jnemesh

jnemesh t1_ivuhhlc wrote

Reply to comment by helpusdrzaius in Micro Center Prices RTX 4080 Close to RTX 4090's MSRP | Want to buy an RTX 4080? Prepare your bank account. by chrisdh79

Someone needs to tell nVidia that the crypto rush is over and they can go back to normal pricing now...

Honestly, I don't care if they DO have a performance advantage...nVidia's anti-consumer actions over the past few years pushed me away from EVER considering one of their products!

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jnemesh t1_ivucagu wrote

Reply to comment by [deleted] in Micro Center Prices RTX 4080 Close to RTX 4090's MSRP | Want to buy an RTX 4080? Prepare your bank account. by chrisdh79

You don't have benchmarks on either, so your assumption is just that. But based on what we know, the XTX should be SIGNIFICANT faster than the 4080 in raster, ESPECIALLY if you get an AIB card that pumps up the power to 450 watts!

For RT, we will have to just wait for actual numbers. As for DLSS? AMD has FSR, and while DLSS might have a SLIGHT edge in overall quality, you have to strain to see the differences in most of the comparisons I have seen. Buying overpriced hardware because of a SOFTWARE feature is ludicrous in any case.

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jnemesh t1_iusef57 wrote

Reply to Audio-Technica resurrects its Sound Burger portable turntable from the '80s by thebelsnickle1991

Personally, I shudder at the thought of good vinyl being ruined by this cheap junk. I wouldn't recommend ANYONE buy one of these, other than for the novelty.

Let me just say this about vinyl:

Some purists will insist that vinyl gives you better sound quality than CD or digital formats. This has been thoroughly debunked. It does sound DIFFERENT, and some people like those differences. But CDs and/or digital will have a higher dynamic range and more bass response, among other things.

That being said, there is a lot to say for vinyl. A well pressed and well mastered recording will sound INCREDIBLE on even a modestly priced table (say $500-$900)...and people "grok" how records work a lot more than how a CD or digital file is decoded. It's pretty straightforward...better turntables have more stability, better control over the speed, a better stylus that sits deeper in the grooves, etc. Each upgrade you make has a marked improvement in the sound.

Conversely, upgrading CD or digital playback is pretty much a "black box" to anyone without a deep understanding of electronics and digital audio. Try explaining to a friend how an outboard DAC works, or why a multibit DAC will usually sound better than a delta/sigma DAC. Yeaaaaaah...about that....

One other thing going for vinyl is that it is, BY FAR, the most stable format for long term storage. You can buy albums from the 50s (or even earlier!) that will sound as good today as the day they were pressed. The same can not be said for CDs, which degrade over time. (try playing a CD made in the mid 80s...you might get lucky, but most will be unplayable after 15-20 years), and we don't even know how other digital storage formats will hold up long term. I wouldn't bet money on a SSD or flash drive being usable in 20 years! (tape backup is pretty stable, and there are more exotic digital storage methods available, but none commonly in use that will hold up over extended time).

Finally, there is something to be said for OWNING a copy of the music you love...as well as the physical format itself. LARGE cover art, liner notes, photos, etc...all of these things contribute to the experience of enjoying the music, and many have mourned the loss when moving from the rather large album covers on vinyl to the dinky (in comparison) art on a CD case....and all of those little "extras" got stripped out along the way as well.

All of that being said, there is no need to be snobby about the hobby, or to make it into something it's not. I seriously enjoy putting a record on from time to time, but I also enjoy plenty of streamed music too. As long as you are enjoying THE MUSIC, you are "doing it right"!

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jnemesh t1_ius7kcm wrote

Reply to comment by TSMKFail in Audio-Technica resurrects its Sound Burger portable turntable from the '80s by thebelsnickle1991

And sometimes, the label insists on overly compressing the CD and digital formats, while allowing the artist to have uncompressed audio on vinyl. Red Hot Chile Peppers is a perfect example. Go listen to just about any of their albums on CD, then listen on vinyl. In the end, it's all about how well the album is mixed and if compression is (over) used.

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jnemesh t1_iu637cy wrote

Reply to CNN Cuts Back on Original Series and Films by scuczu

Why not? They have been cutting back on actual journalism for years now. I get most of my news from foreign sources these days...I don't care for all of the overly partisan (on either side) "analysis"...just give me the facts about what's going on, please.

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