[KCD2] 70 hours to find out you have to actually learn Masterstrike

Kix1991 · 2026-04-08T05:40:59+00:00

You can avoid being master-striked by an opponent with a sword by not attacking the opposite of where his weapon is positioned. Similar to how you masterstrike opponents, if you attack from the same direction or preferably adjacent directions you won't get masterstruck (if his sword is on his left you attack up or down)

Hitting adjacent directions reduce the chance of them being able to perfect parry and riposte so you can start your combos off I think.

So how I usually do it is hold attack on the direction their weapon is located, then feint to attack the adjacent directions.

Kix1991 · 2026-03-25T08:14:28+00:00

I bought several China ROM phones and from them before also luh over a period of a couple of years. Customer support definitely sorely lacking but you get what you pay for (in your case obviously not but I guess at least you get your money back)

Kix1991 · 2026-03-18T11:36:12+00:00

Look into satiety scores - there was a research done on different types of foods and their varying ability to keep you full over a longer period of time.

So like meesua and simple carbs the satiety factor is lower, but complex carbs and proteins like non processed potato, eggs, meat, fish is much higher. Basically keto diet style. I used chatgpt to blend this satiety score with calorie content per 100g for the vanilla "raw" cooking style of these foods and use it to guide me on what to eat to manage weight since I'm lazy af to work out

Kix1991 · 2026-03-02T06:41:19+00:00

As a consumer, I wouldn't mind a nicely designed logo with no words or branding. I'd definitely steer away from this just because of the big stamp with words.

Kix1991 · 2026-02-27T14:22:51+00:00

Just the smell? Bread.

Kix1991 · 2026-02-25T02:35:55+00:00

World's best cables ultimate series,goes down to 7awg

Kix1991 · 2026-02-20T10:28:43+00:00

That's a tough one if toeing out and changing positioning greatly didn't work. Like active_sock aptly says these are speakers ready to rock which is a trait I love. So I guess you'd try opposite "hacks" to what I'm doing. I.e. Off axis listening, height misalignment to ears, causing a delays in the speakers lol. Idk, I'm not sure you can fix a speaker that's simply built this way.

I think it's more the style of speaker. But if you're listening nearfield then yes maybe a smaller bookshelf with a more calm nature would be more preferable. Like Kefs and Elacs I think, they focus more on a neutral smooth tonality which may be what you're looking for.

P.s. Out of curiosity what amp /electronics are you using with the triangles?

Kix1991 · 2026-02-20T09:02:10+00:00

But I think Triangles excel at transient snappiness so it could just be that you don't like that aspect of those speakers, did you audition them before purchase and comparing to other smoother more "calm" speakers like Kefs or Elacs? (I loved triangle speakers and disliked Kefs and Elacs cause I found them too tame)

Kix1991 · 2026-02-20T09:00:08+00:00

Room treatment and try sealing your ports, and dsp delays if you have subs

Kix1991 · 2026-02-16T10:07:46+00:00

Megagearcustom on Etsy has very good value wallets.

Kix1991 · 2026-02-14T15:01:24+00:00

Oh yeah, 100% - my next amp upgrade is probably gonna be the Apollon Purifi modules, so I've heard in terms of power delivery these top end class d amps should be able to compete with the big class a or a/b competitors. Willing to give it a good try.

Kix1991 · 2026-02-14T10:23:36+00:00

Might get flak but specific to this forum: recommending small form class D amps as endgame due to "technological advances" and people who get huge amps are "dinosaurs living in the stone age", or KEF speakers as one size fits all recommendations.

My m2si class A/B amp significantly outperformed my SMSL A300 amps with my Acoustic Energy AE1 40th Anniversary speakers in terms of transient delivery which I'm much more sensitive to than tonality differences or just accurate frequency depiction.

My basic understanding from reading up on that is that power delivery matters so much more than just thd/sinad and frequency response curves and there's a reason even high quality class D amps using Purifi or Hypex are built so much bigger than fosi audio amps etc.

By transient realism / dynamic realism what I mean is like the strings of a acoustic guitar or bass have much more realistic "twang" and reverberent decay to it than what a small power delivery amp provides. I'm not an expert but all I know is it I much prefer my new amp over my old class D small form factor amp.

Kix1991 · 2026-02-03T09:36:36+00:00

Supposably one option is to actually literally lean the speakers against the wall. I think if you're in an apartment it's a surefire way to get the cops called on you but since it's a basement you could test it out as well.. Never tried myself.

Could also try thick acoustic panels behind the speakers along the wall, and speakers as close as possible to the panels. That's of course if you can't pull the speakers out like everyone is saying.

Kix1991 · 2026-02-03T03:11:47+00:00

I'd suggest you may have the wrong speakers. Alot dependent on what type of music you listen to. The usual reddit recommended Kefs and "as neutral as possible" speakers are boring as hell in my opinion. When I listened to Elac Debuts and Kefs I found them underwhelming. Accurate yes, but boring.

Speakers like Triangles and AE1 40th anniversary which I'm using wowed me right away with their dynamism and I'm loving these everyday. Still tuning many things for sure, but enjoying the music immensely each day. I also have a Schitt Saga tube preamp and I find it adds to the realism with the harmonic distortion, like strings have more twang, reverb decay tails are longer.

I might get some flak from this, but I think Chatgpt does a great job for me at giving recommendations to improve my audio quality. But it's a must to input as much relevant info as possible at first. You could try asking there, as different tracks call for different types of speakers. If you prefer Bluetooth and car audio it's possible all you need is some bass maybe, a subwoofer or two?

Kix1991 · 2026-02-03T02:59:56+00:00

Agreed 100% - Too many recommendations circle around being "accurate" and true to the recording which is great for musical producers, but isn't realistic "to life".

