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We need physical audio kill switches

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Re: We need physical audio kill switches

#311

Post by sundvor »

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.

We have a Thermomix TM4, two models down from the current TM6. It's very handy for a lot of cooking; makes rice pudding in a flash!

Now, I keep getting invitations to upgrade for the new one. The TM6 is a lot less noisy, and that would be amazing as mine is probably audible across the street - but, and this is a massive BUT: It has a touch screen interface, introduced with the TM5.

NO WAY. The TM4's physical interface is brilliant in its simplicity; every button does one thing, and one thing only; the motor speed knob is big and tactile.

I don't need nor want the complexity and latency of a touchscreen, and dealing with crappy firmware updates. Hopefully I'll be able to keep servicing mine for the longest time.

Re: We need physical audio kill switches

#312

Post by aendruk »

somehnguy wrote: post #95
MawKKe wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Beeping appliances is one thing I can't stand. They're always too loud and rarely offer any adjustment or mute functionality. I got a new microwave recently. It beeped on every button press, 5 beeps after a cook cycle, no way to mute (yeah, I checked). Within a day of owning it I took it apart and ripped the beeper off the board. Problem solved.

Some day we’ll collectively learn to replace all the crude beeping with less abrasive, natural sounds like the gentle and informative clicking of the iPod’s touch wheel. Think the crunch of a fallen leaf, the satisfying zip of a sweater, the subtle scrape of a ceramic mug being hastily lifted—distinct and deliberately applied to build conventions like we have with e.g. red/green colors. Shrill beeps will be the tell that dates an antique.

Re: We need physical audio kill switches

#313

Post by scottmcf »

nerplederple wrote: post #286
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.

I used to be able to control every element of the audio and HVAC in my old pickup truck by feel without ever taking my eyes off the road. Now, half the vehicles I sit in require taking eyes off the road to even find the control let alone locate the visual-only position of that control's feedback.

This is something I'll rant about whenever given the opportunity. Car UI is completely awful.

Re: We need physical audio kill switches

#314

Post by dheera »

sib wrote: post #234
dheera wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use an induction stove and it is even more pleasurable than gas in terms of the speed of response of the pot. Response is literally instant because the pot is the source of heat, and not something external. They are also by far the safest since the hottest thing in the entire system is the bottom of the pot, which is usually at about 100-200 C depending on what you're cooking, which is usually not hot enough to sta…

I hate induction stoves (cooktops) because they seem to hit intermediate temperatures by cycling the power on and off rather than having a continuous intermediate setting. (It's possible I've only ever encountered crappy induction cooktops...)

Mine pulses for the lower settings but has continuous control for the higher settings.

I believe higher-end stoves will either not pulse or pulse fast enough to effectively be continuous when you factor in the thermal inertia of the pot.

Re: We need physical audio kill switches

#315

Post by Natales »

pbronez wrote: post #303
Natales wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't judge all of us audiophiles with a blanket statement. Yes, measured hearing capacity is definitely a key metric to know (why invest in super tweeters when you can't hear past 18KHz for example), but room acoustics is probably the very next thing I'd look at. I've seen so much "expensive" gear in rooms that are absolutely horrid in terms of sound reflections. Just a carpet, curtains or a couple of cheap sound pa…

Can you provide some more detail about your experiences with these speakers? I’ve seen the designs before, but they’re so exotic they seem like a gimmick. I want to make two sets of speakers. First, a two channel set up for my home office, to play high-quality music while I work and handle conference call audio. Second, a monitor for my synthesizers. They produce a crazy range of detailed sound, and I want something…

I wrote about my experience with the minis first [0] and then with the LX521.4 [1].

The posts are old and I moved since then, but my experience has not changed. The minis are unreal. The quality of the sound you get in such a small (and cheap to build) package is to my knowledge, unmatched. Actually, I had them in my home office until recently [2]. As long as you have 1 to 1.5 ft of distance from the walls, they'll work like a champ.

