the curve on this. Spotify announced theirs in February, and Amazon's had it since 2019.

taqueso
Mar 8, 2004


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

:pirate::hf::tinfoil:
I want a tier that sends 4k music videos that I can ignore

repiv
Aug 13, 2009

Endless Mike posted:

Apple's actually behind the curve on this. Spotify announced theirs in February, and Amazon's had it since 2019.

Apple's version is notable in that they're not charging extra for lossless, breaking the trend of it being an extra-premium option

Amazon has already responded by removing the lossless tax on their service, no response from Spotify yet AFAIK

repiv fucked around with this message at 21:54 on May 17, 2021

qirex
Feb 15, 2001

48 is what most studios use for mastering so it's kind of a convenience thing that they don't need to transcode it. There's no harm to high res PCM over 16/44 other than file size. MQA, on the other hand, is stupid garbage and DSD I'm pretty sure only exists as a reason for people to yell at DAC manufacturers on the internet and get misty eyed about SACD.

njsykora
Jan 23, 2012

Robots confuse squirrels.


There’s been some rage over the fact that Airpods won’t support the full lossless, even though no bluetooth headphones can do lossless because bluetooth isn’t fast enough to stream the data it needs. The main thing Apple are pushing really is spacial audio, basically surround sound music because Dolby need to keep coming up with new things. Lossless seems to just be a side effect of them wanting that to show off their speakers.

It’s gonna be nice to have lossless streaming without having to pay double the regular price for it, and it’ll almost certainly mean higher quality streaming stops being a more expensive tier over time. I did enjoy how Spotify said nothing about price when they announced their higher quality streaming tier.

It almost certainly kneecaps Qobuz and Tidal too which is kinda hilarious. I’m expecting a bunch of audiophiles to do videos about how it’s not TRUE LOSSLESS to justify them still paying $30 for MQA albums.

Shumagorath
Jun 6, 2001
:lol: I thought Tidal was dead so I don't think a hair-splitting lossless tier is their problem.

Endless Mike posted:

Muh bandwidth!!!! Where will I find the 1's and 0's to stream a song?
I don't really care about the wasted information, but streaming those extra bits does have an energy cost that's already significantly higher than local playback.

Shumagorath fucked around with this message at 22:25 on May 17, 2021

trilobite terror
Oct 20, 2007
BUT MY LIVELIHOOD DEPENDS ON THE FORUMS!

Shumagorath posted:

Well since everyone loves to follow Apple right over the cliff, Spotify announced a "lossless" tier and I think Amazon were ahead of both. Lets use 4x the bandwidth to cram everything through the digital drinking straw of Bluetooth audio to a lovely pair of airpods.

jokes on you I stream to a computer and a receiver mostly

weast
Nov 7, 2012

Shumagorath posted:

I saw today that Apple is announcing "lossless" tiers that start at 16bit/44.1kHz, 24bit/48kHz and 24bit/192kHz. How influential is bit rate, because I remember reading that anything above 44.1kHz is effectively wasted on human ears and your speakers are unlikely to have a good response curve anywhere the extra resolution really matters.

Here is a good article from a programmer who writes audio codecs about how you don't need anything more than 16 bit/44.1kHz for playback. There's also similar videos from the same exact guy.

To sum his conclusions up, not only does 24bit/192kHz offer no advantages over 16bit/44.1kHz, the additional sampling introduces a higher potential for distortion, making things worse.

3D Megadoodoo
Nov 25, 2010

Olympic Mathlete posted:

I certainly wouldn't play anything I didn't want ruined for me.

https://twitter.com/ReaperHipHop/status/1390830469445455872?s=19

I guess Tauno Palo, as it's the only monophonic record I have.

Wasabi the J
Jan 23, 2008

MOM WAS RIGHT
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B95AcbUCm1Y

Super fun to demo on anything with bass.

TheMadMilkman
Dec 10, 2007

In Floyd Toole’s book, he argues that 20/48 can have some advantages over 16/44.1, but considers anything higher to be worthless.

The Atmos tracks have my interest. Gonna have to see how that catalog plays out for classical music.

EL BROMANCE
Jun 10, 2006

COWABUNGA DUDES!
🥷🐢😬



Anything designed for video is going to be native 48khz so yeah, there’s no reason to worry about that. I’ve proven to myself confidently that on any setup I’ve owned I can’t tell the difference between lossless and lossy etc anyway even when trying, so I’ll continue to not give a gently caress when just listening to music.

KozmoNaut
Apr 23, 2008

Happiness is a warm
Turbo Plasma Rifle


44.1KHz is really just a historical aberration, a lot of things would be simpler if everything had been standardized on 48KHz.

Consumer digital audio is the only holdout, everything else uses multiples of 8KHz depending on what is needed. Even PC sound cards don't always do 44.1KHz cleanly, there was a big kerfuffle around some Sound Blaster cards (Live! or Audigy, I think?) that internally resampled everything very badly to 48KHz. As far as I know, the Android audio stack is also natively 48KHz.

