A GL75 here is $1750 CAD on sale, so I think you got a good deal.
Don't think so if it's your main computer. My wife has an Asus Zenbook that was about $1000 on sale, and it's been fine. She doesn't play games on it thou. You don't need to spend much more to get a gaming version, but they're only 14".
jeff
This one is a GL73. It came with a single 256 GB boot drive and 4 GB of memory for USD $850 with a $100 rebate for a $750 total. It now has a 512 GB boot and app drive, 2 TB of fast data storage and 16 GB of memory.
It's my only laptop. it can sit unused for a month or so, but becomes Tubelab's sole means of operation when I travel.
I haven't played video games since Space Quest 2 on an 80286 machine.
The ASUS laptop became too schizophrenic to use in a moving car. A random lockup or reboot in the middle of a PC board layout makes you want to toss it out the window at 70 MPH.
There are several users on this forum that would not think this was too far out of line for me......doing it in a manner that allowed it to run at 20 watts for 11 hours straight IS a neat trick. Nothing is glowing, although several of the 50C5's specs are being violated just a little......plate voltage is 340 volts.
The first picture shows the board at idle (20 mA). The power transformer is a Triad N-68X. The OPT for distortion testing is a 80 VA 6600 ohm unit made for guitar amps. I got 200 of them about 20 years ago when I built a lot of stuff for sale. The last picture shows the HP 8903A audio Analyzer readout. The SPCL key is lit, indicating the unit has been programmed to read "watts into 8 ohms." The scope shows the output at 34 volts P-P, EXACTLY where LTspice said the onset of clipping would occur.
This perf board prototype uses only the three tubes on the right for the power amp. The power supply is the collection of caps and diodes on the far right. The other two tubes will become a guitar preamp.....so that this little junkyard dog can howl at the moon!
Attachments
My, you really are Tube_lab, arent you? Looks like you boldly went where no 50C5 has gone before ;')
This wasn't a spur of the moment test, it is the result of several years of experiments. Rather than pollute this discussion about expensive stuff with DIY audio, I will post the details in another thread when I get time.
Speaking of expensive....at a time when many companies are trying to help out with the stay at home thing, Comcast just raised our TV, internet, phone bill by 15% to almost $300 per MONTH. They can do this because we have no real alternatives here. My wife and I spent the entire day yesterday trying to deal with this. We are both retired and on a fixed income. Between Comcast and AT&T cell service (went up 10% last year) we are paying $455 a month. There HAS to be a way to reduce this.
Here is some data I took on some 50C5's in AB2 (the key to success) showing that 30 watts per pair is possible, and the screen grid is the limiting factor.
George
TV is way over rated imo, we stream Hulu (w/commercial free upgrade) and Netflix.....plenty of entertainment. There are live feed apps for sports (just a pain to get going)
Landline can go too, there are ways to use your cell phone over WiFi just like it was a landline.....I know if you have an emergency when the power is out and no reception is a issue but I’m pretty sure if you connect a rotary dial phone to a line even without paid service you can still dial 911 (ymmv on that) ?
You might be able to knock it down substantially with a little compromise.
TV is way over rated imo, we stream Hulu (w/commercial free upgrade) and Netflix.....plenty of entertainment. There are live feed apps for sports (just a pain to get going)
Landline can go too, there are ways to use your cell phone over WiFi just like it was a landline.....I know if you have an emergency when the power is out and no reception is a issue but I’m pretty sure if you connect a rotary dial phone to a line even without paid service you can still dial 911 (ymmv on that) ?
You might be able to knock it down substantially with a little compromise.
My wife watches far too much TV and this has increased since we are stuck in the house.
Part of the issue is that we are about 2 miles away from a small town in West Virginia. There is no over the air TV signal here. The closest cell tower is in town. Cell phone service is spotty with my wife's iPhone, and zero on my cheaparola once the leaves return to the trees (happening now) or if it's raining. There is a ridge between us and town, so the cell signal is only random scatter. The "good" spots change daily. Boosters do not work reliably, since there isn't much to boost and you need to move it a lot.
