[macdonjh]

Gungnir first impressions:

Wait, first a story: my Gungnir arrived yesterday. It was immediately unboxed, "installed" and set to warming up. Also photographed and bragged about. Three hours or so later I sat down to try it. Horrible static, so loud I almost couldn't hear the music through it, in the right channel. Several trouble shooting attempts followed without success. Several rapid-fire PMs through Head-fi to the seller followed. He's been great, good people populate this site. I filed a help ticket with Schiit support, but they haven't gotten back to me yet. The left channel sounded beguiling...

Another three hours or so later, as I was sliding into bed, I turned the volume up from 0 to "pretty loud" and didn't hear a thing. The static was gone. Hmmm. Fast forward another few hours to after my morning shower. I put my headphones on and started my DAP. Clean sound injected directly to both ears. Go figure.

So, as soon as I got home I turned my DAP on, put my headphones on and listened to a lot of unfamiliar music. About ninety minutes worth. These are most assuredly first impressions without the benefit or hinderance of A/B comparison with my much more familiar Bifrost I, or my normal audition tracks. The mids and highs are very liquid. Very smooth and detailed. In comparison with my aural memory of the sound of my Bifrost there is less grain. Overall, bass from the delta-sigma Gungnir is shelved down noticeably compared to my multi-bit Bifrost. Bass is plenty deep/ extended, but it's not level with the mids and highs. Gungnir seems a bit more articulate, a bit more capable of keeping different sounds separated and distinct than Bifrost. I don't me instrument separation in the sense of individual placement within the soundstage. I mean making various sounds happening at once audible as separate entities if you are trying to pick the sounds apart, or as a cohesive whole if that's how you choose to hear at that moment. Perhaps "intelligibility", as people us it when trying to describe being able to hear their companions' voices in a crowded, noisy place, is a good adjective for this.

The most memorable track from this afternoon was one by Messa (I can't remember the song's title). It begins with Sara's breathy voice sounding like she's at the bottom of a well. The ambience and reverb are spooky and wonderful. When the guitars enter, after a couple of minutes, they are crunchy and nasty sounding, in a good way. For most of the song, one guitar is buzzing in the center of your right ear, like it's whispering to you. Since it's so disconnected from the rest of the band, spread from "center stage" to the extreme left, it's distracting, fun, frustrating and interesting all at the same time.

Since I've so little time with this new DAC I'm sure there is more than a dollop of the Argle Bargle Effect in all of this.

 

[Ableza]

Just like me with my HP48SX. Never saw a slide rule used in my life

I need to stay away from this thread, it's making me feel depressingly old. I used a slide rule in high school and college... you calculator kids can stay off my lawn.

 

[Mr Rick]

Does it mean I am a spring chicken if I started with a TI-83 Plus?

Does it mean I'm an old phart that I started with a Bowmar Brain?

 

[ImagesbyMurray]

My Dad, a former slide rule warrior in his college days, taught me at least basic multiplication and division with a slide rule. I still have the plastic one he bought me when I was a kid.

When I went off to college I begged and pleaded with my parents to replace the little Casio "scientific" calculator I used in high school with an HP 11C. They finally relented and allowed me to spend the outrageous sum of $40 for the calculator. How quaint is that these days? $40? Anyway, I was nearly instantly addicted to RPN and four registers instead of a single value memory. Such luxury.

The next year I sold my 11C and splurged for a 15C ($70!) because of the matrix functions. They were really useful in statics and dynamics classes. Finally, in my junior year, jealous of the HP-48 owner, I sold my 15C and bought that 42S ($200!!) I posted earlier today. I even programmed it a bit. Like I had a scare a few years ago when I dropped it and it stopped working. I was able to find a man who repaired HP calculators. He was having issues in his personal life, but finally fixed my calculator and then promptly retired. I am super-extra careful with it now.

A few years ago I missed my 15C so I started stalking eBay and got an original, not a reissue, in decent condition, but I had to pay $200 for it. At least they were 201x dollars, not 1998 dollars. It's amazing how slow it is.

When my daughter was in high school I bought her an HP-xx, I can't remember the model, but @ghfiii posted a photo of it a bit earlier. It was so complicated neither of us figured out how to use it. I miss classic HP calculators. To me, the pinnacle of purpose-built devices of their kind. I, like @AudioGal, like the little tactile "snap" of the keys. Excellent ergonomic touch. For that reason alone I don't have an emulator on my phone.

You just nailed why I enjoy this forum so much! I fondly remember my grandfather (a very accomplished lawyer) always asking "so what did you learn today?". I once proudly showed him long division on paper - he then smiled and showed me how to cast out nines.... I took that to my teacher the next day, she was totally unaware of it! Some years later I watched him perform mortgage interest calculations by hand on a legal pad- amazing!

His favorite expression when I was stupid? "what's on? your mind?"

