Your latest cool purchase

[Palmer]

Sorry for the dust, Milton shook the house a little. Current coffee table book.

 

[Mr. Widget]

Umik-1

A Umik-1 with REW is super cool even though in 2024 most of us take it for granted.

I was re-reading an old Stereo Review article by Craig Stark from Nov. 1971. in the article he mentioned that he borrowed a calibrated mic and an RTA from Hewlett Packard. The system cost $13,000 which when adjusted for inflation would be over $100,000 today! That hundred plus thousand dollar system was only for an RTA... something our phones can do today!

So yeah, the Umic-1 is pretty cool.

 

[Palmer]

A Umik-1 with REW is super cool even though in 2024 most of us take it for granted.

I was re-reading an old Stereo Review article by Craig Stark from Nov. 1971. in the article he mentioned that he borrowed a calibrated mic and an RTA from Hewlett Packard. The system cost $13,000 which when adjusted for inflation would be over $100,000 today! That hundred plus thousand dollar system was only for an RTA... something our phones can do today!

So yeah, the Umic-1 is pretty cool.

Not recent, about 2 years ago - had to have it. For old times sake. Works, too...

 

[Blumlein 88]

Not recent, about 2 years ago - had to have it. For old times sake. Works, too...

That is cool. Will always be cool at least to some of us. I sometimes have to try very hard not to buy stuff like that. Fortunately it is getting less common to run across things like that.

I always try to remind myself about an old cool item my brother in law purchased. He was proud of it. It was obsolete old tech. He was showing it off, and saying, "do you know how much that cost originally?" when someone having heard that from him too many times said, "do you know what its worth now? Think about why they gave it to you if you picked it up."

Of course that is why he and I jointly came to possess our very own functional mainframe computer. Yes, if we picked it up and promised never to resale it then it was ours. Complete with the old Winchester drum hard drive, Qualcomm tape drives and an HP power conditioner the size of a fridge ( in time repurposed to condition the power to my entire home). Of course it burned so much electricity we never did too much with it.

 

[Jimbob54]

Right, that’s me all sorted with my holy trinity of 3 iem’s, no need to buy anymore (for now )

FATfreq x HBB Deuce (Pre-Order)

PRE-ORDER Special FREE Upgrade Silver 'Blood' Cable,FREE Bass Impedance adapter (3.5mm or 4.4mm)Valid for PreOrders placed before 31th October (Ships 30th August)[NEW] First Batch Ships 30th SeptemberExperience deep, focused power with the 2nd generation of FATfreq's Basscannon technology: 25dB...

fatfreq.com

Got mine yesterday . You got a better set of accessories .

Note of caution , don't try and remove the cables . The lip of the recessed socket is brittle to say the least .

Very comfy but the bass response is massively sensitive to tip and seal . Dunu SS gives me full bass .my usual default of moondrop spring tips give way less thump. Not tried the stock as I can tell they aren't big enough.

 

[SSS]

Old but still good and useful I purchased a HP oscilloscope which works up to 500 MHz. So I can watch audio up to this frequency (LOL).
No, it is for radio frequency projects and restorations.

 

[LTig]

Old but still good and useful I purchased a HP oscilloscope which works up to 500 MHz. So I can watch audio up to this frequency (LOL).
No, it is for radio frequency projects and restorations.View attachment 399944

You could watch high speed opamps misused in audio circuits happily oscillating at 100 MHz or more. That was impossible with my first vintage 1965 HP scope I bought 2nd hand as a poor student around 1980. It had a round blue screen and a whopping 500 kHz bandwidth.

 

[SSS]

You could watch high speed opamps misused in audio circuits happiky oscillating at 100 mhz or more. That was impossible with my first vintage 1965 HP scope I bought 2nd hand as a poor student around 1980. It had a round blue screen and a whopping 500 kHz bandwidth.

Oh, one of the really old ones. Hope you have now a newer one? And true, oscillation of OP amps can be a not seen problem. Also possible at power amps.
Will have a view at it.

 

[LTig]

Oh, one of the really old ones. Hope you have now a newer one?

yep. I replaced it by a used Tektronix 465 (2 ch 100 MHz) and later a new Siglent SDS 1202XE (DSO, 2 ch 200 Mhz).

 

[zeropoint]

Greadio Portable DAB/DAB+/FM Solar Radio with Bluetooth 5.3, Flashlight, Hand Crank, Emergency Wind Up Radio, 4000mAh Rechargeable Battery with SOS, USB, SD Card, Headphone Jack, White Noise​

Good sound; Good DAB; not so good FM..

