July Banter 2021

[Chris78]

10 hours ago, yoda said:

Scherzer and Turner headed to the Dodgers 

Wouldn't shock me if they resign Scherzer after the season. I'm sure they'll reload and be competing again next season.

Meanwhile up 95 the Os will be in year 4 of the rebuild and no end un sight.

Oh the joys of being an Os fan.

[mappy]

17 minutes ago, rclab said:

Good morning Mappy and noted. My daughter has two pugs. They’ll eat anything but are non violent chasers. If anything the late groundhog may have chased them around the yard to their mutual enjoyment. Stay well, you and the family. As always ….

oh no, they cornered it and went to town. one pup has facial wounds, so off to the vet we go. yay

[Stormfly]

29 minutes ago, mappy said:

If anyone ever hears/sees me say we should get another puppy, yell at me NO. 

This morning the two pups (1.5yrs/7 months) found and killed a groundhog living under our shed. Just spent 10 minutes chasing them around the yard, while they played tug of war with the body, so I could get them to drop it and back inside. 

So out of shape. 

What kind of dogs?

I had Jack Russells so I can tell stories all day long about chases!

My border collie is a chaser but he is no killer.  He just wants to herd.

[mappy]

1 minute ago, Stormfly said:

What kind of dogs?

I had Jack Russells so I can tell stories all day long about chases!

My border collie is a chaser but he is no killer.  He just wants to herd.

terrier/lab and terrier/shepherd 

the terrier/shepherd did all the dirty work lol

[H2O]

24 minutes ago, mappy said:

If anyone ever hears/sees me say we should get another puppy, yell at me NO. 

This morning the two pups (1.5yrs/7 months) found and killed a groundhog living under our shed. Just spent 10 minutes chasing them around the yard, while they played tug of war with the body, so I could get them to drop it and back inside. 

So out of shape. 

If you had checked your horoscope for today it would have told you this was going to happen

Cancer: you will have an exciting start to your day. Lots of heart racing and things pulling you in different directions. Never give up, never surrender. Throw caution to the wind and throw carcasses into the trash as you kick ass, take names and need oxygen. Today will improve with puppy kisses with a slight animal taste. Gemini provideS lots of laughs today

[mappy]

4 minutes ago, H2O said:

If you had checked your horoscope for today it would have told you this was going to happen

Cancer: you will have an exciting start to your day. Lots of heart racing and things pulling you in different directions. Never give up, never surrender. Throw caution to the wind and throw carcasses into the trash as you kick ass, take names and need oxygen. Today will improve with puppy kisses with a slight animal taste. Gemini provideS lots of laughs today

i swear, young pups are worse than kids. but gotta give the younger pup credit, he did good work cornering it and killing it, quick snap of the neck and that was it. 

also, lol. 

[H2O]

13 minutes ago, mappy said:

i swear, young pups are worse than kids. but gotta give the younger pup credit, he did good work cornering it and killing it, quick snap of the neck and that was it. 

also, lol. 

[mappy]

4 minutes ago, H2O said:

Okay. that was good. 

[H2O]

[nw baltimore wx]

This is what we have to look forward with retirement?

[Stormfly]

1 hour ago, mappy said:

terrier/lab and terrier/shepherd 

the terrier/shepherd did all the dirty work lol

Wow, yes you have your work cut out for you for sure!

Back in 1994 I had a Rottweiler, Dalmation, and Lab/Greyhound mix.  The rottie did all the hard work (numerous groundhog kills around the pond) and other two played tug-of-war with the carcasses.  I know exactly how it goes.  It's fun to talk about it at the end of the day and you know you'd never want a life without your dogs!

[H2O]

1 hour ago, nw baltimore wx said:

This is what we have to look forward with retirement?

I know. I should be banned

[mappy]

20 minutes ago, Stormfly said:

Wow, yes you have your work cut out for you for sure!

Back in 1994 I had a Rottweiler, Dalmation, and Lab/Greyhound mix.  The rottie did all the hard work (numerous groundhog kills around the pond) and other two played tug-of-war with the carcasses.  I know exactly how it goes.  It's fun to talk about it at the end of the day and you know you'd never want a life without your dogs!

We love our rescues. They are a handful, the terrier/lab is the troublemaker, while the terrier/shepherd is just poorly influenced, but he's a good boy otherwise. But the sweetest of babies, just lots of energy.  

