Odds & Ends: January 17, 2025
11 hours ago
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Genuine fungus, now only $2.29!
Love it. Korean markets are MUCH more interesting than the local Giant.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
I love the DACs in my Blu-Ray player
I tell you what. I've got an older Harman/Kardon AVR which I always thought had a nice sounding amplifier section. I knew it wasn't top of the line, but I would call it above average. I got a Pioneer Blu-Ray (the highest non-Elite model). In reading the specs, they seemed to be touting how great the Wolfson DACs were. Well, my H/K doesn't have HDMI inputs anyway, so I decided to connect it all analog to the 8 Channel input.
At first I didn't know if it was the high-res audio formats on Blu-Ray discs that was making the difference, but my little* BIC Venturi front speakers sounded bigger and put out a much more wide-open sound than I had ever heard out of them. It was the type of difference that I only thought an amplifier upgrade would provide. Unreal. After watching a few standard DVDs, I realized it was the player itself creating this great audio.
I can't imagine that the H/K's DACs are "bad," but it opened my eyes to how much of a difference the processing makes.
* by "little," I'm talking about price. I've got 2 big ol' 6.5" bookshelves that get down to about 50 Hz and a center with dual 6.5"s that supposedly gets down to 38 Hz.
At first I didn't know if it was the high-res audio formats on Blu-Ray discs that was making the difference, but my little* BIC Venturi front speakers sounded bigger and put out a much more wide-open sound than I had ever heard out of them. It was the type of difference that I only thought an amplifier upgrade would provide. Unreal. After watching a few standard DVDs, I realized it was the player itself creating this great audio.
I can't imagine that the H/K's DACs are "bad," but it opened my eyes to how much of a difference the processing makes.
* by "little," I'm talking about price. I've got 2 big ol' 6.5" bookshelves that get down to about 50 Hz and a center with dual 6.5"s that supposedly gets down to 38 Hz.
Google is your..... friend?
A post at Lifehacker got me thinking. What would people see if they searched my screen name on Google?
Well I did it, and since I use the same screen name on every forum, you can see EVERYTHING I've ever posted. Not that it's rocket science, but this never occurred to me. So if a customer knows who I am on RC, they can also see anything I've put on Livestrong, Intuit, DirecTV, AVS, Personal Finance Forums, etc.
I don't post anything I wouldn't want anyone to see, but it kinda creeps me out that a customer could, without me knowing, see not only what I may have done that day, but also personal financial stuff I may have asked for advice about, whether I posted about a workout I may have skipped, or if I'm having trouble with my Quicken software. Nothing I wouldn't talk about in a general conversation, but to have someone able to see it without asking... I don't like it...
May be time for a screen name change at RC...
Thoughts?
Well I did it, and since I use the same screen name on every forum, you can see EVERYTHING I've ever posted. Not that it's rocket science, but this never occurred to me. So if a customer knows who I am on RC, they can also see anything I've put on Livestrong, Intuit, DirecTV, AVS, Personal Finance Forums, etc.
I don't post anything I wouldn't want anyone to see, but it kinda creeps me out that a customer could, without me knowing, see not only what I may have done that day, but also personal financial stuff I may have asked for advice about, whether I posted about a workout I may have skipped, or if I'm having trouble with my Quicken software. Nothing I wouldn't talk about in a general conversation, but to have someone able to see it without asking... I don't like it...
May be time for a screen name change at RC...
Thoughts?
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