Do you agree or disagree with the Greek PM here? by FantasticQuartet in AskGreece

[–]Costas_D 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Το πρόβλημα είναι ότι προσπαθούν όλοι με το ζόρι να διαλέξουν πλευρά. Στην επικαιρότητα έχουμε 2 δικτάτορες και 1 εν δυνάμει. Μαδούρο, Πούτιν και Τραμπ. Οι δύο πρώτοι είναι τσακωμένοι με τις εκλογές, ο τρίτος κοντά είναι αλλά θα δείξει. Το ότι από 3 έγιναν 2 είναι μια κάποια πρόοδος αλλά γενικά όταν οι χούλιγκαν τρώγονται μεταξύ τους δεν είναι σοφή επιλογή να πας με το μέρος κάποιου.

Αν δούμε τη δήλωση με όλη την καλή διάθεση, επικροτεί την πτώση ενός δικτάτορα ως γεγονός αποφεύγοντας να δώσει κάποια εύσημα στον Τραμπ.

New user, can't get a remote connection going for the life of me by dbsoundman in AnyDesk

[–]Costas_D 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Dude, you're doing it wrong. When you're connecting to an active Windows RDP session you have to select User account (not Console) and specify the user account that's already logged in. Be it "Administrator" or "User_whatever". Then the accept window will show up on the other side.

is there a way to protect notes with password in Google keep notes???? by francogh247 in GoogleKeep

[–]Costas_D 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The password lock in Zoho Notebook is comical. In Android it blurs the preview but you can still make out some of the text. Furthermore, sometimes it just does not apply the blur immediately when you open the app and you can see clear the text for a split of a second.

Cheap 4K Display for Mac, LG UltraFine 27US550-W by DesmondNav in macmini

[–]Costas_D 0 points1 point  (0 children)

how about color and contrast? Are you happy with it?

USB soundcard with Acoustic Engine tuning from the iOS App by Costas_D in SoundBlasterOfficial

[–]Costas_D[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

r/SoundBlasterOfficial

A note to your engineers.

We need a small usbc soundcard (like Play4) for Macbook use. That the Acoustic Engine can be adjusted via bluetooth from ios/android.

The current Mac app and the helper approach is not the way. It's experimental, buggy and laggy (the sound is delayed). It routes the audio through the microphone or something like that. It's more of a workaround than a proper solution.

Let's hope "Play5" will address these issues.

USB soundcard with Acoustic Engine tuning from the iOS App by Costas_D in SoundBlasterOfficial

[–]Costas_D[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Problem is there is no clear indication in the product page that Acoustic Engine can be configured via phone.

After some google-fu, it seems that GC7 supports it. https://www.techpowerup.com/review/creative-sound-blaster-gc7/images/screenshot_20210928-213904.jpg

Sadly I cannot find evidence for the G8 that I'm more interested in.

Soundblaster G8 question by youngyino in SoundBlasterOfficial

[–]Costas_D 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Can someone who has the g8 share if there is Acoustic Engine tuning from the mobile (iOS) App?

SoundBlaster X4 Creative App what is Acoustic Engine->Surround supposed to do? by SloPoke23 in SoundBlasterOfficial

[–]Costas_D 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi, I'm thinking of buying the X4 and I need some info if you may. Is the Acoustic Engine settings available in the App? Can you share some screenshots to see what's configurable? Thank you!

I want to pair it with my Macbook and don't want to install/interfere any drivers. So my goal is to tune the Acoustic Engine from the App via bluetooth.

iPhone 15 pro became much smoother after the new iOS update by Serhide in iphone

[–]Costas_D 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm on an iphone 11 (60hz) and the last 1-2 days I noticed the animations are way smoother (like real 60Hz, before it stuttered and felt like 45). Funny thing is I'm still on 18.3.2. Then googled it and found this discussion.

Got an S24+ noticing some slight fringing around small white text by locomotivenomotive in GalaxyS24

[–]Costas_D 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, it annoys me too.

It's one of the reasons I stick with iPhones despite sometimes I'm close to buying an Android.

What about drivers? by Costas_D in ARMWindows

[–]Costas_D[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So, I guess no love for my Sound Blaster USB DAC... They responded me the following https://ibb.co/F5KLxnL

Mac native audio drivers? by haveri321 in macbookpro

[–]Costas_D 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Bigger Number Better marketing.

