[HN Gopher] Do I need to get out the soldering iron again? (2018)
___________________________________________________________________
Do I need to get out the soldering iron again? (2018)
Author : cwillu
Score : 121 points
Date : 2023-12-22 10:27 UTC (12 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.naughtycomputer.uk)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.naughtycomputer.uk)
| snvzz wrote:
| People at the office will ask about my usb dac/amp and they don't
| seem to get it.
|
| Yes, these devices are needed, because the audio outputs of all
| sorts of devices today simply are trash.
|
| Topping DX3 Pro+[0] is my current recommendation, by the way.
|
| As for headphones, Sennheiser HD600 really are solid.
|
| 0.
| https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/t...
| jwrallie wrote:
| The $199 is why most people will question if you really need
| it. My laptop costed me a little bit over that, so maybe there
| is something in the market that goes 80% of the way for about
| 20% of its price?
| Dah00n wrote:
| This exactly. As a former PA/recording engineer I like good
| audio quality too, but it is hard to know which devices are
| worth it when most lists are made by people that always like
| the $200 (or $2000) option better than the $2, $20 and $199
| option. I know for a fact from actually using audio equipment
| where good quality is needed that the expensive options are
| often not worth it at all, but more often than not swap a
| tiny (if any) bit of extra quality for a monstrous price hike
| and worse hardiness.
|
| Of course, I'm not saying it isn't worth it at all. That
| depends on one's budget and ears. But _most_ lists see the
| expensive option as the best, while _most_ peoples needs and
| ears have zero use for the expensive option.
|
| I'd go so far as saying you could get 95% of the way for 10%
| of the price.
| cwillu wrote:
| It's like the old story: - one high
| quality capacitor: $1 - knowing where to put it:
| $799 [dark timeline: "knowing it doesn't matter
| where you put it: $12999"]
| daggersandscars wrote:
| The USB-C headphone adaptors sold by Google / Apple / Samsung
| / etc are DAC + headphone amps. They're inexpensive (under
| $20, some under $10) and can have better components in them
| than a phone, laptop, etc. These should also work on laptops
| / desktops.
|
| Do some research first for your use case, but I suspect one
| can find one that will work for your machine + headphones.
|
| Soundguys has a review from October up on this topic:
| https://www.soundguys.com/best-usb-c-headphone-
| adapter-10130...
| alright2565 wrote:
| My favorite part about these dongles is that for once,
| Apple actually has the best performance / price!
|
| It compares favorably against equipment hundreds of dollars
| more (focus on SINAD & Output Impedance graphs): https://ww
| w.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/r...
| standeven wrote:
| Does Apple not usually have the best performance / price?
| Looking at M- and A- series chip benchmarks, Apple is way
| ahead of the competition.
| Fatnino wrote:
| Apple prices are also way above the competition so they
| hamstring themselves somewhat.
| bitwize wrote:
| Apple prices are comparable to the competition for
| comparable gear. If you don't want to spend much money,
| PC vendors will happily sell you garbage -- Apple won't.
| alright2565 wrote:
| Apple does not generally have the best performance /
| price: if we use passmark benchmarks[1], the 16-core M3
| Max gets 10CPUMark/$, while the ASUS ROG Strix G17 gets
| 25CPUMark/$.
|
| If we look at the low-end, it is much worse: the cheapest
| Macbook Pro ($1600) gets 12CPUMark/$, while the Dell
| Inspiron 15 3535 ($420) gets 45CPUMark/$.
|
| I know there's much more to laptops than their CPUs, but
| I think my point is still valid.
|
| [1]: https://www.cpubenchmark.net/laptop.html#cpumark
| standeven wrote:
| Yeah, we'd have to include display quality, battery life,
| etc. to get a really fair comparison.
| CogitoCogito wrote:
| Does the Apple usb-c version have the same issue as the
| lightning version where very slight movements will cause
| it to interrupt playback with various accessibility
| messages? This was an issue for both my last iphones
| making the cable entirely unusable in any situation where
| your phone might move. Frankly I'd say it is so bad that
| Apple's lightning to headphone adapters shouldn't be
| allowed to be sold.
| alright2565 wrote:
| I've only used mine for maybe about 8 hours on my Pixel
| 6a, but I never ran into that or any issues.
