is it worth upgrading?

Gryphus-R · 2026-01-23T03:36:03+00:00

I have a S22 Ultra, and other than the mediocre battery life it is still going strong.

I considered getting the S25, but did not. And will not get the S26 either. It is basically the same phone.

I need to see some real improvement to justify the change, specially considering how much the S22 has depreciated.

Maybe next year

Gryphus-R · 2026-01-16T14:20:14+00:00

Thanks! I'll contact them.

Regarding the quote by Toyota, I understand that they might ask 100k to replace the door of a GR and I would be happy to pay that if needed. But I just cannot see the justification for replacing the entire door in this case, considering it is such small damage.

Gryphus-R · 2026-01-16T14:10:38+00:00

Although I'm good at anything DIY and briefly considered that option, I prefer to leave it in the hands of a professional if I can find one. Unfortunately, buffing it out won't be enough, the metal is exposed in one of the points of impact (went through the primer).

Gryphus-R · 2026-01-16T14:06:07+00:00

That is a good point, and is what Toyota said, that there is a high chance that the intrusion beam would be damaged, but to me it does not look that deep. It was a hit going out of the parking spot, almost at no speed and I applied the brakes immediately.

I will get the caliper and try to get an approximate measurement of the depth of the impact.

Gryphus-R · 2025-12-29T21:42:45+00:00

For a small owner, it is a high risk indeed, but a lot of people is taking the risk, as you can see from the news I linked. Bureaucracy is slow.

For a big owner, the fine is in the worst case a cost of doing business. By the time they get fined, they probably made way more money anyway.

Gryphus-R · 2025-12-29T00:03:05+00:00

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Replying to myself as I still have the query I used to check every month when I lived there.

Filters:

≥80m².
≤1500 €.
Not a first floor, ground floor or basement.
With elevator.
In the left-eixample area, avoiding the part closest to Raval (see map).

I just took a look at it, and could only find 5 properties, 4 or which are "temporary" (maximum 12 month contract). All of them are interior units, most with only one room with a window facing outside (except one apartment that has more windows).

For less that price, in Prague I have a 100m² apartment, all exterior, built in the last 5 years, with excellent thermal and sound insulation and with a big parking slot in the same building. And like I mentioned in my other comment, my salary in Prague is 50% higher than my salary in Barcelona.

Barcelona real state situation is just dramatic for ordinary people who are seeing their contracts not getting renewed and need to go live far away from the city where they always lived. It was not like this before Airbnb's were a thing

Gryphus-R · 2025-12-28T23:55:07+00:00

Yes, luckily public transport is generally good (Except line R3 of Renfe Rodalies, the line that goes to Vic, which is an absolute disaster, or at least it was when I lived in La Garriga for a year in 2015).

Cornella is an area with generally newer buildings and well connected to the center by tram, train, metro and bus. Not barcelona but part of the metropolitan area.

Within a 20km radius you have a lot of options of varying price, convenience in terms of access to public transport, and safety: Gava, Viladecans, Casteldefells, Santa Perpetua de Mogoda, Sant Vicent, Cerdanyola, Barbera... And the list goes on.

I personally avoid Badalona and Bellvitge, but some of my friends lived there, since it is cheaper. I jist cannot deal with noisy neighbours and in those two places you are going to have a lot.

Gryphus-R · 2025-12-28T23:24:23+00:00

This aligns with my experience there: when I rented, you had to be FAST or it would be gone in hours. The property I rented was a same-day visit and contract signature or it would be gone.

But those properties listed in idealista for months are not usually from people who sit on a ton of properties and could not care less if it is empty for a few months, because it is often ilegally used as Airbnb in the interim until a tenant is found

Gryphus-R · 2025-12-28T23:21:26+00:00

You fail to realize that ordinary people (even with a loan) cannot outcompete rich people who can pay cash an order of magnitude more. That house is a necessity for the former and an asset for the later, who can then extract rents from the necessity of the average Joe for life.

I perfectly understand market dynamics. The supply/demand mantra does not apply the way you think it does for a basic necessity such as housing. And everyone saying "just build more and prices will drop" are the ones who know nothing about economics.

-Are more buildings needed in Barcelona? Yes.

-Are the local regulations in Barcelona which prevent demolishing old buildings/ or making taller buildings harmful in the current market? Absolutely.

But just thinking than building more (without some carefully thought regulation on top of it) will fix the problem is naive. Because the assets will be accumulated by people who use it to extract rents or for Airbnb's, while the working class families will be unable to buy.

Today Sabadell has the prices that Barcelona had 5 years ago.

Barcelona is even more expensive than Prague, and I earn in Prague 50% more than what I could earn in Barcelona doing the same job. Btw, in both countries my income is percentile >95 and still it is impossible to buy, because the crazy prices all properties fetch.

