Your comment about fullscreen Flash in Linux caught my eye. I've had proper hardware-accelerated fullscreen Flash for years, it works perfectly apart from not automatically disabling my screensaver (but that's a really minor annoyance. I'm using an nVidia GPU with the proprietary driver, though. That probably makes a difference.
Only one subwoofer? I guess that's OK, if you want to live with the peaks and nulls created by room nodes and standing waves.
Two identical subwoofers set up and placed correctly to even out the peaks and nulls will make an enormous change to the sound quality of low bass content, as well as expand the 'sweet spot' greatly. It's still only 2.1, since the subs are fed a mono signal (stereo is meaningless below 100Hz or so).
Running two subs also buys you 3dB more headroom by effectively halving the needed amplifier power in each sub for the same volume level. It's not much, but every little bit helps when you're dealing with bass.
Also shown here in the only true comic about Thor (and friends and foes), the Danish "Valhalla" comic by Peter Madsen. None of this Marvel junk, please.
http://i.imgur.com/87zorZg.jpg Notice that Thor is shown in accordance with Norse mythology, as a stout man with red hair and a bushy beard. No fair-haired prettyboys here!
The conversion from electrical to optical is literally just an LED fed by the electrical signal. On the other end, it's pretty much just a photodiode outputting an electrical signal directly. There are a few extra components, but it is a very simple conversion.
The concept that internal noise from the PC will ruin it is a myth, at least if you use a branded PSU that gives clean power (that is cheap too if your PC is not a gas guzzler and you don't needlessly oversize the PSU). There's enough further filtering on the sound card I think.1
Even so, with a quality PSU in my system, I still get CPU/GPU-based noise on the onboard analog outputs. It's a known issue with processors in power saving modes. If the power saving is disabled completely or the CPU is loaded 100% on all cores, the noise disappears. Look it up, it's a surprisingly common issue.
I had a Xonar D1 in my PC for a while, the noise was still there, but significantly less so. With S/PDIF to an external DAC, it's completely gone.
That's why I didn't mention the cable, just the DAC:-)
Strictly speaking, for a proper standards-compliant S/PDIF connection, it must be a 75 ohm coaxial cable. Luckily, pretty much all RCA leads seem to be coaxial (I guess it's probably the cheapest), and the impedance is close enough that it doesn't matter. If it can carry composite video, it can carry S/PDIF. I've yet to come across an RCA lead that's shitty enough that it can't handle composite video, even the $2.50 ones at the local discount store are OK.
Sample rates higher than 44.1kHz/48kHz are pointless for playback anyway. Higher sample rates allow for frequencies above 22.05kHz/24kHz, but no one can hear those anyway.
No, onboard analog outputs suck. By using a digital connection such as USB (or S/PDIF, Firewire, Thunderbolt, HDMI, DisplayPort etc.), you're passing a digital bitstream and moving the digital to analog conversion to an external device that usually has a much better signal/noise ratio.
Even the cheapest onboard sound chipsets can pass a perfect digital bitstream along via S/PDIF, even if the analog components are shit.
There's no need to spend that much. A lot of motherboards have S/PDIF outputs, and with a good coax/TOSLINK DAC (like the ~$40 FiiO D3), pristine noise-free stereo sound is both easier and cheaper than buying an expensive sound card.
Some onboard sound is noisy through the analog outputs, although I guess it's only really noticeable in headphones. For normal PC speaker e-mail notifications and whatnot, it doesn't matter.
But luckily, most motherboards have S/PDIF outputs via coax and/or TOSLINK that allow you to connect to an external DAC (like the ~$40 FiiO D3) or a reciever with digital inputs. Some all-in-one PCs and laptops (all Macbooks IIRC) have a combined headphone output and mini-TOSLINK jack, but even if they don't, you can do digital audio over USB, Firewire or Thunderbolt for not a lot of money. HDMI or DisplayPort can also transport sound, often a DAC in the monitor allows analog stereo output based on that.
The point is to remove the noise-sensitive analog parts of the signal chain from inside the PC, using a digital connection. For stereo sound, a dedicated sound card is completely overkill, when a $40 DAC and a $5 TOSLINK or coax cable will provide an even lower noise floor in real-life situations.
For surround sound applications, dedicated sound cards may still have a place, but using a digital connection to an AV receiver and letting it handle all the processing is a much better solution and integrates better with TVs, consoles etc.
Strictly speaking it's not 7 years in the exact same position. I have been 7 years with the same company, in 4 different functions under 3 different managers, but always with the same great colleagues, some of whom have been with the company for over 30 years.
I see a decent-paying job as a means to an end, a steady paycheck lets me have fun with motorcycles, electronics, music, movies, food, traveling, all of the things I enjoy in life. As long as the company is willing to pay me a decent wage, provide challenging tasks and projects (and with some of our applications nearing 30 years old, we see a lot of challenges), and a great social atmosphere among colleagues, I see no reason to change jobs. I also have a decent pension, premium healthcare on top of the national healthcare system and access to very competitively-priced insurance deals and so on. It's almost as cushy as an old-school government job, except I have to do some actual work sometimes.
