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Schiit Happened: The Story of the World's Most Improbable Start-Up
Nov 7, 2014 at 3:07 PM Post #3,661 of 151,648
jason stoddard said:
   
Snip
 
I probably shared the experience of changing two screened legends on a Sumo product and reducing customer inquiries by an order of magnitude (specially, changing the "Monitor" and "Input" knobs to "Record From" and "Listen To"), but I also did the Angstrom remote control. Which, of course, was delivered to us as a prototype containing the typical grid of same-size buttons, about 40 of them, if I remember correctly. Sensible crap like different sized buttons were out of the question). So what did I do? I looked at what functions an owner would most rely on--volume, input select, mode select--and prioritized them over everything else. I looked at where my thumb would fall when holding it. I considered that most home theaters would be dark, and we couldn't do backlit buttons, so I color-blocked the important buttons. Then I had them rip every other button off the faceplate, so that things were logically ordered. Simple. This really isn't difficult.
 
And this is what it looked like:
 

 
Art? No. Functional? Yes. Easy to use? Look at a Sony remote from that time. 
 
Note: the Apple remote is a frigging wonder of manufacturing. Take a look at one sometime, and consider how it has to be made. 
Click to expand...

Amen!
 
Nov 7, 2014 at 4:10 PM Post #3,662 of 151,648
Originally Posted by Jason Stoddard /img/forum/go_quote.gif
  So, THX, at least at the time, wasn't a binary relationship. It was, "Well, if you're special enough, we'll let you into the club...providing you pass some unspecified tests, pay your fees...and you don't conflict too much with our other licensees."
 
No, thanks. I'll stick to producing product that stands on its own merits, without having to be selected as part of a club.
Click to expand...

Well, that explains the whole Oppo / Lexicon debacle around 2009-2010, where the same player essentially got certified only in its rebadged high-end, installer-provided, form...
THX lost the respect of a lot of people on that one, by showing itself as little more than an extortion system (on manufacturers, and consequently on their customers).
 
Smart move telling them "no, thanks".
 
Nov 7, 2014 at 4:20 PM Post #3,663 of 151,648
altersack said:
I still doubt that there is stuff running in the background that can track what I am reading. Or am I wrong here and the total supervision is reality ? 
Click to expand...

I suppose an algorithm could also simply use the content of the page (that you're reading) to adjust ads in real time, after all google is plugged everywhere in the web, if only as a web crawler.
 
Nov 7, 2014 at 5:11 PM Post #3,664 of 151,648
altersack said:
  I am aware about those programs that monitor which sites I am going to etc.
In this case though I have never ever searched for amped headphones ore similar products. Therefore I found it very astounding that the ad popped up while I was reading the posts about amped headphones.
I still doubt that there is stuff running in the background that can track what I am reading. Or am I wrong here and the total supervision is reality ?
Click to expand...

 
It's not really paranoia if they are watching you...
 
Nov 7, 2014 at 6:08 PM Post #3,666 of 151,648
altersack said:
  In this case though I have never ever searched for amped headphones ore similar products. Therefore I found it very astounding that the ad popped up while I was reading the posts about amped headphones. 
I still doubt that there is stuff running in the background that can track what I am reading. Or am I wrong here and the total supervision is reality ? 
Click to expand...

 
Look under your alias name next to your avatar, (below the "100+ Head-Fi'er").
 
You'll see a little tag that says "Online." As I type this, it says "Offline" for you.
 
SO: This Forum (Head-Fi) specifically knows when you are online or offline. That means it tracks YOU.
 
This forum does not charge for membership, so how does it stay in business? By showing you ads, and charging advertisers for doing so. How does it bill advertisers? By telling them how many people have seen their ad. How do they know how many people have seen their ad? By tracking where you go in the forum and what ads are displayed while you're there. This, by nature, means Head-Fi knows what and when you have been reading. It's a simple matter to see that the posts you have read are discussing powered headphones, so Head-Fi decides to show you ads about powered headphones.
 
You can consider this insidious and creepy if you like: many people do. But if you find the service that Head-Fi is providing you but not charging you for useful, then that's the cost of doing business.
 
Guess what, though: you'll be really creeped out when you go somewhere completely unrelated to hifi or headphones or audio and they show you ads for powered headphones, because Head-Fi shares information about you with advertising networks that allow them to track you wherever you go on the web. That in turn lets the ad networks tailor ads based on what you're interested in no matter where you go.
 
And they don't care if you're AlterSack on this forum but PrimeSack on another, they know those are both the same people.
 
Welcome to the Internet! 
 
Nov 7, 2014 at 6:19 PM Post #3,667 of 151,648
jason stoddard said:
  I probably shared the experience of changing two screened legends on a Sumo product and reducing customer inquiries by an order of magnitude (specially, changing the "Monitor" and "Input" knobs to "Record From" and "Listen To").
Click to expand...

 
I had the Sumo Athena pre-amp. Built like a tank, sweet as honey. I really liked it. But it had rack-mount ears and wouldn't fit in my cabinet so I eventually traded it away. I still remember the handles on the rack-mount: sharp as blades and only big enough to get one finger through, I damaged myself on them more than once.
 

 
Nov 7, 2014 at 6:21 PM Post #3,668 of 151,648
valiant66 said:
   
Look under your alias name next to your avatar, (below the "100+ Head-Fi'er").
 
