Dumb Stuff I've Done

[klinemj]

I was recently reminded that...sometimes, I do dumb stuff. I'll share mine...you share yours!

So, recently, I had 3 of 8 channels fail (lightning?). So, I replaced 2 monoblocks, replaced an XPA-5 with a new XPA-7. No biggie.

Then, I realized my PC that was my Roon core was running waaaay slow. So I replaced it. And had to set it up.

Then, I realized...I could use my old XPA-5 (now an XPA-4) for top Atmos speakers. So, I ordered some top speakers, hung them and connected them. Big project...

So - I re-ran DIRAC...and...

Then, I realized my sub amp was fried...so I arranged for it to be repaired. (Pending...)

Then, I realized my old Thorens turntable had issues, so...I decided to order new parts to fix it.

Then, I had issues getting Roon running on my new PC...so I thought I had it solved (read on).

Then, I realized my old Roku device didn't do well with Atmos...so I ordered a new one!

Then, I realised Logitech remote needed reprogramming with all the changes...and...initially...major issues. Thanks to their support for helping me fix it!
and, then I learned that...it's all interconnected.

I can't recall how long it's been since I made so many changes. 1 at a time...no biggie. All of these? Dumb to do at once.

So...what's your "If I had it to do over again..." moment...?

Mark

[405x5]

I will need to give this some serious thought…

[Boomzilla]

The “dumb stuff I’ve done” isn’t a web post - it’s an encyclopedia!

[AudioHTIT]

Apr 16, 2024 15:18:13 GMT -5 Boomzilla said:

The “dumb stuff I’ve done” isn’t a web post - it’s an encyclopedia!

Yeah, I was thinking this would be like 'flying down a hill on your bike with no hands and zooming through an intersection without looking!'

[rbk123]

I'm still waiting for Mark's dumb thing that he did. Looks like a long list of repairs and upgradeitis. Sounds like savvy wisdom to get it past the boss for her approval...

[klinemj]

Apr 16, 2024 17:39:51 GMT -5 rbk123 said:

I'm still waiting for Mark's dumb thing that he did. Looks like a long list of repairs and upgradeitis. Sounds like savvy wisdom to get it past the boss for her approval...

LOL! the dumb thing was doing it basically at once. That made it hard to chase down the cause.

Mark

[klinemj]

Apr 16, 2024 17:34:01 GMT -5 AudioHTIT said:

Apr 16, 2024 15:18:13 GMT -5 Boomzilla said:

The “dumb stuff I’ve done” isn’t a web post - it’s an encyclopedia!

Yeah, I was thinking this would be like 'flying down a hill on your bike with no hands and zooming through an intersection without looking!'

I did that on my sister's bike (when I didn't care if it crashedd), and I ended up with badly scraped up knees and elbows.

Mark

[klinemj]

Apr 16, 2024 15:18:13 GMT -5 Boomzilla said:

The “dumb stuff I’ve done” isn’t a web post - it’s an encyclopedia!

I took my guidance from you. LOL!

Mark

[Boomzilla]

Most of the girls in my high school could write chapters in my “dumb stuff” book…. By the time I got about halfway through college, things got better. I was a “late bloomer.”

[tropicallutefisk]

Dumb stuff:
1. Planted a ton of agave in the yard 10+ years ago. Looked great till it got out of hand. Now I've spent two years, a dozen chainsaw blades and a pint or two of blood trying to get rid of it all.
2. Made career out of food safety. Thankless, stressful and poor compensation. Now I'm just too damn old to start over. LOL
3. Drove 26 hours straight from Florida to Minnesota. Yep made great time, but had an angry wife and I slept off any of the time gained by driving without stopping.

Those are just the first three of a lifetime of dumb stuff that came to mind. Though I rarely make the same mistakes twice. I'm an overachiever at finding new ways to screw up.

[audiobill]

Buy the best two channel you can afford. Once.

[405x5]

Apr 21, 2024 8:46:33 GMT -5 405x5 said:

You said dumb stuff I’ve done so I guess that means it could be anything right

Doing something dumb remind me of a dumb but equally amazing story……

I was still in my 20s very early maybe 21 or 22.

Living at home And went up to Connecticut from New York. Later when I got home, I realize my wallet was missing and you know immediately the panic insues.
Tracing my steps in desperation, I thought about the last time I remembered seeing it and then I thought wait a minute when I went up to Connecticut I had to go through a tollbooth (oh no!!).
My best guess was that I whipped out my wallet to pay the tool and must’ve dropped it somehow.

In desperation, I figured if I retrace my steps by some miracle, I might get lucky so I drove back up there to about 20 minutes from my house.

