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El Mariachi posted:I'll be offering this in a special purified water solution with the perfect amount of the salt mixture added for the best effect. Try some etheric oils or something instead of the salt. Salt is very much not something that vaporizes along with water, and I think even some audiophiles might catch on to that.
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Mar 9, 2010 15:51
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IronChef Chris Wok posted:Some questions: But since you sound sincere... IronChef Chris Wok posted:1) Does it really matter where teh SPDIF feeds into the amp from? Motherboard SPDIF vs. Sound Card SPDIF? I still might get a soundcard for better 3D positioning for games, or is that bullshit also? It doesn't matter at all. They will give two identical digital signals. Disclaimer: Some (expensive) sound cards are able to encode the outgoing digital signal as DolbyDigital or DTS, even if the sound is coming from, say, a game that hasn't licensed that (expensive) codec from Dolby. This lets you pipe your game audio into an external surround receiver. I don't know if this is ever useful in practice. Anyone else? IronChef Chris Wok posted:2) What are balanced cables, and why do they cost a billion dollars? Edit: Just read this for chrissakes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balanced_audio Hippie Hedgehog fucked around with this message at 17:29 on Jan 12, 2011 |
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Jan 12, 2011 17:26
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Neurophonic posted:Unless your cable runs go anywhere near sources of interference. Mains electrical cables, for instance. You're both missing the point of this thread... We should ridicule audiophiles, not take their side!  Edit: In that vein, can someone please explain to me why this cable exists? http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/255152-REG/Monster_Cable_119029_3_RCA_to_3_RCA_Balanced.html 1. Why gold plate and overprice a loving composite video cable? 2. How exactly is it "balanced"? Looks like an ordinary RCA lead to me. Hippie Hedgehog fucked around with this message at 21:36 on Jan 12, 2011 |
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Jan 12, 2011 21:31
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Gimperial posted:http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/01/13/russ_accessories/ Would that it was so. Sadly, from the article: "The ASA can only prevent the Russ Andrews making the same claims again[...]", which makes me suspect that they will repeat their flawed studies with some slightly altered methology, and just keep on pushing their lies. =(
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Jan 15, 2011 11:11
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Sagacity posted:So apparently this is getting so out of hand someone did a study on the subject. I love the starting anecdotes. I'll have to read the rest of it later. Thanks for posting this!
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May 17, 2011 13:36
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Fists Up posted:Now it seemed pretty normal until I noticed the guy who owns the place does these little comments every day. That is a very amusing read, that guy is brilliant. Thank you!
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Sep 12, 2011 19:14
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jonathan posted:When Iggy remastered it in 97 or whenever, he still had to work with the lovely tracks, and decided to bump and compress and flatline everything. Why someone with constant ringing and hearing issues from 45 years of studio exposure decided that they should be the ones with the golden ears to remaster a track is a mystery to me. Eather way, Iggy pop is the King of Rock n Roll. Luckily, it seems like you can get the "Legacy Edition" on CD, which has Bowies original mix! At least, Spotify has it: http://open.spotify.com/track/0Mul2UNuXtbJA5kyGb1bfP
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Dec 5, 2012 18:28
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I'm not sure this one is for real. http://app.audiogon.com/listings/me...ter-audio-91403 quote:The Kryptos Ultimate is what happens when super computer engineers come together with the intention of designing a media server capable of outperforming the best Reel to Reel systems. As someone else put it, when you've paid $20,000 for mercury filled speaker cables, you're not going to plug them in to a cheap $20,000 media server. There are so many WTFs in there I don't even know where to start.
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Jan 4, 2013 22:36
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KillHour posted:I just saw that. That's loving absurd. Nah, being absurdly over-dimensioned for the application, I suspect it would actually not run very hot. PSUs generally don't get really hot until you approach their specified limit, and 2kW should way be more than even that monster of a PC could draw. Edit: vvv - Wow, that sounds really bad. Hippie Hedgehog fucked around with this message at 15:00 on Jan 5, 2013 |
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Jan 5, 2013 11:43
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Jerry Cotton posted:Speaking of marketing, are Koss Portapotties still a thing? I'm not sure what you mean - the PortaPros are still a really good option in their price segment, so I guess yes? For general headphone discussion, why not take it to the headphone thread? Looks like this thread is not making fun of audiophiles as much as making fun of gullible low-end consumers, now.
