Do I really need to get out the soldering-iron again? • Hacker News Board

Re: Do I really need to get out the soldering-iron again?

#151

Post by zanny » Sun, Dec 09, 2018, 4:32 PM UTC

mirkules wrote: post #143

baxtr wrote: post #2

> Right now I'm absolutely astonished at how difficult it appears to be to just listen to music with a good pair of headphones. Is it not 2018? The media is full of talk about preposterously ambitious ideas such as AI and self-driving cars and yet I can't even listen to a fuck-damn music track? O_o I enjoyed reading this. The whole time I thought however: that’s not an issue on my Apple devices. Then I read: > If any…

I chuckled when I read: > 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. Followed by: > APPLE IS A SYMBOL OF PRETENTIOUSNESS AND IGNORANCE - YOU DO NOT EVEN KNOW HOW YOUR PHONE WORKS So iPhone users don’t know how their phone works, but Android is awesome because it’s open sour…

Yes okay, its about having the choice and the option. Its rooted in the fundamental instinct to cling to freedom and seek it out.

Even if you don't make a choice, having the option to is still empowering, because the absence of a choice tells you someone else made it for you.

For many, that could be the same choice they would have made. That doesn't give any condolence to those who would have made a different one, but weren't given the option.

Re: Do I really need to get out the soldering-iron again?

#152

Post by alexkavon » Sun, Dec 09, 2018, 4:33 PM UTC

I think one of the most fascinating relationships that humans have with technology is that we expect everything to just work and that’s the end-goal/advertised dream. However it’s never been that way and for good reason. Between competing technologies and human interests the actually reality of technology is that it’s all broken.

Re: Do I really need to get out the soldering-iron again?

#153

Post by megous » Sun, Dec 09, 2018, 4:33 PM UTC

mannykannot wrote: post #138

ThePhysicist wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since you have two channels that source current (L and R) it makes sense to have two parallel op-amps for the GND pin to have the same slew rate & maximum current, as both L and R channels return current through the GND line (I would assume).

I am curious as to why it needs any circuitry on the ground line - would a direct connection not work? (I guess I am assuming that L, R and ground are the only connections made to the headphones.) Do the amplifiers put a DC bias on the L and R outputs that needs to be matched on the ground, and if so, would a capacitor in series with the L and R outputs not be enough to isolate it?

You could just use the middle connection between the two batteries as a ground. I'm not sure why he didn't do it. Perhaps so that the whole thing works longer even if one of the batteries is discharged faster. That would be my guess.

Re: Do I really need to get out the soldering-iron again?

#154

Post by jstanley » Sun, Dec 09, 2018, 4:33 PM UTC

icebraining wrote: post #148

notacoward wrote: post #29

Interesting point buried in here: since Android is open source, you could go in and fix the bug, but then because you're not running an official Android version you'd lose access to the Play Store and other services. Something's not really free if there's a penalty for doing it. Since freedom to run a modified version of software yourself is one of the four freedoms of free software, this highlights the difference be…

So if I make a proprietary application that only runs on, say, Ubuntu, does that mean GNU/Linux is no longer really free, since you can't replace your distro with Arch without losing access to my application?

If your application is an intrinsic part of pretty much every GNU/Linux system, then yeah, pretty much.

It's not GNU/Linux that's not free, but it makes it hard to use a GNU/Linux system that is free.

Re: Do I really need to get out the soldering-iron again?

#155

Post by DubiousPusher » Sun, Dec 09, 2018, 4:34 PM UTC

rayrrr wrote: post #144

Everyone seems to be seeing this as an Android vs. iOS debate, but I see it as a smartphone vs. dedicated device debate. If you're serious enough about photography, you don't complain about your smartphone camera's limitations, you get yourself a DSLR and multiple lenses. So if you're this serious about music, why not get a dedicated device? Look at what companies like HiBy and Hidizs are doing. I have, and my ears h…

Seriously, you don't even need to spend a lot of money. If you search your local goodwill or garage sale circuit you can find some really nice old audio equipment. Pick up a CD player and a nice reciever for cheap.

Re: Do I really need to get out the soldering-iron again?

#156

Post by 013a » Sun, Dec 09, 2018, 4:34 PM UTC

I have a pair of powered studio monitors (Mackie MR5), and I completely relate to this problem. Many PCs and phones will emit an audible hissing noise while plugged in. I've tested on a dozen different devices, with integrated and external DACs, five hundred dollar sound cards, massively shielded cables, practically every modern OS you can name, tweaking every audio setting exposed to me. The only devices that work perfectly are (1) my TV output, and (2) every single Apple product.

