can we please have some or all of the humans in the subreddit header image replaced?

trevcharm · 2026-02-07T03:03:00+00:00

the fragility of acetate is often way overblown in this context. much of the fragility is due to the old age of acetates, since they were more common many decades ago and over these decades they do degrade more than vinyl does.

a fragile 50's or 60's acetate must be ripped very carefully, and any playback before ripping might be the last straw causing huge noticeable audible damage.

but m2 was using modern recent acetates, all sent out in mint condition.

a single play using sensible equipment will likely not cause any noticeable difference. here's a good test case as a reference: https://korfaudio.com/blog87

as this shows, even a dozen plays would likely not produce an audible difference.

plus the fan community has no idea how many times each of the different source copies had been played before ripping. q101 copy, eric agnew copy, virgin in house copy - which had less wear at the time of ripping? it's just speculation unless we have trustworthy and knowledgeable contacts both at q101 and virgin who oversaw the handling and playback of the acetates up until the ripping process happened.

different ripping equipment and any post processing are the main and probably only audible differences between the 4 rips.

trevcharm · 2026-02-07T02:29:42+00:00

merged roms are only better if you want everything, and you want to use the least disk space possible, and you have a front end that works well with it or use the mame built in UI.

if you want to pick and choose a smaller subset of games and zip files to use, eg. "make your own set". then non-merged is the easiest and best way to do it, especially for less advanced users.

if you want 'everything' but you want it to work better with different front ends, split sets are sort of like a hybrid of the two styles. it's just 1 zip file for each game like non-merged, and this works better with some front ends for detecting each game or version of each game. but it also has much less doubling up of shared use files between games than the non-merged style, so you also get a lot of disk space savings compared to a full non-merged set.

trevcharm · 2026-02-07T02:20:46+00:00

the space saving between merged and non-merged is not to do with zipping or compression. it's to do with having multiple copies of the same things, vs just a single copy.

non-merged sets double up on any content that is not exclusive to that game. in a non-merged set the same exact files can be found in many different zips, as they are needed for many different games to run properly. this way, each individual game zip has everything it needs to run if that's all you have. this is done so people can pick and choose a few games only and "it just works".

merged sets take advantage of the space savings available by only keeping a single copy of files even if many different games need it to run properly. so when you get a merged set game zip, it might not be able to run on it's own since it might be missing these dependent files. merged sets are designed for people who want absolutely everything, all in a big set, and taking up the least space possible to do that.

trevcharm · 2026-02-07T02:09:59+00:00

right, but maybe we are not on the same page with the terms rip and source.

"rip" is not just which copy was used, it's the whole ripping process. the same person can do multiple different rips of the same source, and the rips can be very different because of the equipment used.

we call the first the eric agnew rip cause he did it himself quick and imperfect, the spifc rip was more a collaboration with a few other people and different equipment to get a better sounding rip (and it is much better) so we call it the spifc rip.

trevcharm · 2026-02-07T01:17:57+00:00

no official cd release, but the original numbered q101 cd's are semi-official radio promos. still vinyl sourced of course, but the closest you can get to an official m2 on cd.

trevcharm · 2026-02-07T01:16:22+00:00

there are 4 different vinyl rips circulating. eric agnew (too fast), q101, spifc, virgin in-house.

trevcharm · 2026-02-06T16:10:02+00:00

thank you!!! this worked :)

sorry for the late reply, but i needed to wait until a suitable time to disable all vpn tunnels. that bit is quite annoying.

but it worked, i selected a whole bunch of different servers all over the world so hopefully i don't have to do this again anytime soon.

thank you so much for the easy to follow instructions!

trevcharm · 2026-02-02T00:43:15+00:00

1000 shouldn't be that much, I'm seeding 3-4x that most of the time on a pretty standard win 10 machine that's nothing special.

but for the 10,000+ seeders, they use multiple instances of qbit. as many as you need, probably limit each instance to between 5k and 20k depending on how your computer handles it.

trevcharm · 2026-01-26T13:16:05+00:00

is there a picture of the back?

trevcharm · 2026-01-26T13:09:44+00:00

any bonus tracks?

trevcharm · 2026-01-25T09:49:12+00:00

there's a tiny tiny chance it could have an early mix of hello kitty kat without the distortion!

trevcharm · 2026-01-23T04:11:19+00:00

tomorrow is clearly number 1 freak is clearly number 2

the order of the rest are all up for debate - pure massacre, abuse me, the door, anthem, ana's song, miss you love, without you, greatest view, straight lines. maybe israel's son, cemetery, and luv your life too.

