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Examples of good usability in hi-fi equipment

Kegemusha

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Skärmklipp.JPG
My 1st serious cassette deck player
 

sibi1865

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Software rather than equipment, but I've enjoyed using the LUMIN app for a number of years now... until the latest update.
 

Timcognito

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My old system '79-95 was a Nakamichi System One and it was a bast to operate. Tuning in FM stations was particularly satisfying. Some real old school control of all functions.
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TimW

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Recently I was looking for a new portable Bluetooth headphone amp for use with IEMs when walking around. I owned the EarStudio ES100 but hated the buttons. They have no tactile enjoyment, can't be differentiated by feel, and when you squeeze the device to press the buttons on one side, a button on the other side is usually pressed as well. I also hate volume control via up and down buttons that require many clicks to change. There are high performance Bluetooth amps on the market like the Topping G5 and more feature packed options like the Qudelix 5K, but I wanted something with maximum tactile enjoyment. Hence I ended up with the Shanling UP4:
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That little golden colored knurled knob is a nicely clicky volume control. It also controls play/pause, next track, and last track using the typical single press, double press, triple press method. It is also the power button using a long press which is the only fault IMO. It must be pressed for what feels like several seconds to turn the unit on and off. Otherwise I love the single knob control and it is very enjoyable to change the volume and skip tracks on my daily walks.
 

mhardy6647

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Before the days of smart phones, automated DRC, and all the rest, this super handy
little guy has been making measurements and balancing systems here since the 1980s.
It still works perfectly and I find myself reaching for it now and then for a quick eq.

I always wondered who the marketing idiot was that named a lot of there stuff "Realistic"?
That just sucked. LOL
2022-08-18-blog-01.jpg
Well -- the R/S brand for hifi equipment was originally Realist, but they ran afoul of the David White Company, which had a well-known line of stereo cameras branded Stereo Realist.

see, e.g., https://www.argusleader.com/story/l...-soared-several-stores-sioux-falls/355257002/

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source: https://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/flipbook/1956_radioshack_catalog.html


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source: http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Stereo_Realist

Stereo Realist (1041) by Colonel Blink, on Flickr


R/S changed their audio product brand to Realistic.
-- and the rest, arguably, was history :)

RSamps by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

A rather gorgeous pair of restored "Realistic" AF (later AF-12) PP 6V6 integrated amplifiers which I acquired at the behest of a friend some years back. :) This model was also sold, very briefly, under the "Realist" brand as well.

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source: https://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/flipbook/1956_radioshack_catalog.html

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source: https://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/flipbook/1958_radioshack_catalog.html
 
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Multicore

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I like these functions:
  1. The Direct button below here when I play music normal to loud but when I play at night which is people are sleeping, I push Loudness button so Bass and Treble can pick-up Vocal or mid.
  2. D1 and D2 will be blinking when music stop playing.
  3. Automaticaly go to stand-by when not being used for 20 minutes.
There 8 inputs which are more than enough for me:
  1. D1 for player/streamer
  2. D2 for airplay/bluetooth receiver
  3. Line 1 for DAC 1
  4. Line 2 for DAC 2
  5. Line 3 for DAC 3
  6. Line 4 for DAC 4
  7. Line 5 for Portable player
  8. Phono for Turntables

This amp has been serving me for almost 10 years which means VERY RELIABLE.View attachment 272116
Making the volume knob a bit bigger than the others is ok but when they make it that big at the same time as making the indicators and labels really tiny it seems out of whack in a way that betokens hi-fi aesthetics more than it does ergonomics.
 

Multicore

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Controls on the Nak BX-150 are very well designed and implemented. I used that deck so much for so many years. I could work it with just my left hand looking elsewhere. When I got it I was still a student and couldn't really afford it but no regrets, it gave me a lot of service and very little trouble.

bx-150.png
 

dlaloum

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Before the days of smart phones, automated DRC, and all the rest, this super handy
little guy has been making measurements and balancing systems here since the 1980s.
It still works perfectly and I find myself reaching for it now and then for a quick eq.

I always wondered who the marketing idiot was that named a lot of there stuff "Realistic"?
That just sucked. LOL
2022-08-18-blog-01.jpg
I have one of those, and it still gets pulled out whenever I need to check/configure stuff....
 

JktHifi

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Making the volume knob a bit bigger than the others is ok but when they make it that big at the same time as making the indicators and labels really tiny it seems out of whack in a way that betokens hi-fi aesthetics more than it does ergonomics.
Yes, sometimes I have to be closer to read the indicator.
 

robwpdx

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Fun topic. I'm into industrial design and user design.