| CogitoCogito wrote:
| It's not really an issue with the cable, but with the
| iphone's use of the cable. If the iphone allowed you to
| just turn off the specific accessibility features so you
| would never be asked by this misinterpreted signal, the
| problem would go away.
| mianos wrote:
| I have one. I have used it pretty much every night on my
| phone at bedtime for a few years. If it is plugged in
| properly it works perfectly every time. I have a few
| others xduoo, moondrop etc. But I always use this one in
| my room.
| CogitoCogito wrote:
| Do you move the connector while it's plugged in e.g. if
| you have the phone in your pocket plugged in and then
| connected to wired headphones? The lightning connector
| works fine when you don't move it, but not when you do.
| bityard wrote:
| I must be missing something because that page doesn't have
| any reviews, it's just a list of 5 adapters with one
| sentence each about "why it's great" and giant Amazon
| referral links.
|
| Although I must admit I did not expect the Apple USB-C to
| 3.5mm adapter to be so affordable. I don't have any Apple
| devices but I wonder if will work with Android/Linux.
| tiltowait wrote:
| I'm partial to this Head-Fi review [1]. It's a really
| interesting read, just from the perspective of comparing a
| $9 USB DAC to ... pretty much anything else an "audiophile"
| might get.
|
| > There is absolutely no reason at all to pay more for a
| USB DAC, at least when it comes to pure sound quality with
| headphones.
|
| It does mention the possible desire for more features, of
| course. And it's possibly worth mentioning the power output
| is half of what you get from other DACs, but you should
| consider whether that means anything to your setup. I have
| a pair of Hifiman Edition XS connected to a Schiit Magni
| and the Apple USB C DAC, and I never put the Schiit volume
| above about 30%.
|
| (As to the amp: I do hear a bit of an improvement connected
| to the amp vs just the DAC. It's not huge, though; mainly I
| like having a physical volume knob.)
|
| 1: https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/apple-usb-c-to-3-5-mm-
| headp...
| snvzz wrote:
| If you need both good measurements that should by ample
| margin be audible transparent, as well as enough power for
| virtually any headphone save those that need a special
| amplifier (electrostats like STAX's), you'll find it hard to
| go under $200.
|
| This device is actually a gem for the price, and most popular
| recommendations will go higher in price and give you less. I
| have been there and done the digging, you're welcome to
| repeat the process.
|
| At some point, new devices or new prices will change this.
| But, as far as I am aware, this is how it is right now.
| jleahy wrote:
| The Topping MX3 is also pretty good in my opinion and about
| half the price. That's probably next down on the pareto
| frontier.
| wooptoo wrote:
| Not if you want decent sound quality. I think my absolute
| minimum recommendation would be the Fiio K3 dac-amp with a
| pair of headphones like the DT770 or the SHP9500 if you can
| find them cheap.
| dvh wrote:
| I bought $3 USB soundcard and it sounds better than onboard
| sound card. PC16046 V2.0 (just checked, it's $1.22 incl.
| shipping)
| aphrax wrote:
| My google skills are letting me down - do you have a link for
| this?
| squarefoot wrote:
| PP probably refers to those very cheap USB soundcards,
| usually shaped like a dongle, with two mini jacks, sold
| pretty much everywhere. I tried a couple in the past (can't
| confirm if the chipset is the same) and they definitely
| sound better than expected from a device that cheap,
| however be aware that manufacturers often save on parts
| number or quality to reduce costs therefore it can be a hit
| and miss, with some of them making noises or offering
| inferior quality.
| o11c wrote:
| A few I would make about this:
|
| * USB soundcards used to work on Android but in recent
| tests they failed again for some reason
|
| * Avoid any dongle that supports "special effects",
| "gaming", etc. Even if they can be disabled, it's such a
| pain.
|
| * Dynamically adding/removing soundcards can affect your
| computer's notion of "default microphone", particularly
| relevant for video chat. Some apps this takes effect
| immediately, some after quitting the app.
| dvh wrote:
| https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000598865391.html
|
| Works out of box in ubuntu, this is how I use it:
| https://files.catbox.moe/755gbr.jpg
| bityard wrote:
| I bought a few of these (different brands) off Amazon a while
| back while trying to get my desk audio setup sorted and the
| audio output on them usually sounds okay. Some of them have
| noticeable background hiss at any volume.
