Other What currently makes your life awesome?

Oh I get it, totally. They're one of those things that I want very much... just no need to actually come close to justify.

FTFY.

That's what gets me with these 6-7 figure uber-speakers. I feel they're just as much statement pieces for billionaire to chuck in their three-story ballrooms as items for well-heeled hifi enthusiasts.

That's why something like Steinway Lyngdorf or a Trinnov/Procella system would appeal if I were to find I was the sole beneficiary of a miscellaneous billionaire (because I can't see any other set of circumstances where I'd end up with that sort of FU money) - it's not just about speakers and electronics, it's about a complete integrated system, professionally configured and installed. As much as the idea of playing with toys myself appeals to me, at that level I'd like to know the professionals are making it sound the best it possibly can.

I've listened to serious systems inappropriately crammed into tiny front rooms that in all honesty sounded a bit pants... not Wilson-level stuff, but still well into 6-figures all in. Makes it awkward to smile and nod when they're showing them off.

As so it should be. As they say, your first bite of a meal is with your eyes.

It's why my electronics are all hidden - it lets me pick the best tool for the job without worrying about it all matching.
It's also why I totally unnecessarily upgraded my rears from B&W 601s to 1NTs... because I couldn't be having them not matching the tweeter-on-top design of the front stage.

 

I feel like the cheaper the system the more leeway you have with config, though. Largely because some stuff, no matter where you put it and how much you fiddle, all sounds kind of the same. Like my Tannoy setup. It's largely sounding the same in a larger (And much more open..), vaulted ceiling, room as it did in a smaller fully closed room after twiddling some settings on the receiver.

Yeah. This interest of ours is.. Not cheap once you get beyond the basics.

Hiding the electronics definitely appeals (I'm still trying to talk myself out of custom building a long TV unit that hides basically everything), but sadly I don't have the luxury of a room next to the lounge that I can **** piles of stuff into.

All that said, I'm still arguing internally with the concept of building my own sub. I want to replace my ancient Sony POS, but buying one off the shelf seems about the same cost, but infinitely harder to get something I actually want. Although a custom sub will invariably lead to considerations of the speakers, as they'll match even worse than they do now..

 

Maybe we need to revive the hi-fi thread, wherever it is.

I'd be inclined to agree - accurate speakers (or inaccurate for that matter) will be largely accurate no matter where they are assuming you're relatively sensible with placement. Moving up the scale it starts to become more about scale/extension, which is more difficult (and expensive) to maintain in a larger space, and then about imaging/transparency which is just as much a function of the room and placement as the speakers themselves.

I didn't even consider upgrading from B&W 600s, a BK sub and a midrange Denon receiver until I had a dedicated room finished and acoustically sussed.

What do you want? Subs IMO are the easiest of AV components to select since there's really little nuance to them - pick between sealed/ported, then prioritize SPL or extension, and then match specs, looks and budget.

I bounced the DIY idea around too, one of the clinchers for me aside from the concern of spending a lot of time and money building something that wasn't actually any good (and not as pretty), was resale.

Sure I could theoretically build a sub cheaper with matching specs, but nobody wants a DIY sub. Unless it's the last sub you'll ever need, then could be worth considering.

 

Perhaps it should be revived..

The room is one of the reasons I've never really pushed beyond what I currently have, I'm sure that'll change one day, but for now going too far is only going to provide minimal gains in experience. My current thoughts are more along the lines of TV than anything else at the moment. Special agonising over the HDMI 2.1 situation, and not being 100% sure what the Xbox Series X is going to need out of 2.1. If it's mostly for 8k, then meh. Don't care. It's taken me until the advent of 8k to even ponder a 4k TV.

Yeah, the sub thing is.. It's a lot of thought, planning, and using WinISD. For me the attraction is making something that fits in with the rest of the room more so than any spec driven desires. I currently use a really old, really not great, Sony thing that was part of a 5.1 speaker pack I bought well over a decade ago. It still does (Just about) what it needs to, it's just fugly, and I have entertained just building a new enclosure for it as the multiple moves have taken their toll on the printed cover and OSB ply construction, but given how small the driver is (I think it's seven or eight inches, at most) it's starting to sound really lost in the room it's in now.