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Feb 18, 2013 15:59
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KozmoNaut posted:Replace it with two controls, one marked 'volume' and one marked 'loudness'. The volume control should function exactly like it does today, raising the overall volume of the music. The loudness should function like a compressor, changing how loud the music sounds without altering the volume, in effect applying more and more "radio sound processing" or normalization the farther your turn it up. For simplification, implement it as a "party mode" button on mass-market stereos. You mean like the "night mode" (or similarly named feature) which is present in almost every AV receiver sold in the last few years? The mode that applies a bass boost on lower volume settings, along with applying dynamic compression to give a "louder" sound. It sounds almost like your invention? Here, this DVD player has it: http://usa.yamaha.com/product_archive/audio-visual/dv-s5950_black__u/?mode=model Yamaha posted:When you're listening to movies late at night and turn down the volume during loud scenes, dynamic range suffers and you may miss some dialogue and other sounds. With the Night Mode, you can reduce the volume and still enjoy proper tonal balance and dynamic range. And this Sony AVR does it, just like my Denon: http://store.sony.com/wcsstore/SonyStyleStorefrontAssetStore/pdf/STRDA5300ES.pdf And Onkyo: quote:With the Late Night function, you can reduce the dynamic range of Dolby Digital material so that you can still hear quiet parts even when listening at low volume levels—ideal for watching movies late at night when you don’t want to disturb anyone. That said, I do agree it would be useful in iPods, cell phones, etc, too. Now, how are we making fun of audiophiles, again? Edit: Sorry for the backseat modding. Discuss whatever is amusing, I guess. Hippie Hedgehog fucked around with this message at 22:47 on Feb 18, 2013 |
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Feb 18, 2013 22:44
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RoadCrewWorker posted:I think you're looking for this thread. See what happens when we let the conversation drift into useful discussion of audio stuff!? 
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Feb 21, 2013 15:36
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Nah ... Nerdy = Intelligent but socially awkward Geeky = heavily interested in a hobby I'll bet the Katana guy self-identifies as a geek. Of course, he is actually a nerd. Like many of us here on Somethingawful. And like many Bronies. Wikipedia posted:Nerd is a derogatory term for a person who is intellectually knowledgeable or bright, but socially inept. Wikipedia posted:The word geek is a slang term for odd or non-mainstream people, with different connotations ranging from "a computer expert or enthusiast" to "a person heavily interested in a hobby", with a general pejorative meaning of "a peculiar or otherwise dislikable person, esp[ecially] one who is perceived to be overly intellectual".
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Jun 14, 2013 14:15
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The only true hifi experience is a choir, singing perfectly in tune an acoustically completely dead room.
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Aug 13, 2013 12:58
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The Locator posted:On the subject at hand, unless there is no 'sound guy' (I guess they are calling themselves engineers these days) at the venue, and no amplification, there is no such thing as non-EQ'ed live music. Street music with a few strings or some brass would probably come the closest, and it's rare to find more than two instruments that sound good together in a live environment without some sort of mixing/EQ. Caveat: I don't live in a place where live street music is common at all, so I'm sure I've missed some. I think you're missing some good opportunities to hear acoustic live music. Doesn't your locality have a concert hall w/ orchestra, or a church w/ choir or organ? I'd say that the most "in-tune" music possible is produced by a really good brass band (the English meaning of the word), or a really good chamber choir. Anything else usually only plays tempered scales, so no intervals are really in tune.
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Aug 16, 2013 21:33
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Anything that Rudolph Steiner was involved in is automatically horseshit. Seriously, google him.
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Dec 23, 2013 16:53
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KozmoNaut posted:Well now, this is something neat. A fully open-source USB DAC: http://www.qnktc.com/i02.php DIY Audio forum member posted:“I am surprised how well it plays right out of the box. Much too close to my approximately 30 times as expensive CD player.” - DIY Audio forum member Well, to be fair, this statement at least is not very ridiculous. The DAC of an expensive CD player is likely to sound very similar to this new DAC, because DACs sound the same (unless they're faulty, I guess). Hippie Hedgehog fucked around with this message at 11:18 on Jan 14, 2014 |
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Jan 14, 2014 11:11
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How did I miss this nonsense?quote:Fidelify uses Spotify Core to deliver streaming content directly to the soundcard, using either ASIO or WASAPI. This enables the user to easily avoid sampling conversion or mixing, ensuring a bit perfect stream. Eh -- so if I'm streaming 44 kHz / 16 bits, moderately compressed, audio, and letting good ol' Spotify output it through the Windows audio drivers, I'm losing what exactly? It's not like it has to be resampled or remixed. All the tracks are natively CD quality (44/16), aren't they?
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Feb 28, 2015 13:44
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A feature sometimes known in modern AV receivers as "Audyssey Dynamic EQ". Not a bad thing for those of us in apartments.
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Aug 15, 2016 18:26
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http://arstechnica.co.uk/gadgets/2017/01/lg-sj9-4k-speaker/ A 4k soundbar, you say?
