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I think this might be the best place to post this. I'm looking at the Geek Wave on indiegogo. It's cheap for the base model ($158), and plays all the high resolution audio files. I'd love to try them out. Right now I have some Turbine Copper Pros and I think they sound great. I was wondering if there is a consensus on whether this thing will be good? Like I said the price is nice but they've just added this ridiculous IEM package where they'll "upgrade" your Wave so it sounds better with IEMs. For $128! And the loving thing is supposed to be a portable music player! So I'd really like some help before ordering.
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Jun 10, 2014 12:31
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KozmoNaut posted:Don't bother. It offers literally nothing of any value over say a Sansa player with Rockbox. There will be no difference in sound quality whatsoever, I promise. I've just looked these up, and they just seem to be audio players for people in the gym. My Note 2 probably sounds better, right? Would I really not be able to tell the difference between 16bit FLAC and 24 bit 96khz FLAC? Is it a scam? drat these audiophiles!
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Jun 11, 2014 05:17
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That was an interesting read! Shatters my preconceptions about FLAC! How about if I bought albums directly from say HDtracks, they must sound better right? Or its very possible to that HD audio is a lie.
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Jun 11, 2014 06:15
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This is such a weird coincidence, I came in here specifically to post about minidiscs and you just started talking about them! For some reason the last few days I've become obsessed with owning a minidisc player again (I think it's because I want to live in an 80s future). I don't know, the idea of rocking out to a minidisc is just cool. I used to own one years ago and loved recording albums and then slowly and methodically inputting the titles of tracks in. Spin-click. Spin-click. TWO HOURS LATER Anyway I've been doing research for the lols and it's funny even back in the day people were getting all superior about how great minidiscs sounded over CD-Rs and MP3s. One person even talked about burning your music onto a CD, then taking that to a stereo with an optical out and THEN recording it onto your minidisc. For maximum quality. Also maximum ballache. Anyway I've bought a Sharp minidisc player and even a car minidisc stereo. Why. Why have I done this. Anyway any and all cool minidisc facts are welcome. I totally think they should have taken off more, but like it's been said it was wrong time wrong place really. Like zip discs. Alan_Shore fucked around with this message at 00:22 on Feb 17, 2016 |
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Feb 17, 2016 00:20
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My minidisc player came! Gonna spend the night making mix discs and seeing what the quality is like. That said I'd like to record from an optical in because I've been brainwashed into thinking it'll sound way better than recording from the headphone jack on my laptop (or my fiio dac). Can you buy a USB optical out for laptops?
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Feb 27, 2016 16:33
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Cool! Well I've got a brand new laptop that has a hole that looks like a headphone jack with a red light coming out of it, which says to me that surely it must be something special. So I just this need this cable that has the audio jack one end, and a SPDIF on the other, then plug an audio cable into that? Edit: this cheeky chappy? http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00...EfXL&ref=plSrch
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Feb 27, 2016 16:43
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That's awesome, you've been a big help! I'll post back with results in a couple of days. Of course I wonder if even it'll make nay difference in terms of quality. I mean minidiscs are compressed anyway, and how can it even tell if the signal is analogue or SPDIF? The connection going into the player is the same.
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Feb 27, 2016 18:34
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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). Anyway my research indicates that to get digital sound to my minidisc, I need a coaxial cable. But I can't seem to find a cable with 3.5mm connectors on each end with the coaxial cable in the middle. Shouldn't this exist? Or am I going to have to by a coaxial cable with two 3.5mm adapters, or buy a SPDIF cable with an adapter? drat this should be way easier than it is. All this just to get the best audio on a drat MINIDISC. It's me. I'm the audiophile EDIT: So I'll get this (http://www.amazon.co.uk/TOSlink-Fibre-Digital-Toslink-Optical/dp/B008N15ON6/ref=pd_bxgy_23_img_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=0C3GXB5QYGNJB5BJMT69) and see what happens Alan_Shore fucked around with this message at 22:01 on Feb 27, 2016 |
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Feb 27, 2016 21:54
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Cool, thank you everyone! Yeah I ended up getting that cable and the converter. Also a few minutes after I posted I figured out that yeah, of course there wouldn't be any sound coming to my headphones. I'm getting there slowly! This is all so pointless too, I mean I have a pretty amazing MP3/FLAC player (Cowon M2) and all this effort I'm putting into recording the best sound possible on a drat minidisc is crazy... But I just started recording some songs onto my Sharp MD-MT15 and it was soooo exciting haha
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Feb 27, 2016 23:02
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So my toslink cable came, I recorded the same song twice onto my minidisc (Buy Nothing Day by The Go Team, FLAC of course), and I can safely report that it sounds about 10% better/clearer (also MUCH louder). Totally worth it as you can imagine.