The wire line phone company has crap service out here since they haven't upgraded anything in 30 years. Here at the end of a dirt road their dial done disappears or becomes a loud hum whenever it rains. They do not offer internet.
We need both a house phone and a cell phone to have a 90% chance that one will work at any given moment.
Comcast offers internet only for $105 per month for enough bandwidth to stream a single 1080 video channel. At the current moment there are hundreds of "campers" living in RV's scattered along the road out here working for the fracking industry. They are all consuming that bandwidth, so that even the fastest service slows to a crawl right now with everybody home. Even with the $300 per month service a 1080 YouTube video will stutter or pause to buffer. Live streaming Netflix is impossible during the day and evening.
Satellite internet is too expensive and slow. There is no other option here until Elon Musk launches Starlink. Many of the satellites are in the air and testing is underway.
The power goes out often here. Some of our power poles have 1950's and 1960's dates. They break often with the kinds of winds we are having now. We have 3 generators to provide power for heat during the winter. There is no gas service here, and propane in tanks is more expensive than electric heat. Comcast usually works during outages. The wireline phones do not. A wide area blackout drives up the cell traffic such that our limited coverage vanishes.
So far the best strategy to lower our total monthly bill involves giving Comcast even more money (really goes against my grain) and cancelling AT&T. Unfortunately that involves purchasing 3 new phones, and the choices for Xfinity Mobile are expensive or really expensive. None of our current phones will work on Verizon (Comcast's backup network) or are WiFi calling compatible (required for Comcast's Xfinity Mobile).
I'll keep looking for options.
Oh, I don't know, I find it amusing, a sort of antiarrogance, a reflection of that of the high-end crowd.
Hey, he is a Guru and sagacious professional, arrogance is expected. When it gets tiring, there are always plenty of other therads here.
I suppose I could boast about my patents and college degrees, but then I wouldn't be Tubelab........I blow stuff up so that you don't have to!
This can be one of the possibilities.
Unlike the rest of modern families, they can survive the EMP attack.I did the same thing last year. The threaded bosses for the case screws all broke off within about six months from just opening and closing the screen. It's now held together with a bunch of epoxy.
If at all possible, never open or close the lid!
I tend to be somewhat satirical, sometimes plain goofy, it all depends on the situation.
I don't adhere to others standards, I follow my own, and sometimes that bothers a few people.
Online, people just sometimes don't know how to react to my jabbering, and that's fine, because the (imperfect) internet is of course laden with its limits and faults.
One being the lack of understanding across the wires. - it's not the same as being there "in person".
However that said, the people "in person" that I've dealt with usually find me quite easy going and friendly.
I've been called a "guru", "stickler for detail", "personable", "A dying breed", and many other terms by customers.
Remember, I worked with customers for decades, had plenty of "repeat customers", referrals, and positive reviews.
You have to work for a good reputation, and I did, ...The notes, letters, and Christmas cards from customers are testament to that fact.
However, there's an old saying: "You can't please everyone all the time."
Last edited:
Really? The case on mine looks and feels solid. It wasn't easy to get open. The power adapter weighs more than the whole ASUS laptop that it replaces.
Case flex on the ASUS was always a problem using it in your lap triggers random keyboard or track pad events so bad that it can only be used on a heavy table.
Does your MSI look like this one?
YouTube
I spent 41 years in a big corporation where you must learn to get along with all sorts of people from all over the world. Often people who hate each other with religious fervor. I learned to be as neutral as possible and avoid confrontation. It is essential for a long career in a rapidly changing world.
I spent 4 years in consumer electronics repair starting at age 16. I ran the service department at the #1 Olson's Electronics store in the US. Reputation is essential, and it is earned with good work, fair prices and a civil attitude. I'm sure you know that 10% of your customers cause 90% of your problems, especially when you are dealing with rich kids on a 4 year "vacation" with daddy's money...….The University of Miami was right behind the store.
