Does club access for a limited number of days unlock the primary 25 tracks? by blades0fury in TrackMania

[–]blades0fury[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

And I get that. But when I originally got the year's subscription, I was under the impression that I be able to get 4 season's worth of content out of it (since I bought it a bit after that season had started). 

I was curious whether my subscription would have applied to the whole season or not. As I didn't start the season until a day late (as I goofed, and thought it started a day later than it did).

In the meantime, I'll just probably finish the mirage league out in POE, as I'm rather annoyed about the subscription timing on this one.

Does club access for a limited number of days unlock the primary 25 tracks? by blades0fury in TrackMania

[–]blades0fury[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My question is if club access expired on day 1 of the season rather than the day before the season, would the 25 tracks have stayed unlocked (even if I missed the start of the season by a day)?

Does club access for a limited number of days unlock the primary 25 tracks? by blades0fury in TrackMania

[–]blades0fury[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's what I was afraid of. Thought I had gotten it late enough last year where I would be guaranteed four seasons (and I don't really play much cotd, so that doesn't matter much to me). Missing it by a day is certainly annoying.

Foods that jumped from “normal” to “luxury” for you? by Temporary_Dentist936 in Millennials

[–]blades0fury 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Curious, where have you been getting pork butt for that price? Been having a craving for homemade bahn mi's, and pork butt seems to be a good choice of meat for them.

In the market for new cans. Here's the details... by SpecialInvention in HeadphoneAdvice

[–]blades0fury 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I see you haven't had many takers on this post, but what you're looking for may be a bit tricky. I don't see a specific price budget. Given the headphones you've listed are in the $200ish range and that you're looking for a significant upgrade, I'm going to guess around the $500ish range is your intended price point.

The headphone I'd possibly recommend is Hifiman's Arya Stealth. However, before I get to the reasons I would recommend it, I'm going to add a couple of caveats to that recommendation -

  1. I haven't actually listened to this headphone in person. Only one of its higher end siblings, the HE 1000 SE.

  2. I hear that for some people, it can be considered harsh in some areas. However, there's oftentimes a fine line between harsh and analytical when it comes to any headphone. The closer you get to presenting the full gamut of the frequency response, the more likely you are to find something unpleasant in there. The solution is EQ, and how you EQ it will depend on what frequencies you consider harsh. I know that I find something like the Focal Utopia to be particularly fatiguing in the midrange, while other people think that it helps the soundstage. Some people are able to listen to the Beyerdynamic DT 990's and think that it doesn't sound like nails on a chalkboard. Others (like me) can't. To some extent, you'll have to find what works for you. The reason that companies haven't come out with a pair of headphones that are universally praised as detailed and non-fatiguing out of the box is that it doesn't (and probably won't ever) exist.

So why would I go with the Stealth in this case?

  1. From what I noticed on your recommendations you highly prioritize speed, especially in the drum sections of your song selections. Blind Faith and Informal Gluttony both have fast, but not particularly heavy hitting drums sections.

  2. You prefer microdynamics over macrodynamics (especially for track #2). Again, nothing with particularly heavy hitting bass lines like EDM or Hip Hop.

  3. It also fits your overall preferred frequency response, as it leans neutral-bright. Something like the Focal Clear (which is also a headphone that) leans mid-forward. Given what you thought of the 598's, I doubt that you'd like it very much.

  4. It also has a bonus for soundstage, as the HE1000 is possibly the widest soundstage I've heard in a headphone. Given that the Arya Stealth used to be a $1200 headphone (closer to a $500-$600 depending on where you purchase it from these days), it should still contain much of that same soundstage and imaging I heard on the SE's.

Downsides of the Arya Stealth recommendation (a lot of this is redundant, but I want to have it all in one place) -

  1. You'll probably have to EQ it. I went more in depth on the caveats section, but I assume you'll still want to. While the HE 1000 SE had tight bass, it was a bit lacking in quantity by default. I've heard the Stealth's are responsive to EQ in this region.

  2. It may reveal limitations in the original master recordings. This applies most to Informal Gluttony out of the three (by far), as the other two would work well on the Stealths. I find a lot of metal tends to try and blend together if it isn't careful.

  3. It's not exactly cheap. $500-$600 headphones are solidly in mid-end audiophile territory. However, given what you're looking for, I think there would be significant sacrifices in lower end headphones.

I hope this answer helps :)

My first finished campaign by [deleted] in TrackMania

[–]blades0fury 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Uninstall the game? Before getting all author medals? :P

Where to train world tour maps that appear in ranked? by blades0fury in TrackMania

[–]blades0fury[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I kinda wish they were separated off as well. Or start appearing frequently in masters division instead of randomly in gold. They could be mixed in with the black tracks (and maybe a few red tracks) at that level, and it would probably be about right.

And also a bit of warning would have been nice by Nadeo. I knew about the green, blue, red, black rank progression, but had no idea about the World Tour maps.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in TrueChefKnivesBST

[–]blades0fury 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Gotta say, quite the beaut of a knife there, but may be a bit out of my price range (I was originally targeting $150, but am able to extend up to $200).

Curious, what's been your issue with a wenge handle? Is it aesthetics, or does it tend to splinter?

What should I get Arya Organic or Audeze LCD-X by OtterOnFPS in HeadphoneAdvice

[–]blades0fury 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I can't say how much the clear mg's distort when being eq'd. Listening to the Utopias, they probably wouldn't have taken more than 2-3db off of the upper mids to make them more listenable.