Tell that to the hard drive I switched for an SSD. I measured a drop from 33dB to 30dB measured right beside the PC during drive read/write. And that was with the harddrive mounted on rubber dampers. Most modern computers use large variable-speed fans that make very little noise.
It's true that modern hard drives are very quiet. Right up until they start seeking.
More or less every SSD on the market currently will saturate even a 6Gbit/s SATA connection, you don't have to buy the latest and greatest to achieve maximum possible transfer speed. If you put this SSD in a new PC today, the SSD will pretty much be the last component to be obsolete, save maybe the physical case itself. This situation is going to persist for some time, so I can easily see one of these drives being used for 10 years across various upgraded PCs. It'll keep up with faster CPUs and RAM, no problem.
Anyone can appreciate the speed boost (and silence!) an SSD brings, not just enthusiasts.
That's a pretty nasty duty cycle, wouldn't it be better to use a massive RAM disk instead, if you need that much constant I/O traffic?
For your average consumer or even professional user, pretty much any SSD on the market will easily outlast the rest of the PC, barring any catastrophic failures. There was a test recently that concluded that you're pretty guaranteed at least 500TB of writes before failure. That's a hell of a lot of data.
I have absolutely no problem at all with poor people having smartphones, although I do cringe a bit when they have something like a new iPhone or other flagship phone
Why? Is it because you don't think they've "earned" the right to own a fancy phone, because they're poor?
Perhaps they saved for it for a long time. Perhaps it's their only link to the online world and their only source of entertainment (Youtube etc.). Perhaps it makes more sense to buy an expensive phone and keep it for years and years, than it is to buy a new low-end phone ever 6-12 months.
Please don't judge people for their actions, when you have no idea what led to them.
Slashdot Mirror
Your comment about fullscreen Flash in Linux caught my eye. I've had proper hardware-accelerated fullscreen Flash for years, it works perfectly apart from not automatically disabling my screensaver (but that's a really minor annoyance. I'm using an nVidia GPU with the proprietary driver, though. That probably makes a difference.
Only one subwoofer? I guess that's OK, if you want to live with the peaks and nulls created by room nodes and standing waves.
Two identical subwoofers set up and placed correctly to even out the peaks and nulls will make an enormous change to the sound quality of low bass content, as well as expand the 'sweet spot' greatly. It's still only 2.1, since the subs are fed a mono signal (stereo is meaningless below 100Hz or so).
Running two subs also buys you 3dB more headroom by effectively halving the needed amplifier power in each sub for the same volume level. It's not much, but every little bit helps when you're dealing with bass.
Because that's what Thor does.
Also shown here in the only true comic about Thor (and friends and foes), the Danish "Valhalla" comic by Peter Madsen. None of this Marvel junk, please.
http://i.imgur.com/87zorZg.jpg
Notice that Thor is shown in accordance with Norse mythology, as a stout man with red hair and a bushy beard. No fair-haired prettyboys here!
http://i.imgur.com/46TT17b.jpg
"How many times must I tell you? Don't touch my stuff!"
Best comic ever.
The conversion from electrical to optical is literally just an LED fed by the electrical signal. On the other end, it's pretty much just a photodiode outputting an electrical signal directly. There are a few extra components, but it is a very simple conversion.
Or Firewire, but fewer and fewer PCs have them, I guess. There's also Thunderbolt if you're into Apple.
Doesn't DisplayPort also do uncompressed surround sound like HDMI?
The concept that internal noise from the PC will ruin it is a myth, at least if you use a branded PSU that gives clean power (that is cheap too if your PC is not a gas guzzler and you don't needlessly oversize the PSU). There's enough further filtering on the sound card I think.1
Even so, with a quality PSU in my system, I still get CPU/GPU-based noise on the onboard analog outputs. It's a known issue with processors in power saving modes. If the power saving is disabled completely or the CPU is loaded 100% on all cores, the noise disappears. Look it up, it's a surprisingly common issue.
I had a Xonar D1 in my PC for a while, the noise was still there, but significantly less so. With S/PDIF to an external DAC, it's completely gone.
That's why I didn't mention the cable, just the DAC :-)
Strictly speaking, for a proper standards-compliant S/PDIF connection, it must be a 75 ohm coaxial cable. Luckily, pretty much all RCA leads seem to be coaxial (I guess it's probably the cheapest), and the impedance is close enough that it doesn't matter. If it can carry composite video, it can carry S/PDIF. I've yet to come across an RCA lead that's shitty enough that it can't handle composite video, even the $2.50 ones at the local discount store are OK.
This is absolutely 100% the best solution if you have an AV receiver. Let the dedicated audio hardware do the sound processing it was made for.
And a great DAC can be had for less than $30: http://www.amazon.com/D03K-Dig...
I've been using one for a while now, it does exactly what it says on the tin. Noise-free stereo sound for not a lot of money.
Those are absolutely worthless unless the connectors are gold-plated.
A good DAC can be had for $30: http://www.amazon.com/D03K-Dig...
