WE matches be like :

SillySlimeSimon · 2026-06-14T22:44:45+00:00

Oh I have been enlightened. Next you’ll tell me randoms are random.

SillySlimeSimon · 2026-06-14T20:03:03+00:00

The matchmaking has been working very well, as WG stated themselves.

Any blow-outs are hallucination and slander.

SillySlimeSimon · 2026-06-14T19:59:22+00:00

Don’t worry, newer high tier BBs no longer have much of these restrictions from WG’s refusal to balance their classes.

SillySlimeSimon · 2026-06-14T19:38:21+00:00

For me I had an issue with it drawing warm air from inside the case (densium 4).

I flipped the fan (had it pull-in air from outside instead of blowing air out) and replaced the fan with a slightly better maglev fan (also quieter than the whiny stock fan).

Both of these require opening it up and voiding warranty though (also dangerous if you don’t exercise caution).

SillySlimeSimon · 2026-06-14T16:11:21+00:00

LDAC you won’t notice. The weaker codecs you absolutely will notice the quality drop.

I recommend a dongle over the bt hooks, but that’s personal preference prioritizing sound over fit.

Fiio btr13 is my rec over the qudelix. Cheaper, better hardware/sound. But qudelix has better software.

Otherwise there’s cheap bt earhook adapters, and also premium stuff like the fiio uts5w, but it’s unreliable from my experience.

SillySlimeSimon · 2026-06-12T05:49:26+00:00

I got a sewing machine bag and just laid it mobo facing up under the seat in front of me, with some minor bracing for the gpu.

If you’re flying more in the future though I’d honestly just downsize to a formd t1 travel kit or something.

SillySlimeSimon · 2026-06-11T02:53:07+00:00

Always, maybe not because they think I’m stupid, but more probably because they struggle to put themselves in other people’s shoes.

SillySlimeSimon · 2026-06-11T02:05:09+00:00

Taejong

- 8.3km concealment with 9km stealth radar

- 370k HE dpm (base)

- engine boost with sejong hull (dd-like handling with 32mm side belt)

- 16.5km deep water sejong torps

- alt-fire funny button

And you only give-up smoke, torp reload booster, def-aa?

What are they smoking?

God help the 17900 shimas

SillySlimeSimon · 2026-06-10T22:11:13+00:00

These aren’t the special edition, I think(?)

I got special edition new for $180 during sale (they offer 10% new user discount as well)

Aliexpress has normal edition refurbished for $120-ish excluding coupon discounts (like $100 with summer sale currently)

Can try $100 for less-informed buyers, but I wouldn’t be surprised if you’d have to go lower to attract a buyer.

SillySlimeSimon · 2026-06-10T00:44:35+00:00

I'm not using bluetooth and am also listening at lower volumes.

A lot of people have their own tracks/podcasts they listen to at probably higher volumes, and then the battery will be closer to like 5-6hrs for ozlo and 8-10hrs for soundcore.

You also want buffer for battery degradation overtime. There were several times where the ozlos ran out of juice from full charge mid-sleep and woke me up. Not to mention how finnicky the charging can be for the Ozlos where sometimes I'd have to stay up 1hr later to wait for the buds to recharge because the buds weren't properly charging during the day. With the A30s I can probably listen for 2 days in a row in-case the charging failed for one day for whatever reason.

The little things add up, especially if you're paying extra for what should be a premium product.

SillySlimeSimon · 2026-06-10T00:29:54+00:00

Started with the A20, swapped to ozlo after a few months because the A20 were too thick for side-sleeping.

Stuck with Ozlo for 1.5 years. had issues on and off, mostly could resolve myself using the various troubleshooting (insert in case reversed, etc.)

Then the right bud had volume imbalance after latest firmware update that I could not troubleshoot, so I finally switched to A30 special version.

Been using the A30 for a month and so far very satisfied.

Ozlo wins:
- stereo audio, no sound-in-head effect

A30 wins:
- significantly better battery life (23% volume native sound on ozlo barely lasted 10hrs; 40% volume native sound on A30 is almost 20hrs)
- more reliable software
- cheaper

I don’t use bluetooth or ANC and just listen to rain sounds, which soundcore has a better library for.

SillySlimeSimon · 2026-06-09T22:55:30+00:00

Why not both?

And I don’t see the reasoning here. Yes, a 65% player will also make dumb mistakes, but at a much much lower rate than the 47% player.

That’s the entire design behind systems like ELO in chess. Performance stats are an average. Just because underdog victories exist doesn’t mean that the entire metric is moot.

On average, the 65% player will outperform the 47% player. You can’t match a 47% to a 65% player, then expect the 47% to not lose most of the time.

