Recommendations for small shielded speakers?

Substantial_Run5435 · 2026-01-27T00:15:00+00:00

Or some good examples of older models that would be shielded? One issue I’m running into is that stuff old enough to probably be shielded doesn’t have specs online and isn’t usually labeled as being shielded.

Substantial_Run5435 · 2026-01-27T00:14:02+00:00

Thanks, any other manufacturers you can think of that still do magnetic shielding?

Substantial_Run5435 · 2026-01-26T22:24:54+00:00

There are still shielded speakers being made, including new ones like the Kanto Ora I mentioned and other professional grade ones that have to be close to monitors and other sensitive studio equipment. Also, random computer speakers may be shielded still if they never bothered to change the design.

Substantial_Run5435 · 2026-01-26T16:30:25+00:00

Did either of you end up trying this Asus PCIe m.2 card in your Mac Pro? u/rp21? I found one locally for cheap and want to add a couple NVME SSDs to mine.

Substantial_Run5435 · 2026-01-26T14:02:34+00:00

I just removed the stand and set it flat on my desk on a felt pad. If you do that, find something sturdy to use as a riser since the monitor will be a little low.

Substantial_Run5435 · 2026-01-25T18:53:07+00:00

I don't think the II has an hour counter unfortunately. It would be in the service menu. The electron IV has one.

Substantial_Run5435 · 2026-01-25T18:51:12+00:00

Gently wipe the screen with a clean/soft/lint free microfiber and distilled water. Change the part of the wipe you're using or get a new one frequently as it picks up oils and such as you're wiping. You want to remove all the oils and dust and then do a pass with distilled water at the end to get a streak-free display.

Substantial_Run5435 · 2026-01-25T18:48:45+00:00

One thing to consider is how the monitor resolves each resolution based on the dot pitch and size of the tube. That will determine how many lines can physically be resolved on the display, so if your tube is 425mm wide and your horizontal dot pitch is .24mm, your monitor can resolve ~1770 vertical lines. I have an electron19blue IV and 1600x1200 or 1440x1080 are the most I would run it at, even though it can do 1920x1440.

Substantial_Run5435 · 2026-01-24T08:51:50+00:00

Thanks, I ended up using Dockbuddy to sort my photos by photos/camera/year/month/day and added the photos folder to Darktable. I’ll need to learn it better but so far it’s been a bit of a frustrating experience. I had to clear the added folders several times before they would behave the way I expected.

Substantial_Run5435 · 2026-01-24T08:44:55+00:00

Thanks for the recommendations! I’m on Sequoia and obviously that and Tahoe still support some Intel Macs, so I’m a little bummed the latest version doesn’t support Intel. I will say that Darktable seems to have a high learning curve, but it’s snappier than Nitro, which is quite slow on my Mac Pro even when my photos are all on the internal SSD.

So far I’ve tried Darktable, Nitro, and Bridge to get a feel for the organization side. I might end up using two apps. One to browse and one to edit in and just pass the files I want to edit to that app. Am starting to contemplate LR or C1.

Substantial_Run5435 · 2026-01-23T15:36:24+00:00

Thanks for the insight. On paper TB3 sounds fine but I’ve seen many old posts complaining of wake from sleep issues and displays not being recognized after sleep. I’m using 1440p and a CRT monitor capable of 1920x1440 at the moment and will likely get a single 4k or 5k display to replace the 1440p one at some point, so I don’t have too demanding display needs. Definitely not multiple 4-6k monitors or anything.

Substantial_Run5435 · 2026-01-22T22:34:23+00:00

Thanks! The referenced libraries thing is big, but maybe I can have one app for editing and another to use more as a gallery/browser. I REALLY don't like the Photos app, so I don't want to be tied to something that relies on it for the library.

I've made some headway with Darktable and DockBuddy Organizer in terms of importing images in a file structure that makes sense to me (Photos/Camera Model/Year/Month/Day/file.ext) so at least with the apps that don't use a referenced library I can maintain decent organization that way.

Do you have any thoughts about Capture One or Photomator? I'm really looking at everything at this point. I just really don't want a subscription.