[CAPE]

17 hours ago, Stormfly said:

The big issue isn't just the volume but the amount of dynamic range compression that's applied to the musical track.  Annoying AF!  In a theater environment I'm fine with 120dB of dynamic range from a whisper to the crack of a gunshot but for the sake of Thor PLEASE lower the volume of the damn music!  Music should be audible in the BACKGROUND.  It's gotten so bad lately it's not funny.

Speaking of MUSIC, the loudness war is destroying the sound in modern mixes.  The best way to explain this in English is in this video here:

 

 

 

I get so annoyed with the amount of compression so many bands apply when they mix and record tracks. I love The Killers, but most of their songs sound awful on a high end system. Loud and fatiguing. It's not as noticeable listening to it in the car on SiriusXM, where everything is compressed and sounds like crap.

[vastateofmind]

1 hour ago, CAPE said:

I get so annoyed with the amount of compression so many bands apply when they mix and record tracks. I love The Killers, but most of their songs sound awful on a high end system. Loud and fatiguing. It's not as noticeable listening to it in the car on SiriusXM, where everything is compressed and sounds like crap.

You're correct about the quality of SXM in the car, of course...what really ticks me off is trying to use the SXM app (which I love cuz it actually has even MORE stations/content than the carbound subscription) to listen in the house. I've used it alternately with Google Chromecast speakers and Amazon Echo smart speakers (a few of which we have rival or exceed the vehicle experience), and the damn app constantly crashes or freezes or generally loses connections with either type of smart speaker. UGH.

[mattie g]

10 minutes ago, vastateofmind said:

You're correct about the quality of SXM in the car, of course...what really ticks me off is trying to use the SXM app (which I love cuz it actually has even MORE stations/content than the carbound subscription) to listen in the house. I've used it alternately with Google Chromecast speakers and Amazon Echo smart speakers (a few of which we have rival or exceed the vehicle experience), and the damn app constantly crashes or freezes or generally loses connections with either type of smart speaker. UGH.

I use the Sirius/XM skill on our Echo - works really well. I only use the app when we're away from the house, and I usually connect it to a fairly simple bluetooth speaker. I haven't had any issues with crashing or freezing though.

[Stormfly]

The fidelity of streaming is poor due to low bitrate and/or variable bit rate which depends on the connection quality/speed.  The encoding type also has impacts particularly on higher frequencies and transients.  Which incidentally on poor masters with crest factors in the single digits it doesn't rake as bad as a very high quality master with great dynamic range. 

Also confusing compression used to conserve space (whether lossy or lossless) and dynamic range compression (to make the overall sound louder) are two completely different things.

It's gotten bad enough that vinyl is making a comeback not because it sounds better (it doesn't especially on the vast majority of consumer equipment bought at big box retail stores) but due to the recordings at the time being mastered much better.  Adding insult to injury even "lowly" 16bit 44.1kHz "CD quality" recordings have 90dB of dynamic range far exceeding any consumer playback media (ex. cassette, 8 track, and LP).  And that's before NR even Dolby C or dbx!

[CAPE]

3 hours ago, Stormfly said:

The fidelity of streaming is poor due to low bitrate and/or variable bit rate which depends on the connection quality/speed.  The encoding type also has impacts particularly on higher frequencies and transients.  Which incidentally on poor masters with crest factors in the single digits it doesn't rake as bad as a very high quality master with great dynamic range. 

Also confusing compression used to conserve space (whether lossy or lossless) and dynamic range compression (to make the overall sound louder) are two completely different things.

It's gotten bad enough that vinyl is making a comeback not because it sounds better (it doesn't especially on the vast majority of consumer equipment bought at big box retail stores) but due to the recordings at the time being mastered much better.  Adding insult to injury even "lowly" 16bit 44.1kHz "CD quality" recordings have 90dB of dynamic range far exceeding any consumer playback media (ex. cassette, 8 track, and LP).  And that's before NR even Dolby C or dbx!