|
| The four-pin versions (with mic input) tend to fall down
| pretty hard, though. Either the volume is so low you have to
| yell to get anything into the PC at all, or there is severe
| cross-talk where any audio coming out gets induced into the
| input. (Turns out people on zoom are not fans of hearing echo
| of themselves with a 1-second delay!)
| schwartzworld wrote:
| Where? I tried searching and not many hits. In fact, this
| comment was #4
| jvanderbot wrote:
| I have some headphones with an in-line soundcard that you can
| reprogram with your choice of EQ or effects. Love em. But they
| were spendy and it lacks the hacker ethos that I respect in
| these posts.
| hedora wrote:
| I have mixed feelings about standalone USB dac/amps these days.
| Back in the early days of digital audio, they made a huge
| difference. For example, when the Cowon U2 portable audio
| player came out:
|
| https://www.cnet.com/reviews/cowon-iaudio-u2-review/
|
| The iPod basically couldn't output bass because their dac
| couldn't maintain anything close to a square wave. (There used
| to be online comparisons of this thing with the iPod, similar
| to what you linked.)
|
| However, that was 20 years ago, and it hit -95db of hiss,
| 20-20khz frequency response, with way more power than is needed
| for in-ear monitors (which is my use case). Apple ended up
| shipping an iPod with a non-terrible DAC the next year (I think
| the touch was the first one? Can't remember).
|
| Anyway, now you kind of have to go off the beaten path to find
| consumer stuff that's perceptibly worse than ideal. In
| particular, you can get a USB-C -> headphone dongle from apple
| that's actually a decent DAC for $9 (look at the THD graph.
| They use the $9 Apple as the cutoff between "yellow" and
| "green"):
|
| https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/r...
|
| These days, if you're getting noticeably bad performance out of
| your laptop DAC, it's probably a shielding or grounding issue.
| The standalone USB DAC will fix that, but only if it's
| externally powered + grounded (or if you get lucky with how
| your laptop is wired / shielded), but so would bluetooth (which
| even supports lossless audio as of 2021).
| jimmaswell wrote:
| My ~2021 laptop is ok with noise but isn't powerful enough
| for my 32ohm headphones. My desktop's too noisy, especially
| for recording onto tape decks which I want to do sometimes.
| Also not entirely powerful enough from what I recall.
|
| A usb/bluetooth dac for my laptop/phone (standard phone
| usb-3.5mm adapter's not powerful enough either) and a toslink
| dac for my desktop solved all my problems. Toslink's an
| awesome nuclear option to buzz/noise because it's 100%
| isolated by virtue of being light.
|
| I also enjoy being able to boost the bass/mess with the EQ
| easily.
| dbrgn wrote:
| If you want a ready-to-use solution: Fiio makes great MP3
| players, and also nice USB- and Bluetooth-DACs.
|
| A device like the Fiio Btr3k makes it possible to use good
| quality wired headphones with one of those modern smartphones
| without an audio jack. (And it sounds better than the devices
| that did have an audio jack.)
|
| Oh, and Fiio also builds some nice IEMs :)
| csdvrx wrote:
| > If you want a ready-to-use solution: Fiio makes great MP3
| players, and also nice USB- and Bluetooth-DACs.
|
| Or get everything from Sony which supports LDAC 990k on both
| the audio sending and receiving sides of Bluetooth. I love my
| Walkman!
|
| I also have non-LDAC "neckphones" to carry around: the
| Beyerdynamic "BLUE BYRD" gen2 are far more practical than Sony
| or Apple earbuds for one simple reason: you can't lose one
| since in the neckphone format, the earbuds hang around your
| neck with a cable (which also provides convenient buttons)
|
| Originally, I got the Beyerdynamic for my Chinese eink device
| (which don't support LDAC anyway) but it's so practical I use
| it's now paired with my Walkman and computer too!
|
| Neckphones are not easy to find in the lineup of popular
| brands, but I've heard great things about the latest Huawei
| Freelace Pro: it's the same neckphone design, but with magnets
| on the back of the earbuds and ANC.