Use now
DBX Driverack PA2 - It has wizards, balanced measurement mic input, auto EQ, pad app remote control for walking around, active crossover, and it does something hard to find elsewhere - a subsonic synthesizer. Generally you would set it up for the show and then not need to do much adjustment.

They do have some more expensive models with >44KHz sampling. For PA use it has a limiter. This is a must when the DJ keeps turning up the mixer output gain to keep from blowing your speakers. It isn't the pure path we usually discuss. It is also used in studios for the subsonic synthesizer in mixing dance music.

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Dolby A (363). All the Dolby stuff just works. The only thing you have to do is set the reference level. Most of what could fail was on field replaceable cards. People use the SR, the last evolution of A as a vocal compressor. If you know when to listen, Dolby does pump, but it was good for noise reduction. The company keeps innovating, profitably.

Revox linear turntable - there is a huge turntable design fetish in modern turntables. The lathe follows a linear path. If your turntable arm follows an arc, you will get a of distortion. The Revox controls are simple. The circuitry is complex, but it is repairable, unlike modern gear. Swiss engineering.

revox-b795.jpg


Harmon Kardon HK725 Preamp
Clean controls, tape to tape copy back when tape was a thing. Awaiting recap on the bench. The tuner has deteriorated in performance, have not researched why, and over the air tuners are not useful today. The HK825 also looks good, but the rotary switches are not good. On the bench.

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Have owned
The Philips GA 312 turntable. Cheap. Good arm with simple anti skating adjust and a detachable cartridge caddy. The best part is the touch controls! I just gave it to a friend with a V15-Type IV along with my original EPI-100s for her garage sale about 15 years ago.

philips-312.jpg


The Technics linear turntable arm in lid turntables. Foolproof. I never had to figure out how to set the tracking force though. They are not for a modern high end cartridge.

Have used
The 3M Mincom dual differential capstan tape machines. Technics had some similar consumer machines which were highly praised. very elegant solution that saved space. The capstan was ridged so that the tape was pulled through by the difference in diameter of the ridges. The pinch rollers on the in-feed and out-feed pressed the tape into different diameters on the upper capstan. The erase and record heads were on the left side, and the playback on the right. If you flipped down the magnetic shield, it was very easy to mark the tape for editing - if you were right handed. The shallow trough at the bottom where the old tape residue is was perfect for storing your editing razor blades. That was probably where the editing block was double side tape attached.

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The Ampex ATR 100 series tape machines. The servo knob on the capstan was genius - very easy to edit on. Very satisfying when after the threading you do a maneuver to kick the servo in.

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The Suburban Sound 8 channel mixer by Neil Muncy. Simple, portable, clean. The API console followed it and had a similar architecture - using transformer gain, and a relatively simple high gain op amp with bipolar output stage. Just 2 gain blocks from microphone in to line out. Today all those transformers and capacitors in the signal path are frowned upon from a sonic purity standpoint, but a lot of rock was based on transformer everything, and even inductor-based eq, including Neve. Doubt thais had capacitors in the signal path. The SS-3 was very lightweight and we took them remote often. Modern gear, and modern digital is much more linear, but if you did not over drive these they were good for the time.

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There are a lot of beautiful looking / pleasing industrial design European microphones that sound good too. B&K, DPA, older AKG - the C24/C12, Schoeps. Industrial design on mics is getting a bit weird lately. Schoeps had a unique multi-pattern condenser capsule. By turning the top, you could have omni, figure 8, or cardioid. It had mechanical shutters and maybe selected diaphragms. I would have loved to take one apart, but there are probably very few people in the world who could put it back together. They discontinued it because it was too expensive to make and I think now they are out of the rubber parts of the mechanism.

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Some of you may know the recording - tracking engineer Sylvia Massy. She is genius on pop vocals and drums. She collects and uses vintage microphones, has some beautiful ones, and uses them recording. You can find her studio site and YouTube videos.

Any speaker with a walnut horn is beautiful, but another material is probably better for performance.

Friend had
One of the Marantz oscilloscope receivers. XY displays of music are endlessly fascinating, but CRT's are a heavy maintenance and reliability lift. Personally I think this one has too many buttons and dials - better to use a larger CRT. By the way, some friends have repurposed CRT TVs with an audio amp connected directly to the deflection coils L-R to V-H. I have also seen people glue mirrors to speaker cones and bounce a laser off it.

