Ridicule Audiophiles - Find the cat shit's resonant frequency

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > Ridicule Audiophiles - Find the cat shit's resonant frequency

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synthetik: Feb 28, 2007; I forgive you, Will. Will you forgive me?

Khablam posted:

I couldn't help but click some more, and found a couple of gems.

The $9000 power strip: http://www.trueaudiophile.com/hb-cable-design-powerslave-marble-statement-level-power-distribution-center-made-in-germany/

This is great:

Product Features:

� Extreme build quality
� Unlimited dynamics
� High resolution with decay and micro detail
� Creates a new standard in magic sound staging
� Made with high quality parts
� Special internal connection conception
� Constant and full energy supply for any A/V system on the worldwide market

The fact that it's made with parts is the 4th bullet point.

# ¿ Jan 11, 2013 00:00

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# ¿ Apr 19, 2024 21:36

synthetik: Feb 28, 2007; I forgive you, Will. Will you forgive me?

Now you can take it with you.

http://catacombosoundsystem.com/

# ¿ Jan 17, 2013 22:28

synthetik: Feb 28, 2007; I forgive you, Will. Will you forgive me?

I don't think Monster has anything to do with them anymore: http://gizmodo.com/5981823/beat-by-dre-the-inside-story-of-how-monster-lost-the-world

# ¿ Feb 18, 2013 15:24

synthetik: Feb 28, 2007; I forgive you, Will. Will you forgive me?

NihilismNow posted:

The best tube amp is still the AOpen AX4B.
A motherboard with a built in tube amp. So your fully digitally source can be amplified by analogue means in probably the most RF noisy place in your house.

For some reason it never caught on.

I completely forgot about this thing. I was sent a review unit, and it was terrible. I think I still have it in a box somewhere, I'll have to dig it out and find my notes on it.

# ¿ Jan 31, 2015 01:14

synthetik: Feb 28, 2007; I forgive you, Will. Will you forgive me?

Probably the wrong thread to ask, but I currently use a pair of DT990s - is there a huge difference between them and the 880s?

Edit: I use them for studio monitoring and mixing - usually at night when I can't crank up the HR824s.

synthetik fucked around with this message at 15:26 on Feb 2, 2015

# ¿ Feb 2, 2015 15:24

synthetik: Feb 28, 2007; I forgive you, Will. Will you forgive me?

Thanks! I might have too see if I can do a swap with someone, I have noticed differences in mastering between headphones and monitors, but I don't think I ever put two and two together.

# ¿ Feb 2, 2015 16:33

synthetik: Feb 28, 2007; I forgive you, Will. Will you forgive me?

goddamnedtwisto posted:

I've never seen a switch like he's talking about, maybe he can post an example? The only thing I can think of is like a source selector where position 3 is position 1 plus position 2, then that layout makes sense from both a use standpoint and probably a wiring one.

Most of my DJ mixers inputs are like that, left is phono 1, middle is line 1, right is phono 3, but that's more of a design choice for doing tricks rather than a necessity.

# ¿ May 14, 2015 14:42

synthetik: Feb 28, 2007; I forgive you, Will. Will you forgive me?

qirex posted:

I think B&O is still the only company to release a WiSA [non-sucky wireless surround] home theater system and those ICEPower amps are in a lot of high-end monoblocks and stereo amps.

The Sonos wireless 5.1 setup pretty good, you just drop a couple of the 1's wherever you need them, and it works with your existing receiver.

# ¿ Oct 7, 2015 18:14

synthetik: Feb 28, 2007; I forgive you, Will. Will you forgive me?

Exactly. My biggest complaint about Sonos is the pricing, everything else works as advertised. I have a bunch of HR824s in the studio, but the rest of the house has Sonos speakers throughout. Quality is fine, volume is good, and the zoning and control options are perfect.

# ¿ Oct 7, 2015 19:26

synthetik: Feb 28, 2007; I forgive you, Will. Will you forgive me?

KozmoNaut posted:

I love the idea of multiroom audio with configurable segmentation and that sort of thing, but all of the systems on the market are just way too expensive.

For that reason alone, I have high hopes for the upcoming party mode or multi-room mode of the Chromecast Audio.

As it stands right now, it's absolutely an all or nothing - I realize that I'm basically committed at this point to a specific brand, and that's bothersome to an extant. With Win10 though, I can play directly to the speakers without using the app, so maybe in the future I'll be able to mix and match, but I'm not holding my breath.