Not sure I would characterize 16/44.1 source material as lowly. I was an audiophile until I found better things to spend money on, but still have a pretty high end system. I was all into the 24/192 capable formats when it came out, and spent big bucks on a first generation DVD audio player. There wasn't a whole lot to pick from to listen too, but I made myself believe it sounded far superior. It didn't. "Good" sound is very subjective, and the reality is that frequencies above 14-16 khz are of minimal to no importance to anyone over the age of about 20, especially if you have attended more than a few rock concerts. 44khz sampling allows for a reasonably good representation of frequencies up to 22khz according to Nyquist.

[toolsheds]

Down in Short Pump for daughter's softball tournament. It's really nice down here.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

[Rvarookie]

21 minutes ago, toolsheds said:

Down in Short Pump for daughter's softball tournament. It's really nice down here.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
 

It’s nice but yeh…

[fourseasons]

What a fire sale:  Eight players traded by the Nats in the past couple days:  Scherzer, Turner, Schwarber, Harrison, Gomes, Hand, Hudson, and Lester, and every trade except the Lester trade was in exchange for prospects.

I have a feeling attendance for the rest of the season is going to drop considerably.

(BTW, I am aware that a bunch of them are free agents at the end of the season.)

[Stormfly]

1 hour ago, CAPE said:

Not sure I would characterize 16/44.1 source material as lowly. I was an audiophile until I found better things to spend money on, but still have a pretty high end system. I was all into the 24/192 capable formats when it came out, and spent big bucks on a first generation DVD audio player. There wasn't a whole lot to pick from to listen too, but I made myself believe it sounded far superior. It didn't. "Good" sound is very subjective, and the reality is that frequencies above 14-16 khz are of minimal to no importance to anyone over the age of about 20, especially if you have attended more than a few rock concerts. 44khz sampling allows for a reasonably good representation of frequencies up to 22khz according to Nyquist.

Well I was being sarcastic however when working in the studio one prefers higher sampling rate and bit depth as it does provide more to work with.  Whether one can hear it is another matter altogether.  I'm in my 50's and can still hear a flyback whine at 15.750 kHz albeit very faint.  I learned to take care of my ears at a very young age fortunately.  When in my teens I could easily hear the toggle of a 19kHz pilot tone.  Golden ears indeed.  On and around stage I ALWAYS was plugged.  Have custom molds so I can hear high frequencies albeit 27dB down from actual.  What a lot of people don't realize on stage exposed to 120dBA is not only really bad for hearing you cannot discern details of a bad amp or pedal, et-al.  As they say in live the show must go on and the faster a tech can fix it the better the show is.

As far as playback gear goes converters WILL make a difference but it's not just up to your ears, listening style but budget.  Definitely laws of diminishing returns.  Don't even get me started on the snake oil speaker wires/interconnects!

I've sampled a variety of 24/192 stuff from both SACD and DVD-A and the spectrum analyzer result was literally shocking.  Nothing past 21kHz!  Thinking something was wrong with the DAC I recorded me jingling my keys in front of a large condenser mic and could see usable output well past 40KHz.  But alas, if it's 24/192 it's got to sound better, right?

[Baltimorewx]

Every bourbon barrel aged beer that other half nyc has ever brewed mixed together! This is excellent! And probably $500 for a bottle lol

[CAPE]

11 minutes ago, Stormfly said:

Well I was being sarcastic however when working in the studio one prefers higher sampling rate and bit depth as it does provide more to work with.  Whether one can hear it is another matter altogether.  I'm in my 50's and can still hear a flyback whine at 15.750 kHz albeit very faint.  I learned to take care of my ears at a very young age fortunately.  When in my teens I could easily hear the toggle of a 19kHz pilot tone.  Golden ears indeed.  On and around stage I ALWAYS was plugged.  Have custom molds so I can hear high frequencies albeit 27dB down from actual.  What a lot of people don't realize on stage exposed to 120dBA is not only really bad for hearing you cannot discern details of a bad amp or pedal, et-al.  As they say in live the show must go on and the faster a tech can fix it the better the show is.

As far as playback gear goes converters WILL make a difference but it's not just up to your ears, listening style but budget.  Definitely laws of diminishing returns.  Don't even get me started on the snake oil speaker wires/interconnects!

I've sampled a variety of 24/192 stuff from both SACD and DVD-A and the spectrum analyzer result was literally shocking.  Nothing past 21kHz!  Thinking something was wrong with the DAC I recorded me jingling my keys in front of a large condenser mic and could see usable output well past 40KHz.  But alas, if it's 24/192 it's got to sound better, right?