I'm wholly convinced that the computing world is, in general, regressing. Audio has been a huge loser in this fight. Today, many modern phones don't ship with 3.5mm jacks. If you want lossless audio, you literally can't find it, even though there's zero reason companies like Spotify couldn't stream it when available (even if it costs extra) (Spotify literally asks artists to upload the masters when they publish, they have that data and then throw it away). Many artists don't even publish physical CDs anymore, so its a game of luck if they have a website where I can buy the FLACs/ALACs. And if you want the actual files to, you know, live your life in a completely legal way, those are gone.

Its more than just audio. Watching movies sucks; you now pay full price to effectively indefinitely rent movies, and have them taken away at any time. eBooks are the same and always have been; the world's oldest technology has been coopted by companies like Amazon to increase revenue, and there's practically zero competition. Applications suck; we're puking web and electron everywhere, eating up every conceivable megabyte of memory available literally only because developers are lazy, and now you're consistently asked to pay a monthly fee to access this functionality literally only because companies are lazy. Modern operating systems suck; restricting filesystem access, exposing proprietary application APIs which fundamentally make applications unportable and thus contributing to the rise of Electron/RN.

Somehow we took systems and workflows that were amazing throughout the 90s-00s and, in the course of a decade, completely ruined them.

Re: Do I really need to get out the soldering-iron again?

#157

Post by twtw » Sun, Dec 09, 2018, 4:36 PM UTC

Can anyone comment on what's going on with the ground channel in the circuit here?

Seems like you would want to tie the input ground to the virtual ground between the two 9Vs and then maybe buffer the output ground, but this circuit doesn't do that - it just replicates the L/R chains twice between grounds.

Also, what's the point of adding the two 9Vs and then splitting them again with the two 1k resistors? Why not just pull ground from in between the two 9Vs?

Re: Do I really need to get out the soldering-iron again?

#158

Post by megous » Sun, Dec 09, 2018, 4:37 PM UTC

rdescartes wrote: post #79

How the last schematic works ? What is the purpose of 100 ohms resistor and diode in series for ?

To discharge the capacitor when he turns the thing off in a controlled fashion?

Otherwise the current will slowly leak through the zener diode and the 100kohm resitor and the capacitor will stay charged. So when he turns the thing on the next time it would not do the expected timed battery charge indication he wants.

Re: Do I really need to get out the soldering-iron again?

#159

Post by kevin_thibedeau » Sun, Dec 09, 2018, 4:38 PM UTC

thanatropism wrote: post #50

ignoreInstinct wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, but what really gets under my skin is that every other company out there is okay with producing garbage. Meanwhile, Apple produces things that work comparatively well, doing what you expect and then, claims that reasonable functionality is premium . And then catches shit for being pretentious. So, let's step through that once more: - garbage is normal - functional and interoperable is premium - premium is prete…

The Apple premium has gone so damn high though. I got my first Mac when the Mac mini came up. It was a little more expensive than same-generation PCs but besides being OSX it was a PowerPC that never made any fan noise, and was small . I've subsequently had three Macbooks and two iPhones - but I can't afford this somewhat-better-somewhat-more-expensive racket anymore. Prices have risen too much; to boot, the quality…

It all depends on one's perspective. There was a time when a typical PC was $5000+ in today's dollars. We just got used to Moore's law bringing cheap disposables.

Re: Do I really need to get out the soldering-iron again?

#160

Post by notacoward » Sun, Dec 09, 2018, 4:41 PM UTC

icebraining wrote: post #148

notacoward wrote: post #29

Interesting point buried in here: since Android is open source, you could go in and fix the bug, but then because you're not running an official Android version you'd lose access to the Play Store and other services. Something's not really free if there's a penalty for doing it. Since freedom to run a modified version of software yourself is one of the four freedoms of free software, this highlights the difference be…

So if I make a proprietary application that only runs on, say, Ubuntu, does that mean GNU/Linux is no longer really free, since you can't replace your distro with Arch without losing access to my application?

> does that mean GNU/Linux is no longer really free

I'd say it's a bit of a different situation, since the two are not being designed to work together and aren't even being developed by the same people. If the Ubuntu developers made your proprietary app key to the useful running of the system, which is the more exact analogy, then I'd say yeah, they would have made it non-free.