Next challenge there had to be 8 to 10 Booths so good luck with that so I just drove forward and took my best guess.
On top of all that who the hell knows did 10,000 cars pass through there since I made my round-trip.? So I put all that out of my brain pulled up open my door and looked down and there was my wallet. Probably an hour later does it get any better than that? I don’t know, happy ending

[Boomzilla]

Dumb stuff I’ve done IN AUDIO - A less broad topic:

I sold my Dahlquist DQ-10a speakers - These (with the right amp and the right room) sounded better than anything I’ve heard since. In fact, I think that I can honestly say that all the speaker churning I’ve done since has been in an effort to recover the sound that I had with my Dahlquist system.

Selling my record system too soon - In the 1980’s when digital music first burst on the scene, I got sucked in by “the measurers.” No hiss! No ticks and pops! HUGE dynamic range! Incredible signal to noise ratio! No wear every time you played the disc! Digital HAD to be better. So I sold my phono system and my wall of records and got ready to replace my music library with CDs. But when I heard the results, I (literally) cried. It’s taken DECADES for digital sound to finally catch up with the sound of 1980’s vinyl. Some still claim it hasn’t (they’re wrong, but you’ll never convince them).

Not understanding the value of room treatments - For most of my life, I’d listened to music in untreated rooms - Sheetrock walls, hard floors, windows with only thin curtains, hard ceilings & floors, etc. Only in the past decade have I come to fully realize that I’d been listening in echo chambers! Some of the rooms sounded OK, but in retrospect, I think they could have sounded much better with even a little bit of room treatment?.

Listening to the digital factualists who insist that “bits are bits” and that any bit-perfect copy MUST sound identical to any other. My audio amigo contends that the proponents of this don’t know what they don’t know. I’ve, personally, heard too many times the differences between two (or more) "bit- identical copies" to still accept this as the truth. In theory, any two bit-perfect copies MUST sound identical - but, in my experience, they DON’T! Why? I don’t know. Maybe the copy was made while stripping the header information? Maybe the metadata wasn’t transferred along with the audio to the copy? I don’t know, but I do know that such tomfoolery doesn’t change the (audible) outcome - different “bit perfect” copies CAN SOUND DIFFERENTLY from each other.

Boomzilla

[marcl]

Apr 21, 2024 13:51:43 GMT -5 Boomzilla said:

Dumb stuff I’ve done IN AUDIO - A less broad topic:

I sold my Dahlquist DQ-10a speakers - These (with the right amp and the right room) sounded better than anything I’ve heard since. In fact, I think that I can honestly say that all the speaker churning I’ve done since has been in an effort to recover the sound that I had with my Dahlquist system.

Selling my record system too soon - In the 1980’s when digital music first burst on the scene, I got sucked in by “the measurers.” No hiss! No ticks and pops! HUGE dynamic range! Incredible signal to noise ratio! No wear every time you played the disc! Digital HAD to be better. So I sold my phono system and my wall of records and got ready to replace my music library with CDs. But when I heard the results, I (literally) cried. It’s taken DECADES for digital sound to finally catch up with the sound of 1980’s vinyl. Some still claim it hasn’t (they’re wrong, but you’ll never convince them).

Not understanding the value of room treatments - For most of my life, I’d listened to music in untreated rooms - Sheetrock walls, hard floors, windows with only thin curtains, hard ceilings & floors, etc. Only in the past decade have I come to fully realize that I’d been listening in echo chambers! Some of the rooms sounded OK, but in retrospect, I think they could have sounded much better with even a little bit of room treatmentpy?.

Listening to the digital Philistines who insist that “bits are bits” and that any bit-perfect copy MUST sound identical to any other. The proponents of this don’t know what they don’t know. I’ve heard too many times the differences between two (or more) bit- identical copies to still accept this as the truth. In theory, any two bit-perfect copies MUST sound identical - but they DON’T! Why? I don’t know. Maybe the copy was made while stripping the header information? Maybe the metadata wasn’t transferred along with the audio in the copy? I don’t know, but I do know that such tomfoolery doesn’t change the (audible) outcome - different “bit perfect” copies CAN SOUND DIFFERENTLY from each other.

Boomzilla

I can relate to #3 in particular.  I moved to my place in '82 and I did some things to the room based on my very limited knowledge (and limited access to information pre-inter-tubes) back then.  And then ... I did virtually nothing to try to improve the room until 2012 when I bought new Magnepans, discovered REW, and started learning about modal resonances and diffusion and all that.  Ironically, I took a class called "Musical Acoustics" as part of my BSEE in the mid-70's and the term "bass trap" was used ... but with no actual information about how to implement them.

Regarding #4 .... okay I accept what you're saying .... but, we don't know why it happens, it isn't intentional or the result of careless engineering or ignorance, nobody knows how to fix it, and nobody has quantified it in a repeatable way ... right?  So ... what do we do?  Keep randomly trying components and sources until we get what seems to sound best?  I find it really hard to accept that if two "scenarios" sound different in a scientifically valid test, that we can't find a way to measure the difference and design to fix it.