The Vent and Rant Thread

[cromag]

What DMcCunney said about DRMed formats.

Some people are ... passionate ... about these things.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

But for Absolute Sound's reader base, it was about status and "Mine is better than yours!", and they would clutch to their chest anything they could use to bolster a claim that theirs was better. Being the sort of pragmatist who is only concerned with what he can actually hear, I shook my head in wonder.

"But I never did care for music much,
It's the high fidelity!"

-- Flanders and Swann

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

"But I never did care for music much,
It's the high fidelity!"

-- Flanders and Swann

I thought it was Hi Infidelity.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by cromag

I rip LPs (and the occasional casette) and have learned to nod my head when folks tell me FLAC is "better" than WAV (or vice-versa).

For the "record" I rip to WAV for my archives and MP3 for my players. I have some FLAC files that I've downloaded from small labels, and they sound fine, too, of course.

Is there are reason you use WAV? FLAC has two very big advantages (non-quality, and non-sound related):

- Files are half the size. Twice as many files on one disk.
- FLAC can contain metadata, WAV can't. Useful for any music player

And every once in a while I run into an OGG fanatic.

The only reason to use Ogg (Vorbis) instead of MP3 is when you're an over the top open source fanatic who thinks all technology should be free for anyone, and absolutely want to avoid MP3 because some company (Fraunhofer) earns money because of patent licensing.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

Easy. That sort of thing reminds of the times years back when I would read a publication called The Absolute Sound, a magazine aimed at the market that would pay more for their stereo system than they would for their car. They ran lots of detailed comparisons between components whose differences could only be detected with a room full of expensive test gear. There was no way you would hear the difference.

But for Absolute Sound's reader base, it was about status and "Mine is better than yours!", and they would clutch to their chest anything they could use to bolster a claim that theirs was better. Being the sort of pragmatist who is only concerned with what he can actually hear, I shook my head in wonder.

With regard to being able to hear things, I'm started to doubt myself. I can hear pitches much higher, and much softer, than would be normal for my age (mid-thrties). In my later teens and early 20's, my hearing was even better, at the limit of what is possible for a human.

I think my current hearing capabilities will still be competitive with the younger generation. Ms. NoHints is about 10 years younger than I am, doens't use headphones/earbuds much (and if, at normal levels), and seems to have better than average hearing. Still, I can 'outhear' her, both at volume (softer) and at pitch (both lower, and higher).

So what am I doubting about?

Some piano's have something called duplex scale. On the one end, a string is wound around a tuning pin, which you can turn to tune the string. On the other end, the string is led around a bridge pin (to keep it under tension) and then tied off to a post. The part between the bridge pin and the post is damped with felt.

Well, if you make the part between the bridge pin and the tie-off post *exactly* the right length and *don't* dampen it, these 'extra' string parts will resonate, along with other strings, when you play the piano. They add a ringing overtone onto the sound. This is what's called duplex scaling. ('Duplex' as in: the piano now effectively has two sets of strings/scales.)

This image illustrates this design. The small inset shows the 'normal' damped configuration. The extra string parts are damped with black and red felt.

There are ways to make the duplex scaling louder, softer, higher or lower. My digital piano has a setting for duplex scaling, and higher settings should make it louder. The setting goes from OFF to 1 to 10.

To be honest, I cannot hear a difference, and I refuse to believe the firmware is broken. I've found no reports with regard to that. Therefore, I assume I either cannot hear this effect, or I do hear it and don't know what to listen for.

The only way to test this would be to walk into a shop that has a real (in tune) grand piano on the floor, with duplex scaling, and then mute the strings with a felt. Then play, unmute the strings, and play again.

However, I don't think any shop will let me jackass around with with a €20K grand piano though.

[Dazrin]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

With regard to being able to hear things, I'm started to doubt myself. I can hear pitches much higher, and much softer, than would be normal for my age (mid-thrties). In my later teens and early 20's, my hearing was even better, at the limit of what is possible for a human.

We tested how high everyone in my high-school physics class could hear and I was at the top of the class, over 20kHz, but that has gone away with age. I don't really miss it though. It was annoying to walk by an old tube TV and hear the electronics hum louder than the speakers.

[Toxaris]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

The only reason to use Ogg (Vorbis) instead of MP3 is when you're an over the top open source fanatic who thinks all technology should be free for anyone, and absolutely want to avoid MP3 because some company (Fraunhofer) earns money because of patent licensing.

Well, that argument is out of the window. The all patents concerning MP3 expired this week.

[Rumpelteazer]

Today my uncle's reaction to the judges verdict (it isn't the final verdict, but one that he makes during the ongoing court case). Basically it's as we expected: he accepts the judges verdict/opinion conditionally. And then in the rest of the letter he clearly doesn't agree with anything. He also, still, wants to the delay everything, he wants all court cases to be put on halt to discuss the matter between the two parties (him and my dad). My father won't agree to this; there have been many meetings, twice they went to mediation and my uncle did everything he could to draw out those processes.

