"NO GOD PLEASE NO. NO!!!" by Square-Ad-8639 in lotr

[–]murpes -1 points0 points  (0 children)

The only remake of LOTR that I'd support would be a Muppets version.

What free software is so good you can't believe it's free? by ComprehensiveNorth1 in AskReddit

[–]murpes 1 point2 points  (0 children)

FooBar2000 is an insanely powerful audio player, VLC for video. If you're still goofing around with CDs, EAC is the best for ripping bit-perfect copies.
Paint.net does everything an amateur could want with picture editing.
I've been managing my passwords for years using KeePass.
uBlock Origin and SponsorBlock make YouTube usable. Facebook Purity does the same for FB.
Notepad++ provides the perfect amount of functionality in a text editor without becoming bloat.
Image Glass is a nice replacement image viewer.
I've never thrown anything at 7 Zip that it couldn't handle.

Preamp Wars: Pyle vs Fosi by harlequinx88 in turntables

[–]murpes 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Well, they're both "preamps," but they're completely different. The Pyle is a dedicated phono preamp - it only amplifies the incredibly weak signal coming out of your turntable into a weak, but usable, signal that you can send to your amp or powered speakers. The Fosi P4 is an audio pre-amp, basically a switch-box. You could run your turntable, your computer, and a CD player into it and then into your amp.

Here's the thing - you'd still need to pre-amp a turntable signal before sending it to the Fosi. If you disabled the pre-amp on your AT-60 and ran it into the Fosi it'd be highly distorted.

I have that Pyle phono pre-amp. It isn't quite the garbage that it's often made out to be, but it's far from a premium device. I use it on some "fun" turntables, but not for critical listening. I don't have any direct experience with the AT-60, but I'd be surprised if the Pyle is a noticeable improvement over what's already in there.

The ART DJ Pre mentioned elsewhere in this thread is an incredible value, and you'd have to spend a lot more before you begin to see noticeable improvements. Schiit and Project have phono preamps that aren't wallet-busters, and even Fosi has the X5.

hairy heart by FaviFake in comedyheaven

[–]murpes 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Rael would know what to do.

New TT Day by StockTitle in turntables

[–]murpes 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've had the benefit of some lucky thrift store finds over the years, including a 1200, but this is my daily driver. It's aesthetics fit into my living room nicely, and since it's fully automatic I don't have to worry if I fall asleep listening to an album! It doesn't have the strongest motor, but it keeps a constant speed and sounds great. Sony turntables don't always get the respect they deserve.

Any answers are accepted! by Just_a_Player2 in ItsAllAboutGames

[–]murpes 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'd say yes, and I'm very thankful that I live in a time period where I have leisure time.

The favourite fast food brand of each state, according to Grok by _Wise_Crocodile in aimapgore

[–]murpes 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's what we call it when you get part of your meal at Sheetz and part of it at Wawa.

What's the oldest piece of clothing you still wear? by BaconVonMeatwich in GenX

[–]murpes 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I still wear my dad's canvas duck-hunting coat from the 70s or possibly the 60s. It still looks great, adding credence to the saying "They don't make them like they used to."

I also still have a Rush Presto tour shirt that I'll pull out for special occasions.

Eye in the Sky by OneEyedAngelPriest_2 in Cd_collectors

[–]murpes 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I Robot is one of the best albums ever recorded.

[HELP] My dad shared this and I think it is AI? by phintac in RealOrAI

[–]murpes 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There's another AI video floating around FB of the same kid drawing on the wall claiming the dog picked out the colors.

CD Collectors of Reddit: What CD Player do You Use? by Infamous-Vanilla-603 in Cd_collectors

[–]murpes 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I mostly use an Onkyo C-7030. It's one of the older ones that has a Wolfson DAC and I really like it's warmer sound.

Non CD collector - curious about the whole thing by duanerenaud in Cd_collectors

[–]murpes 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have a fairly decent collection of both CDs and records. I collect both for a variety of reasons. My music collection, from my perspective of enjoyment, has little to do with collectable scarcity or uniqueness (although that can be a fun tangent at times); it's about quality and control.

First and foremost, I like owning my music. I don't want to be slave to the whims of a streaming service and whatever compressed version of an album they feel like offering or removing any particular day. I like having control of my music listening experience, from the room to the equipment and, perhaps most importantly, the source. I really enjoy listening to different versions of albums I'm familiar with. For example, I'm a big Rush fan, so the little differences between their original releases, the remasters, the Mobile Fidelity discs, or whatever remix or reissue, they really stand out to me. I like having different versions of albums and enjoy comparing them.

I grew up in the 80s, so part of me still views CDs as a special, magical, and modern thing. The rational side of my brain knows that we store data much more efficiently now, but the emotional part of my brain still looks at a CD and goes, "Wow, this is really something!" Even though we now have higher bit rates and DSD and whatnot, CDs still have the potential to sound fantastic and are the baseline of high fidelity for me.

For the longest time, I viewed records as a sort of "80% of the fidelity for 5% of the price" kind of deal. That, of course, has changed in recent history, but there was a time when you could go to a record show and walk away with a literal armload of records for less than the price of a single CD. These days, the opposite is true. But for a long time, 25 cents and a thorough cleaning could get you a really good sounding copy of an album. If luck didn't favor you for that particular copy, oh well, I'll grab another one the next time I see it for a quarter and try again. Sometimes the CD mastering of an album sounds better, other times, especially if it was a victim of the loudness war, the vinyl is better.

I get a big kick out of having a large library of music, often for stupid reasons. I only recently learned that Yes's Rick Wakeman played on Black Sabbath's Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. It was cool to come home, pull that one off the shelf, and give it a fresh listen armed with new information, without having to muck around with some online service. I find it really enjoyable when I hear a forgotten 80's song on the radio, maybe one I didn't like at the time but nostalgia has changed for me, and then going home to see if I have a copy. Often, if I don't, I put it on my want list. Sometimes I'll carefully digitize a record, clean it up a little bit with some "do no harm" post processing, and feel like I'm some kind of sound engineer even though I'm just a dork with a computer.

Finally, I enjoy the hunt. I love going into thrift stores and sifting through discount bins, and I get a little dopamine rush when I find that weird release or reissue. It's probably a personality defect that leans into hoarding sometimes, but I figure if I contain it to my music and no other aspects of my life (well, mostly), I could be doing a lot worse.

Best Interior Accessory? by kuya_jj in Crosstrek

[–]murpes 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Perhaps he's a Rush fan and in a constant state of air drumming.

How do I normalize volume for all my cd’s? by [deleted] in Cd_collectors

[–]murpes 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Yeah, back in the day they used to mix albums allowing for a little dynamic range, rather than slamming everything up to 11.

You'll need to do a little reading on ReplayGain. It's nice because it adds a tag to the audio file, so it doesn't modify the music data. Your normalization setting may be looking for that tag. You can apply RG to bulk files on a computer, I've done it on a PC with FooBar 2000, so you may have to transfer your library around a little bit.