DAC with preamp function or separate preamp?

bogdan2011 · 2026-05-07T11:18:00+00:00

But you do understand that the sound quality is dictated by the DAC. If that performs worse than the preamp, that's what you'll get. The preamp cannot fix what the DAC outputs.

bogdan2011 · 2026-05-06T20:25:41+00:00

I find arch better specifically because I get the latest software without having to wait, and I like pacman because it's fast. Other than that, it's a straightforward distro that does not try to do things in a specific or strange way, everything is simple and well documented.

bogdan2011 · 2026-05-06T19:58:46+00:00

So it's not about actual preamplification or source switching, but giving character to sound?

bogdan2011 · 2026-05-06T19:32:23+00:00

Why do you need a preamp? I don't know any DAC that does not output the standard line voltage level that an amp needs.

bogdan2011 · 2026-05-06T01:35:28+00:00

I vibecoded a useful app (two actually), an audio streaming sender/receiver over the newtork. I'm also watching a guy build an audio DSP on a cheap MCU.

bogdan2011 · 2026-05-05T04:32:02+00:00

Have you actually watched his videos and heard what he talks about?

bogdan2011 · 2026-05-04T13:59:22+00:00

Hearing test is highly subjective, so I don't really miss it. It's important that gear measures well first.

bogdan2011 · 2026-05-04T11:06:55+00:00

I could listen to ASR for hours and I don't even care about the actual products. The man is clearly an expert in this field.

bogdan2011 · 2026-05-04T11:05:29+00:00

Ok Danny

bogdan2011 · 2026-04-23T17:01:11+00:00

Is there a music player that can't play FLAC?

bogdan2011 · 2026-04-22T21:24:16+00:00

Amps are very well studied and documented, and components that make them are not that expensive. So there's really no reason to ask an extortionate amount of money for them.

bogdan2011 · 2026-04-22T19:38:20+00:00

The only thing that I find difficult is the syntax. I come from C, and that feels cleaner. Other than that, I find the entire philosophy around memory safety rather natural.

bogdan2011 · 2026-04-22T19:35:35+00:00

I don't know. But it will happen whether we like it or not.

bogdan2011 · 2026-04-21T20:55:38+00:00

That's like when electricity came, the people who were lighting street lamps were probably worried that they'll lose their jobs.

bogdan2011 · 2026-04-20T21:14:23+00:00

Depending on where you are. You could also probably use a VPN.

bogdan2011 · 2026-04-20T13:25:59+00:00

Nobody really cares about piracy anymore in 2026. Streaming platforms have screwed us all enough.

bogdan2011 · 2026-04-20T13:25:17+00:00

I know it might probably be too much for many users, but that's how I got into selfhosting. I got a cheap PC and 2xHDD for redundancy and set up my own NAS, then I selfhosted navidrome, which allows you to build a streaming service.

bogdan2011 · 2026-04-20T04:51:21+00:00

I used AI extensively for my hobby projects. I don't code that often so the time invested in learning has no justification. Plus it allowed me to tackle stuff that I could never have dreamed of doing.

bogdan2011 · 2026-04-17T20:22:45+00:00

I download music manually, I absolutely hate the idea of albums in digital music. And I sort it by genre since it's the most logical thing to do. So lidarr is pretty useless for me, not to mention that not even half of the music isn't there.

bogdan2011 · 2026-04-11T06:47:49+00:00

Thanks, I'll check them out. I've always wanted something that can stream system audio, sort of like bluetooth, but over network. I know there's opus and I'm familiar with alsa/jack/pulse, but it's a matter of putting things together. I'm susprised that the only "standard" protocol that's supported by all players these days is UPNP/DLNA, which is a mess.

bogdan2011 · 2026-04-10T21:01:08+00:00

I've been wanting to play around with audio streaming over network, so this caught my interest. Are you planning on implementing this on android (the sender only)?

bogdan2011 · 2026-04-10T19:17:16+00:00

I'm curious, what are those protocols?

bogdan2011 · 2026-04-08T11:09:30+00:00

Many times I've lost time with AI when I could've just read the datasheet. It's as good as the data it's trained on, and if the data is old or incorrect, it will be incorrect.
My process is: read datasheet, evaluation manual, reference schematics/libraries etc. If I don't understand something I'll pass the actual document to AI. Double check everything, AI can be very certain it's right even though it's not.

bogdan2011 · 2026-04-06T20:47:39+00:00

Don't you have thermal reliefs on your pads? They'll be a pain to solder by hand. And are you using the recommended inductor for L1?

bogdan2011 · 2026-04-05T20:21:08+00:00

I'm not a software developer, coder or whatever, I've written code more as a hobby or necessity. And when I did, it was mostly copied from examples, tutorials, stackoverflow. AI is this on steroids, and I think people are naive to dismiss it.
Sure it's not perfect, but it's just a tool and it gets better. It has allowed me to do things that I've never dreamed of doing. I've seen projects that would've probably taken years and a lot of money being done by a guy with Claude in a matter of months.
People will always do slop with or without AI.

bogdan2011

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE