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We need physical audio kill switches

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Re: We need physical audio kill switches

#341

Post by slacka »

m463 wrote: post #333
Judgmentality wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think there's much benefit to being an audiophile, unless you're so rich you can actually enjoy your insanely expensive setup in your sound-proofed room with your specially-purchased lossless audio sources. Luckily, very few people who claim to be audiophiles can actually hear the difference in a blind test. https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2015/06/02/411473508/...

Being an audiophile literally means you like audio. It doesn't require you to purchase overengineered or overhyped technology any more than being a cycling enthusiast requires you to weigh your accessories in grams. :)

This may be true, but /u/Judgmentality just described to a T the one self-described audiophile that I am friends with.

Re: We need physical audio kill switches

#342

Post by PascLeRasc »

askvictor wrote: post #332

I've been thinking about the "you're muted" problem in video calls, and imagining a big physical button to mute/unmute without having to stuff around with the particular UI for this particular video product you are using right now. One solution is to mute/unmute at the hardware or system level (some computers already have this, or sometime close), but this then requires you to be unmuted in the software (Zoom), which…

I've been thinking it'd be great to have some kind of USB footswitch to un-mute Teams to talk. My work computer is incredibly locked down, but I imagine this could be done with QMK and a keyboard shortcut. It'd be better though as a global command instead of requiring your computer's active window to be Teams.

I'm also so surprised that there haven't been any developments in Teams audio level mixing - sometimes I need to turn my volume down because one person is shouting into their mic and everyone else is talking normally.

Re: We need physical audio kill switches

#343

Post by microcolonel »

jsjohnst wrote: post #329
microcolonel wrote: post #322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only one of these points is a thing. Even if you could find some situation where the dynamic range of a CD was inadequate, shaped dither or even complete garbage uniform dither would render that moot. No producer or technician has any basis to complain about CD audio quality for listening by humans; the deficiencies of their CDs are entirely their fault.

> No producer or technician has any basis to complain about CD audio quality for listening by humans Ok, so since I can still identify sound frequencies >22khz despite being now 40yrs old, I’m not entitled as a human to critique the CD audio format, especially as I can tell you the exact moment when the audio range is being clipped in the songs I enjoy?

Okay, even if you could hear frequencies in that range in an actual released musical recording, and not just at near-pain-threshold levels in isolation, 48kHz has become more popular since it's a more convenient "computery" number. Tell me you can hear frequencies above 23kHz, below the pain threshold, let alone not in isolation.

Re: We need physical audio kill switches

#344

Post by tuatoru »

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?

> where do you draw the line?

You draw the line at the limits of human hearing, which turn out to be about 20 bits from softest audible sounds to "hearing damage inside a minute"and a sample rate of around 48 ksa/s.

CDs weren't quite there. Modern stuff recorded with 24 bit depth and high bit rates is effectively lossless.

One of the goods things about the limitations of the CD format is that we learned a lot about masking noise via dithering (deliberately introducing more noise) and noise shaping.

Re: We need physical audio kill switches

#345

Post by jayd16 »

skohan wrote: post #126

I've been thinking the same about power switches lately. If I turn a flashlight, or an old radio on or off, I flip a switch and get the result I want. With my 65 EUR gamepad, or 300 EUR headphones, I hold a button and wait several seconds for the result. Why has UX regressed so much in these areas?

Probably because you actually don't want your gamepad to turn off as you fumble a combo or your headphones to turn off as you operate buttons you can't see.

In other cases its usually to double dip on input components.

Re: We need physical audio kill switches

#346

Post by tuatoru »

LeoPanthera wrote: post #17
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.

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…

Adding to formerly_proven's reply, back in the analog era we usually had balance and tone controls to compensate for the deficiences in both the recordings and our listening environments and equipment.

Balance and tone controls are still useful. You can treat your listening environments to be neutral (bass traps, absorbers and diffusers, etc); but when you have a few friends over to listen you need to compensate for the sound absorption by their bodies. Or if it's a nice day and you open the window. Or you have a recording made by a friend on their phone. All sorts of reasons.

Re: We need physical audio kill switches

#347

Post by smaudet »

tssva wrote: post #299
liability wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Every digital control oven I have ever used continued to increment or decrement as long as you held the appropriate button down. No need to press the button twenty times. Some of them even increased the rate of increase/decrease the longer you held the button down.

Yes, but that's nowhere near as simple nor effective as a turn dial.

This is just another example of the brain-dead designers and coders running around ruining the world.

It sounds extreme to say, but I suspect quite a few of them have blood and misery on their hands, because some poorly designed control cascaded in effect and caused a catastrophe elsewhere. It's easier to imagine with medical equipment than microwaves, but its still putting someone's desire to write fancy control algorithms over a simpler more effective design.

Start out by punching any jackass insisting everything be digital, you will go a long way to solving the problem of bad designers.

Re: We need physical audio kill switches

#348

Post by ghostpepper »

downut wrote: post #279
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 cook on a 30 yo gas range with all high capacity burners and regular knobs. The response is nonlinear: there's a big jump in flame intensity as you pass through nominal "low" to "medium". In practice I don't look at the knobs at all, I can fine tune the heat by looking directly at the size of the flame. My visual judgement is instantaneous. The results are stellar throughout the range. When I travel, for instance t…

I have always believed in the adage that 'a dull knife is more dangerous than a sharp one.' Good for you for making sure your kid learns to use a proper tool correctly and thus safely.

Re: We need physical audio kill switches

#349

Post by Smoosh »

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.

I selected our oven specifically because of the sensible analogue controls (large knobs) for selecting the function and temperature.

https://www.fisherpaykel.com/au/cooking/ovens/contemporary-o...

Re: We need physical audio kill switches

#350

Post by ohazi »

Natales wrote: post #172
Judgmentality wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think there's much benefit to being an audiophile, unless you're so rich you can actually enjoy your insanely expensive setup in your sound-proofed room with your specially-purchased lossless audio sources. Luckily, very few people who claim to be audiophiles can actually hear the difference in a blind test. https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2015/06/02/411473508/...

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…

Thanks for the reminder -- I have an unassembled LX Mini kit in my closet that I should really build.

I was fortunate enough to meet Siegfried at one of his listening sessions about a year before he passed away, and we had a fun conversation about physics and electronics. Very nice man, with the right mix of formal (with his super nice diagrams) and informal (with his scrappy, clever, practical designs).

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