Typical lifespan of actives v passives?

[YSC]

Assuming Airplay and Chromecast will be backwards compatible like Bluetooth and WiFi, I’m good.

Fuck those crusty apps.

I believe most of those speakers all accept SPDIF or USB input at least? so if they don't break in the amp and driver department they should be able to function as some PC or TV wired speaker

 

[Jim Matthews]

It’s no wonder old fossil burners (70’s, 80’s) with low mileage in mint condition sport ridiculous prices these days.

"Remember, you're servicing a car that sold for $100,000 - not one you bought for $20,000." Scotty Kilmer

I bought a 2008 A8l with 50,000 miles on it and thought, "What could go wrong?" It was a joy to drive, when it ran.

I spent the next 10 months discovering how much, and how often an overtly complicated (I mean deliberately - as a selling point) electronics package could explicitly bring things to a halt.

When I started carrying a laptop to read the proprietary error codes - I dumped it at a loss.

 

[YSC]

"Remember, you're servicing a car that sold for $100,000 - not one you bought for $20,000." Scotty Kilmer

I bought a 2008 A8l with 50,000 miles on it and thought, "What could go wrong?" It was a joy to drive, when it ran.

I spent the next 10 months discovering how much, and how often an overtly complicated (I mean deliberately - as a selling point) could I explicitly bring things to a halt.

When I started carrying a laptop to read the proprietary error codes - I dumped it at a loss.

well, as a car purist myself, I chase after those old 90s or so manual sports car for the sheer lack of electronics helping me do the handling, not the ease of repair though. In audio world, as handling can't be done manually without electronics, they are sort after by me, but reasonable design to make it live long before serious troubles wins all the way

 

[Trell]

Assuming Airplay and Chromecast will be backwards compatible like Bluetooth and WiFi, I’m good.

Fuck those crusty apps.

I would not bet on that backwards compatibility. Note that for the Chromecast you can connect it to the LAN using a power adapter that Google sell, and this is the way I've connected the Chromecast to my network for years. Some version of Chromecast has that power adapter included (Ultra?).

 

[Poultrygeist]

When building a sub I use a plate amp mounted in its own external frame. If the amp blows I don't have to perform major surgery or hope to find a replacement that fits. Placement is much easier as the sub doesn't need to be near an outlet and the plate amp can be placed in a rack with other gear.

 

[Poultrygeist]

 

[redshift]

When building a sub I use a plate amp mounted in it own external frame. If the amp blows I don't have to perform major surgery or hope to find a replacement that fits. Placement is much easier as the sub doesn't need to be near an outlet and the plate amp can be placed in a rack with other gear.

View attachment 141246

We need Nikola Tesla’s wireless power transmission tech.

 

[Poultrygeist]

Bucket subs with their outboard plate amp.

 

[redshift]

Bucket subs with their outboard plate amp.

View attachment 141257

You have choosen the dark side.

 

[rdenney]

"Remember, you're servicing a car that sold for $100,000 - not one you bought for $20,000." Scotty Kilmer

I bought a 2008 A8l with 50,000 miles on it and thought, "What could go wrong?" It was a joy to drive, when it ran.

I spent the next 10 months discovering how much, and how often an overtly complicated (I mean deliberately - as a selling point) could I explicitly bring things to a halt.

When I started carrying a laptop to read the proprietary error codes - I dumped it at a loss.

And this is quite a shift for Audi. I owned an ‘84 Audi 5000 35 years ago, and it was a joy to work on. I felt like it was designed by car people for car people. Even the air conditioner was easy—a Harrison A6 compressor with a Cadillac automatic AC control head. Could buy the parts in any store in any small American town.

The ‘87 5000S I owned from new was my first experience with an in-tank fuel pump, but access to the top of the tank required only removing an access plate in the trunk. And it was even rather easy to rebuild the steering rack when it blew a seal at 160,000 miles on the odometer.

But my wife’s A6 wagon—a beautiful car—required me to drive to the dealer to buy more of the proprietary D-zus-style clips for the skid plate, which could not survive a typical dirt road. We only kept that car a short while. Back to Lexus for her.

Nothing is as user-serviceable any more. I worry about our landfills.

Rick “a trained mechanic—on 70’s technology” Denney

 

[Poultrygeist]

You have choosen the dark side.

View attachment 141258

https://www.transcendentsound.com/bucket-sub.html

 

[antennaguru]

I was miffed about Qualcomm's Reciva Internet Radio Aggregation Server suddenly going dark - which meant that every Internet Radio that fetched stations from Reciva became worthless - except for the already loaded presets which still seem to be working - though they will probably stop working too when the radio can't get an authentification token from the server anymore. The shame is that the hardware is still fine, and it's not like Qualcomm went out of business...

 

[rdenney]

I was miffed about Qualcomm's Reciva Internet Radio Aggregation Server suddenly going dark - which meant that every Internet Radio that fetched stations from Reciva became worthless - except for the already loaded presets which still seem to be working - though they will probably stop working too when the radio can't get an authentification token from the server anymore. The shame is that the hardware is still fine, and it's not like Qualcomm went out of business...

And THIS is why I still own CD's, LP's, and a tuner with an outside antenna.

Rick "not wanting to be the victim of some corporation's Harvard Business School profit optimizer" Denney

 

[antennaguru]

And THIS is why I still own CD's, LP's, and a tuner with an outside antenna.

Rick "not wanting to be the victim of some corporation's Harvard Business School profit optimizer" Denney

I think you're giving Qualcomm too much credit.

