Really Boring Stuff Only III: Resurrection

[Alex2507]

*Also works as a seat with potential for back or arm rest.

It's on wheels to boot.

Getting my computer audio to play thru the WiiM turned out to be a setting on my phone. I was on my 2nd sound card before I got that figured out. I'm pretty sure the 1st sound card was 24 bit vs the 16 bit offered by the 2nd one. I'll probably go back to the 24 bit one.

The fancy power cord gets in the way of HDMI ARC so I used a regular power cord because I didn't know what HDMI ARC was. I thought it was an HDMI output and couldn't figure out why I couldn't get a user interface up on my computer monitor. Duh. Yep, right on the cusp of TDTOG is where I be.

This one @sshole I worked for once said, "that's where you grow; outside of your comfort zone". Well, I've got growth out the ying yang now. It's sh!t like this that makes me want to smoke. God I miss that ... with the ever present follow up of 'thank God I don't smoke'.

Anywho, Amazon Music and Computer Audio have made the scene on Craig's WiiM along with a couple of pic's (fancy cable included). That's pretty happenin' for a non tech type. *takes bow* I'll get the finer points hammered out at some point in the future.

Huge thanks to adk/Craig for the WiiM.

 

[Dude#1279435]

It's on wheels to boot.

Getting my computer audio to play thru the WiiM turned out to be a setting on my phone. I was on my 2nd sound card before I got that figured out. I'm pretty sure the 1st sound card was 24 bit vs the 16 bit offered by the 2nd one. I'll probably go back to the 24 bit one.

The fancy power cord gets in the way of HDMI ARC so I used a regular power cord because I didn't know what HDMI ARC was. I thought it was an HDMI output and couldn't figure out why I couldn't get a user interface up on my computer monitor. Duh. Yep, right on the cusp of TDTOG is where I be.

This one @sshole I worked for once said, "that's where you grow; outside of your comfort zone". Well, I've got growth out the ying yang now. It's sh!t like this that makes me want to smoke. God I miss that ... with the ever present follow up of 'thank God I don't smoke'.

Anywho, Amazon Music and Computer Audio have made the scene on Craig's WiiM along with a couple of pic's (fancy cable included). That's pretty happenin' for a non tech type. *takes bow* I'll get the finer points hammered out at some point in the future.

Huge thanks to adk/Craig for the WiiM.

*Also mirror on the back of the desk for gazing.

(Seriously though I'm afraid tech is beyond my comprehension.)

 

[Alex2507]

*Also mirror on the back of the desk for gazing.

(Seriously though I'm afraid tech is beyond my comprehension.)

That mirror is less and less of a friend as the years go by. I'm leaning toward old ... real old pic's of myself instead to help with some esteem issues. I heard a great line on TV once about low self esteem to be more of a good common sense thing. It's a make-up station that came with the space. The real desk we have here is in a space shared with the regular TV's 2.1 rig. It's for SWMBO's 'work from home' deal.

The techno-talk is dumbfounding to me too. I learn enough to get from A to B and then forget it until the next time. I found that my old higher resolution Creative Sound Blaster allows the computer's volume control to work but the newer lower resolution Behringer UCA202 sound card doesn't allow that. I can only control the volume with the WiiM. Anyway I put the old sound card into place and it works on 24 bit 96000 Hz. I'm a little surprised.

I did the sync speakers and sub thing on the Wiim with my phone. It applied a +14ms delay on my speakers. The audio quality with a 110 Hz xo point and the sub volume adjusted by ear is also surprisingly good. My 5 year old niece was happy to use the room as a private dance studio for the K-pop soundtrack on Amazon Music. Later I got into BSA's Plex account to discover some newly added Minerva Corp to try out through the computer. Despite my initial frustration getting this stuff to work I'm ridiculously happy with the outcome.

The WiiM Amp is a gem and the sub, well that could be called a diamond in the rough. I could paint it. It would be hard to make it look worse. I'm suppose to give the room a make over so everything being on wheels and/or easily moved is key. The entire living space falls under the same description ... ugh. I think right now it's time to put a bike together for a 5 year old. That should be easy compared to this.

 

[Alex2507]

It's a make up station/ desk type thing that came with the space. But I just use it to look at myself. I'm real good looking. You would understand if we ever met.

So, seriously, the tech is dumbfounding to me too until I need to know it. I learn the lingo, get from A to B and then forget everything. One cool thing so far was something about aligning the sub and speakers with the WiiM. I think it uses the phone mic. I turned the sub down and the alignment applied a +14 ms delay to the speakers.

My 5 year old niece is currently using the room as her private dance studio for K-pop music. Awful is not too strong a word for this. But the boom boom factor for a little system cobbled together from some awesome yet unused parts and pieces.