# ¿ Oct 7, 2015 21:16

synthetik: Feb 28, 2007; I forgive you, Will. Will you forgive me?

Sultans of Swing is a well produced, superbly mixed track with a well defined bassline, and it's a pretty good song too. I can't imagine why anyone would use Money For Nothing over that one.

# ¿ Oct 20, 2015 12:24

synthetik: Feb 28, 2007; I forgive you, Will. Will you forgive me?

Combat Pretzel posted:

AAC isn't Apple's format.

Apple Audio Crap

# ¿ Nov 23, 2015 14:50

synthetik: Feb 28, 2007; I forgive you, Will. Will you forgive me?

The bitrecycler is a real thing? That was sold? It's like memory doubler technology aimed at a niche market.

# ¿ Dec 17, 2015 23:26

synthetik: Feb 28, 2007; I forgive you, Will. Will you forgive me?

Wasabi the J posted:

I'm sure that something that used animated gifs of bits getting executed with a guillotine and calling them 'subversive' was a very serious product and in no way made as a joke.

I can never tell with fishmech posts anymore.

# ¿ Dec 18, 2015 00:35

synthetik: Feb 28, 2007; I forgive you, Will. Will you forgive me?

I used to drool over that B&O glass front CD changer at SoundAdvice every time I went.

# ¿ Jan 4, 2016 22:51

synthetik: Feb 28, 2007; I forgive you, Will. Will you forgive me?

Alan_Shore posted:

OK this is the last question I have about this whole process (man this audio stuff is complicated and an endless hole!).

So my laptop does have a SPDIF out cos when I plugged my headphones into it a dialogue box popped up asking me if it was speakers or SPDIF (on another tangent, sound came out of my headphones when I select "Front speakers" but no sound when I select "SPDIF", and also no sound when I plugged my headphones into the headphones hole. Sigh).

Addressing this part - No sound will come out of your headphones if you select SPDIF - they most likely don't accept a digital signal natively, do they?

# ¿ Feb 27, 2016 22:20

synthetik: Feb 28, 2007; I forgive you, Will. Will you forgive me?

That battery teardown (and follow-up) made it over to MeFi and there are a couple rants defending the product.

http://www.metafilter.com/157508/Whats-inside-that-500-battery-pack

# ¿ Feb 29, 2016 15:59

synthetik: Feb 28, 2007; I forgive you, Will. Will you forgive me?

Brosnan posted:

Sorry, I meant just the cables -- I have custom in-ear monitors and was just looking for some more robust cable options.

I have an extra set of the cables for the Shure 535pth - if those will work I'll send em to you.

# ¿ Mar 2, 2016 02:37

synthetik: Feb 28, 2007; I forgive you, Will. Will you forgive me?

He even says in the video that the only reason to get one of these is it's got a smaller footprint than a standard turntable. I guess I'm missing the audiophiliery part.

# ¿ May 7, 2016 22:10

synthetik: Feb 28, 2007; I forgive you, Will. Will you forgive me?

The Devil Tesla posted:

That would be cool if it hung on the wall like one of these guys:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xz4AZqqOqcw

It's like an updated B&O CD player from the 90s! I used to drool over those at SoundAdvice before I knew any better.

# ¿ May 8, 2016 02:07

synthetik: Feb 28, 2007; I forgive you, Will. Will you forgive me?

Kinda a takedown of a small 'audiophile' bullshit - response to an article applauding the removeal of the 3.5mm jack on the iphone7.

quote:

Hello Amy,
I recently read your article about the supposed improvements that Apple's decision creates. I am not very sure of your background in audio equipment and headphones specifically, but there seems to be a lot of major holes in your article that make it not very accurate.

Starting with "Apple designed its custom Lightning port to supply much more power to headphones than the traditional 3.5mm jack." This is simply not true. The power limit that an analog jack can provide is based solely on the amp. The jack it self has no impact on the power capabilities until you get into extremely higher voltage and current than any headphone will ever call for. You would lose your hearing and destroy the headphone driver before the current limit on the 3.5mm jack becomes an issue. As for, the lightning port, it will not be what powers headphones. It simply will provide power for whatever amp is integrated into the headphone, so there is much more to how much power there is; for example the efficiency of the amplifier stage of the headphone.