I also like using nice wood rather than veneered OSB ply. [/woodsnob]

If I built myself a sub, then it'd either be the last sub I ever needed, or would find its way into another room, so that aspect is less of a factor in my decision making process.

 

This one perhaps? https://forums.bit-tech.net/index.php?threads/whats-your-hifi.205215/

 

28 on Wednesday

I don’t celebrate birthdays much anymore, it’s always convenient to have a birthday almost slap bang in the middle of the year. I use it as a mid year review so to speak. I reflect a lot when new year comes around like everyone, but many years have been fairy depressing in nature.

This year, I’m on the right tracks and that’s a big one for me, I feel good... I feel energised and I feel positive. I’m going well and truly in the direction I want to be in.

 

New computer day!
Thought I was getting a tore up ass computer that someone wore out. Pristine AND with double the stated RAM! It's not got the best speakers, but that's the only gripe at all so far.

 

I made this with my faincée:

 

Young whippersnapper, I'll be twice that in few weeks...

 

Ahh, screen brightness.

Thanks, retro gamer enthusiasts.

 

what sorcery is this?

 

Modern LCDs

 

After many cockups*, it's finally running...



Caseless for now, and I've temporarily swiped my work laptop's power supply because the one I planned to use was only 65W and this is an 84W CPU... Happily running Kubuntu though. I quite like KDE+Plasma... My laptop runs Ubuntu Mate and I'm finding Mate just a bit... meh. Not a fan of the stock Ubuntu, and Lubuntu/Xubuntu are a little simplistic for a day-to-day machine.

Now begins the arduous task of getting my "main" computer backed up, getting all my files into the cloud, and wiping it. Oh, and figuring out how to use OneDrive on Linux - that'll be a good start!

*WiFi card which uses M.2 slot instead of classic mini-PCIe, 2 weeks to get a CPU delivered, cooler brackets not fitting, spare cooler warping the board a lot...

 

As Byron said, modern tech!

There are a bunch of kits for older consoles fuelled by retro gaming enthusiasts. Ips screens for the GBC and GBA being just some of them - they are kind of a faff if you don't buy a pre cut case, but totally worth said faff. They also have optional brightness adjustment - GBC with a little sensor hidden under the ir panel and the GBA with a button combo.

I bought mine from AliExpress since I was already shopping for a few things, but there are a bunch stores in various countries that sell screens, mod kits for rechargeable batteries and so on.

There are a whole bunch of options, though, so it's definitely a 'dig around and see what suits' kind of deal.

I saw a place will full aluminium chassis for the GBA and gbc. They looked cool, but at multiple hundreds of dollars to do both I just opted for the tired plastic I already had.

 

I'm sure one of my colleagues uses one drive on Linux!

 

Dell makes up to 330w bricks. I have a 240w for this laptop. Might wanna look into that.

 

Rev2 boards turned up! Told you that black solder mask is cooler...



Not had chance to assemble them yet...

Yeah there are solutions out there, of course none of them are official... The best bet looks to be InSync, but it's not FOSS (or even open source). There's a 15-day trial available, so that should give me enough time to decide whether it's worth the $30 license...

You could also do clever things with rclone and tons of bash scripts, but I'm getting past the point of wanting to spend hours putting together a hacky solution...

I don't need anything like that kind of power. My work laptop uses a 130W adaptor which happens to be exactly the right tip size for Mini ITX Thin; that'll do for now, until I order a 120W brick.

 

Do you not use ground planes? Or is it just on the other side? Its one of my habits to fill empty space with a ground plane And you should go for the gold pads just to really finish it off, one trick is to do the edge in a 1mm trace to you get a gold rip, looks really nice!

 

Ground plane is on the back . Don't know why I chose to do it that way tbh...

Gold pads added a ton to the cost! It went from $2 to well over $15 just to add the gold finish! It wasn't really worth it IMO...

 

I'd say pop one of the top too if you do another, it'll help with noise suppression. But but but, just think of the bling!!!