glorkon
@glorkon@lemmy.world
- Comment on [deleted] 1 day ago:
An image of two men who don’t exist.
- Comment on It's Not Just You: Music Streaming Is Broken Now 4 days ago:
That came in the news literally after I wrote my previous comment. FLAC is great of course, because it’s lossless.
If you google Tidal vs Spotify song count, though, you’ll find sources which say Tidal has more songs than Spotify. I’ve found everything I want on Tidal as well.
- Comment on Spotify is finally launching support for lossless music streaming 6 days ago:
Lossy audio compression algorithms work based on psychoacoustic effects. The average human ear will not detect all the “parts” in a lossless signal - there are things you can drop from the signal because:
- Human ears are most sensitive around the frequency of human speech, but less at others
- If there is a loud signal, a much more silent one very close will be masked if it occurs within a couple of milliseconds around the loud one
- There are other more subtle aspects of the human ear you can use to detect signals we just won’t notice.
So in order to determine exactly which parts of an audio signal could be dropped because we don’t hear them anyway, they measured a couple of thousand people’s listening profiles.
And they used that “average human profile” to create their algorithm.
This, of course, has a consequence which most people, including you apparently, do not understand:
The better your personal “ear” matches the average psychoacoustic model used by lossy algorithms, the better the signal will sound to you.
In other words, older people, or people with certain deficiencies in their hearing capabilities, will need higher bitrates not to notice the difference. In the 90s, I used to be happy with 192 kbps CBR MP3. But now, being an old fuck, boy, can I hear the difference.
Ironically, I can detect the difference not because my ear is trained or better, I can detect it because my ear is worse than yours!
So the whole bottom line is this: While it may be true that you, personally, do not require lossless to enjoy music to the fullest, other people do. Claiming that lossless isn’t needed by 99.9% of the population is horseshit and only demonstrates that you have no clue about how lossy compression works in the first place.
- Comment on It's Not Just You: Music Streaming Is Broken Now 6 days ago:
Yep, converting lossy to a lossless format won’t magically bring back what was lost during the lossy compression.
Changing from Spotify to Tidal absolutely makes sense if you’re sensible to these differences, because Spotify’s best possible quality basically equals Tidal’s worst (320 kbps lossless). Well, and Tidal’s max quality is 24bit 192 kHz FLAC.
But boy, I wish I had these Hifiman headphones when my ears were still young and I could still enjoy the full frequency range of music.
- Comment on It's Not Just You: Music Streaming Is Broken Now 6 days ago:
Looks like your ears’ hearing profile matches the psychoacoustic models underlying lossy compression algorithms very closely.
That’s the thing many people don’t understand - lossy audio compression works better for you the more your ears match the average human ear.
In my case, being an older fuck with slight hearing deficiencies, I don’t match this profile as closely. That’s why I require higher bitrates (or lossless compression such as FLAC) for music to sound high quality.
So yeah - listening experience isn’t just a matter of taste, it’s highly subjective and will vary from person to person. For people like me, the difference between low-res streaming and FLAC is very noticeable, and ironically not because my ears are better, but because they’re worse than yours. :)
- Comment on It's Not Just You: Music Streaming Is Broken Now 6 days ago:
Yeah. On second thought, that’s even better. A shitty 80s boombox covered with band stickers is the ultimate way to listen to punk music. Sitting on table along with a dirty ashtray and a couple of empty beer bottles.
- Comment on It's Not Just You: Music Streaming Is Broken Now 6 days ago:
Crappy punk music should be listened to from vinyl anyway.
- Comment on It's Not Just You: Music Streaming Is Broken Now 6 days ago:
Spotify’s streaming quality is, regrettably, rather low, even if you pay for a monthly subscription.
I switched to Tidal when I bought a dedicated DAC and a pair of very highend headphones and have not regretted it - you can hear the difference on good gear.
- Comment on Truck go 💥🚚 2 weeks ago:
Awww look at it, how cute, it wants belly rubs.
- Comment on That's an impressive drop. Any ideas why? 2 weeks ago:
Well, I had my 18th birthday in 1994 and I put everyone off since then.
- Comment on Llama 2 weeks ago:
- Comment on A tale of two shires 2 weeks ago:
In Germany, we call it “Wörtschestascheiasoße” and I think that’s beautiful.
- Comment on It's almost here 2 weeks ago:
Americans using Fahrenheit always make me think of this sketch by John Finnemore.
- Comment on I hate Wireless devices. 4 weeks ago:
Then you didn’t even really read what I said. I even described the two different kinds of signal paths I was talking about in my first response to you.
This has been a waste of time. Have a nice day.
- Comment on I hate Wireless devices. 4 weeks ago:
Again, when I said it wasn’t possible to get the same quality using Bluetooth, I meant using Bluetooth headphones, not a Bluetooth DAC and wired headphones. And this is the second time I’m explaining that to you, not going to waste my time doing it three times.
- Comment on I hate Wireless devices. 4 weeks ago:
Well, but that wasn’t the use case I was talking about at all.
I was talking DAC + wired headphone vs. Bluetooth headphones.
You’re talking about wired headphones with a Bluetooth DAC. Entirely different thing.
- Comment on I hate Wireless devices. 4 weeks ago:
Also, might I add, I have tried just about all the highend Bluetooth headphones.
Dali IO-12, Mark Levinson No 5909, Focal Bathys, B&W Px8, T+A Solitaire T, Bang & Olufsen Beoplay H100. In a shop which had them all available to try. I’ve compared them with the Arya Organic and the Meze 109 Pro (both wired).