The LX521.4 will go down to 20Hz, but the dipole open baffle bass is not "punchy" in the sense of pressurizing a room, but rather, you feel it all around. So it depends on the kind of music you listen to. I prefer classic rock and jazz, and some electronica, and so far I find them very rewarding.

The community in Oplug Support is very friendly and will help you in anything you want to know.

[0] https://ramirosalas.com/2016/02/on-my-lxmini-speakers/

[1] https://ramirosalas.com/2017/11/complete-linkwitz-setup/

[2] https://oplug-support.org/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=4941&p=44858&...

Re: We need physical audio kill switches

#316

Post by beloch »

"I was in a conference call last Friday where I’d adjusted the volume up to compensate for the client’s quiet microphone, only to be audibly shot in the ears by an auto-playing video on a website. There is a lot of problematic stuff to unpack there, much of which is not the fault of the audio hardware or OS."

If you're suddenly reaching for the mute button because you're being blasted then there has already been a significant failure. It just happens to be something everybody is failing at and nobody can be bothered to fix.

We suck at quantifying (simply) the loudness of audio content. If you set volume according to average SPL, high transients (e.g. Cannon fire in a too-faithful recording of Tchaikovsky's 1812 overture) can still be shattering. If you set it according to the maximum SPL, an action movie with lots of explosions might have a lot of dialogue that's inaudible. Audio that has been highly compressed to the point of distortion may seem uncomfortably loud even at moderate SPL's.

The thing is, we probably shouldn't even try to use simple rules for setting volume. We need to build systems that observe when people adjust the volume and learn from that. No OS should be dumb enough to suddenly let rip with a new audio stream whose first second is, on average, 30 dB higher than what was previously playing. Yet, they practically all do.

A hardware volume knob is an important thing for any audio device to have but, if the device has the capacity to run programs and it's users are still reaching for that knob in startlement, there has been a failure.

Re: We need physical audio kill switches

#317

Post by Polylactic_acid »

liability wrote: post #117
tetris11 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

At least microwaves with digital controls actually have full numpads. Every digital-control oven I've ever had the misfortune of using only has increment/decrement buttons. Want to set the oven to 450F? Have fun pressing the increment button twenty times for five degree increments starting at 350F. It's an abomination.

My oven has a rotary encoder on it for temp adjustment. It works pretty well.

Re: We need physical audio kill switches

#318

Post by brokenmachine »

voltagex_ wrote: post #293
adrianmonk wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is what HDMI CEC[1] is for, right? The devices are supposed to coordinate on which device will output audio (TV, sound system, etc.), and they are supposed to send control signals (volume up, volume down, and mute button presses) in a channel over the HDMI connection so that whatever device is playing audio can adjust its volume. Of course this assumes all devices involved implement CEC (which is optional) and t…

Whereas if you'd bought an LG TV you'd punch the volume control and nothing would happen on the Denon. Both devices claim to support CEC. With an older Sony TV, only some CEC messages worked (I think enough for a Chromecast to be able to switch the active input). I think they forgot the "consumer" part of "consumer electronics control".

I have a Denon AVR and an LG TV and the TV controls the volume on my AVR.

I have experienced the pain of broken CEC with my previous Hisense TV though.

Re: We need physical audio kill switches

#319

Post by jsjohnst »

auxym wrote: post #308
jsjohnst wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> we purchased those "CD" things and they were lossless Depends on how you define lossless, but for a sufficient informal definition, CD audio definitely is lossy.

I assume you're referring to bit depth and sampling. In that case, any digitization is lossy, because where do you draw the line?

> In that case, any digitization is lossy

Yep, that’s part of my point, but CD audio in particular isn’t that great of bit depth or sampling rate, even by standards of the time for uncompressed digital audio. There’s also the point that the “audio wars” era covered the era of CD audio and that’s certainly another major audio quality factor.

Re: We need physical audio kill switches

#320

Post by microcolonel »

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…

You can also just use an ADC in the sound chipset, since your average consumer electronics Class D amplifier is going to be adequate at any digital level, provided the circuit is not designed by a lower primate.
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