@celef: The thing to note about cables is that they are very very high profit margin. A bricks and mortar dealer might only make a few % margin selling an amplifier to you but 70-80% on some cables. Same reason when you buy a TV they pressure you to get their expensive HDMI cable with it. We unfortunately created this world so we have to live with it.
But for the DIY type excellent cables can be made for little money. We have other foibles (can't stop building amplifiers/speakers etc) which make us as loons to other folk 😀
But for the DIY type excellent cables can be made for little money. We have other foibles (can't stop building amplifiers/speakers etc) which make us as loons to other folk 😀
You did it to me so now I have to do it to you.
Tell me what you want, what you really, really want.....
Now that's in YOUR head I'm done here 😀
Member
Joined 2009
Paid Member
We do hobbies for our interest and pleasure, whether ‘upgrading’ or making stuff, it’s perfectly fine as long as you keep it in perspective and don’t let it get out if hand. If your personality allows you to resist short term reward you’ll lead a less anxious life.
Last edited:
Or at least not out of hand "for long".
My latest was STM32 Microcontrollers. I just "got into them" in a big way. Started finding all manor of uses for them. Was having a ball learning about them.
Fast forward a few months and I have about a dozen of them. I literally find myself looking at them like golum does the ring. Sitting just passing/killing time looking at them under a microsope even. I did have purposes for them all, I did want to evaluate quite a few models and had to pick from availability. Reading spec sheets is fine, but there is nothing like holding one in your hand, plugging in the programmer and actually setting it up, coding it and making it do something. I was still only about £150-200 deep in that craze.
That spawned a secondary habbit in the form of digital audio peripherals and that's where it (coupled with the sudden rise in chinese electronics prices) got more expensive. I probably have 2 dozen assorted modules now, most ranging from £7 to £70. I'm probably about £300 additionally in here.
All in the space of a month or two and I haven't actually got much in the form of working stuff to justify any of it.
I can already feel the craze waning. Some or all of it could, in moments go back on teh shelf and I'll spent the next few month gardening, spending money there instead for a few months.
The more money you have the more you get to waste, the faster you can cycle through and deeper you can go in each craze.
Then you look at your pension funds and whinge at yourself in regret.... then do it all again.
It could be worse. The last craze for 6 months was building a new gaming PC. That set me back closer to £3000 and I still wasn't done and had shopping carts open for another £1000 when I suddenly switched to.... STM32 Microcontrollers.
(Over share?)
It's the promise of the 'Final-Me'. Darwinian Driven Infinite Improvement. Till the last breath, then it is done.
I like audio because the technology improves very slowly. Good equipment from 20-30 years ago is still good today.
Ed
Ed
When you buy or make a new piece of equipment that's an upgrade, you get a buzz from how fantastic your system now sounds. Jump forward a few weeks/months and what was fantastic is just the new normal and it doesn't take too long for some people to get bored with normal and go chasing the 'buzz' again. Couple this with knowledge and understanding of audio, you get a steady upgrade cycle that's only limited by ambition, time and money. Couple the same urge with ignorance, you get an audiophool... and glowing press releases of the latest 'best' thing will see the wallet emptied again, even where no real improvement is made.
Its addictive behaviour, some do it with audio, some with clothes, some are almost permanently redecorating their homes or changing cars. Whether its what drove humans to progress or a more modern malaise driven by capitalism is debatable.
Its addictive behaviour, some do it with audio, some with clothes, some are almost permanently redecorating their homes or changing cars. Whether its what drove humans to progress or a more modern malaise driven by capitalism is debatable.
Expectation bias is a powerful thing, and Golden ears soon become Cloth Ears when anything is auditioned double blind.
Upgrade your wheels, saddle, cassette whatever there's always something sold as ultimate, better. Saw a pair of pedals on offer for about $1500. I'm sure they'll make all the difference to my ride.
Ok, so bikes are no different. The grass is always greener over there...
It's always said prostitute is the oldest profession. I reckon it's salesman.
