Yes, there’s an irony with some super expensive hifi systems (ignoring whether hifi is a solved problem in an industry run on marketing). That is the only people who could hear the frequencies they claim are important are younger than 21 years old and typically don’t have the money to buy them.
Yeah, although Hifi isn’t really “solved” yet. Good audio is now affordable of course, but modern DSP and manufacturing capabilities are still improving many aspects of audio. Smaller speakers with better frequency range, active room eq, parametric EQ in portable devices, IEM design and manufacturing improvements, revolution in planar drivers, ANC, better measuring rigs leading to more precise EQs, etc.
Of course this is only bringing better quality audio to the average person at very affordable prices and in a way it’s an antithesis to the “audiophile” paradigm where the best you could get was locked behind mountains of cash.
We could argue that peak audio has happened a long ago, but consumer stuff is still catching up.
I have an RGB Ikea zigbee light which I control through home assistant. I use it to emit red light so I can read before bed more comfortably, and between 30-70% intensity I can hear a ton of coil whine which defeats the purpose of trying to read to calm down before sleeping ![]()
I’ve listened to a super premium stereo setup of a boutique hand-made amp and high and speakers and all that inside a demo room, it truly sounded incredible, there was no doubting that. But my house is not a demo room, and these days I’m mostly listening to music in my truck, or on headphones in the garden or gym, or on a BT speaker in my yard.
I have a pretty nice stereo setup with an old Sansui receiver, a nice older Technics turntable with an upgraded lower end Grado cartridge, and some decent small Micca speakers that were like $100 for the pair. Good enough for me!
Given that placebos can have measurable effects on health outcomes, maybe it’s not surprising that price tags can make wine taste nicer or audio systems sound fabulous. I read something recently about athletes performing better when given placebo supplements even after they were told they were placebos. Humans.
Lol
I notice this type of sound a lot everything from laptop chargers, my printer, etc.
It’s been funny sometimes when I have said “what’s plugged in here that isn’t usually?” and people have been slightly mystified how I knew ![]()
Some of my chargers whine like crazy when they’re not fully loaded, e.g. when I’m charging my smart watch that has miniscule power draw (especially close to full battery). I can almost tell the battery level just by the volume and tone of the whining ![]()
I also used to have problems with a monitor power brick, the whine of which I could not ignore… luckily new monitors seem to have integrated power supplies now ![]()
As a kid we had a GE 17" B&W television and every time it was turned on I could hear it. Once I was outside in the back yard, probably 100 feet (or more) away from the rear of the house. It was inside, three rooms in the other direction. There was absolutely no mistaking when it powered up.
As far as anything interfering with sleep, my brain is the biggest problem, by far. When I lay down, my body relaxes and my brain says, “Time to get busy!!!”. Then it takes off. Other than when I’m ill or unusually exhausted, I’ve always laid in bed for usually an hour (or two) before going to sleep. And that’s since retirement – When I was working stress would often keep me away for 3 to 4 hours.
My wife is the opposite - She can fall asleep in the middle of a sentence.
Man. I’ve been like this since my teen years
(I’m still very young tho). Sometimes it’s better, but for me it’s also not uncommon to take around an hour to fall asleep.
I can sometimes tell that I’m about to fall asleep when I can’t recall the last thing I was thinking about, or it just doesn’t make sense.
If we suddenly don’t hear from you, we’ll know why
The new HDR and circuit technologies deliver 100 dB high dynamic range imaging in a single exposure
Sony Semiconductor Solutions to Release LOFIC-Equipped CMOS Image Sensor for Mobile Applications with 100 dB Dynamic Range and Low Power Consumption|Information|Sony Semiconductor Solutions Group
That video looks somewhat unnatural, the shirt is “HDR-ish” to me.
Likely unnatural because the video is low-fidelity HDR. Kind of like a pirate cam at a movie theatre. ![]()
By comparison alone, if it is to be believed, the benefits are clear with increased colour and contrast detail.
You can leave off the “somewhat”, that was absolutely horrid.
Yes, that example is horrid, like most automated HDR images. But LOFIC as technology would still be a game changer, essentially allowing us to expose like analog film without worrying about the highlights too much. I hope it comes to cameras soon.
You both described my two-tiered observation. I would change “would” to “could” as we will believe it when someone we trust gets their hands on the raw video files.
There is a bit of both going on in the media release page. Both this is awesome technology and our sensor/camera system will not overheat we promise. ![]()
There is a store for kitchen stuff in my town, which basically triggers my GAS whenever I enter it ![]()
I fully agree regarding the pans. We have a cast iron pan and one of uncoated stainless steel. Both have much less stickiness-issues than our coated ones (teflon-free coatings, though).
Oh, there is GAS for every domain in our hyper-consumeristic society. That, or the family or house members just destroy whatever is there, requiring frequent replacement!
Super interesting article:
FOSS Graphics enthusiasts can now take GIMP 0.54 on a spin ![]()
Downside of planar magnetic headphones: when you have a fan blowing at you, sometimes the wind interacts with the diaphragm of the headphones