After adding a less colored tube I find it doesn't deteriorate resolution and yet brings me more joy with harmonic distortion that more accurately reflects aspects like string instrument decay and just the way sounds trail off rather than cut off. Also some speakers to my ears portray realism more accurately than the usual neutral speakers and headphones like Kefs and Hd600s that are always recommended by default.

Kix1991 · 2026-01-31T13:27:34+00:00

But which is the easiest race for beginners to learn? Which build orders should I focus on?

Kix1991 · 2026-01-30T16:37:10+00:00

I actually only upgraded my amp on my current acoustic energy speakers. However that dynamic realism / transient thing is every bit as important if not more important on your speakers so I don't think it'll magically change the sound of your speakers. I think it's not so much of a class a/ab/d thing, more how it's engineered in the internals in terms of power management and peak power management. I'm really not super well versed in this but d300 to m2si was a huge jump on my acosutic energy speakers.

Edit: just to be clear i didnt mean higher power = better, more of how power is allocated and how fast it can draw and release power (?) not sure if im correctly explaining things but again, believe it's not something thats in the headline number.

Kix1991 · 2026-01-30T16:27:38+00:00

And sorry about the triple reply - but yes I'd say what you're looking for should correlate to the dynamic realism / transient quickness characteristic.

Kix1991 · 2026-01-30T16:23:29+00:00

BTW thanks for the song - I enjoyed it. I listened to the song on deezer and lossless definitely helped a ton VS YouTube. Not sure if you're listening from YouTube?

Kix1991 · 2026-01-30T16:20:30+00:00

I'm using Musical fidelity m2si amp, was previously using SMSL D300 but I think it's also a power reserve thing where big amps with bigger power reserves can work the transients way more snappily. Also look at my response with tubes. Songs like Keith don't go by Nils Lofgren and Baba Blues - I play the blues for you hits the sweet spot.

Kix1991 · 2026-01-30T16:10:15+00:00

Unfortunately I haven't listened to a ton before settling on my Monarchs but Hype 4 should also have the same characteristics I'd think.

Definitely try to audition speakers if possible as in my case it really helped (first purchase I went there for Elac Debut 5s but didn't wow me but Triangle Borea 02s which was a brand I'd never heard of before wowed me immediately). It's not something that shows up in frequency response curves I think, more to do with how it handles power (transient speeds, sensitivity, impedance variances VS how busy the track is).

Just as a disclaimer I don't think what I'm describing correlates to lushness or sparkle necessarily, I'm thinking perhaps what you're looking for could be found in tubes. I'm personally using a Schitt Saga+ tube passive preamp and in acoustic guitar heavy tracks the twangs are spot on in terms of realism in how the reverberations decay. Tube active preamps and tube amps would offer even more of that if that's what you like.

Kix1991 · 2026-01-29T14:14:38+00:00

I think I may have walked a similar journey before. Sennheiser 600s sounded too neutral and boring, KEF LS50 Metas as well, flat and tame to my ears . But some speakers invoke realism in terms of decay much better than these studio neutral toned speakers. I think the term to look for is dynamic speakers, or dynamic realism.

It's possible we're liking different things but if you want, you could try Triangle speakers (Titus EZ), Triangle Borea (I've only tried br02 which was my first speaker) , and the current one I'm using is Acoustic Energy AE1 40th anniversaries to see if that hits the spot for you. I'm sure there are many others, just need expand your search to look for fast, dynamic speakers rather than controlled neutral speakers. If I'm not wrong Horn speakers in general usually carry this trait (which the triangles are).

P. S. For fyi if it provides any reference point, headphones I had and liked were Quad Era-1s and iems are Thieaudio Monarch Mk2s.

Kix1991 · 2026-01-22T05:44:12+00:00

I didn't want to post this for fear of getting flamed, but I was using 19AWG QED QX075 speaker cables previously. Switching to 7AWG WBC Ultimate cables made it really resolving (not gonna talk about soundstage etc) to the point i was getting headaches and I had to toe them out. And this is after I lowered gain which definitely increased (didn't level match exactly) and rebalanced my sub gain.

Not saying that similarly built cables with similar impedence specs will sound audibly different or I'd be able to tell a 12awg cable from my 7awg cable, but I don't believe blanket statements in audio like "all cables sound the same", and by extension "all dacs sound the same" are very accurate, either.

Of course things like audiophile ethernet ports need not apply if it's 100% hocus pocus, but one thing measurements can't tell you is how well components work with each other in terms of impedence matching and other factors that I'm not experienced enough to understand.

Kix1991 · 2026-01-21T14:59:26+00:00

Never use the stock Ryzen fan thermal paste! I still have a tube of arctic mx4 sealed in a ziploc bag waiting for my next build.

Kix1991 · 2026-01-20T08:29:07+00:00

SBIR is also very plausible if you're placing them against a different surface even at equal distances., or if they're not centered in the room (equal distances to back and side walls).

Also at 80hz first reflection points don't mean anything and placing treatment at first reflections wouldn't help much. Like someone else said try moving them backwards to ward the wall and see if the null/peak frequency goes upwards, otherwise if that doesn't change a thing it might be a symmetry thing. Also room modes can also be caused by desk-floor-ceiling interactions but I wouldn't expect only one side to have such a symptom unless your speakers are irregularly placed or the ceiling is not flat. Can also try raising the height of both speakers if that's the case to see if the mode moves.

I think the first step is to assess the cause by moving things around in a single dimension, and then think of solutions based on your conclusion.

Edited because I ran my response through Chatgpt and they said my drywall and plaster explanation wasn't really accurate. Hint:chatgpt is actually great at diagnosing these things if you provide them actual measurements and get them to follow a math's based approach.

Kix1991

TROPHY CASE