|
| I'm getting the Freelace Pro "soon" (3 days from now lol) to
| see if it's more comfortable than my Beyerdynamics
| daneel_w wrote:
| However much I love DIY electronics (in particular
| audio/synthesizer-related such) this just seems like a contrived
| solution looking for a problem. Help yourself out by getting a
| cheap iPod Shuffle, or a reasonable facsimile of whatever other
| brand you prefer.
| emilecantin wrote:
| This is addressed in the article:
|
| > If anyone reads this post I'm sure loads of people will tell
| me that my problems are all my own making and if only I
| invested in an iPhone all my problems would go away. Well you
| know what? APPLE IS A SYMBOL OF PRETENTIOUSNESS AND IGNORANCE -
| YOU DO NOT EVEN KNOW HOW YOUR PHONE WORKS - I DO NOT HAVE TO
| PAY A TAX TO APPLE TO LISTEN TO MY MUSIC.
| simondotau wrote:
| > YOU DO NOT EVEN KNOW HOW YOUR PHONE WORKS
|
| Ah, the wailing cry of an inverse fanboy. Like the fanboy,
| but with extra dollop of smug and righteousness.
|
| I'd estimate that 99% of people don't know how their phone
| works, and I'd further wager that there's no strong
| correlation between such knowledge and the operating system
| of their phone.
| bayindirh wrote:
| Actually, the OP is right. Because iPods always came with
| Wolfson DACs, and because of Steve Jobs' sensitiveness on the
| matter, Apple devices always come with very well built analog
| audio pipelines.
|
| My Macs, iPods and iPhone's audio outputs always rivaled my
| Hi-Fi amp's (an Akai AM-2850) and desktop sound card's (an
| ASUS Xonar D2X) without any extra equipment.
|
| So, while Apple devices are expensive, they don't skimp on
| such things. Instead they silently pack an entry level high-
| end Hi-Fi subsystem inside and be done with it.
|
| Or you can get a Sony Hi-Res media/music player.
| echelon_musk wrote:
| I can confirm that the DAC on the 2021 M1 Macbook Pro is
| absolutely fantastic.
|
| You can also rely on the fantastic quality of the Apple
| USB-C to 3.5mm adapters [0] as "Neutral, clear, clean and
| very precise. Basically as audibly transparent, good-
| sounding and clean-sounding to my ears as a device could
| be...".
|
| [0] https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/apple-usb-c-to-3-5-mm-
| headp...
| bayindirh wrote:
| Yeah, that little unassuming pigtails sound way above
| their league. I sometimes use my RHAs with them. What a
| treat.
| echelon_musk wrote:
| I used to think like this when younger, and perhaps this
| reasoning was actually more justified in the past. The older
| I get (and the more ubiquitous Apple devices have become) the
| more I cringe whenever I see an emotional response from
| technically minded people about Apple devices.
|
| I think I saw someone on HN say that strong opinions are
| generally a sign of lower intelligence as there is a lack of
| consideration of both sides of the argument. I realise this
| comment now reads like copypasta but there is a lot more
| nuance than "Hurrdurr I don't want to be a mainstream normie
| Apple bad!".
| Loughla wrote:
| >YOU DO NOT EVEN KNOW HOW YOUR PHONE WORKS - I DO NOT HAVE
| TO PAY A TAX TO APPLE TO LISTEN TO MY MUSIC.
|
| (Ignoring the all caps) That's not really apple bad as an
| argument. It's the fact that you're paying more for music
| you probably already own, and you have zero idea how that
| phone actually works.
|
| Tinkering with technology, whatever the reason, should be
| encouraged?
| echelon_musk wrote:
| You can use music you ripped yourself and transfer it to
| your iDevice. I don't understand the argument. I don't
| know every detail of how my motorcycle works, but I use
| it frequently and rely on it to get from A to B.
|
| If I had to understand how everything worked in my life
| before I could use it I would die. How does my gut
| convert nutrients in my food?!
| micromacrofoot wrote:
| I don't really know how my circulatory system works
| either but i'll be ok
| zogrodea wrote:
| I don't like Apple for different reasons, but that
| capitalised quote seems particularly egregious given what
| is said elsewhere in the article.
|
| "Although Android is Free Software, meaning I can modify
| the code, it would probably take me months to learn
| enough about music decoding and the Android-media-player-
| service to write a fix."
|
| Like, mate. You also have no idea how your phone works
| despite being fully capable of finding out and even
| having a motive to do so. (That's what I would say to the
| author.)
| jrmg wrote:
| I wonder if they consider using their closed-source CD
| player as 'paying a tax to Bush'.
| ano-ther wrote:
| Can someone explain how that circuit works?
|
| They mention it buffers with a gain factor of 0.1, but I don't
| understand how the four op-amps play together to eliminate the
| hiss.