These were the earliest stand-alone Internet Radios, dating back to 2005 or so and sold until a couple of years ago, and were a huge improvement over using a computer with a sound card and a long Toslink cable to break the ground loop. I would hate to have been missing out on Internet Radio for a decade and a half! Now that would have been a shame! I have several FM and AM tuners with a receiver multi-coupler joining them to a common roof-top antenna, and what I hear over the air musically is mostly highly compressed and frequency limited drivel interlaced with commercials. AM has more interesting news. Internet Radio is IMO far better for listening to music. WBGO (Jazz) in Newark NJ, and Radio Paradise (Rock Mix) in CA are two of my favorites! Internet Radios with vTuner seem to be taking over now that Reciva is dark.

Yes, I have a couple of thousand LPs, plus several hundred SACD and DVD-DAD/DVD-Audio discs, and a couple of hundred tapes. However, I got tired of fumbling through my 1100 CD collection and finally put them all on a little server in FLAC so I can easily search for music by Artist, Album Name, and Song Name - which brought order to that madness. Plus I regularly take that little server back and forth between both houses and plug it into either DAC.

 

[Trell]

I think you're giving Qualcomm too much credit.

These were the earliest stand-alone Internet Radios, dating back to 2005 or so and sold until a couple of years ago, and were a huge improvement over using a computer with a sound card and a long Toslink cable to break the ground loop. I would hate to have been missing out on Internet Radio for a decade and a half! Now that would have been a shame! I have several FM and AM tuners with a receiver multi-coupler joining them to a common roof-top antenna, and what I hear over the air musically is mostly highly compressed and frequency limited drivel interlaced with commercials. AM has more interesting news. Internet Radio is IMO far better for listening to music. WBGO (Jazz) in Newark NJ, and Radio Paradise (Rock Mix) in CA are two of my favorites! Internet Radios with vTuner seem to be taking over now that Reciva is dark.

Yes, I have a couple of thousand LPs, plus several hundred SACD and DVD-DAD/DVD-Audio discs, and a couple of hundred tapes. However, I got tired of fumbling through my 1100 CD collection and finally put them all on a little server in FLAC so I can easily search for music by Artist, Album Name, and Song Name - which brought order to that madness. Plus I regularly take that little server back and forth between both houses and plug it into either DAC.

How is commercials Qualcomms fault?

 

[rdenney]

I think you're giving Qualcomm too much credit.

These were the earliest stand-alone Internet Radios, dating back to 2005 or so and sold until a couple of years ago, and were a huge improvement over using a computer with a sound card and a long Toslink cable to break the ground loop. I would hate to have been missing out on Internet Radio for a decade and a half! Now that would have been a shame! I have several FM and AM tuners with a receiver multi-coupler joining them to a common roof-top antenna, and what I hear over the air musically is mostly highly compressed and frequency limited drivel interlaced with commercials. AM has more interesting news. Internet Radio is IMO far better for listening to music. WBGO (Jazz) in Newark NJ, and Radio Paradise (Rock Mix) in CA are two of my favorites! Internet Radios with vTuner seem to be taking over now that Reciva is dark.

Yes, I have a couple of thousand LPs, plus several hundred SACD and DVD-DAD/DVD-Audio discs, and a couple of hundred tapes. However, I got tired of fumbling through my 1100 CD collection and finally put them all on a little server in FLAC so I can easily search for music by Artist, Album Name, and Song Name - which brought order to that madness. Plus I regularly take that little server back and forth between both houses and plug it into either DAC.

Yes, I expect there are excellent radio stations that I'd need Internet Radio to hear, and yes, I'm sure the digital feed straight off their board is an improvement compared to the over-the-air path. But it depends on infrastructure and services over which I have no control, so I'm not going to invest very much into it.

Plus, I work using computers at work, and don't really want my music-listening recreation to be about computers. I want it to be about a comfy chair, a glass of Scotch, and maybe a good book.

Rick "not really arguing, but also not surprised that Qualcomm, etc., leave people hanging with empty hardware investments" Denney

 

[antennaguru]

How is commercials Qualcomms fault?

I previously posted that Qualcomm let their Internet Radio Station Aggregation Server called Reciva go dark last month. Rick then made a comment about Harvard Biz School being at fault, and I said you're giving Qualcomm too much credit (for having Harvard folks). I have dealt with Qualcomm...

 

[Trell]

I previously posted that Qualcomm let their Internet Radio Station Aggregation Server called Reciva go dark last month. Rick then made a comment about Harvard Biz School being at fault, and I said you're giving Qualcomm too much credit (for having Harvard folks). I have dealt with Qualcomm...

Ah, the nice rdenny signatures Wonder what he feels about "Public Choice"

 

[antennaguru]

Yes, I expect there are excellent radio stations that I'd need Internet Radio to hear, and yes, I'm sure the digital feed straight off their board is an improvement compared to the over-the-air path. But it depends on infrastructure and services over which I have no control, so I'm not going to invest very much into it.

Plus, I work using computers at work, and don't really want my music-listening recreation to be about computers. I want it to be about a comfy chair, a glass of Scotch, and maybe a good book.

Rick "not really arguing, but also not surprised that Qualcomm, etc., leave people hanging with empty hardware investments" Denney

What's interesting about Internet Radio is that many of the stations don't even broadcast over the air, and it's a totally disruptive approach to getting their content to listeners - not requiring FCC licensing here in the US! Yes, some stations do both and some are totally Internet Radio. Here at the depths of the Sunspot Cycle you also listen to the overseas Shortwave Radio stations over Internet Radio.

 

[stevenswall]

I have never seen an active speaker blown or the internal amp fried in my entire life. (I think I'd have to own JBL 7 series speakers to experience that.)

I have seen multiple blown speakers and broken AVRs.

I've also never seen someone warning about active speakers actually mention multiple encounters with the issue.

There was an issue with the black goo in Rokit monitors, but I don't think you're going to have those issues with Kali. Things look pretty clean inside.