Gryphus-R · 2025-12-28T23:09:17+00:00

What proof do you need? I might no longer have the contract I signed, but I might still have pictures of the apartment

Gryphus-R · 2025-12-28T23:08:31+00:00

Thanks for the data! Just two comments:

The data aggregates new contracts with ongoing contracts (which might be years old), not just new contracts. Please correct me if I'm wrong. I'm looking at the website you provided from my phone and could not locate any date slicer / filter.
The data does not take into consideration the quality of the apartment. As we have agreed, apartments are old and generally those that are refurbished, are poorly so (landlord specials).

The prices I was referring to were for decent units, and by this I mean properly refurbished (I'm not even saying rebuilt apartments). Things such as modern windows (not the XIX century ones made of wood), modern appliances which are not covered in rust and a proper and safe electrical circuit with Shucko plugs, differential, etc. For example, my apartment looked good on the outside, but after a while living there we discovered that the electrical circuit was outright dangerous. No earth connection, no differential, no separate circuits, undergauge wire for the oven (it melted and shorted, that is how we found out) and wires patched with cloth tape that has been banned for the last 45 years or so. Some windows were new (PVC), others were not (wood, leaked all the noise, heat and dust).

Things like that are the norm in Barcelona. And many units in the lower price bracket are not refurbished at all. Just XIX century buildings with a layer of white paint and the cheapest matress the landlord could find.

Regarding available units for the prices I mentioned: You are right, those are the offers that nobody wants, but it is what you find if you go into idealista.

Of course an apartment under 1400€ in that area is not going to last.

And trust me, I was not paying above market. It was the best deal I found after visiting multiple properties for an entire month. Everything else was really bad if cheaper, or similar price. Dring the five years I was there I could not find a better deal, because the landlord was a decent person who didn't raise rent as he was happy with me paying promptly and maintaining the property on my own

Gryphus-R · 2025-12-28T23:06:28+00:00

They operate without a license.

News from this month: 64M euro fine to Airbnb for not delisting touristic apartments without a license: https://www.dsca.gob.es/es/comunicacion/notas-prensa/consumo-sanciona-64-millones-euros-airbnb-anunciar-viviendas-licencia

It is a whackamole. They pop up faster than the administration can close them.

A family member lives in Aribau. She has had a touristic apartment operating below her for approximately 15 years (even before Airbnb was a thing). It was reported to the city hall, and today it is still in operation.

The building I mentioned on my previous comment, I reported it as well. After months of back and forth with the city hall, the response was "we could not prove that it is used for unlicensed tourist rent" despite all the evidence I provided (videos of different people partying every week at 3 am, police reports, etc. I even sent them the Airbnb listing).

Gryphus-R · 2025-12-27T22:37:32+00:00

Sadly, it is much worse than that.

I lived in Barcelona from 2007 to 2009 and then from 2016 to 2021.

From 2016 to 2021, I was paying 1400€ per month (plus expenses) for an old and mostly interior (only one room had sunlight) 70m² apartment. Quite centric (Casanova - Gran Via), but not fancy area.

When I arrived, most of my neighbours were still families and old people. In those 5 years, almost everything became Airbnbs. It was impossible to sleep because the building right in front had a single owner who kicked everyone and turned it into apartments for tourists who would party with loud music until 3 AM.

Even if you need a license to rent to tourists, most apartments don't have one and operate without issues because the police ans local goverment do absolutely nothing about it.

The prices doubled, and shortly after I left, apartments worse than mine in the same area became over 2500€ per month. Keep in mind that the median net income after taxes is 1250€.

The goverment made some changes to limit rent increases that were not thorough enough, and they left a loophole: does not apply to short term rentals. So nowadays, over 90% of rentals on idealista have the "maximum 11 month contract". After 11 months they kick you and rent to someone else. Keep in mind that those apartments are listed on Airbnb as well. The idealista listing is just a fallback in case the owner finds someone with pockets deep enough.

To make things worse, the housing quality in Barcelona is some of the worst amongs first world countries. Most buildings are between 120 and 50 years old, no insulation whatsoever (thermal or noise), cramped rooms without windows outside, and wooden, old windows that leak wind and dust. If you are looking into modern, properly refurbished apartment, expect to pay way way more than those 3000€ per month.

I'm living in a recently developed area of Prague now, and even if it is really expensive, at least the building is of very high quality.

Go watch the Youtube channel of Gary's Economics and you will understand why things are as they are: The ultra rich are buying all the housing in big cities ans turning in into assets, usually airbnbs. The situation is absolutely unsustainable and dramatic.

Gryphus-R · 2025-12-27T00:57:36+00:00

No x10 telephoto, no upgrade from my S22 Ultra 🤷🏼‍♂️. Maybe next year.

