The "New Toys" Thread

I my car, using a cassette player adaptor, the best sound is having the phone be 2 notches down from full volume...but that most certainly has nothing to do with digital/analog conversion than it does with simply overdriving the tape player. :)

I follow the general rule of maxing software volume when possible (annoying since my phone refuses to permanently set max volume through the headphone jack and yells at me for listening to loud music, when it's connected to my car), but I found the same thing back when I used a tape adapter. Slightly lower than max volume sounded "better" to my untrained ears.
 
250px-SimCity_2013_Limited_Edition_cover.png

Digital Deluxe Edition

Both PelicanHazard and I pre-order it.



...is it weird that I'm dying with excitement for this game? :|
 
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I my car, using a cassette player adaptor, the best sound is having the phone be 2 notches down from full volume...but that most certainly has nothing to do with digital/analog conversion than it does with simply overdriving the tape player. :)

I've experienced the nastiness of cassette adapters. Between the loud hiss and no low end, I did away with it asap. FM Transmitters, despite the static you get from time to time, it's immensely better.
 
I've experienced the nastiness of cassette adapters. Between the loud hiss and no low end, I did away with it asap. FM Transmitters, despite the static you get from time to time, it's immensely better.

o_O You must have a broken tape adapter or dirty cassette deck....FM transmitters tend to be just awful, hateful things with poor sound quality.
 
o_O You must have a broken tape adapter or dirty cassette deck....FM transmitters tend to be just awful, hateful things with poor sound quality.

Unless a '01 Suburban, '01 Cherokee, and '92 Ranger all had broken tape players...
 
....FM transmitters tend to be just awful, hateful things with poor sound quality.

...and they never seem to work on any other frequency other than the default they are set to.
Had one on my old Cavalier (did not have a cassette player) and, weirdly, its default frequency did not work within downtown Pittsburgh. Outside of the city it was OK, but in the city...no.
 
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250px-SimCity_2013_Limited_Edition_cover.png

Digital Deluxe Edition

Both PelicanHazard and I pre-order it.



...is it weird that I'm dying with excitement for this game? :|

Head accountmanager in my office has been going on and on and on about it for two and a half weeks now. Today he found out Europe gets it two days later (he's been looking forward to playing it tomorrow), so he spent the whole day trying to get an American proxy and credit card to purchase it in the US.
 
..and it helps the computer a fair bit.

Recently I upgraded my work computer from 4 to 8 gigs and the performance difference it huge.
My home desktop currently has 8 gigs, though I'm looking to upgrade it to 16 in the near future (some of my games do chew through a lot of the memory).
 
An original Gorillapod for my P&S camera. I think that's gonna be a great little helper to achieve some nice pictures of the landcape when I'm gonna be in the US. :) For 12,99 Euros shipped it's a good deal I think.

gorillapod.jpg
 
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I got me a ? iMac 27"

  • 3.2GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5
  • 8GB 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM
  • 3TB Fusion Drive
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680MX 2GB GDDR5

I'm gonna add an extra 16 GB Ram later.


Want... how much is is in Germany, less than 2k euros ?
 
Just hooked up the new WD TV Live to my tv and I can't believe how much better than the original it is. Such speed improvement, such a better UI, SO MANY OPTIONS! I can even change the size, position and visibility of the subtitles. WHAT IS THIS MAGIC?
 
Want... how much is is in Germany, less than 2k euros ?

Apple Store Germany shows the base 27" at 1.879,00 ?
 
You are indeed supposed to have your volume at 100% in your OS and apps. That way the signal is not altered by the OS or apps, the output will be exactly the same as input. The sound quality always gets lowered if you change the volume in software, it is impossible to lower the volume in software without loss of quality (a detailed explanation here). Of course you are not supposed to change the volume in any other device that alters the digital signal either, that will lower the sound quality just like changing the volume in software (it's the same thing really). Changing the volume in analog domain is better because it does not lower sound quality (not taking in to account amps sound quality differences at different volumes).

Obviously you want to have high quality everything when you want high quality sound. But digital volume control lowers quality no matter how good or bad the rest of your setup is.

You are assuming that 100% in software isn't trying to do something stupid like doing digital expansion of the audio or boosting the signal with a cheap preamp post DAC. The real answer is that you want everything at unity (not boosting and not attenuating), and if that isn't loud enough, boost the signal at the preamp that introduces the least noise. If it's too loud, make sure you're not boosting anywhere, and then attenuate the signal in analog as close to the end of your signal path as possible.

For more info see: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4706360
or the whole thread about it, although it has quite a bit of wrong info in in as well: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4701958
 
Just hooked up the new WD TV Live to my tv and I can't believe how much better than the original it is. Such speed improvement, such a better UI, SO MANY OPTIONS! I can even change the size, position and visibility of the subtitles. WHAT IS THIS MAGIC?

Yep they made a huge leap with it (I own both).
 
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