Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

We need physical audio kill switches

rubenerd.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 443 posts

Re: We need physical audio kill switches

#61

Post by MawKKe »

tetris11 wrote: post #27
onion-soup wrote: post #11

Nothing will ever come close to convenience of analogue volume knobs. They give both immediate action and infinite granular control. Same goes for kitchen stoves. All the modern touch controls with step-based control is the absolute nightmare in terms of UI.

Every microwave I have ever owned have been under $30, purely because I didn't want to go digital. Analogue egg-timer knob - good enough accuracy, and instantly pliable

Yeah. It's one thing that does not need improving.

My parents bought a new microwave with all kinds of fancy digital features that nobody uses 99% of the time. In addition to being really difficult to use, it also makes a very loud BEEEP on every button press. Insanity.

Re: We need physical audio kill switches

#62

Post by benttoothpaste »

brandon272 wrote: post #29

I let my spouse, who likes the novelty of a touchscreen, talk me into a Whirlpool oven a couple years ago that is controlled by touchscreen. I had no idea it was possible to hate an oven so much. The only saving grace is that the stovetop elements are still controlled by knobs.

My mom’s oven requires regular power cycle because it’s touch UI locks up so often.

Re: We need physical audio kill switches

#63

Post by qppo »

formerly_proven wrote: post #31
LeoPanthera wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With one specific exception - stereo volume knobs often - virtually always - suffer from stereo imbalance, where the volume of the left and right channels are slightly different. Some high-end amplifiers offer a relay based volume system where the knob simply switches resistors in and out of the audio path using relays to adjust the volume, and although this does result in "steps" of volume, it does mean the stereo b…

That's a problem mostly caused by using passive log-taper circuits, instead of alternate active volume control circuits that use linear-taper pots, which have sufficiently good tolerance and ganging in low-cost dual units. But these circuits require 1-2 op amps per channel and those 20 cents are too much in three-figure hardware. Ganged log-taper pots have something like +-3 or +-6 dB ganging mismatch even for relati…

I've seen/heard this in $100 units from Schiit. Not to mention the poor hand soldering job that cost more money because a human did it in America.

Re: We need physical audio kill switches

#64

Post by noxer »

amiga-workbench wrote: post #7

My old IBM ThinkPads operate exactly as he described, the embedded controller immediately instructs the hardware amplifier to adjust its volume or power down. My slightly less old Lenovo X201t does everything in software, and while my computer is still groggy after waking from suspend it often takes 10-15 seconds for volume changes to take effect.

The mute button work instantly in a X201t. I can be overridden by software that is however wanted and useful especially on the tablet version where you can cover the mute button with the screen unmute must be possible with the pen/finger.

Re: We need physical audio kill switches

#65

Post by [deleted] »

vidanay wrote: post #55
puranjay wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My office (well, former office) used to have a touchscreen coffee maker. Why does a coffee maker even need a touchscreen? There are literally three options!

Our old office had a $5k fancy coffee maker with touch screen. Nobody knew what the hell all the icons meant, and nobody cleaned the milk siphon so it went moldy and was thrown out after two weeks. I insisted that we keep the old Bunn that had an advanced UI with a red illuminated On-Off switch. Six months later, it was the only one coffee maker still in use.

[deleted]

Re: We need physical audio kill switches

#66

Post by coldtea »

masklinn wrote: post #57
puranjay wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My office (well, former office) used to have a touchscreen coffee maker. Why does a coffee maker even need a touchscreen? There are literally three options!

> Why does a coffee maker even need a touchscreen? There are literally three options! What’s the option besides on and off, keep warm?

Depending on the coffee maker there can be a dozen or more options. A home espresso maker might adjust how many "shots" to drip, different temperatures, adding milk or not, etc.

Re: We need physical audio kill switches

#67

Post by vidanay »

masklinn wrote: post #57
puranjay wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My office (well, former office) used to have a touchscreen coffee maker. Why does a coffee maker even need a touchscreen? There are literally three options!

> Why does a coffee maker even need a touchscreen? There are literally three options! What’s the option besides on and off, keep warm?

Coffee, Cappuccino, Latte, Frappe

All of the above multiplied by small, medium, large.

All of the above multiplied by weak, normal, strong, and double shot.

All of the above multiplied by zone defense, man to coverage, and missile command.

Re: We need physical audio kill switches

#69

Post by heavenlyblue »

armada651 wrote: post #6

The real design flaw here is not conveniently being able to set the volume per application. Most systems are able to do this, but don't expose that functionality conveniently. In my opinion the volume keys should only be adjusting the volume for the application/website currently in focus.

You can do this conveniently in windows using the standard mixer and in Linux using pavucontrol (that is a UI utility).

Re: We need physical audio kill switches

#70

Post by rsync »

lopmotr wrote: post #8

The 2 seconds would be a bug or maybe a design fault in his computer. I use a big USB volume knob [1] which is also a mute button and it always responds instantaneously as far as I can tell. I just bash it when an unexpected video starts playing. It was hard to find but these things do exist and are refreshingly convenient compared to whatever fiddly volume controls laptops always have. [1] https://www.aliexpress.com…

What specific volume control knob do you use?
Post reply on HN