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Mar 1, 2016 15:19
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Flipperwaldt posted:In Sony portable minidisc recorders, when recording from the analog input, somewhat aggressive (downward, output level not compensated) dynamic compression is applied to prevent clipping unless you set the recording level manually. I'm guessing you might have something similar going on. Which the TOSlink bypasses because there's no ambiguity about what the maximum input level is going to be. I have a Sharp portable recorder, but I imagine it's the same thing as that would explain it! I just have everything on maximum volume and didn't touch the recording level, and it hasn't peaked, so that's good. The sound is very different on this minidisc. Definitely muffled and compressed, I guess they're only 160mb but still you can fit a 320Kbs MP3 album on that. I just love the look and feel of them, and I'm going make a start on making some mix-tapes tonight (I've also got a lot of 80s future synth stuff from Bandcamp which I'm sure will be amazing on minidisc). EL BROMANCE posted:Now buy a power cable that costs as much as a car and see if you can hear any difference. I've always liked using those TOS cables for anything that supports them, never any real problem. Can also use them in studio gear to extend channels too! Haha that's one rabbit hole I'm not going down! These people are CRAZY
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Mar 1, 2016 17:36
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Pfft, PS1? The Sega Saturn had space ships flying around an infinite star field! Which made the sound that much more spacious.
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Mar 23, 2016 18:08
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There was talk of this in the relics GBS thread and got my wondering: do you guys use the EQ on your PC / phone? I always have and always will put it on Rock, immediately (apart from my Cowon M2 which has some ridiculous custom setting I found online). Do you just leave everything flat or use presets? Are presets the devil to an audiophile?
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Aug 14, 2016 07:35
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Why is the PS1 held up as an amazing CD player but not the superior Sega Saturn?
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Apr 4, 2017 03:34
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So are all tube amps a waste of time then?
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Jul 9, 2017 13:08
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Does this thread have an open on the Zuper DAC, or anything similar? USB sized DAC a that are reasonably priced that work with phones too?
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Aug 23, 2017 19:06
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Thanks, that's really helpful! I also just saw on MassDrop that for $15 more they have the Topping TP30 Mark2 https://www.amazon.com/Topping-TP30-MARK2-Headphone-Amplifier/dp/B00J2P9I2A Any thoughts on which is better? Or something better for the price?
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Aug 24, 2017 08:48
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GonadTheBallbarian posted:I mean yeah, BT is inherently not as good as wired's performance ceiling, but if you're listening on the subway, a bus, or any other noisy environment auditory masking is going to be a much bigger concern. Man that's all I was saying! Then this clown tries to smear me in this thread. Shameful. Bluetooth sound is good, wired is better. That's it!
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Sep 13, 2017 05:21
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Does anyone have experience or opinions about raspberry pi dacs like hifiberry? They're supposed to be high quality and pretty cheap.
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Oct 10, 2017 06:34
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So generally speaking, is this thread of the opinion that 320 mp3 is the same as FLAC?
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May 14, 2018 17:09
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I just finished a month with Tidal and I agree it sounds really good, better than Play or Spotify I'd say
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Feb 20, 2019 16:32
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I think Tidal at Master quality sounds better than Spotify at High quality.
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Feb 19, 2020 11:34
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So why would you use MQA over FLAC or even WAV? If you want a nice sound on your old favorite CHOONZ you can't beat recording to MiniDisc over Optical In. Sounds good man
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Feb 23, 2020 17:42
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I recently rediscovered the joys of Minidisc. It's fun ripping albums and mixtapes. MiniDisc loving owns
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Aug 17, 2020 00:22
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I've always said that the best quality is a digital FLAC file. I like the sound of vinyl, but it's a different sound. And I really like the sound of minidisc which I've gotten back into it, and that's compressed to hell and back but it still has a nice quality to it. Hell even cassette can sound great too.
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Nov 4, 2020 14:37
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Bandcamp is the best
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Nov 9, 2020 01:32
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Here's a question: is there much of a difference between optical out and aux out?
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Dec 12, 2020 14:32
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shortspecialbus posted:Audiophiles would never use optical because the bits get all out of order as the light bounces around in their non-gold-plated optical cables. Plus it lightens the sound too much. I have embarrassed myself. I was just interested if optical out was better than your standard L R audio cables, because in my mind surely red light is better.
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Dec 12, 2020 21:49
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You can only ever listen to your music from now on on vinyl, cassette, CD or MiniDisc. What do you choose?