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| Yeah, and two op-amps for the ground filter has me stymied as
| well.
|
| Slightly off-topic, someone pointed out that MAX232 chips make
| a great power supply for op-amp circuits like this (using
| charge-pump capacitors) one because they can hand you +/- 9V
| from a 5V source (which could be a USB power brick). I'm not
| sure but I would guess that the current needs of his audio
| filter would be within what the MAX232 could handle.
|
| I made a small PCB based on that idea for experimenting with
| op-amp circuits on a bread board.
| rzzzt wrote:
| I think one of the op-amp inputs should be flipped around so
| it works in inverting mode. Then their amplified output is
| summed.
| bArray wrote:
| > They mention it buffers with a gain factor of 0.1, but I
| don't understand how the four op-amps play together to
| eliminate the hiss.
|
| I'm not entirely sure, but it appears that this is setup to
| amplify the ground noise.
|
| I'm also not entirely sure why you would want a gain of 0.1,
| you would probably want to preserve as much amplitude
| information as possible.
|
| Also the power circuit on the left shows a resistor ladder
| with 9V over a 1k resistor on one side, and the same for the
| other. 9 / 1000 = 9mA, x2 is 18mA. Added with the
| amplification of noise, I can see where 25mA may come from.
|
| > Yeah, and two op-amps for the ground filter has me stymied
| as well.
|
| I _think_ this is because it 's the ground for both the left
| and right channels, which is potentially two op-amps worth of
| power and you don't want this dumped through the headphone
| jack.
|
| I haven't tested this, but would probably go for a simpler
| design like this:
|
| https://www.falstad.com/circuit/circuitjs.html?ctz=CQAgjCAMB.
| ..
| cwillu wrote:
| The author repeatedly mentions that his new headphones are
| a bit too sensitive for his liking, hence the hardwired
| gain adjustment.
| zh3 wrote:
| It's just a couple of buffers - the 10k/1k sets the gain at
| 0.1, shorting the 10k's would make it 1x. The two op-amps with
| outputs tied together with 1 ohm are just creating a virtual
| ground (effectively paralled to double the current handling).
|
| I can't see how this could reduce 'hiss' if it there's
| something wrong in the first place,all seems very unlikely
| though. Possibly it eliminates hum (which mobile devices are
| generally hideous for, when charging) but the details are
| likely to be setup-dependent. Or maybe RF is leaking out of the
| phone causing the hiss in those particular headphones, and all
| this is doing is stopping that.
| vitiral wrote:
| My guess was that the signal is good but the audio output
| can't drive the right amount of current for the high end
| headphones.
|
| Not sure though.
| loph wrote:
| I'm not an EE, but I play one in my home lab.
|
| I don't understand why this circuit needs an artificial ground
| at all, since the power source is two 9-volt batteries in
| series. AFAIK that could make a dead-simple bipolar power
| source +/- 9 volts and get rid of about half the parts.
|
| The 10:1 voltage divider is also an interesting concept. It
| seems to me that what this thing does is attenuate the input
| signal and then provide a low impedance output to drive the
| 'phones. I wonder if the writer ever considered something as
| simple as shunt resistors.
|
| Perhaps a "real EE" can enlighten me.
|
| FWIW, I use a AudioEngine D1 USB DAC to drive headphones from a
| computer. It was not cheap, but neither is my time. For
| portable use I am rocking (with RockBox) a old iPod "video"
| with aftermarket SD card mod.
| burnerthrow008 wrote:
| As other posters mentioned, two of the opamps create a virtual
| ground. (Op amps generally have optimal performance when the
| input is halfway between the power rails, and the two batteries
| in series don't guarantee that will happen).
