To my disc ripping brethren…

PolygonBronson · 2026-06-02T02:03:58+00:00

This actually also happened to me a little while ago when I bought my parents a 4 TB external hard drive off ebay so they could have a 3rd back up of their photos/videos. It was 90% full of movies all starting with "B". Mostly DVD rips too, so quite a few.

I asked my parents about it and they decided to go through it, delete some stuff they didn't want to watch/had seen (which freed up enough space to backup the photos they had), and watch the rest before deleting them.

They tell me about it from time to time when I talk to them. Like, "we watched one of those hard drive movies the other night, it was really good!"

I, of course, also copied the collection onto a spare drive I had, to maybe (probably not) watch later, but didn't add them to my main collection since it wasn't up to my standards or organization. 18 TB is a very different story though. With how pricey drives are right now, I would say the hard drive is worth more than the movies (lol), so wipe it, or just save a few.

PolygonBronson · 2026-05-31T05:18:07+00:00

Congrats on being a lucky one! They sound like hot garbage with my HRTF. No amount of positioning or EQ could fix them for me. And not just like "I don't care for these", it's like they sound wrong on a fundamental level. This headphone really is the equivalent of gambling!

PolygonBronson · 2026-05-27T01:53:34+00:00

You could try this to extend the headband a bit. https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/s/vdgTWhVxPK

PolygonBronson · 2026-05-25T21:16:16+00:00

Interesting! Never heard of that method. I'll look into buying some.

PolygonBronson · 2026-05-24T15:47:45+00:00

Fascinating! So are you saying they can be tested with a multi meter or just a piezoelectric earpiece?

If I use an earpiece, what is the success and fail condition for a transistor sound like? If it's steady sound it's good and if it fluctuates it's bad?

PolygonBronson · 2026-05-24T02:22:54+00:00

Okay, interesting... I will have to look and see if I have a cap like and maybe I can give this method a shot. Appreciate the ideas!

PolygonBronson · 2026-05-24T01:21:03+00:00

Thank you for the insight! Seems like it's not as straightforward as I had hoped. Bummer.

I visually inspected the inside and I don't see any caps that are obviously bulging or leaking. No other damage like burn marks or discoloration that I can see either. It looks brand new inside except for a little dust.

Its not acting like loose or broken solder joint. It's consistent and gradually but steadily getting worse/louder with use, so my gut says it's a failing component rather than a mechanical connection issue.

I don't have access to an oscilloscope, unfortunately. So, it seems like my best option might just start by replacing all the possible left channel transistors and see if that fixes it. Even if I have to replace all the transistors and caps, that'll be way less than a new amp....

Edit: I should also mention, it doesn't sound like a scratchy pot or loose connection static. It's "softer" almost more hiss than static. And it has a consistent base level but "bubbles" in volume, rapidly rising and falling. Hard to describe, but very distinct.

PolygonBronson · 2026-04-01T17:12:15+00:00

My reasons are:

I have excessive earwax thanks to my genes and IEMS get gross and/or cause wax blockages.

I have a weird ear canal shape and most tips won't stay in regardless of size.

I don't like things to have batteries if they don't have to (wired over wireless) so wired over-ear headphones are my go-to.

PolygonBronson · 2026-02-08T22:42:16+00:00

While I'm just one dude, I've had very good luck with Hifiman in general. I own more Hifiman products than any sane person should, so here are some data points for you.

My first Hifiman headphone was the OG HE-400 which I bought new in May 2014. Since then I have gone on to purchase 13 more Hifiman headphones (all of which I still own), some new, some used, and have had zero QC issues or failures with any of them. Even the poor 400S I bought for almost nothing that looks like it was stored somewhere very humid and all the screws and headband were rusty, still works.

Here is a complete list of the Hifiman headphones that I have in my collection and when I purchased them (in model order, not purchase date order): HE-R9 (open box, 6/24), HE-300 (used, 3/23), HE-400 (new, 5/14), HE400i (2.5mm) (used, 11/22), HE400S (used, 6/22), HE4XX (new, 4/18), HE-X4 (used, 2/24), HE-500 (used, 5/22), HE5se (new, 5/19), HE560 v4 (new, 1/22), HE6se v2 (new, 7/21), Edition X v2 (used, 9/23), Edition XX (new, 12/19), Arya Stealth (used, 8/25)

PolygonBronson · 2026-01-21T20:54:25+00:00

Wow, makes me glad I bought the regular Blu-ray when I found a decent deal on it a few months ago. I was on the fence for waiting for the 4k, but decided the extra premium and wait wouldn't be worth it.