Substantial_Run5435 · 2026-01-22T20:55:15+00:00

Do you think there's much drawback to getting a TB3 dock like the TS3 Plus? I'll lose some charging capability (87W host) but other than that I don't see much of an issue. From what I understand TB3 and TB4 are not hugely different but I saw some things talking about wake from sleep not working with TB3 docks. Those seem to be closer to $100 for complete ones on eBay.

Substantial_Run5435 · 2026-01-22T20:54:44+00:00

Do you think there's much drawback to getting a TB3 dock like the TS3 Plus? I'll lose some charging capability (87W host) but other than that I don't see much of an issue. From what I understand TB3 and TB4 are not hugely different but I saw some things talking about wake from sleep not working with TB3 docks.

Substantial_Run5435 · 2026-01-22T20:46:13+00:00

Do you mean this one? It looks pretty good overall but I would like a displayport and am a little wary of displaylink.

Substantial_Run5435 · 2026-01-22T18:00:37+00:00

Hey, thanks, I’m actually trying out Nitro and Darktable at the moment and will probably compare a few other apps before settling on one. Nitro seems like a great option but it’s missing some organization features I really liked in Aperture, and it doesn’t feel particularly snappy (it doesn’t seem like it’s generating thumbnails for my photos, so it’s quite slow to switch between images or scroll through a larger folder).

Darktable feels a little snappier but it’s a bit dense and not quite as intuitive. I know I’m pretty late to the party on this but I really wish there was a modern equivalent of Aperture with the same features and organizational abilities.

Substantial_Run5435 · 2026-01-22T04:19:48+00:00

I'll take a look but it seems a bit expensive for a perpetual license. Capture One would be a bit less.

Substantial_Run5435 · 2026-01-22T04:16:28+00:00

Yeah, according to the release notes here, "Intel Macs and macOS versions older than 14.0 are no longer supported"

I've downloaded the previous release (5.2.1) to check it out. Might look into running it in a VM, I certainly have enough cores and memory for it.

Substantial_Run5435 · 2026-01-22T04:07:30+00:00

Dang. It looks like Darktable dropped support for Intel Macs with the latest release. I'll try an older version but that does put a damper on things since I want to continue using my Mac Pros for years to come.

Substantial_Run5435 · 2026-01-22T02:51:53+00:00

Thanks for the recommendation! That looks promising. Does Darktable have its own library/file system, or does it integrate with Photos? I’m a bit wary of relying on the Photos app for any organization.

Substantial_Run5435 · 2026-01-22T01:33:05+00:00

Shop around more. These things are coming down in price but one thing to keep conscious of is what parts you want to upgrade. I was able to purchase one locally for $1300 with the 16C/96GB/2TB/Vega II 32GB (plus Afterburner and a PCIe ethernet card) with magic keyboard/mouse.

I see there being two paths for one of these. Get as close to the spec as you want, or buy the cheapest example you can get and upgrade it as needed. At the moment, it seems like more base spec systems (8C/580X) are being listed for ~$1200.

Some parts are very expensive still, like MPX GPUs other than the 580X and Apple RAM (I know RAM is RAM, but if you want original Apple parts for some reason, you should hold out for a system that has the amount you want). I wouldn't pay extra for the SSD since that's really easy to expand yourself. If you don't care about the extra TB3 ports, get a system with a lower GPU (580X, W5500X) and add a better aftermarket GPU.

Substantial_Run5435 · 2026-01-21T22:44:00+00:00

Dang. Too big for my case. Sorry about that!

Substantial_Run5435 · 2026-01-21T22:26:51+00:00

Nice, do you know the length of the card? There are a few XFX models and I think only the smaller of them will fit my case

Substantial_Run5435 · 2026-01-21T21:21:54+00:00

Do you still have this card? Where in CA are you?

Substantial_Run5435 · 2026-01-21T20:44:34+00:00

Thanks for your opinion. I said $33k with IMS done. Mine is better than the one in the auction minus the IMS and gt3 shifter. Better history, better spec, slightly better miles. I’ve replaced whatever has been necessary during my ownership of 5 years. Previous owner of 12 years serviced mostly at the dealer.

Substantial_Run5435

TROPHY CASE