|
| The other two each drive one channel. The 0.1 gain is to reduce
| noise created by the DAC, which is independent (in this case)
| of the volume control. So the author is turning up the volume
| on his device, to compensate for the 0.1x gain. Accordingly,
| DAC noise at the speakers is 1/10th what is was before, but the
| signal is the same.
| ZoomerCretin wrote:
| > The 0.1 gain is to reduce noise created by the DAC, which
| is independent (in this case) of the volume control.
|
| Thank you! This is the first explanation that made sense to
| me.
| jrmg wrote:
| I'd also like to understand where the 'explosion of noise' on
| changing tracks on the phone comes from.
| mikewarot wrote:
| The 1k resistors on the left don't need to be there if you have
| 2 batteries. They waste battery. The same could be said for the
| ground "amplifier".
|
| Hiss is reduced because of the attenuation.
|
| It's quite possible a simple resistive pad would be equally
| effective as the whole thing.
| donatj wrote:
| A pair of bookshelf speakers and a cheap class d amplifier would
| make for a much nicer listening experience.
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| At the risk of sounding like a snobbish audiophile, I have
| found class-D give me listening fatigue. I wasn't consciously
| aware of it until, after listening to the class-D for six
| months, one day I substituted a small tube amp I had built.
| Never going back to digital amplification for _relaxing_
| listening to music.
| ghostpepper wrote:
| This is a tall claim to make with a single point of data. ie.
| "I found a class A that sounds better than my class D
| therefore the topology must be better".
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| That's true. FWIW, I believe the amp used the fabled TA2022
| chip that had all the audiophiles in an uproar for its
| quality relative to its price. I assumed though, correctly
| or incorrectly, that it was the topology of that gave me
| listening fatigue and not the specific chip set.
|
| I would ask you to try for yourself though.
| bob1029 wrote:
| Class D is entirely the wrong topology for mid/high range
| frequency reproduction. I know you can make it work, but there
| are other topologies that are essentially _guaranteed_ to
| provide a higher quality experience and the efficiency
| sacrifice isn 't a huge deal when you are working in this
| frequency range.
|
| For LFE playback (I.e. subwoofers), absolutely. Use it
| aggressively. I prefer class G/H topology for my LFE though. I
| run class AB for my mids & highs.
| analog31 wrote:
| I've done the same. The specs of even the cheapest switchmode
| power amp IC's are excellent, and most of the cheap boards just
| copy the IC manufacturer's reference circuit. Conveniently, the
| one I got can switch between a line input and Bluetooth, which
| improves the convenience factor even if Bluetooth might be of
| questionable audio quality. But with the line input, it's
| straight from DAC to the power amp.
|
| So far there are 3 of these setups in my house.
| zh3 wrote:
| I use a Pi with an add-on sound board, mpd and a bit of custom
| code that effectively acts as a cut-down ncmpc (the protocol is
| really simple). The nice bit is using a cheap RF remote [0] to
| control mpd (sets volume, skip forward/back/pause etc) which has
| the advantage that it works under the covers at night.
|
| [0] https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B015SO37SY
| actionfromafar wrote:
| How do you receive the radio?
| zh3 wrote:
| That RF remote control comes with a USB dongle; it appears as
| a HID device so essentially the buttons act as if they are
| keypresses on a keyboard (cursor keys, enter etc). So the
| code just receives the keypresses, and uses them to select
| the appropriate mpd function (forward/back, volume up/down
| while the power button simply acts as pause/unpause).
| HankB99 wrote:
| I use bone conduction Bluetooth earphones to listen to podcasts
| when I run. I notice a high pitched noise, occasionally
| accompanying the spoken "s" sound. I suppose it's some kind of
| aliasing and I don't know if it is introduced in the source
| material, player, Bluetooth or headset. Luckily it's only
| moderately irritating.
| planewave wrote:
| This is just called sibilance [0], it's most likely in the
| source material but could be accentuated by a number of
| downstream factors.
|
| See also [1]
|
| [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sibilant
|
| [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De-essing
| HankB99 wrote:
| Thanks for filling in my knowledge of that phenomenon.
| wooptoo wrote:
| This is called sibilance. You're sensitive to high pitched
| sounds around the 5-6 KHz area. You can either EQ it out or
| wait it out. Once you're past 40-ish or so the brains own EQ
| kicks in.