 

[Somafunk]

Got mine yesterday . You got a better set of accessories .

Note of caution , don't try and remove the cables . The lip of the recessed socket is brittle to say the least .

Very comfy but the bass response is massively sensitive to tip and seal . Dunu SS gives me full bass .my usual default of moondrop spring tips give way less thump. Not tried the stock as I can tell they aren't big enough.

Agree to the Dunu S&S tips, I listened last night with the supplied medium tips but swapped out for small Dunu S&S earlier today and they seem to stay in my ear canal without loosing the seal over time, for long listening sessions I can find the Dunu tips to be irksome so i have the Penon Liqueur ear tips in orange and black versions and Divinus Velvets so I’ll play around.

The ear tip retention ring on the end of the iem nozzle is quite chonky so I may take a small diamond file around it to reduce the diameter of the nozzle ring, it’s practically impossible to fit/remove tips as is.

I attempted to remove the cable last nice but jesuzzz it’s tight, think I’ll just leave as is.

 

[zeropoint]

Choyong A8W Portable Internet Radio (GLOBAL VERSION) with WIFI&4G, FM, Micro-SD Card, with voice recognition station search and USB-C headphone out..

 

[Somafunk]

Choyong A8W Portable Internet Radio (GLOBAL VERSION) with WIFI&4G, FM, Micro-SD Card, with voice recognition station search and USB-C headphone out..
View attachment 402307

Do you have this at the moment or are you waiting for delivery?, I’m a sucker for a nice radio although my use for one is limited.

Only £40 on aliexpress with all the discounts applied, I could be very tempted at that price.

 

[Kblade]

Always wanted a Patek

 

[zeropoint]

Do you have this at the moment or are you waiting for delivery?, I’m a sucker for a nice radio although my use for one is limited.

Only £40 on aliexpress with all the discounts applied, I could be very tempted at that price.

Received it a few days ago. It arrived in perfect condition (double-boxed and bubble-wrapped) in eight days from Aliexpress store. Haven't played with it much yet, but like it so far. Could do with basic EQ to boost bass and maybe cut treble, but generally good sound.

 

[Somafunk]

Could do with basic EQ to boost bass and maybe cut treble, but generally good sound.

Its the sound quality that’s let me down on a few replacements for my broken Sony sw-100 which was fm/sw only and tiny but had good audio quality.

Is the build quality good?, what about the menu system?, if I can’t figure it out without looking at the manual then it’s a fail
.

 

[zeropoint]

Its the sound quality that’s let me down on a few replacements for my broken Sony sw-100 which was fm/sw only and tiny but had good audio quality.

Is the build quality good?, what about the menu system?, if I can’t figure it out without looking at the manual then it’s a fail
.

The build quality is very good. It's quite solid. Knobs and buttons have good positive feel.

The menu system is basic:
MENU->SEARCH, ASIA, AFRICA, EUROPE, SOUTH AMERICA, NORTH AMERICA, OCEANIA
EUROPE->United Kingdom, Germany, France, Ascension Island (British), Italy ... (eventually changing to an alphabetically sorted list of countries)
UK->Music, News, Podcast, BBC Radio, Anglesey, (alphabetically sorted list of cities/counties/islands)
Music->(unsorted list of stations)
Settings->Data Sim Card, SIM card selection, Wi-Fi, Backlight, Play time limit (sleep timer), Auto play, IMEI & MAC, version info, Restore factory settings

Shortcomings are lack of text station search: can only use voice search which can be erratic (one minute it'll correctly recognize Smooth Jazz Tampa Bay, then the next it'll be Justin Bieber?!? - I don't think it's my accent ; It doesn't go straight to the named station, but list stations containing keywords; Stations are not sorted alphabetically, so finding a station that voice search failed to recognize, can be laborious and frustrating; very little station info displayed; doesn't seem to like stream formats other than mp3/aac such as ogg or flac, even though they are listed and it seems to try to decode them; EQ would be useful; no Bluetooth - surely everything has Bluetooth ; Second power? switch mode not adequately explained: main power button long-press powers on/off; short press wakes screen; volume knob has hard off position which retains current station whereas power button doesn't and performs full power up/down.

Despite the shortcomings, I still like it, especially at the current price. No regrets.

See this review:

Hope this helps.

 

[JeffS7444]

Always wanted a Patek

Nice, what lead you to that specific model?

 

[Martin]

Martin

 

[Somafunk]

Despite the shortcomings, I still like it, especially at the current price. No regrets.

Thanks very much for your detailed review of the good/bad - much appreciated, its still in my basket and I'll decide after a couple of whisky's tonight