Even though his letter is as expected it hit me hard. I think it must be his determination to delay things. It's been going on for almost four years now. For four years I've been blamed for everything that went wrong. For four years I haven't been allowed to discuss the matter with anyone outside the family, yet my family doesn't really want to discuss it when I'm there. In four years' time nobody has asked me how I'm doing, everyone is feeling so sorry for my sister and my cousins (my uncle's children). Plus it also doesn't help that my hormones are out of whack because my period are about to start.

I'm feeling emotionally and mentally drained, empty and extremely tired.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by Toxaris

Well, that argument is out of the window. The all patents concerning MP3 expired this week.

LOL. I knew it would be somewhere soon, as I knew MP3 was patented somewhere in 1997/1998. Coincidence it's exactly within this week

Originally Posted by Dazrin

We tested how high everyone in my high-school physics class could hear and I was at the top of the class, over 20kHz, but that has gone away with age. I don't really miss it though. It was annoying to walk by an old tube TV and hear the electronics hum louder than the speakers.

I know exactly what you mean. I can *still* hear an Osram lightbulb powering up, I can still hear tube lights humming, and I hear all kinds of noise coming out of TV speakers that nobody else seems to hear.

Some time ago I bought a Logitech bluetooth receiver, so I could play music from my laptop through my speaker system. When connecting the laptop's dock directly to these particular speakers, there's a very irritating humming noise. My previous computer had the same issue, but this wass resolved with an extra/dedicated sound card. Because I didn't want to attach an external, dedicated sound card to the dock just to play some music incidentally, I bought the bluetooth receiver. All was fine.

Until I bought a desktop computer.

Now I sit in the computer room more often, and the dock has gone, but I left the receiver in case I'd want to use the laptop in that room, for some reason. When sitting there, I heard a very irritating sound, every few seconds:

"iiiii..... iiiii..... iiiii..... iiiii..... iiiii....."

First thing I thought: "Nooo! Not graphics card or mainboard coil whine. One big reason to choose the components for this desktop were the reviews, mentioning the absence of coil whine! FFFFF...."

So I started powering down stuff, and disconnecting everything. The sound continued, until I disconnected the bluetooth receiver. It turns out that, when not connected to anything, the receiver keeps broadcasting for connection (and a dim, blue light flashes), and when it does so, it makes that irritating sound.

It was never mentioned in any of the reviews, and because I've been using it with the laptop for months, I can't return it.

Conclusion: either everybody at Logitech and all of the reviewers are deaf, or no-one's ever been in the same room with that thing while it wasn't connected.

[cromag]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

Is there are reason you use WAV? FLAC has two very big advantages (non-quality, and non-sound related):

- Files are half the size. Twice as many files on one disk.
- FLAC can contain metadata, WAV can't. Useful for any music player

...

The reasons I use WAV are mostly due to convenience when I got started. Back then I had some players that would handle MP3 and eventually WAV, and not much else. Storage isn't a problem -- I picked up a couple of 2TB drives to use as my media drive and its clone. I've got a little more than 1TB of music so far, and I'm slowing down lately in adding more -- I have to take time to listen every once in a while. They were pretty inexpensive and remain reliable.

The metadata I do miss.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by cromag

The metadata I do miss.

In that case, maybe it's useful to start looking into FLAC if your current player (non-computer device) is able to play it I use a FLAC player mainly so I don't have to keep a seperate MP3 library. (And no, I don't need to have all of my 875 CD's with me all the time; let alone the classical music, which can often be 150 CD's a box )

[Rumpelteazer]

Just a warning for those who have Windows 10, the new update takes a really long time to install. My (older) PC took about an hour. I'm glad I did it during the day, normally I let my PC update when shutting down at night and/or starting up in the morning. On the plus side, I did manage to dust two rooms, vacuum one and make swatches for two of my watercolour paint sets.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by Rumpelteazer

Today my uncle's reaction to the judges verdict (it isn't the final verdict, but one that he makes during the ongoing court case). Basically it's as we expected...

Why are you blamed for stuff that happens between your father and your uncle? Are you taking care for a big part of this court stuff? If so, you could 'suggest' to the person blaming you that you'd be happy to have them do the work, if they think it can or should be done better.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by Rumpelteazer

Just a warning for those who have Windows 10, the new update takes a really long time to install. My (older) PC took about an hour. I'm glad I did it during the day, normally I let my PC update when shutting down at night and/or starting up in the morning. On the plus side, I did manage to dust two rooms, vacuum one and make swatches for two of my watercolour paint sets.

I'm on the "Build of the Week" club, so I'm sort of used to long periods of waiting for the latest build to install. The good news, from my perspective, is that they seem to have the details pretty much worked out, and I haven't had a failed install in a long time.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by Rumpelteazer

Just a warning for those who have Windows 10, the new update takes a really long time to install. My (older) PC took about an hour. I'm glad I did it during the day, normally I let my PC update when shutting down at night and/or starting up in the morning. On the plus side, I did manage to dust two rooms, vacuum one and make swatches for two of my watercolour paint sets.

I kind of hope mine updates duriung the day today. It'll stop me from posting here when I should be working.