(...)
 
And they don't care if you're AlterSack on this forum but PrimeSack on another, they know those are both the same people.
 
Welcome to the Internet! 
Click to expand...

Spot on. Through IP-tracking they know where you are, how much time you spend on which sites, the keywords you use in search engines etc... Great, isn't it?
 
Nov 7, 2014 at 6:35 PM Post #3,669 of 151,648
jason stoddard said:
  Someone mentioned THX in comments.
 
--snip--
Click to expand...

 
I never cared whether an amp or speaker is THX-certified since I discovered sound quality is not actually in their specs. Volume, voltage swing, ability to drive x channels at y amperage into z ohms, min/max frequency, response curve, all that is in there. But whether it sounds any good? They don't care.
 
My house is small, my living room is my theater / is my two channel stereo rig. But stereo has always come first. I took home a THX-certified amp and another non-certified amp from my accommodating dealer to test once, and the THX amp sounded like ass comparitively. Sure, it had plenty of muscle, but no control. When I took it back and asked why, the dealer flat out told me that THX amps generally sound bad because that's not what they're measured or designed for. Big boom and spectacle, not detail and resolution.
 
So I no longer care if a product is THX certified - it's not on my checklist. If I audition a THX-certified amp and it sounds good, that's fine, but certification is not something I weigh in my decision making.
 
Hearing that they were running a "boy's club" back in the day surprises me not at all.
 
Nov 7, 2014 at 7:07 PM Post #3,670 of 151,648
jason stoddard said:
 
*One of my ongoing pet peeves (read: thermonuclear anger) about A/V is the complete insanity of their remote and onscreen UIs. It is simply inexcusable to give someone a remote control with 120 buttons on it (or a screen with 4 levels of menus) and expect anything other than frustration and angst. It is NOT hard to get this crap right.
Click to expand...

 
I had great admiration for the Yamaha RAV-180 remote. Yes, it had many dozens of buttons, but it had a flap that sat over them and obscured all but the most used. I was dubious when I first saw it because I thought it would be fragile, but my dealer told me he had one at home and his toddler regularly pitched it down the stairs and it had never broken. So I bought the receiver which came with the remote.
 

 
That being said, it took me three days to read through the owners manual of the surround receiver and wrap my head around how things worked, then relate that to the buttons on the remote, and set up the macros. However, once I got it set up, I hardly ever had to flip the top open to access the rats nest of buttons below: if you look at the picture, once you ignore the vertical row of direct input/macro select buttons there's two circular pads and four separate buttons, for a total of 11 - and the two biggest ones were volume up/volume down. That made operating the receiver dead simple - even my mum could figure it out! But if I ever needed anything complicated I could just flip over the top and have at it.
 
And sure enough, that remote got enough use that in places I wore through the silver paint to the tan plastic below, but it never broke.
 
I miss it, but I have to admit that Logitech has finally done an adequate job, and the latest hub/handheld/iapp combination works.
 
Enough of this: back to the regular Schiit!
 
Nov 7, 2014 at 8:58 PM Post #3,671 of 151,648
valiant66 said:
   
Look under your alias name next to your avatar, (below the "100+ Head-Fi'er").
 
You'll see a little tag that says "Online." As I type this, it says "Offline" for you.
 
SO: This Forum (Head-Fi) specifically knows when you are online or offline. That means it tracks YOU.
 
This forum does not charge for membership, so how does it stay in business? By showing you ads, and charging advertisers for doing so. How does it bill advertisers? By telling them how many people have seen their ad. How do they know how many people have seen their ad? By tracking where you go in the forum and what ads are displayed while you're there. This, by nature, means Head-Fi knows what and when you have been reading. It's a simple matter to see that the posts you have read are discussing powered headphones, so Head-Fi decides to show you ads about powered headphones.
 
You can consider this insidious and creepy if you like: many people do. But if you find the service that Head-Fi is providing you but not charging you for useful, then that's the cost of doing business.
 
Guess what, though: you'll be really creeped out when you go somewhere completely unrelated to hifi or headphones or audio and they show you ads for powered headphones, because Head-Fi shares information about you with advertising networks that allow them to track you wherever you go on the web. That in turn lets the ad networks tailor ads based on what you're interested in no matter where you go.
 
And they don't care if you're AlterSack on this forum but PrimeSack on another, they know those are both the same people.
 
Welcome to the Internet! 
Click to expand...

All true, and yet not a single schitt was given.
 
Nov 9, 2014 at 7:44 AM Post #3,673 of 151,648
IMO the world of surround sound has been won by PC's long ago. I've never heard anything in any price bracket that can match a cheap 5.1 system and a properly configured onboard soundcard for positioning. And if sound quality is really a massive deal for you then you can replace the cheap system with something with a bit more quality.

Hell these days you can have 3 top of the line balanced output DAC's outputting 5.1, or 4 dac's for 7.1 etc etc all bitperfect whatever encoding you want and 4k video and insane quality audio all reproduced perfectly and can be controlled from an app on your phone or even by your own voice.

Its not magic, and its availiable today.
 
Nov 10, 2014 at 12:12 AM Post #3,674 of 151,648
Nov 10, 2014 at 11:13 AM Post #3,675 of 151,648
Re: Remotes
 
This is by far my favorite one:
 

 
 
 
BAM, done.
 
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