Secondly, "the audio signal is transferred to our headphones digitally�meaning that the signal isn�t degraded like it is with a traditional 3.5mm jack." Again, the analog jack does not degrade the audio signal, the jack is simply a conductor with negligible resistance, and virtually no effect on the audio signal. The only thing that will affect the analog signal is the DAC and amplifier stage inside a traditional phone with a 3.5mm jack. But you will have an amp and DAC in both cases, 3.5mm or wireless. The amp and DAC just move from in the phone, to being apart of the headphone. So either way the signal is analog at some point. As to why you berate the analog signal in a 3.5mm jack, but then go on to appreciate analog with " the smooth analogue sound we know", is uncertain to me.

You also state that the signal isn't degraded over either Lightning or Bluetooth. For Lightning that is true, but for Bluetooth it is not. Bluetooth was not originally designed as a digital audio medium. It was designed for much less information. So when you force high bit rate audio over it, it chokes. And while Bluetooth quality has increased with technological improvement over time, it will never be as strong as a wired direct digital connection.

The statement "the audio signals are decoded by the digital-analogue converter (DAC) in our headphones, pulling the bits apart and making them into the smooth analogue sound we know" again falls into the case that their was a DAC in both cases of 3.5mm or Apple. It again just changes where the DAC is located. And with an integrated DAC in the phone you at least get a DAC ofa level of quality that Apple is willing to sell. But when you put the DAC in the headphone, then the quality is not insured. It is another step in the chain that can cause quality reduction.

Here are some more quotes that were refuted by my earlier arguments.

"So, Lightning-connecting headphones and wireless headphones both offer superior quality over what you can get out of the 3.5mm jack."
"Wireless Bluetooth technology, too, offers more pristine quality"

Then you go on to state "Audio engineers are actually applauding Apple (the article you link here contradicts your point when it states "the research director for audio company Harman International, says the jack connector actually has little impact on acoustic quality") for scrapping the headphone jack, and the decision should delight hardcore music enthusiasts." I am not sure why audio engineers and audiophiles you are hearing this from, but every audio community that I am part of is giving it mixed reviews at best. Mainly because it is another adapter that is needed to integrate the iPhone into a traditional audio setup. And when you say it is an upgrade for those who "complained for years about mediocre sound quality coming out of their iPhones", this does not promise an increase. It will only allow for an increase in quality of the DAC and amp of the users headphones are better than what was in the prior iPhone. And any audiophile was likely using an external DAC/Amp with their previous phone so there is no increase.

Based on your statements and use of flowery description words and terms like "data transference", "decoded by the digital-analogue converter", "crystalline" you may be able to convince those who are audio ignorant that it is truly an increase, but that is lying and poor journalism.
I am curious as to what your experience in audio is? What sources provide the info that you based your article on? I don't think it is fair as an honest reporter (which I am sure you hope to be) to leave that article posted with all the misinformation in it.

Thank You

Original Article

# ¿ Sep 9, 2016 13:23

synthetik: Feb 28, 2007; I forgive you, Will. Will you forgive me?

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.

All you needed was a CD burner and a friend that worked at EB. EB used to let their employees take home any game they wanted that was in stock, as long as it was brought back next shift. Working a holiday season there got us a library of 70+ games.

# ¿ Jan 10, 2017 02:24

synthetik: Feb 28, 2007; I forgive you, Will. Will you forgive me?

With all his headphone talk, I'm wondering if I can get better sound at work?

I've got a set of 250ohm DT990s plugged into an NI Komplete 6. Should I use a dedicated headphone amp instead?

# ¿ Apr 13, 2017 17:08

synthetik: Feb 28, 2007; I forgive you, Will. Will you forgive me?

Audacity might start including LAME at the time of install!

I can't think of anything else.

# ¿ May 15, 2017 14:50

synthetik: Feb 28, 2007; I forgive you, Will. Will you forgive me?

I remember buying a pair of B&W DM302 speakers for ~$250 and them sounding crazy good, but that was probably 20 years ago.

# ¿ May 29, 2017 15:49

synthetik: Feb 28, 2007; I forgive you, Will. Will you forgive me?

GnarlyCharlie4u posted:

Funny thing about physics... it hasn't changed much in the last billion years or so.
Those speakers probably still sound really good.

I was more thinking that they probably don't make that exact model anymore, since it was their 1997 line of speakers.

# ¿ May 31, 2017 17:17

synthetik: Feb 28, 2007; I forgive you, Will. Will you forgive me?