The Bluetooth headphones I liked the most were the Dali. They really came close to the wired ones. But then again, I would advise you to check out the Hifiman Arya Organic at a local dealer if you can. You will definitely know what I’m talking about.
- Comment on I hate Wireless devices. 4 weeks ago:
When I mentioned “balanced output” I was referring to the analogue cable I’m using to connect the headphones to the DAC. Balanced means you get separate channels for each ear in your analogue signal path.
With a Bluetooth connected wireless headphone, it’s always balanced by definition. But when I said “that kind of sound quality isn’t possible” with Bluetooth, I was referring to a different problem: Digital to analogue signal conversion.
In my setup, it happens in the DAC which is audiophile quality. Signal path: PC - (digital USB) -> DAC -> Balanced cable (analogue) -> Headphones.
In Bluetooth, it looks like this: PC - Bluetooth (digital) -> Headphones (which do the digital to analogue conversion).
This signal conversion can’t match the quality of a dedicated desktop DAC.
- Comment on I hate Wireless devices. 4 weeks ago:
I had a Focal Bathys. They sounded great, but the build quality was laughable for such a high priced pair of headphones. Some plastic bit
So I bought some cheaper BT headphones just for home office purposes, calls and such.
And I treated myself to a dedicated USB DAC (iFi Zen DAC v3) plus wired headphones (Hifiman Arya Organic) connected with a balanced cable.
Never going back - I don’t think that kind of sound quality is even possible with Bluetooth.
- Comment on Mass Effect 1 is still my favourite sci-fi game of all time 5 weeks ago:
My favourite sci-fi game of all time is Elite. Because I am old.
- Comment on Stop acting entitled and just live your own life 5 weeks ago:
My God (I shall use upper case for him from now on because that somehow makes him seem more imposing) says all I have to do is find something in the scriptures that I can somehow reinterpret to mean exactly what I need to justify any of my arguments.
So, I hereby declare that I can certainly do that, because it says so in the holy scriptures: “At least it’s good to be on the winning side.” (Mother Goose & Grimm, April 29, 2001, Panel 4)
- Comment on Stop acting entitled and just live your own life 5 weeks ago:
Wait, so you’re telling me that if I pretend to believe in an imaginary being, I can feel special?
It sounds tempting. Can I also attack anyone personally if they question my belief as if they’ve attacked me as a person?
And I also always really wanted to tell people that they hate god, even though they say he doesn’t even exist. I’m sure this somehow violates every law of logic in existence, but I really want to.
Can I justify killing people for believing in the same god as me but slightly different?
Also, well, this one is a bit odd: I have this urge to tell people who they are allowed to have sex with. If your belief allows me to do all this, I’m on board.
- Comment on Stop acting entitled and just live your own life 5 weeks ago:
Here’s a crazy idea, hear me out: What if there is no god?
- Comment on Substack prompted a Nazi blog again 1 month ago:
As a German it’s completely mind boggling to me that some societies tolerate an ideology that is responsible for plunging the world into its biggest humane catastrophe (so far), for the sake of free speech. Nazi ideology wants to kill free speech. If you truly want to protect free speech, you have to at least limit it to all the things that do not threaten it.
- Comment on missing 1 month ago:
You should try my cheeseburger, brother.
Patties are beef mixed with unholy amounts of shredded parmeggiano. Add extra mature cheddar. Glazed onions. Sour pickle. German extra strong mustard. And bacon marmalade.
- Comment on How Coldplay actually sounds 1 month ago:
His wife was shocked when she saw that picture because she had no idea he’s a Coldplay fan.
- Comment on Don't mess with me bro 2 months ago:
Americans think Big Bang Theory is the funniest sitcom ever, and whenever a foreign word sounds like a funny English one, they lose their shit. And then they tell Germans about their sense of humor…
- Comment on Don't mess with me bro 2 months ago:
There’s a satirical movement in Germany called “Front deutscher Äpfel” (front of German apples). One of their slogans is “Was gibt der deutschen Jugend Kraft? Apfelsaft! Apfelsaft!” (“What gives German youth strength? Apple juice! Apple juice!”) They would approve.
- Comment on I am two of them 2 months ago:
As much as it pains me to admit you’re right, you appear to have hit the nail on the head.
- Comment on I am two of them 2 months ago:
I believe there’s a much broader spectrum as straight, gay, bi. I was never sure where I belong on this scala.
Like, I thought I was straight during my entire teens. Sometimes in the early 2000s, I discovered the joys of online porn, and then found that the guys in porn sometimes seemed more interesting to me than they should. But having sex with a guy? No way. I thought.
So I spent my life, a below average looking guy, starved for sex for a long time, except the occasional awkward and underwhelming experience with humans of the female persuasion. Smoking a lot of weed to fill the internal void. One day, met a fellow weed smoker online. Lived nearby, gamer. Knew where to get good weed. After a couple of weeks we met. He told me he was gay. I was like, alright, sure. We played NHL Hockey and smoked a lot of weed. He asked me if he could suck my dick. Stoned as fuck, I said yes. Best blowjob I’ve ever had. But then, I ghosted him. Why? No idea. Couldn’t face the fact that I might be bi? Not sure to this day.
In my late 30s, I got married. And turns out once we were married, my wife turned asexual. So now I’m stuck in a straight life with no joy and no sex, getting closer to 50 every day. Even had to quit smoking weed. Boy, do I regret ghosting that guy.
So to this day, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t turn down a gay guy if an opportunity arose, even though I lean more towards women. I’m just a guy leading a sad existence in the closet and this comment turned out to be a much gloomier confession than I intended it to be when I started typing. Sorry.