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Jan 4, 2017 16:33
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fishmech posted:The only aspect it had that was really useful to consumers was that it could store a whole 2 hours of music (well, it could go to 3 hours using thinner tape, but that was more likely to snap) versus the 74-80 minute commercial CD release. Taken out of context, admittedly, but that sentence does not ring quite true to me. There was a reason teenagers kept making mixtapes well into the 2000s. Because they could easily record them in the home, with acceptable quality loss compared to the original vinyls (and later, CDs). If DAT recorders had been in people's stereos in 1994, you'd better believe people would demand portable DAT players to replace their aging walkmans. Of course, I myself got a portable MD recorder back in ... 1999, perhaps? It was alright, you could skip tracks, it was really compact, and the sound quality was super. Battery time was alright, too, but not as good as a cassette walkman. The included rechargable battery worked for a really long time, too. At the same time, some friends had portable CD players with a battery time of about zilch, which skipped as soon as someone in the room moved, and couldn't play CD-R discs... Hippie Hedgehog fucked around with this message at 14:42 on Jan 9, 2017 |
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Jan 9, 2017 14:32
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spog posted:Not to forget that blank CDs were expensive, whereas you could reuse DAT tapes. Nope, they weren't. And a lot of CD players had problems playing burned CDs. Edit: Gotta love how Neon Genesis Evangelion sort of portrays DAT as the future of portable audio. A futuristic improved format called SDAT (for Super DAT), of course. http://wiki.evageeks.org/SDAT Hippie Hedgehog fucked around with this message at 14:53 on Jan 9, 2017 |
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Jan 9, 2017 14:43
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fishmech posted:You really needed to have a lot of money in the late 90s to go around burning piles of games for the PSX etc. You needed a decent internet connection, a computer with a fairly sizable hard drive, the burner and media of course, and it needed to be fast enough to not gently caress up during a burn. Plus the mod chips themselves could be pretty pricey, depending on where you were. That's about right. I remember I bought Quake II off a guy in school who I think was able to use a CD burner at his mom's work or something. He was supplying the whole scool, but was lagging a bit on releases (had to get retail as no local internet connection could sustain downloading whole CDs), so this would have been about early 1998. Charged about $10 a pop, or for free if you brought your own blanks, so yes the blanks were pricy. (I'm sure the  talk can be forgiven seeing as how it was 20 years ago...)
Hippie Hedgehog fucked around with this message at 21:21 on Jan 9, 2017 |
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Jan 9, 2017 21:19
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The above, plus, buying a record is the only way I'm likely to ever own music in the future. For portable listening, I've got a streaming service on all my devices, but as soon as I cancel that subscription (or the service goes the way of the dodo), I'll lose the playlist library and everything. And, like hell I'm spending  on a goddamned CD in 2017. A new vinyl record though, I can proudly front in my shelf and guests will ooh and aah over it.(Edit: What about Itunes? Well, Apple might seem less likely to disappear than Tidal or Spotify, but I still dig having my stuff securely stashed away where the recording industry can never retract my ownership...)
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Jan 16, 2017 16:47
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JFairfax posted:the other good thing about vinyl is the amount of stuff that's available on it, going back almost a century. Nah ... Have you actually checked out one of the major streaming services? Spotify has a catalog dating back to early Bell wax cylinders... Admittedly I suppose it only includes stuff that has been re-issued on CD or other digital formats, but I dare you to name 5 good records that are available on vinlyl or 78s, that you would genuinely miss if you only had their catalog. (Modern music is a different story. There are tons of labels and artists that for some reason only release parts of their back catalog on streaming services.)
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Jan 18, 2017 11:25
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Well at least with records, there are online marketplaces where you can scrounge up rare releases. It's a shame most of them are poo poo that no one would want to listen to. But I concede that the music can actually be found.
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Jan 18, 2017 16:32
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But what on Earth does the author mean when they write "the removal of support for the format signals an official shift in the industry."? What support? The statement on Fraunhofer Institute's web page says: quote:On April 23, 2017, Technicolor's mp3 licensing program for certain mp3 related patents and software of Technicolor and Fraunhofer IIS has been terminated. I read the statement as "we used to require a licensing agreement for people to use our patented technology, but there's not enough money in it anymore to continue". Which sort of implies that they're not going to bother to hunt down and prosecute people who continue to use it. Which means usage might actually increase (even if I think it unlikely due to competing free codecs). ^ Yes, according to this page on the Internet, the last few patents are about to expire. https://madfileformatscience.garymcgath.com/2016/04/05/mp3patent/
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May 15, 2017 14:20
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GutBomb posted:Yeah it's sensationalist bullshit that doesn't mean anything. Nothing will change other than some legal shot which was mostly irrelevant now anyway. Same thing happened with GIF a while back. I guess that's why I haven't seen or heard of GIF since then. What a dead format that is. I blame clickonomics.
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May 15, 2017 14:40
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ChocNitty posted:I have a Yamaha RX-V1000 receiver for my vinyl/tape/cd, with Yamaha NS-6390 speakers. Try the quick audio questions megathread: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=2389259 If your question was about hi-end components, at least it would fit in this thread, but we'd just make fun of you.
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May 29, 2017 10:31
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Palladium posted:http://audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/budget-dac-review-behringer-umc204hd.1658/ Am I the only one not surprised? I bet if they tested any random pro DAC, they would outperform consumer gear priced three times as much. There are a dozen brands just like Behringer and they all sell a 2-input audio interface at that price point, aimed at entry-level home studios. Heck, I have one here, a FocusRite Scarlett something something. Terrific sound. Lots of knobs. Gives phantom power. But of course, no audiophile would buy it, because it isn't branded Cambridge or Mcintosh...?
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Aug 1, 2017 21:11
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