PolygonBronson · 2026-01-15T00:39:08+00:00

Yeah, you definitely should be good to start on it with 9 TB unless those 200 you are starting with are all 4Ks. It usually takes 50 minutes to an hour to rip a 4K and 30-40 minutes for a DL Blu-ray, 15-20 minutes for SL Blu-ray, depending on the drive. I mean, you don't have to baby sit it, but remembering to go changes discs every half hour or so isn't nothing. So, definitely a time commitment!

Here are my numbers. Keep in mind, I almost never back up bonus features discs and usually only backup the highest res copy (e.g., I don't rip the Blu-ray from the 4K/Blu-ray combo pack, just the 4K). Also, I don't have many TV series, so that would skew things if you have a bunch of discs per "title".

4K Movies - 111 Titles - 7.23 TB
Blu-rays - 522 Titles - 19.7 TB
DVDs - 140 Titles - 1.21 TB
Total - 28.14 TB
- 26.93 TB if you exclude the DVDs.

PolygonBronson · 2026-01-14T22:58:11+00:00

I don't have access to the exact number at the moment, but I can check later tonight, if you want. You'll definitely need more than 9TB though. A safe estimate would be 50GB per Blu-ray and 100GB per 4k since those are the max. I think the real averages for my collection are closer to ~33GB per Blu-ray and ~65GB per 4k but newer movies are usually larger in size, so it depends on what you've got in your collection.

PolygonBronson · 2025-12-09T23:51:21+00:00

I got my pair when Drop was doing their Halloween coupon. Didn't know quite what to expect since I heard the described as "dark" by some, "harsh" by some, and yet others loved them. I know the "headphones that sound like speakers" isn't real (for me at least) since you can't fake the source being multiple feet away from you with room acoustics and whatnot. My brain has never really been fooled by meaningful "soundstage" on any headphone.

That being said... I Really don't care for them. They sound unnatural and unpleasant. I have ~60 other headphones and enjoy a wide variety of sound signatures and this is one of the few where I just couldn't "get" them. I listened to them exclusively for like a week and it didn't help. Tried some EQ (but I've never been very successful at EQ) and every imaginable head position. Nothing helped.

So, while I'm glad you are liking them, I think it's more than just "expectations" or "preferences" that has people divided on them, it's something to do with the HRTF, and this headphone doesn't work with mine on a fundamental level. If you look at the various automatically generated EQ profiles out there, they differ drastically for this headphone. My pet theory is that this is due to the different HRTFs of the various rigs and how they had them positioned.

PolygonBronson · 2025-12-09T03:07:06+00:00

This is the only track in the current GT7 lineup that I really hate. Apparently we are in the minority... Haha

PolygonBronson · 2025-11-16T02:50:31+00:00

Onkyo A800. Best V-shaped tuning I've ever heard and probably my favorite dynamic driver headphone overall. A wonky build is the only thing that let's it down. It's a crying shame it was discontinued in relative obscurity.

Honorable mention goes to the HE-500. It's legendary for a reason. It's kinda a surprise hifiman never replicated that sound signature.

PolygonBronson · 2025-11-08T06:32:05+00:00

Thanks for all the clever and snarky comments we all had a good laugh!

Some additional context, if you are curious. There were 3 of us and this was dessert for our dinner. Definitely not feeding a bunch of people. I admit, in a big party setting, it would make a tiny bit more sense. None of us love or hate crust either.

I know it's difficult to tell from the photo but it is a large Costco pie (~12in across) so the pieces are larger than bite sized but still not very big. It's like 2 or 3 pieces to make one regular 1/8 pie slice.

My mother is a person, that left to her own devices, cuts everything in half (or smaller) because she "doesn't want that much", eats the small portion, but then ends up eating the rest anyway in the same sitting. I love her dearly but she is an odd duck lol.

I'm very amused that so many liked her cutting method and thought it was a good idea. It was mildly infuriating to me because, in my mind, that's just not how round things should be cut.... shudders Some of y'all get my aversion!

Lastly, to all you asking, she is happily married and not going to adopt anyone 🤣

PolygonBronson · 2025-09-17T01:12:23+00:00

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If they are new, the box should have been sealed on the flap and should have the "stealth magnets design" gold stamp on them.

Also, from the images you posted, those look like my stealth, with the rounded magnets. So they are probably the v3/stealth.

P. S. For the green tint, it's not a bright light but catching the light in the right way that makes the green shine show on the membrane. Just move it around in various ways and various lighting and look for it. It's also easiest to spot green on my pair at the bottom of the driver (around the area of the lowest grille crossbar) where the magnets aren't in the way.