My old higher resolution Creative Sound Blaster lets my laptop control the volume on the WiiM but the newer Behringer UCA202 doesn't. I thought that was weird. I set the audio to 24 bit 96000 Hz to see if it would work

 

[Alex2507]

Oh I found the cable pants. And a little cable management ... just to round out the boredom.

And that honkin' blue power cord. Audio cast or something. Effin' sexy any way you cut it.

 

[Alex2507]

I just wanted to show that I wasn't leaving it an ungodly mess. I had to run out and grab a stair tread from The Boat House and break out the Windex ... but now we're here.

Now should the desire to paint the sub become irresistible, I can get to it easily enough. Plus I can EQ the set up with the speakers in a somewhat fixed position to the computer chair.

I think we're done with this level of boredom. I don't see this needing any changes for a while seeing as how I managed to live with the speaker in the laptop for getting close to 3 years now. I can't explain that. There's a perfectly good rec'r less than 10' from me that I could have used at any given point. I'm just gonna have to blame age for the lack of ambition. It's really the WiiM Amp that got me going on this due to the cool factor.

 

[Alex2507]

I'm not sure how FB works it but Squishman showed up on my 'might know' list so I sent the friend request. How in the world would FB connect us? Anyway for 5 bucks I'll sell you his SSN.

 

[j_garcia]

It knows you are on AH. AKA, it knows too much

I got in a fender bender last night. I was pulling away from being completely boxed in at the curb and a dude changed into the lane at the same time. The nose of our car was already clear of the car in front of me, so it should have been 100% SUPER OBVIOUS I was pulling out. Anyway, the person on the street is usually the one they side with, so it will likely be my fault.

 

[mtrycrafts]

...? Anyway for 5 bucks I'll sell you his SSN.

Or someone's SSN.

 

[Alex2507]

It knows you are on AH. AKA, it knows too much

I got in a fender bender last night. I was pulling away from being completely boxed in at the curb and a dude changed into the lane at the same time. The nose of our car was already clear of the car in front of me, so it should have been 100% SUPER OBVIOUS I was pulling out. Anyway, the person on the street is usually the one they side with, so it will likely be my fault.

I hope you argue that since your nose was clear of the car in front of you that you were also in the street. That puts you in front of the other car and the car in the back is usually at fault for all the stuff he crashes into.

You should have just beat him up at the scene. A few racial slurs followed up with some Kung Fu ... a spinning back kick at the very least.

Instead of asking for insurance info a nice, "where did you get your license, a Cracker Jack box?" Followed up with more violence of course.

Hope that helps.

 

[adk highlander]

I hope you argue that since your nose was clear of the car in front of you that you were also in the street. That puts you in front of the other car and the car in the back is usually at fault for all the stuff he crashes into.

You should have just beat him up at the scene. A few racial slurs followed up with some Kung Fu ... a spinning back kick at the very least.

Instead of asking for insurance info a nice, "where did you get your license, a Cracker Jack box?" Followed up with more violence of course.

Hope that helps.

I am getting a camera for my truck. Between the idiots in traffic circles who don't get yield to all the electric 2 wheeled crap trying to become the next Darwin award victim. I don't want to be blamed for the idiot near me.

 

[j_garcia]

I hope you argue that since your nose was clear of the car in front of you that you were also in the street. That puts you in front of the other car and the car in the back is usually at fault for all the stuff he crashes into.

You should have just beat him up at the scene. A few racial slurs followed up with some Kung Fu ... a spinning back kick at the very least.

Instead of asking for insurance info a nice, "where did you get your license, a Cracker Jack box?" Followed up with more violence of course.

Hope that helps.

I will argue that there is NO WAY you could not tell my intention, but you know how stuff goes. If it turns out he isn't valid to drive here, then I don't have an issue - it becomes uninsured motorist and they will blame it on him.

The number of stupid drivers has skyrocketed in our area and it is getting old, or I am getting old, or both

He was clearly a construction worker coming off a job. He looked like a wrestler lol, so uh Lucha anyone? Anyway, he ended up being a nice guy, so it was a calm exchange. He didn't provide a CA license, he looks to be on a visa with an international ID and he was pretty nervous, but I will let the insurance figure that part out.

The bad-ish news is I just committed $6k for the deck replacement and we might have to buy her a new car. Cost of Lexus parts and age of the car means damage hit the 50% of vehicle cost, so we might be looking at a total for a fender bender.

 

[Alex2507]

He was clearly a construction worker coming off a job.

he looks to be on a visa with an international ID

Ahhh ... I got a soft spot for immigrant construction rats.

I mean I fit in pretty good but that's exactly what I am and what I come from. Down in Fla in the 1900's I had a long standing partnership with Carlos, a South American in the drywall game. We started out in Canada and I could see that he had a chip on his shoulder against gringos because of discrimination, white privilege and entitlement. Well one day we were working on a Payless Shoe store and from out in the parking lot I heard Wally, one of our guys who we had sent out for beer yell, "NOOOO !!!" followed by a really loud crash.