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Admire
Another poster had some Braun. I can't afford to collect those. I carry with me the design summary by Dieter Rams:
  1. Good design is innovative
  2. Good design makes a product useful
  3. Good design is aesthetic
  4. Good design makes a product understandable
  5. Good design is unobtrusive
  6. Good design is honest
  7. Good design is long-lasting
  8. Good design is thorough down to the last detail
  9. Good design is environmentally-friendly
  10. Good design is as little design as possible
 
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jsilvela

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I love the memory settings on AVR's where you can configure the volume per stored channel.
Otherwise, switching from, say, the DVD/Blu-Ray channel to the pure music channels like Phono/CD usually results in volume way too high and quick groping for the remote.
 

Keith_W

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Here are a couple of examples of BAD (non hifi) design. Imagine if you were kidnapped by a really weird evil guy and he threatens to shoot you if you don't play a game. His game is: you have only one go at choosing the correct setting in a gadget of his choice. If you guess wrong, you will be shot. So let's play this game.

Exhibit A: Sony A7 Mk.III camera. Shutter speed, aperture, and ISO are the only 3 variables you need to control to achieve good exposure. Your challenge is to look at these two pictures and decide for yourself how you are going to change these variables before touching the camera:

Sony-Alpha-A7-iii-3.jpg

Sony-A7-III-Top.jpg



Exhibit B: Instant Pot electric pressure cooker. These gadgets are everywhere. With pressure cooking, there are only two variables that you need to consider: how much pressure, and how much time. Take a look at this control panel and ask yourself how you would set it to cook at full pressure for 1 hour, again without touching the gadget. Then ask yourself why they have those buttons for various things you might want to cook, but no button to set the time. Remember, you only have one go at this!

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Exhibit C: Sigma Bicycle Computer. Your challenge is to turn it off (note that all four of those buttons are unlabelled). Removing the battery at the back is considered cheating:

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Exhibit D: Tokyo Flash watches. Website here. Your challenge is to tell the time:

(In fairness to them, their intention was to deliberately design something that looks cool and isn't obvious how it functions. This is in contrast to all the other examples above where they are intended to be functional but unintentionally become non-functional due to bad design).
pimp-p2-lr-led-watch-tokyoflash-japan-black-case-black-leather-strap-blue-leds-02_2048x.jpg


There are even more examples of bad design that I haven't listed. Microwaves that can't microwave for 15 seconds. Music software that is supposed to find music for you but can't do that (like Roon). Any DAP that does not display the full track name. Any product that requires close inspection of the manual to figure out how to change a setting. All Casio watches. Japanese toilets and shower heads. Pasta brands that do not indicate a cooking time. And my pet peeve: proprietary anything (there, I made a blanket statement).
 
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sergeauckland

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Good design:- Old school 'knob a function' where you can operate the equipment just by looking at the panel, and easily learn where each button or knob is, so can operate the item without even having to look at the panel. Particularly important with a car.

Bad design:- Anything software driven with nested menus, meaning that to access a function one has to go through several pages of menus. Firstly impossible to use without looking, especially with a touch screen, secondly one can only access the lower menus if one knows they're there, so not intuitive.

S
 

bluefuzz

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This is not my picture but I do own a couple of these Nagras – a IV-L and a 4.2 – which have great ergonomics and phenomenal build quality for their intended purpose: mobile recording of film sound. Every knob and switch has exactly the right amount of resistance and is positioned such that all important settings can be seen at a glance when the machine is in its carry-case. They are just a joy to use. Not that I have much use for 40+ year old mono tape recorders but I have dificulty parting with them ...

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bluefuzz

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Sony A7 Mk.III camera.
I have its little brother the Sony A6000 which has essentially the same button layout. It always takes me half an hour to figure out how the damn thing works if I haven't used it for a couple of months. That said it's a great little camera once you figure out the buttons. I usually end up using it fully manual with an adapter and a large aperture prime.
 

Waxx

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I'm surprised nobody did mention the Technic SL1200 yet. That device is in it's class the absolute master in usability (next to sound and sturdiness). I don't know a manual turntable that is easier to operate right than that one, with an arm that is compliant to many cartridges and as foolproof as a turntable can be. And it's still one of the better turntables arround for reasonable prices.

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-Matt-

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Might be a bit controversial, given some people's dislike for hdcp, but consider the alternative in an atmos system... 14 xlr connectors (28 to reproduce eARC functionality) and some sort of clunky video connector (remember SCART, component or SDI)?

...Not that they are very easy to connect, one handed, without vision, whilst balancing precariously and leaning around the back of the av rack. Nor particularly secure or robust.

Definitely more aimed at the useability criterion than the tactile enjoyment one!
 
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