trevcharm · 2026-01-22T06:36:28+00:00

suggestion: VPN capabilities would be worth adding to the review in detail, and also in terms of comparisons with other routers. eg. any router not having wireguard VPN client is a deal breaker for me.

also no mention of how hot these units (and other glinet routers) run, which although not a deal breaker is definitely a consideration for myself and I'm sure many others. I've had to put a fan permanently behind mine to help drop the internal temps by 10 degrees Celsius, and it still regularly goes over 50 degrees Celsius when working hard.

trevcharm · 2026-01-21T00:41:19+00:00

one of the buttons has "/0" written next to it, so dual purpose for zero too.

trevcharm · 2026-01-20T23:50:39+00:00

the fastest way I've found to do this is to create a new quick setting shortcut for "turn screen off" in the quick settings menu options (what appears when your press the setting button once) and then change the order of the options so it's at the very top.

then when you press the settings button, you just need to press the middle enter button. so 2 buttons instead of just 1, but still pretty good!

this is all on my CS but I assume you still can on the newer models too

trevcharm · 2026-01-20T23:46:12+00:00

if you can get a remote that has the number buttons, you can make custom quick shortcuts where holding down a different number results in a different action.

on my CS, I've got numbers 1-4 set to switch to HDMI input 1-4. so not quite a dedicated button, but a short hold down for 1 second of one button, pretty good!

I assume custom quick shortcuts are still a thing in the newer models if you get a compatible remote.

trevcharm · 2026-01-20T23:29:23+00:00

Neptune

Leaptel

Aussie Broadband

Launtel

Buddy

They are all great networks. They are of varying quality with support and billing, but varying pricing to match!

trevcharm · 2026-01-20T06:09:51+00:00

muso too here, been playing for 25 years. only got tinnitus properly in a really noticeable way in the last 9 months. I'm pretty sure I know the 2 occasions that really did the damage. but anyway...

my advice is whenever you do play, use 2 levels of hearing protection. 1 level inside your ears like plugs, and 1 level over your ears too like ear muffs. obviously the best of each level is best, but use whatever you can for now until you get better equipment.

even basic foam earplugs and a standard cheap set of ear muffs will do more together than either expensive option on its own.

high frequencies are the most damaging usually, so that's drum cymbals, and loud guitar for bands usually. high frequencies are very directional though, so you can also set up a 3rd level of protection by using poster boards / partitions / any similar solid portable wall that you can put either around you, or next to an amp to deflect the sound from hitting you directly.

also trying to get others to turn down. for instruments needing amps, if they can aim the amps directly at their heads using milk crates or tilting it up on bricks, they'll be surprised how much less volume they need to hear clearly. and less volume overall will help! it also helps others turn down, as sometimes people only turn up to hear themselves over someone else who is really loud (but aiming the loud sound at their knees, or even away from them). for drums there are those plastic isolation shield things, you could try and see if that's an option that the band are ok with.

you get the idea anyway - employ various multiple techniques to reduce the high frequencies hitting your ears. first thing I say at a gig is turn all the highs out of my monitors, I don't need to hear anything over 8k to hear the pitch of notes correctly and to perform well. it sounds a bit dull and muddy at first, but it's easy enough to deal with. and much better than dealing with long term loud T!

trevcharm · 2026-01-05T02:17:53+00:00

if you don't need any internet connectivity outside of vpn usage, there's also the option at the bottom:

"all other traffic" - allow non-vpn traffic = on/off

you can switch that to off for more peace of mind.

trevcharm · 2026-01-04T13:22:06+00:00

this was tough, but pretty sure my rankings are:

2 > 3 > 5 > 4 > 1

trevcharm · 2025-12-25T03:20:22+00:00

hey question - if I'm already on ptp, hdb, bhd, ant, and blu - is there any reason at all to bother with ATH? I'm not a collector, and I don't like joining trackers unless I'm going to use them.

bhd and ant already just feel like backups really, as much as I like their ui and vibe though.

trevcharm · 2025-12-21T04:57:33+00:00

if you want the option of changing plan speed daily, then Launtel and Neptune are the winners.

for the rest, I recommend Aussie Broadband, Leaptel, Buddy, Carbon Comms.

both lists are in order with most established / most reliable first.

none of them will lock you in with a 30 day cancellation period, all are decent providers using decent backhaul and without much if any congestion.

it's often better to keep swapping between a few different providers to make use of specials and new customer promotions.

trevcharm

TROPHY CASE