It's a bit of a mess, and you can easily end up in a situation on your PC where you're playing a selection of music with both 44.1 and 48KHz tracks, but the player or the audio stack doesn't switch sample rates correctly, and now your music is being put through the real-time resampler in your OS. You can end up sending a 48KHz track badly resampled to 44.1KHz to your DAC that can handle both sample rates just fine, if only the OS didn't mess it up. That's why some people do the whole ASIO driver and bit-perfect stuff and disable all OS resampling and so on.

Will such a mess-up make an audible difference? Eh, probably not one you'd notice, unless you deliberately set a lower (faster, less CPU-intensive) resampling setting. But it's annoying that it's even an issue in the first place.

That's actually one of the things I really admire about Opus, it has a super elegant design where it is basically always 48KHz. Lower sample rates (for voice and other non-music use cases) can be fractions of this, so Opus audio can be 8, 12, 16, 24 or 48KHz, but it always uses 48KHz timestamps and math and everything is a clean fraction of 48KHz. It greatly simplifies the compression because it only has to work on multiples of 8, instead of also having to handle 44.1KHz. In Opus that's just resampled to 48KHz before encoding, because the impact of resampling is completely inaudible, compared to even the mildest lossy codec anyway.

DancingShade
Jul 26, 2007

by Fluffdaddy

(and can't post for 25 days!)

So which audiophile grade pink quartz crystals do I use to weigh down my USB cables so the musical fidelity doesn't float off and escape?

weast
Nov 7, 2012

KozmoNaut posted:

That's actually one of the things I really admire about Opus, it has a super elegant design where it is basically always 48KHz. Lower sample rates (for voice and other non-music use cases) can be fractions of this, so Opus audio can be 8, 12, 16, 24 or 48KHz, but it always uses 48KHz timestamps and math and everything is a clean fraction of 48KHz. It greatly simplifies the compression because it only has to work on multiples of 8, instead of also having to handle 44.1KHz. In Opus that's just resampled to 48KHz before encoding, because the impact of resampling is completely inaudible, compared to even the mildest lossy codec anyway.
This is cool info and thanks for bringing it up. Interesting to note: the foundation that develops Opus was created by the guy who wrote that article I mentioned.

Honest Thief
Jan 11, 2009
Probation
Can't post for 24 days!
i bought a second dac and it's the wrong one, guess who's buying a third one

Endless Mike
Aug 13, 2003



Actually, you can very easily tell the difference, just ask the guy who swears his $5 AliExpress earbuds are actually the best things on the market.

Laserface posted:

Most people dont care as it sounds good enough, but if you have even mid-range gear you can clearly tell a difference between lossy and lossless.


I can 100% tell the difference between Spotify via Bluetooth (which is Ogg Vorbis transcoded to whatever protocol the BT receiver is using) and listening to Spotify Connect on my Rpi (Running volumio w/ a DAC hat) connected to the same speakers. it is very obviously better. biggest thing I noticed immediately was better dynamics, higher volume and less distortion.

listening to 44khz/24bit .wavs on the exact same setup is marginally better but I can only really tell the difference on my favorite albums.

I have exactly one 96khz/24bit recording and its a rip of a Vinyl and I cant tell the difference from the CD.

diminishing returns.


you can easily compare Bluetooth (lossy) to Airplay (CD Quality - 44.1khz/16bit) on a soundbar that supports both.

If you have a decent set of speakers/hifi, setting up an Rpi as a SpotifyConnect target (spotifys version of airplay) its definitely worth it.

on bluetooth, your phone is transcoding Apple Musics AAC files into another AAC stream so it can also send system audio at the same time.

Bluetooth as an audio solution is kind of lovely and seemed to be a logical extension from the days of Bluetooth earpieces for taking calls but its just not really good at it compared to other solutions. its convenient (I would argue it isnt since pairing to things is enough of a pain for people in this thread to pay $300 for Apple headphones, but Im also capable of navigating the menu of my phone to switch BT devices without re-pairing each time so ymmv)

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.

DancingShade posted:

So which audiophile grade pink quartz crystals do I use to weigh down my USB cables so the musical fidelity doesn't float off and escape?

Lmao you can't use pink quartz, that'll color the sound.

DancingShade
Jul 26, 2007

by Fluffdaddy

(and can't post for 25 days!)

Fantastic Foreskin posted:

Lmao you can't use pink quartz, that'll color the sound.

But I want to warm out those cool highs.

qirex
Feb 15, 2001

DancingShade posted:

But I want to warm out those cool highs.
My all time favorite single audiophile thing is spending four or five figures on new hardware/cables/acoustic feet/tonearms, etc. for a difference that could easily be done with simple EQ.

"Ever since I switched to these new D'Agostino monoblocks the bass is fuller and treble is less harsh!"

qirex fucked around with this message at 22:12 on May 18, 2021

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.

DancingShade posted:

But I want to warm out those cool highs.

You're going to have to seal your cables in their own climate controlled environment.

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TheGoonspiracist
Jul 24, 2002

The terrible secret of space... :stonk: the Mods, they knew!

Fantastic Foreskin posted:

You're going to have to seal your cables in their own climate controlled environment.

I dip my cable ends in icy hot.

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