Wow, that takes me back a bit. We weren't supposed to be playing games in College, but I used to play games on a 286.
It's just as expensive here, but the service is good (most of the time) and there's nobody living in RV's and fracking next door.🙂
jeff
I feel lucky when it comes to all the service fees these days.
My internet service (Verizon Fios) costs me $14.95 a month.
My landline phone (also Verizon) costs me around $32/month.
As for my TV, I get 60+ channels of digital broadcast here, (I can see the "antenna farm" in Roxborough from my bedroom window - "line of sight) I maybe watch 10 of them. - free of course.
And my old cellphone runs me about $11 a month to keep it active (prepay).
I used to get about 50 channels with a DIY antenna made from bent coat hangers on the roof when I lived in Florida. I was 7 miles LOS from Miami's antenna farm, about 30 miles from West Palm beach, and I could get two stations (4 channels) from Port Saint Lucie.
Here I can see one of the two VHF OTA (174 to 180 MHz) signals on my spectrum analyzer with an amplified 3 element Yagi on a 40 foot pole, but there is too much random delay induced error for good decode. The signal must "defract" over a ridge and the trees blowing on top cause scatter, the same problem I have with 700 MHz cell service. 2.1 GHz cell signals do not make it here at all, even though they are stronger in town.
Here I can see one of the two VHF OTA (174 to 180 MHz) signals on my spectrum analyzer with an amplified 3 element Yagi on a 40 foot pole, but there is too much random delay induced error for good decode. The signal must "defract" over a ridge and the trees blowing on top cause scatter, the same problem I have with 700 MHz cell service. 2.1 GHz cell signals do not make it here at all, even though they are stronger in town.
There's certainly no shortage of snake oil to go around in the world of high end audio, there are plenty of fools who are very eager to part with their money to buy it, and plenty of clever marketers to entice us. But I think it's worth noting that this is a two way street...as in, there's plenty of people putting lipstick on a pig and not being satisfied with the results.
There are lots of legitimate high end components that get dismissed as snake oil when thrown into a system not capable of revealing a difference. There's an art to assembling a really good system that some never really seem to grasp. Some components truly have higher resolution than others, and some great components just don't mate well together. It's darn difficult navigating our way between the true gems and the snake oil without some help and access to good information, and exposure to true high end sound.
A sound system works together like a chain, and is only as good as the weakest link. My favorite analogy about a sound system is to envision having a picture of some musicians performing a song to represent your music source. Then substitute each of your system components with a pane of glass between you and the picture. The picture is only as clear as the dirtiest pane....if there's multiple dirty panes, it's darn hard to tell the difference if you insert a clear pane in the middle of it all. The hard part is knowing how clear your panes of glass really are...you might think they're nice and clear, but we sort of need to be shown that it can be clearer to even notice that it wasn't in the first place.
There are lots of legitimate high end components that get dismissed as snake oil when thrown into a system not capable of revealing a difference. There's an art to assembling a really good system that some never really seem to grasp. Some components truly have higher resolution than others, and some great components just don't mate well together. It's darn difficult navigating our way between the true gems and the snake oil without some help and access to good information, and exposure to true high end sound.
A sound system works together like a chain, and is only as good as the weakest link. My favorite analogy about a sound system is to envision having a picture of some musicians performing a song to represent your music source. Then substitute each of your system components with a pane of glass between you and the picture. The picture is only as clear as the dirtiest pane....if there's multiple dirty panes, it's darn hard to tell the difference if you insert a clear pane in the middle of it all. The hard part is knowing how clear your panes of glass really are...you might think they're nice and clear, but we sort of need to be shown that it can be clearer to even notice that it wasn't in the first place.
Last edited:
What are the examples of those components that get dismissed as snake oil?
Which component is the weakest link in sound replaying system?
Isn't it obvious that it is not one specific component, but could be any of them? It all depends on the system. Every system has a weakest component.
Your question is similar to "how long is a piece of string?"