| HankB99 wrote:
| Thanks for providing a name for that. I'm 30 past 40 so I
| guess my brains EQ is slow kicking in.
| twic wrote:
| > It turns out that all music players on Android actually play
| music using the Android-media-player-service.
|
| There is at least one which doesn't - USB Audio Player Pro can
| drive a USB DAC and some phones' internal DACs directly:
|
| https://www.extreamsd.com/index.php/products/usb-audio-playe...
|
| > My desktop has great sound quality but I don't want to be
| sitting at my computer chair while I listen to my music, I do
| that too much already.
|
| Perhaps an extension lead would have been a simpler solution
| here.
| rollcat wrote:
| Eh. Just buy a half-decent DAC. I liked Scarlett 2i2, currently
| rocking Zoom UAC-232; if you're after a smaller package and don't
| need an XLR mic, I've heard very good things about Audioquest
| DragonFly.
|
| > When my phone plays certain tracks it makes and explosion of
| noise when switching songs, or pausing and resuming.
|
| There was a time when I'd laugh, but in the recent years Apple
| Music has been doing random crap like that on Mac, iPhone, even
| HomePods. I'm one subscription price hike away from switching
| back to BitTorrent.
|
| > Although Android is Free Software [...]
|
| Unless you're running Replicant - no, it isn't.
| 542458 wrote:
| At the price point the OP is running at I'd say one of the
| Apple USB-C DACs is your your best bet. They're volume limited
| on Android, but the OP's headphones are very sensitive already
| so I don't think it matters.
| bob1029 wrote:
| > Just buy a half-decent DAC.
|
| I bought the Apogee Groove recently and I can't imagine ever
| needing to upgrade. It has the same chip that you will find in
| $1000+ units.
| don-code wrote:
| This, unfortunately, is on point. It does seem to be getting
| harder to listen to music, but I also think it's because our
| expectations around _how_ we listen to music are increasing in
| scope.
|
| I have an FM radio in almost every room, and a vinyl record
| player in the living room. This has been (roughly) the state of
| those two technologies since the 70s. They're simple to reason
| about and operate.
|
| I also have an extensive digital music collection. And I want to
| listen to that from...
|
| 1. My stereo - so I have Kodi Media Center running on a home
| theater PC. I control it with my phone. It gets media off my NAS,
| which means I have to run a backup from my laptop, where I
| download the music, to be able to listen to it there.
|
| 2. My car - which can take a USB flash drive, but can't play back
| FLAC files, which is how I store them locally. So I have a script
| which converts them all to MP3s. I need to walk to the flash
| drive inside, connect it, run the script, then walk it back out.
|
| 3. My phone - at least that's click-and-drag.
|
| Listening to a personal music collection has almost definitely
| gotten more logistically challenging than shuffling around some
| LPs or CDs, but there are also many more use cases enabled today.
| mstudio wrote:
| Really interesting write-up and some funny rants about
| Apple/Spotify. I'd never heard the term "PP3 battery" before.
| Wikipedia tells me that this is the standard rectangular 9V/0.5
| Ah battery you can buy at the store (in the US, at least).
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine-volt_battery
| Quimoniz wrote:
| > When my phone plays certain tracks it makes and explosion of
| noise when switching songs. [...] Apparently this service has
| some sort of bug.
|
| Using Chrome on Android and also on my computer, the annoying pop
| does thankfully not appear between music tracks with my Simple
| Music Player, called JUkebox with Php and Html5, short JUPH:
| https://github.com/quimoniz/juph
|
| I tried to make it dead simple, using the HTML5 Audio element.
|
| Now it's been lying around for 4 years... does anyone else know
| of a similarly non-sophisticated audio player?
| squarefoot wrote:
| About one year ago I purchased on Ebay this cheap Chinese player
|
| https://www.jolike.com.cn/productinfo/534495.html
|
| It's well built, sturdy, battery life is great and sound quality
| very good.
|
| But...
|
| After some use it appears crystal clear that they cobbled
| together parts without testing them properly, which is normal in
| cheap devices with no or minimal quality control. FM radio audio
| level is completely different from recorded music, and at minimum
| level (that is, 1) it is still too loud for relaxed listening in
| environment without loud ambient noise, and if you go from say
| mp3 to FM without adjusting levels be prepared to jump.