Hooking up one of those using S/PDIF is one of the easiest ways to get good noise-free audio from a PC.
You can try disabling power saving on your CPU. In my PC, the lower-power states generate a lot more noise than when it's running at full tilt.
Luckily, digital S/PDIF output to an external DAC takes care of the noise completely.
Sample rates higher than 44.1kHz/48kHz are pointless for playback anyway. Higher sample rates allow for frequencies above 22.05kHz/24kHz, but no one can hear those anyway.
Onboard sound sucks.
No, onboard analog outputs suck. By using a digital connection such as USB (or S/PDIF, Firewire, Thunderbolt, HDMI, DisplayPort etc.), you're passing a digital bitstream and moving the digital to analog conversion to an external device that usually has a much better signal/noise ratio.
Even the cheapest onboard sound chipsets can pass a perfect digital bitstream along via S/PDIF, even if the analog components are shit.
And an external DAC doesn't have to cost more than ~$30: http://www.amazon.com/D03K-Dig...
(No referral link)
A good DAC can be had for less than $30 now: http://www.amazon.com/D03K-Dig...
If your motherboard has an S/PDIF (coax or TOSLINK) output, get one of those and enjoy noise-free sound.
There's no need to spend that much. A lot of motherboards have S/PDIF outputs, and with a good coax/TOSLINK DAC (like the ~$40 FiiO D3), pristine noise-free stereo sound is both easier and cheaper than buying an expensive sound card.
Some onboard sound is noisy through the analog outputs, although I guess it's only really noticeable in headphones. For normal PC speaker e-mail notifications and whatnot, it doesn't matter.
But luckily, most motherboards have S/PDIF outputs via coax and/or TOSLINK that allow you to connect to an external DAC (like the ~$40 FiiO D3) or a reciever with digital inputs. Some all-in-one PCs and laptops (all Macbooks IIRC) have a combined headphone output and mini-TOSLINK jack, but even if they don't, you can do digital audio over USB, Firewire or Thunderbolt for not a lot of money. HDMI or DisplayPort can also transport sound, often a DAC in the monitor allows analog stereo output based on that.
The point is to remove the noise-sensitive analog parts of the signal chain from inside the PC, using a digital connection. For stereo sound, a dedicated sound card is completely overkill, when a $40 DAC and a $5 TOSLINK or coax cable will provide an even lower noise floor in real-life situations.
For surround sound applications, dedicated sound cards may still have a place, but using a digital connection to an AV receiver and letting it handle all the processing is a much better solution and integrates better with TVs, consoles etc.
Strictly speaking it's not 7 years in the exact same position. I have been 7 years with the same company, in 4 different functions under 3 different managers, but always with the same great colleagues, some of whom have been with the company for over 30 years.
I see a decent-paying job as a means to an end, a steady paycheck lets me have fun with motorcycles, electronics, music, movies, food, traveling, all of the things I enjoy in life. As long as the company is willing to pay me a decent wage, provide challenging tasks and projects (and with some of our applications nearing 30 years old, we see a lot of challenges), and a great social atmosphere among colleagues, I see no reason to change jobs. I also have a decent pension, premium healthcare on top of the national healthcare system and access to very competitively-priced insurance deals and so on. It's almost as cushy as an old-school government job, except I have to do some actual work sometimes.
ISTP, I would have no problem being alone with myself, there are plenty of exciting things to mentally figure out!
Tell that to the hard drive I switched for an SSD. I measured a drop from 33dB to 30dB measured right beside the PC during drive read/write. And that was with the harddrive mounted on rubber dampers. Most modern computers use large variable-speed fans that make very little noise.
It's true that modern hard drives are very quiet. Right up until they start seeking.
More or less every SSD on the market currently will saturate even a 6Gbit/s SATA connection, you don't have to buy the latest and greatest to achieve maximum possible transfer speed. If you put this SSD in a new PC today, the SSD will pretty much be the last component to be obsolete, save maybe the physical case itself. This situation is going to persist for some time, so I can easily see one of these drives being used for 10 years across various upgraded PCs. It'll keep up with faster CPUs and RAM, no problem.
Anyone can appreciate the speed boost (and silence!) an SSD brings, not just enthusiasts.
That's a pretty nasty duty cycle, wouldn't it be better to use a massive RAM disk instead, if you need that much constant I/O traffic?
For your average consumer or even professional user, pretty much any SSD on the market will easily outlast the rest of the PC, barring any catastrophic failures. There was a test recently that concluded that you're pretty guaranteed at least 500TB of writes before failure. That's a hell of a lot of data.
>
I have absolutely no problem at all with poor people having smartphones, although I do cringe a bit when they have something like a new iPhone or other flagship phone
Why? Is it because you don't think they've "earned" the right to own a fancy phone, because they're poor?
Perhaps they saved for it for a long time. Perhaps it's their only link to the online world and their only source of entertainment (Youtube etc.). Perhaps it makes more sense to buy an expensive phone and keep it for years and years, than it is to buy a new low-end phone ever 6-12 months.
Please don't judge people for their actions, when you have no idea what led to them.