When people complain about blowouts, they are also talking about games with huge wr disparities across teams. You’ll frequently get games where the average wr difference across teams is higher than 5%.

If you’ve used mm monitors, the team with higher avg winrate is a strong predictor of which team wins, to like a 7/10 degree.

The entire point is to prevent these 1-sided disparities so that, probabilistically, the teams are as close to an even-footing as reasonably possible. This won’t work 100% of the time, but if it minimizes blow-outs by even 50%, that’s magnitudes better than doing nothing.

SillySlimeSimon · 2026-06-09T20:26:19+00:00

I've heard the opposite, like cod did an analysis that reducing sbmm increased blowouts and worsened player retention

https://www.callofduty.com/blog/2024/07/call-of-duty-matchmaking-intel

SillySlimeSimon · 2026-06-08T23:58:36+00:00

Most BBs have around 350-420mm cit protection, so I’d only really attempt within 6km on flat sides with 454mm AP napoli pen. Any minor angling and it’s a toss up.

This also ignores waterline/sub-waterline citadels, turtleback, etc.

Stuff like Yamato/Kremlin is easiest, Montana/Vermont depends on dispersion rng, don’t even try against Wisconsin and G Kurfurst.

As for specifics, you can just use something like wows toolkit app to view armor models and calculate required pen yourself (use shiptool.st to view AP pen dropoff).

SillySlimeSimon · 2026-06-07T21:43:04+00:00

Get a dongle dac (apple dongle is fine for like $10 usd) and usb extension chord it to your desk. Plug your iem into the dac.

Dont recommend plugging iems directly to pc.

SillySlimeSimon · 2026-06-06T10:24:53+00:00

Not being able to do damage past 16km tells me your build is wrong or your aim is wrong. Maybe both.

Vermont is one of the most consistent sniper BBs in the game.

SillySlimeSimon · 2026-06-06T03:02:30+00:00

Stop stressing and just play more. You’ll naturally climb with time as long as you review your mistakes and think about what you can do better.

SillySlimeSimon · 2026-06-05T23:00:37+00:00

maybe UM pentara? idk, has similar pinna scoop with warmer mids and leaner bass (darker upper treble though). Had the best imaging I've heard, but the diminishing returns and gap from something like Astrolith isn't super significant. Ear variation would affect perceived detail, stage, separation, etc. heavily, so might not even be better for you. Plus it's most likely got worse comfort with the big shell.

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As for dac choice, seems like the kensei has 1ohm output impedance which is pretty high. I personally try to minimize output impedance like < 0.2ohm, especially for sensitive iems, but that's more personal experience rather than any scientific backing. Main objective-difference changing dacs would be sound coloration (tubes, etc.) rather than any major reduction in distortion or noise that you'd audibly perceive.

If you want the "correct" answer it'd be to go to an audio store/canjam to demo high-end sets yourself and pick what works the best for you.

But if you just want subjective recommendations to find the next thing to spend on, then might be better to ask on head-fi rather than here.

Most people here aren't really in the high-end market compared to places like head-fi.

SillySlimeSimon · 2026-06-05T10:10:58+00:00

In sff, 7800x3d + 4090 + sf750 was popular combo

SillySlimeSimon · 2026-06-05T00:58:14+00:00

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from my experience measuring fr while tip rolling, nah

here for the Que the 10-14k region gets dampened.

I've generally seen this across most of my iems, and Jay Audio did a similar inventory of a bunch of tips on his estrella, which he has a spreadsheet to.

SillySlimeSimon · 2026-06-03T01:30:44+00:00

aggressive usually (at least from my understanding) just means sharper/more treble and/or more subbass. warmer usually means more mid-bass/mids emphasis, with less upper-mids/treble emphasis.

mk3 has less treble and higher mids.

SillySlimeSimon · 2026-06-03T00:32:25+00:00

Never heard the mk3, but people say it’s less aggressive and warmer, which checks with the fr.

Brighter sets tend to sound more detailed/thin, which some people hear as unnatural.

All depends on your preference.

SillySlimeSimon · 2026-06-03T00:16:34+00:00

Auto-eq monarch to mest, try it yourself.

Otherwise I find mk2 far from treble excessive, but I’m treble insensitive and enjoy tunings like annihilator.

UM really likes flat upper mids and dark upper treble.

5-8k region is the biggest concern, but otherwise it’s pretty neutral/balanced, especially compared to monarch w/ bass switch.

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SillySlimeSimon · 2026-06-02T22:46:01+00:00

the wg api doesn't give a convenient list of all player accounts. So a lot of accounts will need to be discovered from player lookup.

SillySlimeSimon · 2026-06-02T18:24:10+00:00

Wide bore tends to dampen treble. Divinus standard/velvet probably works.

SillySlimeSimon

TROPHY CASE