| Touchscreen is badly arranged: some functions are in the way
| (playing speed to name one) and could be activated by mistake
| when changing tracks. Navigation can be tedious in crowded
| directories because advancing by pages doesn't work as it should.
| Last but not least, as with many other cheap players, the preset
| based equalizer is a joke. That is not how a proper equalizer
| should work; just give me a damn graphic one but please stop that
| useless Jazz-Rock-Classic-Disco-etc. thing that _never, ever_
| works. Etc.
|
| That device could have been a real gem if only they didn't ruin
| it with junk firmware with no way to upgrade it. Had they sent a
| couple free devices to the Rockbox folks plus enough technical
| information on the employed hardware, they would now have a real
| gem instead of a half assed mediocre toy.
|
| For reference: https://www.rockbox.org/
| dekhn wrote:
| I bought a $25 headphone amplifier and that solved most problems
| for me. Around the same time, I also built my own desktop
| speakers from components, which made me appreciate how everything
| in my office is basically an RF emitter and receiver.
| Night_Thastus wrote:
| For anyone wanting to use their phone with a bit more audio-
| related Oomph, I strongly recommend looking at an external DAC.
| The main reason for doing so is because it will allow you to
| completely bypass Android's audio player, and play audio 100%
| losslessly.
|
| I use an ifi GO Link (~60), with USB Audio Player Pro (UAPP).
|
| The difference between that and just plugging into the 3.5mm jack
| on the phone is night and day.
|
| There are obviously much nicer and more expensive DACs, but IMO
| you're hitting diminishing returns quickly.
|
| The ONE thing I hate about going this route is that USB-C is not
| nearly as robust a connector as 3.5mm. Even the slightest jiggle
| can cause the DAC to disconnect, leading to a lot of annoyance
| because Android requires you to re-confirm every time. Some days
| it's flawless, other times I have to go through the stupid
| prompts like 10x in a couple minutes.
| nullhole wrote:
| "In the world of hard-wired surveillance, the person with the
| soldering iron is king."
|
| - Unknown
| analog31 wrote:
| >>> However, I had a problem. When my phone plays certain tracks
| it makes and explosion of noise when switching songs, or pausing
| and resuming.
|
| I've experienced this too, with certain audio hardware, on my
| Windows system. It appears that the system is connecting and
| disconnecting the audio hardware without muting it. It's not a
| matter of improving audio quality, but of removing some sort of
| glitch that's happening.
| LAC-Tech wrote:
| I'm not sure where why you bought a cheap portable CD player in
| 2023 instead of grabbing one of sonys mp3 walkman devices. I have
| one that's 10 or so years old and it's still my primary portable
| music listening device (I never got into playing music on
| smartphones, too clumsy).
| dang wrote:
| Discussed at the time:
|
| _Do I really need to get out the soldering-iron again?_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18640136 - Dec 2018 (417
| comments)
| cweagans wrote:
| > I DO NOT HAVE TO PAY A TAX TO APPLE TO LISTEN TO MY MUSIC
|
| The author paid a significant tax, as documented in their blog
| post: they had to try several devices and eventually *build
| custom hardware* to do something so simple. Yes, it's fun. Yes,
| it gets the job done. No, I don't want to do that when I just
| wanna listen to music.
|
| The apple tax is more than just easy access to music played
| through marginally higher quality DACs. It's also a cost that I'm
| happy to pay to never have to do something like what the author
| of this article did.
|
| My time is significantly more valuable to me than ideological
| objections to working technology.
| userbinator wrote:
| _But the sound quality on the laptop is just not quite up-to
| scratch. I think the output buffer on the amplifier is just not
| very good and struggles with the dynamic load of the
| transducers._
|
| In case anyone else runs into something similar: make sure you've
| plugged in the headphones to a speaker/HP jack instead of "line
| out", or configured the output as such, since the latter is
| unamplified and can make the audio sound "thin" and lacking.
|
| (On the other hand, I've had to do the opposite with some very
| sensitive IEMs where otherwise even the lowest volume setting
| would be almost painfully loud.)
| smackeyacky wrote:
| I hate to say it after years of Android ownership...but just buy
| an iPhone.
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2023-12-22 23:01 UTC)