Jump to content

Belmo

BST Users
  • Posts

    28,963
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by Belmo

  1. What do Santa Claus and Bill Cosby have in common? They both come while you're asleep! Merry Christmas!
  2. No, but I gave up on LPs a long time ago. I understand that they have superior sound quality, but I just can't deal with having to amass a lot more stuff. It would be different if I already had a lot of records, but I don't -- I came of age when vinyl was on its way out (my first records were actually cassette tapes, which I still have), and I never really bought vinyl.
  3. I did the same thing -- I plugged in the end of a 3.5 mm cord into the Dot, and plugged the other end (RCA inputs) into the Aux connection on the receiver. And after that, I never thought about it -- just like I never thought about CD sound quality: you hook it up, put in a CD, hit play, and that's it, right? But then, after I read something here, I played something I had on CD, and played it on the Dot at the same time. The difference in sound quality was an eye-opener -- it was almost as big a difference as between AM and FM. That experiment did two thing for me: I could never listen to the Dot the same way, and I started reading about this crap -- and that ended up with me ordering an Echo Link. You can very easily try the same thing, with any kind of music you fancy. I would not have gotten another piece of gear if all I listened to on the Dot was spoken stuff, podcasts and the like -- the difference in sound quality doesn't really matter if you're listening to people talk. But for music, there is a big enough difference that it justified (IMHO) upgrading. Your mileage may vary.
  4. You mean like how drugs were legal in this country until 1919?
  5. Lack of enforcement of some laws creates a culture in which people who would otherwise be law-abiding are comfortable breaking the law. The same thing happened in a big way during our equally insane prohibition of alcohol. And where do you think people in drug-infested neighborhoods get the money to buy guns? Guns are expensive, man.
  6. They do it in Philly all the time. The cops don't seem particularly interested in stopping them, and considering how widespread anti-cop sentiment is right now, I can't say that I blame them. This is the wonderful world created by our insane war on drugs. What a ****ing joke.
  7. You's win over Carson Hollow in the 2002 Test Stakes was one of the best races you'll ever see. What a race.
  8. Nobody's mentioned Wally Pleasant? You humps our slipping.
  9. My dad died five years ago, and I recall it was something like $750. Don't get me started about the funeral industry. Jessica Mitford would be turning over in her grave if she hadn't paid $39 to get cremated.
  10. True fact: there is an independent agency that oversees the production of games shows, that makes sure the games are on the level, that there are no shenanigans. It was created after the quiz show scandals of the 1950s, and one of their representatives is at the taping of every episode of every game show. Their job is to make sure the game isn't crooked. I know this because I saw them at work in person: in 2000, I was a contestant on Win Ben Stein's Money, and after I'd creamed the other two contestants -- -- and was trying to beat Ben on the 10-questions-at-the-end deal, Nancy Pimental () asked the first question -- and then the producers realized the clock was broken. They had to stop the tape, the Game Show Honesty guy came out, and it took them 20 minutes to reset everything, to make sure the game was fair. The good news is that they did that, but the bad news is I had to stew during the delay. And Ben kicked my ass.
  11. Who has shït his pants more since January 20, Joe Biden or Red?
  12. Mid-60s down there on Thursday. It will be nice. Enjoy!
  13. The bookmaking window is open! Morning line on this important question: Yes: 1/20 No: 15-1 Place your bets!
  14. Back in September, I posted a picture on stupid FB of one of my stupid dogs -- it was from a flea market, something I only went to to get out of the house. It was just a few days, evidently, before he passed. Right after I got home that day, Frank sent me a message asking if we'd went through a metal detector, if he would have any problem getting in there with his concealed carry permit. At first I thought he was pulling my leg -- this was a hipster freak scene in a hipster neighborhood in Philly, filled with pasty hipsters who made Ringer look like Lou Ferrigno; it didn't seem to me like, uh, the kind of event that necessitated packing heat -- but then I realized he was entirely serious. That was Frank -- he was plenty weird, but once you got past the weirdness, you realized he was a good guy. Requiescat in pace, Frank.
  15. I had no idea either until just now. I met him once, at a fling, and he was a good guy. I am guessing that it was something sudden, because I got a message from him right before it happened, about going to a flea market near his house. The world just got a little bit less weird, and a little bit less kind. That sucks.
  16. This is one that the hi-fi weenies evidently like -- at $600 and up, it was too rich for my blood, but it might be right up yer alley:
  17. This was a no-nonsense video that I found when I was researching this stuff that I thought was pretty good:
  18. Here's a thread I started when I was grappling with some of the same questions you our asking now:
  19. Before I got the Echo Link, I tried a couple of experiments: I hooked up an Echo Dot directly to the receiver (1.5 mm jack on the Dot, RCA inputs to the receiver), and did the same thing with my laptop. I also played something from my collection -- I think it was "Seasons in the Sun" -- on CD and on Amazon music at the same time, and then toggled back and forth to see if I could notice the difference in sound quality. The difference was dramatic -- the CD sounded great, and the Echo Dot sounded like it was coming out of a tin can. This is what sold me on getting the Echo Link -- and with the Echo Link (which I hooked up directly to my receiver; I don't have an external DAC), the difference in audio quality between CD and streaming is negligible (I think the quality of the streaming sound would be even better if I ran the Echo Link through an external DAC, but eh, screw it, the Link by itself is good enough for me). Your streaming source evidently makes a difference, too -- they don't all stream at the same level of fidelity. Amazon music HD sounds good enough for me, but YMMV if you use another source like Spotify.
  20. I did the same thing with my old system after the pandemic started: the setup in the basement sounds great: when there is a horse race in surround, the track announcer's voice comes from the center channel speaker below the TV, and the crowd noise is behind me. Sometimes I spill beer because it almost feels like I'm in the grandstand. As for how to stream stuff to it: prepare to enter the world of digibabble! You our looking for what's called a "network streamer." I went with an Amazon product, the Echo Link, which is not the best in terms of audio quality, but was a fit for me in terms of ease of use (easy to hook up, I use Amazon music, and already had an Echo dot nearby to control it). I like how it works, and the sound I get from it. But there are evidently higher-fidelity options out there, some at a similar price point, some that sell for way, way more money. Check out the Youtube channel of this wanker -- I found his videos pretty good for this stuff, and he has a couple that talk specifically about network streaming devices. The route to highest-quality audio on yer stereo is a good network streamer, plus an external DAC -- this is one of the reasons that I ended up with the Echo Link, because my head started spinning with all this digibabble crap.
  21. Is that the one where Linus eats some brown acid, and then beats Schroeder within an inch of his life because he won't play "Smoke on the Water"?
×
×
  • Create New...