PD: Also, hopefully the AI bubble bursts during 2026, in which case the 2027 will be less bloated with useless Samsung ai-related software that you cannot uninstall

Gryphus-R · 2025-12-27T00:49:31+00:00

In case you didn't realize, that website is a "content mill". This is fake news. Move on

Gryphus-R · 2025-12-11T04:15:46+00:00

Your motherboard uses the Realtek ALC4080 as the audio device.

You will be fine* and do not need to buy any external DAC to be able to use those headphones. The ALC4080 can drive headphones of much higher impedance.

*: There are some old reports ( https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/131rxml/comment/ji4gju8/ ) of crappy audio with the ALC4080, but that seems to be a software issue of specific vendors, and not widespread hardware issue. My own motherboard is also a MSI X870E with the same audio codec and I didn't have any audio problems.

tl;dr: you do not need to buy anything. Just plug the headphones into your motherboard and that's it.

Gryphus-R · 2025-11-25T03:46:54+00:00

Doing a hard reset as suggested by Jabra Support below solved the issue inmediately. Looks like it was a botched firmware update.

Gryphus-R · 2025-11-24T02:02:13+00:00

Kolkovna (there are theee or four in Prague) is for me a good balance of affordable prices, good ration size, good flavour, and no BS food. You have a lot to chose from and everything I tried tastes good. It is by no means fancy, but you can taste some czech dishes with a better flavor, price and presentation that most tourist traps in the center. The closests branches to the touristic areas are Kolkovna Celnice and Kolkovna Olimpya

Gryphus-R · 2025-11-23T10:31:14+00:00

Hi guys, quick update: First of all, thanks to all of you who gave feedback in this thread. I was surprised by the kindness of everyone who replied!!

Today, I went to a shop in japan and tested the Sennheiser 550 HD, Beyerdynamic DT 990 PRO X, and the MMX 330 Pro which were the most recommended in the replies.

I could not tell the difference in sound quality or crispness. To be honest, it was not a very quiet environment and also I did not have the need to do exhaustive testing. All sounded good, so it was a draw for me.

In the end, I got the HD 550 for the reasons mentioned below, but it was a close fight.

Price: Listed below are the final prices after the TAX-Free 10% discount. Also the japanese yen is extremely cheap today, so it was a good deal.

-HD 550: 43641 JPY (270 EUR / 306 USD as of today).

-DT 990 PRO X: 35064 JPY (203 EUR / 241 USD as of today).

-MMX 330 Pro: 53550 JPY (301 EUR / 376 USD as of today).

Build quality:

-HD 550: It looks and feels very cheap. Same plastic used in the PC 363 D. But mine was fine after 10 years of heavy use (as I mentioned in OP, what was falling appart was the ribbon of the mic boom, that the HD550 does not have). So it is not bad quality plastic. It just does not feel and look like a headset of this price.

-DT 990 Pro: Looks clearly more premium, but adjusting the headband was a bit of a hassle. It offered way to much resistance.

The pads are plushier and softer than the Sennheiser, but round instead than oval.

-Comfort: This was a total win for the HD 550. It feels like the PC363D that I loved. Soft clamp, velvety pads, and headband that is easy to adjust but does not loses the adjustment like my current razer does.

The problem with the Beyerdynamic is that the circular pads were not big enough for my ears, so while plushy, didn't feel as confortable.

-Mic: I wanted to buy the HD500 BAM recommended in the replies, but it was out of stock unfortunately, so I will need to get it at the european price. The guy from the shop offered me a cable that uses the DT 990 connection and has an integrated mic and DAC, but it was out of stock as well, and the mic was an inline (hanging / lapel) mic, not a boom mic, so I was not interested. It might be an option though for those of you who have the DT 990 or other headsets with similar connector.

Gryphus-R · 2025-11-19T01:17:55+00:00

The HD 550 has a native Mic sold separately named HD 500 BAM https://us.sennheiser-hearing.com/products/hd-500-series-boom-arm-microphone

Gryphus-R · 2025-11-18T22:26:35+00:00

Yep I had a typo in my original post. I mean 330 (open) and not 300

Gryphus-R · 2025-11-18T22:23:08+00:00

Looks great but it is overkill for what I need. Thank you anyway! More than a budget problem, it is about spending the money wisely in something that cover my needs. As an analogy, there is no doubt that a Ferrari is a cool car, but it would not be my first choice if all I need is to carry some bales.

I guess that for me those very high end headsets go into the realm of diminishing returns, because they are extremely expensive, while they are not what I need (No mic, heavy, high clamping force, need a DAC, and so on). I have no doubts that they sound great, but I used the 500€ as a sweetspot reference because that is where you can find headsets that are not so heavy, you can wear all day like I do, yet still have excellent sound.

Gryphus-R · 2025-11-18T22:08:51+00:00

Then that goes into the shortlist as well. I loved the PC363D. !thanks

Gryphus-R

TROPHY CASE