Ok, so bikes are no different. The grass is always greener over there...
It's always said prostitute is the oldest profession. I reckon it's salesman.
Member
Joined 2009
Paid Member
Our ears degrade over time, the equipment manufacturers need to find new and young customers and we all know the young generation do not want the same stuff as those old people who raised them, so new stuff is essential!
True enough, ABX testing is the only real way to avoid expectation or confirmation bias. Or for bits of kit you already own, there's the excellent thread at:
How to: Distortion Measurements with REW
The device under test (DUT) can even be a cable, if you insist 🙂
Not audio specificaly related, but I still have my old AMD486 running DOS7.10. Until it gets kaputt, I still continue using: lots of games for DOS, the OrCAD SDT III, AUTOTRAX, MICROCAP 3 and 4, programs for ham radio (TSTHost, HamComm, Blaster Teletype, BayCom), etc.
I design or partly design more hobby audio circuits than I build. It saves money and resources compared to actually building everything, but has the disadvantage that you can never listen to it. I usually have some idea, start working it out on paper and then realize I don't really need it.
Or have an insane friend who does that and get his cast offs. I got a complete campag 9 speed groupset as he was upgrading to 10 speed. Annoyingly I tried one of his bikes with fancy pants multi $k wheels and on a sighted test it really was more responsive. Luckily I can argue with myself I just have to get fitter 🙂
Anyone got audiophile friends who let them have cast offs?
The infamous AMD486... 3 instead of the mundain 4. I have the device stored in my shed, fond memories.
But now everything pre-32bit desktop running in the sandbox of Boxer, lots of fun. Post-32bdt in VMware, including Orcad (!) on W2k, off97 and lots of smart tools.
In the OP's sense, still worth and only meager improvements thereafter.
There is a solid software company, much involved with cosmetics, promoting and selling with the promise of 'improved efficiency'. For (pondering... '23 -/- '97 =) 26 years now. Again, I consider the OP's perspective very valid!
I still have and regularly use a Dell Pentium something (P4?) running XP, which perfectly runs my faithful DOS or Win3.1 software, such as Tango PCB, Autotrax, Corel Draw 5, etc. which I have been using since the early 90's, on which I created hundreds of PCB layouts, front panels, logos, ads, brochures, you-name-it which I still use commercially today.
My products are designed and built for a very long life, just yestarday a customer picked a 100W 4 channel, spring reverb mini PA mixer he bought in 1997 and uses every week since for his kid's birthdays and parties shows.
It has been working flawlessly every week for 26 years now!!! and its "problems" are all "mechanical": scratchy pots, worn jacks (he inserts a plug and he has to turn it around to get sound) .....
I mention it because it´s not currently in production any more, BUT now and then some other artist sees it working onstage and wants exact same, so on demand I oblige.
Should I redraw everything on more modern software?
WHAT FOR? 😱
Same old silkscreens easily print "just another" front panel, "just another" set of PCBs .... why would I redraw them on new software?
Just for the hell of it?
Why reinvent the hammer if it still works fine banging nails in the head?
Old tools have earned the right to be kept, IF they still work faithfully.
Nothing against using new software for new stuff, of course.
My products are designed and built for a very long life, just yestarday a customer picked a 100W 4 channel, spring reverb mini PA mixer he bought in 1997 and uses every week since for his kid's birthdays and parties shows.
It has been working flawlessly every week for 26 years now!!! and its "problems" are all "mechanical": scratchy pots, worn jacks (he inserts a plug and he has to turn it around to get sound) .....
I mention it because it´s not currently in production any more, BUT now and then some other artist sees it working onstage and wants exact same, so on demand I oblige.
Should I redraw everything on more modern software?
WHAT FOR? 😱
Same old silkscreens easily print "just another" front panel, "just another" set of PCBs .... why would I redraw them on new software?
Just for the hell of it?
Why reinvent the hammer if it still works fine banging nails in the head?
Old tools have earned the right to be kept, IF they still work faithfully.
Nothing against using new software for new stuff, of course.