 

[bcowen]

In the spirit of National BBQ Day, yes to all the above.

And in the true spirit of National BBQ Day, no slagging anyone else's BBQ preference on the 16th. Official or not, it's a day of BBQ peace and love.

Of course, on the 17th NC BBQ is best again.

 

[filthy mechanical]

And in the true spirit of National BBQ Day, no slagging anyone else's BBQ preference on the 16th. Official or not, it's a day of BBQ peace and love.

Of course, on the 17th NC BBQ is best again.

Means I will need to hit Dickey's BBQ PIT since I seem to be in a BBQ desert - when you hit the local Gargler to see BBQ places nearby and an Irish pub is a top result...

 

[macdonjh]

And in the true spirit of National BBQ Day, no slagging anyone else's BBQ preference on the 16th. Official or not, it's a day of BBQ peace and love.

Of course, on the 17th NC BBQ is best again.

I guess that makes Monday May 17th National Slagging Everyone Else's BBQ Day...

 

[438555]

Assuming Wikipedia is accurate for the HP48SX being introduced in 1990, that makes it released before I was born... I think I have you beat by a bit for being a spring chicken (or does that make me a hatchling?).

So it was only out a year before I took Calc in college. Cutting edge technology of the time. You could also play pac man and joust on it, amongst other games that people ported to it

 

[438555]

Hate to derail the HP calculator thread, but excellent live stream today, and amazing news. They found Freya S metal...probably another run YAY for the S yippeeee

but that's just me

Griff

I love my Freya S. Just works, and no consumables...

 

[earnmyturns]

300B's are not the holy grail for everybody

I did a bit of research before making decisions on what exotic SET headamp(s) to go for, and everything aligned with 2A3, not 300B. That's what it is now, with more to come...

 

[tincanear]

If I had a dollar each time I guessed correctly where this thread would go next (e.g. presently to sliderules & calculators), I'd have zero money, just like @bcowen

here's my calculator story: bought a HP-41CV many years ago, it failed while under warranty (became erratic), and I sent it off to Corvalis for service. When it came back, the front shell was my original (distinctive scratches/ dings on one edge) but the serial number on the back was now crooked (like it had been added manually to a blank housing). Still working since that factory service, despite many years idle (I remembered to remove the batteries, those now even-harder-to-find size N cells).

I've also seen a couple of lithium (A123???) cells tack soldered to the kapton battery flex circuit in someone else's HP-41C. Didn't ask and didn't want to hear the story behind that

REAL calculators have an "ENTER" key that depresses with a nice click when you press it.

 

[johnjen]

I still have my 'full size' Picket which is more a tip of the hat to decades long gone by.

HP's and RPN ya just gotta love them/it.

But now I use a simulated HP42 on my old ipad which is mostly used to balance my checkbook with an occasional E=IR solution thrown at it.
Anything more complicated/involved and other calculators are employed (paralleled Ω, freq->wavelength, dB conversions, bandwidth -> Q, reactance, etc).



And I do remember when the HP 35/45 first showed up.
I was amazed it had ±^99 with 10(?) digits of resolution.

Slide rules just died deader-n-door nail at that point.

JJ

 

[Rowethren]

Assuming Wikipedia is accurate for the HP48SX being introduced in 1990, that makes it released before I was born... I think I have you beat by a bit for being a spring chicken (or does that make me a hatchling?).

1990 a fantastic year if I do say so myself... What a time to be born.

 

[Timster]

Problem is that even the cheap ones are expensive.

I'm currently mulling over getting a toob amp to play with on my main system. Want an integrated and am looking second hand (lower cost, less loss if I on-sell), with Line Magnetic, Muzishare as my two faves at the moment (reasonable price here in Aus, and have good reviews). And schiit, I missed out on a Line Magnetic 300B amp this week on Stereonet classifieds cause work got busy. Need to not work and look for my amp, but then I can't afford the amp. What to do?

 

[macdonjh]

I still have my 'full size' Picket which is more a tip of the hat to decades long gone by.

HP's and RPN ya just gotta love them/it.

But now I use a simulated HP42 on my old ipad which is mostly used to balance my checkbook with an occasional E=IR solution thrown at it.
Anything more complicated/involved and other calculators are employed (paralleled Ω, freq->wavelength, dB conversions, bandwidth -> Q, reactance, etc).



And I do remember when the HP 35/45 first showed up.
I was amazed it had ±^99 with 10(?) digits of resolution.

Slide rules just died deader-n-door nail at that point.

JJ

Your Pickett has a very handsome case. Must have looked really good swinging on your belt, back when that was high fashion in engineering schools across the country.

I was reading about slide rules a few years ago when I was in a nostalgic mood. Until I read it, it didn't occur to me what the consequences in terms of physical size would be in going from 0.001 resolution to 0.0001 resolution to 0.00001 resolution. Amazing how big the slide rules would get.