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Mar 14, 2021 01:49
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njsykora posted:MiniDisc obviously. My man
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Mar 14, 2021 02:46
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Man I'm so glad MiniDisc is overwhelmingly the favorite here! Yes, it absolutely rocks. So much choice when it comes to players/recorders as they're all wildly different, it was like the wild west, zero conformity. Same with the discs, any color you like. And the batteries last forever (AA, Sony of course had to ruin things with their loving gumstick batteries and I've never managed to buy one that lasts). You can actually use NetMD in a browser now, some genius got it working. I had to install a VM to emulate XP to write files to my Hi-MiniDisc, which worked like a charm but sadly that OLED display is long dead (they're all dead) and the remote only shows the menu in Japanese (it came from Japan). Yeah I think it was just too expensive, especially with the Hi-MDs, and the software suckkkkked, and CDs/MP3s just killed it. Such a shame. Still you can grab a bargain here or there, and you can even 3D print MD racks. Here's my collection:   Ok Comboomer posted:this question is missing a necessary amount of context and rules, tbh You absolutely do NOT want to stick with commercial releases, especially for MiniDisc. Most of them were recorded with a worse ATRAC version and don't sound anywhere near as good as recording it yourself via optical in (Bat Out Of Hell sounds like muddy garbage, it's a trash fire, though there is no good mastered version of that album available which is weird). I think the rules are that you can record onto the format of your choice, unless it's vinyl because everything is released on vinyl these days. You just can't listen to them on your phone or PC, you have to use a dedicated player/deck.
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Mar 15, 2021 14:53
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qirex posted:Minidisc was an improvement on cassettes which was a branch of the audio tech tree that was doomed from the get go. One of my friends went whole hog on them and other than the players being neat they were pretty miserable. One of the smartest things about CDs is how easy and cheap they are to make compared to something with a ton of moving parts. Anyway, nostalgia is fun but let's not get all Ready Player One by assuming it's a totem with a magic power to make you 12 again by merely invoking its name. I must say you're wrong on several counts. Cassettes doomed from the get go? They came out in the 60s and were only superceded 30 years later! MiniDiscs were way more robust and easier to use than CDs. How many CDRs hosed up with a failed burn? How many were scratched and skipped during playback? Sure they were cheap and you could fit loads of songs on, but come on. MiniDiscs were indestructable and could be wiped a million times. They can automatically detect new tracks when recording from S/PDIF. You didn't even need to use software as the recording was so easy, and never failed. If you had the right deck you could copy a CD right from a MiniDisc which you couldn't do with CDRs. Having a phone with 200Gb+ storage of FLAC files is awesome, but there is something to be said about just having a disc and that's it and that's what you're going to listen to now. Sometimes I just load up YouTube music and I'm like "... what shall I listen to, I can literally listen to anythin in the world" and it takes ages to pick something haha
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Mar 15, 2021 17:22
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Take the plunge! Okay! posted:I got a ton of professional use out of MD. Paired with a decent microphone, it was good enough to record interviews in broadcast quality at the time. It was 100% reliable, built like a tank and went for ages on a single AA battery. Yep, used them for university and for the radio. MiniDiscs were pretty big in the UK so the BBC etc used them a lot
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Mar 15, 2021 20:15
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Lol MD got rid of all the disadvantages of tape. Like what? Sound quality massively improved. Re-record a million times without losing quality like tape. Can't damage it like tape. Don't have to rewind or fast forward like tape. Can store data unlike tape. Can add titles and edit tracks/split/join them unlike tape. It's not that we're touchy about MD it's just... what are you talking about?
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Mar 16, 2021 00:05
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In terms of curating music I use MusicBee, which is free and kind of a spiritual successor to Winamp. Bandcamp is a gamechanger, absolutely love it. When I found out dungeonsynth was genre... my goodness
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Mar 16, 2021 00:10
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Sorry, I didn't realize that your average audio cassette could store data! Please forgive me! How many megabytes was a cassette?
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Mar 16, 2021 00:41
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I remember having games on cassette, you'd load them and come back in half hour and hope Postman Pat had loaded or maybe it'd hosed up and you had to do it again. I just always thought they were a special type of cassette and and I never ever saw them in the 90s, it was all huge floppy disks to play Through The Dragon's Eye. Anyway not as good as MiniDisc
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Mar 16, 2021 01:49
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shortspecialbus posted:Ridicule Audiophiles - or discuss idiotic esoteric media storage and pine for the minidisc I was absolutely not expecting the thread to pine for MiniDiscs but it warms the cockles of my heart. I'm surprised no one mentioned this beauty in my picture. Practically the first MP3 player. 32Mb of storage. Absolutely blew everyone away when I brought it on a school trip. Impossible to use now without a serial port (or you buy a 32Mb CF card. I bought a 64Mb one to try my luck but NOPE) 
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Mar 16, 2021 14:04
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Bloody nightmare it was! Looks like it and USB both came out in 98. So close...
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Mar 17, 2021 05:03
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evobatman posted:Since I'm working from home and I like showing this off better than working, ridicule portablephiles! That is absolutely beautiful! I have so many tapes from Bandcamp but can't afford to buy a decent walkman. The prices are mad. And what a lovely Sony tower! I have a Yamaha tape deck (K220 that records onto metal) and will try to get the rest of it one day (they have a MD deck). I recently rebought the CD/MD hifi from my youth, the superb Sony DHC-MDX10 with its GROOVE bass, but the cassette deck and CD drive got knackered in transit. MD and optical in work perfectly though. Super nostalgic to input track names by dialling that wheel around... 
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Mar 17, 2021 15:06
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