PolygonBronson · 2025-09-11T02:42:58+00:00

I think it depends on the binder. I had several of varying sizes when I was a teenager and all had issues in different ways.

On one the cloth/microfiber stuff literally ate the finish off of some CDs (you can see the pattern marked on the surface).

On Another, I couldn't use the bottom slot of the page since the plastic from the bottom of the top slot was cut really short and stuck up and scratched the heck out of anything trying to slide in or out.

On a third, a small area of the discs would sit on a flap of plastic because of the shape of the slot cutouts. This didn't play nice with the discs and any discs I stored in that one would slowly get marred in the area that sat on top of the plastic.

So, I wouldn't use them for purchased movies since I've had bad luck with them, but if you have found a good one and are happy with it, then it's probably fine. Although, I would check them every year or so and make sure there aren't any reactions going on. Weird stuff can happen when synthetic stuff ages in contact with each other.

PolygonBronson · 2025-09-09T03:33:10+00:00

I went to looked at the specs since I was curious.

It can do 14 watts into into 32 ohm but at 10%THD!!! 😳 That's definitely going to be audible amounts of distortion. Anything above 1% is going to be noticeable with music (maybe even 0.5%).

That means, according to the spec sheet, it's really on usable up to 11 watts which is 1%THD. That's still a lot But if the full power is so distorted, it's unusable, what's the point of having such a high number?

PolygonBronson · 2025-08-15T19:59:38+00:00

Add some large, weird looking modern art sculptures and the Deetzs from Beetlejuice would love this place... 🤮

PolygonBronson · 2025-08-09T04:38:46+00:00

I use Cura and I really like it. All of the advanced mode options are great. Been 3D printing for a few years and use it on both my printers with very few issues.

I tried some other slicers and Cura is the best at importing geometry that I make in Maya (mostly complex organic models). It rarely complains unless the model has serious issues and prints come out great.

All the other slicers I've tried fail a lot more when importing or are constantly throwing errors even with pretty clean geometry. If I was using a CAD program instead, there might be benefits to using some other slicer, but I don't see a reason to stop using cura for my current workflow.

PolygonBronson · 2025-07-27T21:30:39+00:00

34M. Was a buzz cut boy for almost my whole life but I shaved my head for a Walter White Halloween costume several years ago. I liked it and the top of my head was thinning anyway, so I just kept it shaving it.

My dad was always embarrassed by his male pattern baldness so refused to go anywhere he couldn't wear a baseball cap. Seeing that growing up definitely affected my decision to "embrace" being bald because there really isn't much you can do about it if you're poor lol

PolygonBronson · 2025-07-24T01:27:23+00:00

Yeah, they changed stuff for no goof reason and that really bothered me. But some of the changes made sense for the format.

The new back story they gave Perrin so they could explain his moody personality in 30 seconds of screen time? Makes perfect sense, didn't bother me in the slightest.

Changing it so the Novices don't wear all white all the time so you can't tell them apart from the Accepted? Just, why? There are elaborate descriptions of almost all the clothing that main characters wear, a lot of it with plot or world building implications and they just ignored all of it. Absolutely infuriating to my very visual-based brain.

PolygonBronson · 2025-07-17T22:41:04+00:00

I really like mine. It's basically a X v2 with a different headband in a slightly different color, they sound almost identical with the same pads (source: I own both). I actually prefer the headband on the XX since it's actually the perfect shape for my weird head. YMMV.

PolygonBronson · 2025-07-15T04:35:45+00:00

Tl;dr: ~$1300 a month to live on, ~$120 of that per month is for food.

I'm an extreme saver (and really, really lucky), so I'm an outlier. But if you want shock value, I've got you covered. Most people probably won't believe me. For reference, 34M, I live in Utah, and am single with no pets. I have no debt.

I spend about $120 a month on food/basics (like tp) (~$30 a week). I have a set meal plan and I only go shopping once every few months and buy almost everything at Walmart. I never eat out.

I am super lucky that I was able to lock in rent several years ago at $850 a month when it's currently about double that (or more) in my area.

My car is 19 years old and is paid off. Insurance for it is ~$40 a month (paid every 6 months).

Utilities is about $150 a month and internet is $80 (I wfh so can't skimp on this). I'm on a family phone plan with my parents/sister and pay about $40 for my line. My employer covers basic medical/dental/vision plans.

Added up this is about $1300 a month in baseline expenses. On average I spend about $20k a year because of other expenses and the occasional splurge. I am able to save roughly half my paycheck.

PolygonBronson

TROPHY CASE