I have 2 high quality DACs I held onto and still use. They make a big difference compared to a typical CD player DAC. My primary front end(still) for listening to high quality digital source material is an IPOD Classic, connected to a Wadia "dock"(it has its own DAC or you can bypass it which I am doing)- but the Wadia extracts the PCM bitstream before it gets input into the 10 cent ipod DAC- then gets re-clocked, then into my Monarchy Audio DAC. No compressed files so CD quality but better sound than any CD player costing under a grand.

[Stormfly]

Wadia makes some nice gear.

Apple is doing loseless now, have not compared to TIDAL master but they should be similar.

Of course so many will play through bluetooth and rave over the improved sound!

I have some relic CD players from the 80s.  A Denon 3520 which uses a 20bit Burr Brown DAC and sounded great.  The drawer stopped working in the late 90s and I found the belt inside broken.  It's a round part and was given a tip by a tech to dissect a condom to fix it and it worked!  Hilarious.  It stopped working a few years later again.  My Technics SL-P1300 top load (DJ) deck still works to this day.  Most of the stuff I was getting was on ADAT and RDAT.  Still have a trunk full of RDAT tapes which were recorded at 48KHz.  One day I will go through those.  I remember recording an awesome nocturnal storm that woke me up at 4AM and using that gentle rolling thunder and rain in a soundtrack.  It was back in 1991.  Used a portable Sony TCD-D3 DAT which was a nice machine for its time.

[CAPE]

1 minute ago, Stormfly said:

Wadia makes some nice gear.

Apple is doing loseless now, have not compared to TIDAL master but they should be similar.

Of course so many will play through bluetooth and rave over the improved sound!

I have some relic CD players from the 80s.  A Denon 3520 which uses a 20bit Burr Brown DAC and sounded great.  The drawer stopped working in the late 90s and I found the belt inside broken.  It's a round part and was given a tip by a tech to dissect a condom to fix it and it worked!  Hilarious.  It stopped working a few years later again.  My Technics SL-P1300 top load (DJ) deck still works to this day.  Most of the stuff I was getting was on ADAT and RDAT.  Still have a trunk full of RDAT tapes which were recorded at 48KHz.  One day I will go through those.  I remember recording an awesome nocturnal storm that woke me up at 4AM and using that gentle rolling thunder and rain in a soundtrack.  It was back in 1991.  Used a portable Sony TCD-D3 DAT which was a nice machine for its time.

I've had a couple Denon CD players over the years. Pretty decent equipment for the money. My Monarchy DAC has piggy backed 20-bit Burr Brown chips. Really clean sound. Supposedly more analog-ish sounding.

[aldie 22]

Watching Die Hard 2 back when it used to snow at Dulles 

[Stormfly]

4 minutes ago, CAPE said:

I've had a couple Denon CD players over the years. Pretty decent equipment for the money. My Monarchy DAC has piggy backed 20-bit Burr Brown chips. Really clean sound. Supposedly more analog-ish sounding.

Yep definitely smoother on recordings with low surface noise.

[CAPE]

Just now, Stormfly said:

Yep definitely smoother on recordings with low surface noise.

Good equipment is completely unforgiving of a compressed or otherwise crap source. It reveals all the flaws, as it should. I can't enjoy a good amount of rock music on my system.

[Stormfly]

Yep, my Ultimate Ear UE10 pros which I've had since 2005 certainly have revealed so much, MP3, satellite radio, just about anything streaming, ESPECIALLY video streams is painful like sitting down butt naked on a huge pine cone.  (don't ask!)

There's a lot of good stuff that was captured and mastered properly, not always the most popular stuff.  I just learn to keep my mouth shut because I mention it sounds like crap because of compression and 99% of the time I hear, "I know it's Amazon Prime"  or whatever.

I have to admit with heavy DSP it's pretty amazing the frequency response and resolution of a portable bt speaker.  Up to a POINT!  Most people crank them up so the automatic gain controls kick in to prevent amp over-driving into hard clipping and while it may not be harsh sounding as square waves going into drivers it's so compressed it might as well be that pine cone...

One thing that chaps my hind parts as much as going to bed on 6-8 forecast and waking up to partly cloudy is someone cranking up a TV with its tiny speaker rattling and a commercial comes on and it tries its best to get even louder!