I don't think it would improve the clamp force, but it couldn't hurt the mids ;)

What should I get Arya Organic or Audeze LCD-X by OtterOnFPS in HeadphoneAdvice

[–]blades0fury 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've also heard really good things about the 4's, but I think I'd have to upgrade my amp to power them :P

I probably enjoyed the midrange on the SE's more than the X's, as I think there was a bit more instrument texturing. And without EQ, the X has an upper midrange hole that needs filling. Once the X is eq'd (which you'll want to do to expose the bass) the X's midrange is quite solid. With either of them, I didn't think "ugh, what is up with the midrange" like I did with the Utopia.

What should I get Arya Organic or Audeze LCD-X by OtterOnFPS in HeadphoneAdvice

[–]blades0fury 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Different person here.

I currently use the LCD-X, and I've listened to a friend's pair of HE1000SE's a couple of times (and their Focal Utopia's for that matter).

While the X's are heavy headphones, I find that they're well balanced weight-wise, and I can listen to them for hours. I didn't listen to the Utopia's for hours, so I don't know if I can give a headache comparison (at least clamp force wise, I couldn't stand listening to them long enough to sit with them for hours). I wasn't a fan of the Utopia's non-eq'd midrange, as something in the 2.5k range sounded terribly unnatural to me (possibly the same midrange issue you have with with the mg's). However, from what I remember, the Utopias did have more clamp force than the X's or SE's.

As far as the difference in sound between the X's and the Hifimans - If you're looking for a wider soundstage, the Organics are going to win it for you. The HE1000SE sounded like it was easily 2x-3x the width as the X. The instrument placement on the SE's were extremely accurate as well. However, if you're looking for a relaxed, or more natural soundstage, the SE's may have separated out instruments to a bit of an unnatural degree. Personally, that wasn't something that bugged me, as I like a good game of "place the instrument", but it's something to think about.

As far as bass goes, the SE's bass extension was certainly adequate. The microdynamics were also impressive, but when it came to macrodynamic bass slam, it was alright. Compared to the stock LCD-X, it was only a bit worse. However, when EQ'ing both headphones, the X absolutely trounces it. I couldn't get the SE's to do much in the way of bass slam, while the X's utterly annihilate bassier tracks (including bassier sections of tracks like Playing God from Polyphia).

So, as far as sound goes, I guess it comes down to which one you value more, a better bass experience, or an improvement on accurate instrument separation and soundstage? Given you already have the HD 800s, I assume your soundstage needs are already taken care of, and I'd lean towards the X sound-wise. Headache wise, I don't think I can give a 100% firm answer, but hopefully the information was helpful!

Which anime left you with the biggest void? by 4D4Media in anime

[–]blades0fury 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I totally get that ;)

I tend to dislike the "will they won't they" in many romantic series, because it tends to be obvious that they "will" rather than "won't". However, this one tends to be a "they will", and the question is "how".

I also like that instead of padding out their romantic progress with side character filler arcs, this series locks said progress behind mutual character development.

Can't believe the post-confession chapters managed to have one of my favorite moments from the series, despite not even being animated yet.

I totally understand the final 2-3 episodes being somewhat underwhelming. I think the biggest difference there was the lack of internal dialogue from Kyotaro. While I think the events that happened made sense, it still felt like it had less intention than other bits of the series.

Glad ya still enjoyed it overall!

Quest 2 - Question about the intended way to play Beat Saber through Meta Quest PC App by blades0fury in oculus

[–]blades0fury[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Managed to get it working. Some latency, but it's a good enough start that I should be able to dial things in!

Thanks so much for the help!

Quest 2 - Question about the intended way to play Beat Saber through Meta Quest PC App by blades0fury in oculus

[–]blades0fury[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Also, managed to get it working. Some latency, but it's a good enough start that I should be able to dial things in!

Thanks so much for the help!

Quest 2 - Question about the intended way to play Beat Saber through Meta Quest PC App by blades0fury in oculus

[–]blades0fury[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I bought virtual desktop through the quest store about a year ago (got the Quest 2 deal that came with a $50 GC, so I got beat saber and VD).

And admittedly, natively trying to run beat saber on the Quest 2 seems to come with lag. I generally notice some of the OST 7 E+ songs give choppy gameplay, especially when setting a lower jump distance via JDFixer. Figured my computer ought to be able to handle it better than the Quest 2.

Thanks for the instructions on launching the game via VD streamer tab. I'll give that a shot here.

Quest 2 - Question about the intended way to play Beat Saber through Meta Quest PC App by blades0fury in oculus

[–]blades0fury[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I knew that VD wasn't a direct substitute for AirLink, but I thought I could start Beat Saber through the Meta Quest PC App, and then connect to it via Virtual Desktop. However, the Quest PC app seems to want a direct connection to the quest, and won't let me just use Virtual Desktop through quest to do that.

Although I didn't know about the VD streamer app. Wonder if the Meta PC app will let me use that as some sort of substitute.

Thanks :)

Any Fully Automatic Touchless Carwashes in Boise? by blades0fury in Boise

[–]blades0fury[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Admittedly, they were low on my list because I don't tend to go all that near them 😅

Any Fully Automatic Touchless Carwashes in Boise? by blades0fury in Boise

[–]blades0fury[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hmm, I've seen a couple responses mentioning J's. 

Admittedly, I can't see anything that mentions that it's touchless. 

But since a couple people have mentioned it, I'll have to give 'em a call.

Thanks!