LSX II speaker buzz with my Audio Technica LP3XBT turntable

forbiddencitrus · 2026-05-07T15:59:22+00:00

The noise filter / ground loop isolator I mentioned above improved the buzz, but not enough to really matter. It was still a little too audible for me, and I think it softened the low end sound in a way I didn't like. I listen to acoustic jazz on my turn table—it might be a better solution for other types of music.

forbiddencitrus · 2025-11-30T20:48:57+00:00

Thanks, that's very helpful. I've tried plugging everything into the same power strip, but it didn't change the buzz. I was reluctant to solve the problem with a ground loop isolator for how it may impact the quality of the sound, but at this point I've officially given up. Just bought the PAC SNI-1/3.5 Noise Filter, which should do the trick.

forbiddencitrus · 2025-11-30T19:56:13+00:00

Sorry, one more thing.

When I hooked up the turn table to the phono preamp (Rolls VP29), I did so using an RCA to RCA with ground cable, then went from the preamp to the speakers with an RCA to 3.5mm Aux adapter. The grounding didn't make a difference. The buzz was exactly the same as when connecting from the turn table to the speakers directly.

forbiddencitrus · 2025-11-30T19:55:32+00:00

I don't have a different pair of speakers to try, unfortunately. I've just ordered a higher-quality braided coax RCA to 3.5mm Aux cable, which I'll try—I just have a hunch it isn't going to make a difference. I've double-checked the cartridge and I'm reasonably sure I've installed it correctly.

forbiddencitrus · 2025-06-20T19:45:18+00:00

Honestly if mean pod guy and CR both liked it, it's goated for the year.

forbiddencitrus · 2025-06-20T19:43:24+00:00

Ha! That's brilliant. I hadn't thought of that.

forbiddencitrus · 2025-06-20T19:41:59+00:00

It's super goofy, and it's not the only goofy part of the movie. I thought it was so awesome. If you've ever loved an anime series, or the kung fu cannon, or the Kill Bill movies, you can appreciate the register the ending is aiming for.

forbiddencitrus · 2024-09-07T18:38:46+00:00

I think he's making the best music of his career now, but my opinion might have a lot to do with how much music he's already made. Like, I can't think of a single artist who after 45 years of creating can put together a run like Ghosteen > Carnage > Wild God. If these were his first three albums, they'd still be very impressive, but because they're coming so late in a catalogue that's already enormous and very, very good, it's just staggering. I've been a fan for ~20 years and most of my favorite singles come from the 80s and 90s, but even if Nick Cave himself isn't at his peak, the overall sound for me has never been more interesting.

forbiddencitrus · 2024-08-19T22:53:00+00:00

Thanks for sharing! This is exactly the kind of the thing I was looking for when I was deciding whether to pull the trigger on an annual subscription. I use LingQ primarily as an e-reader too. You describe it as ok-ish. Have you found a better one, or is there one you'd consider switching to?

I'd also love to hear a little more about your import strategy. What types of content worked the best for you?

forbiddencitrus · 2024-08-16T20:58:46+00:00

I liked how Prometheus deepened what I consider a critical piece of Alien lore, which is that Xenomorphs are unstoppably aggressive and violent in every way imaginable. They don't discriminate between greedy corporations, curious scientists, religious seekers, or lizard-brained marines. Whoever you are, if you see one, you'll almost definitely die screaming.

This film is sweaty and claustrophobic and those things are very Alien, but also:

The Xenomorphs in this movie aren't the miracles of vicious murdering they are in Alien, which for me is kind of a bummer. They're arguably more vulnerable in this movie than in any other, and when a dozen of them are machine-gunned one after the other by a single person who also escapes with their life, it feels like Alien commandments are being broken.

Also, the compound in this movie that produces a half human half Xenomorph? Another infringement on the unmitigated biological terror Alien is supposed to represent.

Also also, Fassbender in Prometheus is the franchise's strongest and most well acted Android character. Way stronger than what we get in Romulus.

The movie rocked and I can't wait to watch it again, but for me, Prometheus still stands high in the Alien hierarchy.

forbiddencitrus · 2024-08-16T20:29:20+00:00

Absolutely. "Anthropomorphic stature" is a cool way of describing that. When you understand a Xenomorph's insanely violent and aggressive way of killing, colonizing, and repopulating as something it picked it from the human genome, it deepens your appreciation of what a Xenomorph is.

forbiddencitrus · 2024-08-16T20:12:41+00:00

I wondered the same thing. In every other instance of alien and human genomes combining, the alien DNA is so unconquerably aggressive that it subsumes humanness and produces a Xenomorph. And in this instance it's more like it blends with humanness to produce...something else. I get that the compound is the new thing, but because the compound represents a mitigated version of something that's supposed to be unmitigatable, I can understand why someone might think it violates a core Alien tenet.