Nerobro posted:

Some, sure. But the other half will swear by them. You could also make claims (legitimate ones) that twisted pair prevents outside electromagnetic fiels from introducing signals into your crystal clean audio. :-)

Edit: Twist one cable one way, the other the other way. To "cancel out soundstage differences".

Aren't the twisted pairs in a CAT5/6 cable actually twisted in specifically different lengths to achieve this very thing? I swear I remember reading about that in some class a lifetime ago.

# ¿ Jul 3, 2017 21:00

synthetik: Feb 28, 2007; I forgive you, Will. Will you forgive me?

grack posted:

Also nostalgia. Don't underestimate nostalgia.

It's more fun to dig through crates than scrolling through spotify.

# ¿ Jul 9, 2017 01:30

synthetik: Feb 28, 2007; I forgive you, Will. Will you forgive me?

GnarlyCharlie4u posted:

2i2 for life bro. GODDAMN I love having a fat volume knob for monitors and a nice tight little one for headphones. unf

What Mackies are you rockin'?

I used to have the BigKnob but traded it in for a UR28.

Any answer other than Mackie HR824 is wrong.

# ¿ Aug 2, 2017 05:13

synthetik: Feb 28, 2007; I forgive you, Will. Will you forgive me?

Are you doing music engineering/production with the MK5s? Is there enough low end? The 824s are one of the few studio monitors that really don't require a sub unless you're doing 5.1 mixes.

# ¿ Aug 2, 2017 14:15

synthetik: Feb 28, 2007; I forgive you, Will. Will you forgive me?

Dump a bag of rocks on it.

# ¿ Oct 9, 2017 01:40

synthetik: Feb 28, 2007; I forgive you, Will. Will you forgive me?

Sorry, crystals.

# ¿ Oct 9, 2017 01:40

synthetik: Feb 28, 2007; I forgive you, Will. Will you forgive me?

Proteus Jones posted:

Yeah, a grand is a bit much. Plus that money is much better spent on a set of Shure SE846 canal-phones.

I moved from the 535s to the 8 series and it�s insane how good they sound. I use those, 990DT Pros, and a pair of HR824s when doing a final pass on a track.

# ¿ Oct 30, 2017 00:13

synthetik: Feb 28, 2007; I forgive you, Will. Will you forgive me?

Proteus Jones posted:

I gave my 535s to my brother, but moved to Westone W40 (which I think aren't available anymore and replaced by the W60). The 846 wasn't out yet and, all kidding aside, $1000 is too much for me. Very happy with the W40s.

I still need to demo a pair of Westones. I have a serious headphone collection problem already though.

# ¿ Oct 30, 2017 03:44

synthetik: Feb 28, 2007; I forgive you, Will. Will you forgive me?

# ¿ Dec 8, 2017 15:13

synthetik: Feb 28, 2007; I forgive you, Will. Will you forgive me?

The easiest troubleshooting steps would be to unplug everything except a single speaker, play some music, see if the sound is distorted, and if the smells comes back. If it doesn't, unplug and try the next one.

Also, get a fire extinguisher.

# ¿ Dec 12, 2017 16:31

synthetik: Feb 28, 2007; I forgive you, Will. Will you forgive me?

I've been a fan of Paradigm's bookshelf/midsize speaker line for a long time. Reasonably priced and great sound.

# ¿ Dec 12, 2017 21:24

synthetik: Feb 28, 2007; I forgive you, Will. Will you forgive me?

EL BROMANCE posted:

I watched that last night and my only conclusion is that Shark Tank man is a loving moron.

E: oh and apparently the record it damaged is one of only 4 in existence according to someone in the comments, as it�s hand cut. Odd thing for him to use as a test when something is likely to gently caress it up.

At least six people say they own it on discogs, https://www.discogs.com/Anders-Enger-Jensen-Retro-Grooves-Vol-1/master/1217129

# ¿ Jan 6, 2018 22:36

synthetik: Feb 28, 2007; I forgive you, Will. Will you forgive me?

It will buffer. Spotify has a couple gigs of music data in the local folder on my computer.

# ¿ Jan 15, 2018 15:19

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# ¿ Apr 19, 2024 21:36

synthetik: Feb 28, 2007; I forgive you, Will. Will you forgive me?

Do you have a link for that? it sounds hilarious.

# ¿ Jan 23, 2018 21:11

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > Ridicule Audiophiles - Find the cat shit's resonant frequency

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