I jumped down from my scaffold and ran outside to see Wally standing there looking at Carlos' CJ7 Jeep and this like mini station wagon type car which had backed into the Jeep's spare tire, blowing out his rear window. Three really drunk Latinos piled out of the car and started explaining and apologizing as best they could to me ... presumably because I'm white and huge and likely to be THE problem. I calmed them down and said that it was okay followed with, "It's not my Jeep". F^%&ing Carlos was bullsh!t. They hadn't even cast him a glance thinking that the big gringo was gonna be the one in charge. Wally burst out laughing and the Latinos were so relieved that they started laughing too. Carlos looked like he didn't know who he wanted to kill first but he told the Latinos to f^%& off and we went back inside the Payless to drink beer and make money. The Latinos drove off and Carlos hated gringos more than ever. He knew the Latinos didn't even have a fishing license between the three of them and insurance? C'mon. No cops, no nothing. All that could have happened was us wasting our time and seriously screwing up the life of at least the drunk driver. Seeing as how we were all drunk drivers at the time, Carlos didn't see the point in putting that kid through that hell for behavior that all of us engaged in.

I never admired Carlos more.

 

[GO-NAD!]

I just wanted to show that I wasn't leaving it an ungodly mess. I had to run out and grab a stair tread from The Boat House and break out the Windex ... but now we're here.

Now should the desire to paint the sub become irresistible, I can get to it easily enough. Plus I can EQ the set up with the speakers in a somewhat fixed position to the computer chair.

I think we're done with this level of boredom. I don't see this needing any changes for a while seeing as how I managed to live with the speaker in the laptop for getting close to 3 years now. I can't explain that. There's a perfectly good rec'r less than 10' from me that I could have used at any given point. I'm just gonna have to blame age for the lack of ambition. It's really the WiiM Amp that got me going on this due to the cool factor.

The tweeters aren't at ear height. Fail.

 

[j_garcia]

 

[Alex2507]

I found a review of the WiiM Amp on ASR. 58 pages of comments. Now I'm a member of 2 audio forums again.

But holy smokes am I ever in love with that little thing. Amir said something about driving Salon 2's with it. Now I need a pair of Revel speakers. The little Infinities don't sound as good as I remember. A little EQ'ing helped and some isolation absorbers will make their way into the mix but maybe I've just become spoiled by better performers. Also being computer speakers, they handle dialog frequently. That's always the biggest tell tale of audio quality for me anymore.

Maybe if I did get the tweeters up to ear level ...

 

[j_garcia]

I think vocals is one of the main things most people's ears can pick out, so you can definitely tell when a speaker isn't as good at it. Of course when you spend time with good speakers, you will hear the difference on average ones.

I have MB42Xs for sale in the classifieds....cheap. And they're small and really good with voices.

 

[haraldo]

I never seen anyone addressing this question: Is the Milky Way and Andromeda Galaxy stretching, becoming larger?

Background: We know that the fabric of the Universe is stretching and the rate of expansion is accellerating. Doesn´t that mean that all space around us is expanding?
- The milky way is expanding
- The Andromeda galaxy is expanding
- The space within the solar system is expanding?

 

[Alex2507]

I think vocals is one of the main things most people's ears can pick out, so you can definitely tell when a speaker isn't as good at it. Of course when you spend time with good speakers, you will hear the difference on average ones.

I have MB42Xs for sale in the classifieds....cheap. And they're small and really good with voices.

I had seen those and checked 'em out on Amazon. I figured they would be what I remember somebody calling a 'lateral move' in the upgrade path. But you know what? I'm still down to buy them for a few reasons. 1 for kicks. 2 As surrounds in the living room 2.1 rig with Dennis' 3-ways should I feel the need. 3 They just might outclass the little Infinities. 4 That's right in the range of disposable income I'm working with.

It has occurred to me that my misgivings on dialog could very well be the recording quality on half the stuff on the internet. I'm playing Natalie Merchant's Carnival because I had recently heard it on Ken's KEF Blade II speakers ... . Yeah, almost there.

Now that I've got a semi proper audio set up with the computer I started trying to calibrate it and happened to find a bunch of music in Media Player of particular interest is Sarah Brightman's version of Queen's Who Wants to Live Forever oddly enough followed by Carl Orff's Carmina Burana. I'm sort of falling back in love with them.

I just can't believe this is where it all started 20 odd years ago.

 

[Alex2507]

Man, I'm late. Sheeeeeit, again. I don't remember being this lazy. Is it the age? Like, wtf already? Is it just going to stay like this? I wish I hadn't a done all that coke back in the day 'cause I sure could use some now. Ugh ... okay, here we go ... up and at 'em.