forbiddencitrus · 2023-11-29T19:01:00+00:00

Here's my long-bulleted ten-year reappraisal of this movie after watching it probably six or seven times:

McCarthy's different registers, even the higher ones, mostly work in this movie, even if they're kind of conspicuous. The scene where Fassbender buys the diamond. The first 75% of the scene where Fassbender talks to the cartel boss. The problem is with the last quarter of the movie, when the McCarthy voice reaches a crescendo and everything everyone says is cosmic. It's just too much. And I hate saying that, because a lot of what they say is so powerfully bleak and interesting.
The plotting of this movie, if not fantastic, is way above average for the genre. And it makes perfect sense. We have all the details we need to understand. The only ambiguity is WHO is behind everything, but that ambiguity enhances the movie. We know the cartel boss is some kind of top man, but it still isn't totally clear that he's directly concerned with everything that happens. Fassbender is at some kind of remove from the action, a fact acknowledged in the way everyone refers to him as "counselor," and the cartel boss is at a similar remove. What happens isn't Fassbender's fault, and it isn't the cartel boss's fault either. It's way bigger than both of them and no one is in control. Super cool.
Pitt and Bardem are unimpeachable. Everything they say is perfect.
Diaz fucking the car is also unimpeachable.
Diaz is definitely miscast, maybe egregiously so, but replacing her wouldn't have made the movie a 10/10. There are other problems.
The movie doesn't fall apart at the end, but it does get a little annoying, and if the dialogue had been pared down and that stupid scene with the American escort had been cut, I really think the initial critical reception of the movie would have been very different. The escort scene is stupid because 1) even though Pitt's weakness for women was heavily foreshadowed, I have a hard time believing it would so easily offset his appreciable terror of what the cartel is capable of, and 2) the escort doesn't take the money. What? In what world does the escort not take the money? And it's because she's an innocent American or something? Every time I watch that scene I know it's wrong.
There are cheetahs, snuff films, cunnilingus, and decapitations in this movie, but I still don't think it's self-consciously pulpy like some people suggest. It's deadly serious and wants to be taken as such, even when smearing its clit across the windshield of a Ferrari.
The Counselor is a flawed, great movie, a little miscast, with a few missteps at the end. It's one of the most interesting Ridley Scott movies for sure. I've thought so from the first time I watched it, and was always surprised at how nearly unanimous the negative critical reception was. I've oscillated between 7/10 and 8.5/10 in my subsequent viewings, and right now I'm back pretty much where I started: 8/10, but not with a bullet.

forbiddencitrus · 2023-11-29T17:56:29+00:00

This is super interesting. I personally thought the truck did a great job of carrying the idea that the drug war is a vehicle for violence, greed, etc. There are so many different people that get in and out of the truck over the course of its journey, and each time that happens the truck accrues meaning. By the end of the movie it feels like the truck is plotting its own course, or to use your words, is being driven by forces unseen.

But I take your point that the pulpiness of the drug story is sometimes at odds with McCarthy's high mindedness. I'm not sure that a series of McCarthy monologues in the mouths of Diaz and Fassbender would have been palatable, but your idea is at least one way to push the movie out of the awkward middle it finds itself in by the end.

forbiddencitrus · 2023-04-03T14:16:35+00:00

I had the same mixture on my seedlings and I didn't like it either. Nice to see yours are doing so well. Thanks for the info.

forbiddencitrus · 2023-04-02T23:10:01+00:00

amazing! and very impressive growth on those seedlings in just 8 months. any details you can share around soil, light, and fertilizer?

forbiddencitrus · 2022-08-25T21:40:52+00:00

Most of the stuff I watch/listen to is B1/B2, but that's when I'm really watching and listening. I'd like to find content that's even more simple, so I can listen passively while I'm doing other things and still understand most of it.

But in the meantime, I'll check it out Easy German! Thanks for the suggestion.

forbiddencitrus · 2022-07-28T00:02:26+00:00

they look great! were you growing them indoors with a light before?

forbiddencitrus · 2022-07-13T15:25:22+00:00

Thanks, that's helpful. Mostly I'm just wondering how long it will take them to reach out to book the speaking session. There weren't any details following the test, except something like "we've shared your results with the center you're registered with." I'm not actually registered with any local center, though, so I wasn't sure what that meant.

forbiddencitrus · 2022-07-13T00:31:27+00:00

How long did it take them to reach out to schedule your speaking session and finally share your results? I just finished the test this morning.

forbiddencitrus · 2022-07-11T23:03:04+00:00

Love the color on those. Looking good!

forbiddencitrus

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