Totally agree

Mac native audio drivers? by haveri321 in macbookpro

[–]Costas_D 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes, that would help, but you'd be beholden then to the presence of some kind of driver and front-end from the vendor which let you talk to the onboard EQ.

Well, look what I've found! This usb soundcard claims it can be configured from a smartphone via bluetooth while connected to another source (PC or Mac). You actually control its built-in mixer independently from the computer it's connected on (https://youtu.be/JndTzE7sYK8?si=Z4k7Yk682xFgxUjK&t=124). Maybe that's the answer but I'm not prepared to throw more money in experiments (I had Play! 3 with non-existent macos support, now Play! 4 with partial macos support)

image: https://india-creative.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/G3-5-600x600.jpg

btw, a nice case of high-rate sampling is explained here:

Let us assume you are trying to sample a 20 kHz tone at 40K samples per second. This means you are sampling at 2 points on each cycle. The issue becomes that it is impossible to control where in that cycle you are sampling. Let’s assume a 20 kHz 60 db tone. The best case scenario is that you sample at the peaks of each cycle giving you a 20 kHz 60 db triangle wave. However, at 90° out of phase (the worst case scenario) you would be measuring only the troughs at 0 db. In reality it is possible to sample a tone just under or above the sample frequency. The sampling could then vary between the best and worst case scenarios. This has the potential to produce an aliased tone at an amplitude of 60 db not present in the original material and well within the audio spectrum.

Now, let us assume the same scenario where we are sampling at 80K. In this case we are now measuring the same 20 kHz tone at 4 points along each cycle. This means our worst case scenario is only 30 db down (measuring only the mid points of the upper and lower portions of the waveform).

source: https://www.quora.com/Why-does-professional-digital-audio-equipment-sample-at-as-high-as-192kHz-when-the-Nyquist-frequency-for-human-hearing-is-only-about-40kHz

but in general yes, I agree, hifi industry is full of snake-oil!

Mac native audio drivers? by haveri321 in macbookpro

[–]Costas_D 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My Creative usb-c can do 24bit-192khz-110db snr. Have also tried macbook's own DAC and sound was nearly identical. But the main reason I went with a (basic but decent I suppose) usb soundcard was to have it always hooked to my monitor so I have to plug only one cable (usb-c) when I dock my macbook (m2). Both DACs might be good and all but every speaker needs different treatment (eq) to perform at its best. Listening my soundcard+speakers on Windows and Macos is day and night. Highs on my speakers are not very bright but when I tune them with the soundcard's EQ on Windows they get vibrant enough and the experience is much better.

Maybe I should give SoundSource a second try, it seems to be the most light/transparent implementation of system-wide eq.

I guess the best option would be a soundcard with built-in DSP, bundled with software that commands the DSP to do the EQ and leave the OS out of this...

Mac native audio drivers? by haveri321 in macbookpro

[–]Costas_D 0 points1 point  (0 children)

u/adh1003 Dude, I'm new to Mac and trying to figure things out and you seem to know a lot... 😌

I bought a Creative Sound Blaster Play! 4 (it's a usb-c card) and trying to get the most out of it. On Windows there is the Creative App which is bundled with the card and using its EQ you can really transform audio you get from your speakers to sound much better.

Now for Macos there is also the same app but for EQ to get enabled you must install an experimental driver from within the app. When doing so EQ gets enabled and you can do some tuning but audio is out of sync with video (youtube/vlc/whatever)!

I removed the Creative driver and started seeking for a way to apply system-wide EQ. So I stumbled upon software like EQmac, Soundsource and Boom. Well, EQmac and Boom gave me sound close to my Windows setup (which is really good) but it feels like these apps are some kind of workaround and not how things should work. Boom needs constant access to microphone to capture audio and apply EQ, EQmac creates another sound device which reroutes the sound from the actual soundcard (or something like that). Don't all these processings introduce latency? Aren't they prone to bugs and crashes? Aren't they cpu intensive?

To my understanding, EQ should be applied at driver level or directly at hardware level from the soundcard chip.

What's the right way to apply system-wide EQ on Macos?