The Watercooler -- Impressions, philosophical discussion and general banter. Index on first page. All welcome.

[drftr]

Coincidentally, in reference to the Reddit post, I almost typed, "pre-echo", as a third possible name.
I've studied audio engineering, and therefore familiar with most editing techniques.
Unfortunately (or fortunately, as the case may be), the pre-echo sound seems to be edited-out of my digital copy of the Gabriel song.

I had been calling it pre-echo myself without realizing it's a real thing. I must have a dozen recordings where this occurs and always wondered if it had to do with the quality of mastering equipment in 80s or perhaps not being familiar with side effects of trying to be clever. One thing is for sure though: Quality control was severely lacking at even the largest of companies and productions.

drftr

 

[Kiats]

Wonderful package from @Eric Chong to lift the gloom on an otherwise moody Monday.

 

[Audioenophile]

Ever thought of reaching out to XINHS/ivipQ and asking them to make you a spec ready custom cable?

I had not considered that and am not familiarity XINHS/ivipQ outside if cables I’ve seen listed on HeadFi. I’ll check it out. Thanks!

 

[rantng]

Interesting article on the resurgence of cassette tapes (!!!) and physical formats generally.

"It’s a bit of a twist: nostalgia for something they never actually lived through. But there’s something about the tactile experience that streaming just can’t match. Young listeners are drawn to the feel of it all—holding the tape, admiring the artwork, flipping through liner notes. It turns listening into more than background noise.

There’s also a growing awareness that owning your music matters. With streaming, you never quite know when a song—or a whole platform—might vanish. That uncertainty doesn’t sit well with everyone.

It’s not just about ownership, either. Mixtape culture is still going strong. People want to curate their own vibe, not leave it up to an algorithm."

I fully understand these sentiments.

Interesting, but I do think Gen Z ( that is who the article said was driving the cassette sales ) is a bit nuts for liking cassette tapes. While I had a large collection at one time and still have my Nakamichi Deck, cassette tapes are really not the highest quality medium. If you want to own the music just purchase the download, no?

Wait till they find out about leaving them in a car in the heat! Or how they degrade over time, and then degrade even faster if not properly kept! I used to love them, but digital is much better.

Still, will be fun to see where this trend ( is 65,000 even a trend ) leads.

Yeah when it's about the ownership of the music, then the digital files win hands down. But for the audiosensory experience, I believe a cassette tape is one of the best out there. I miss those clickity clack sounds it makes when you shake it on your hand and spinning it like some kind of toys using a pencil if you want to listen to the same side again. Ahh what a good old days

I agree, this 'trend' has nothing to do with quality and everything to do with Gen Z's ADHD-driven TikTok/Insta-fuelled 'sheeping'.

It's like a commerical version of the regular cycles of 'cause' worship that's reshaping societies all over the world. Nothing to do with nostalgia. That's where us boomers come in, thinking the sudden interest in tech (and causes) we lived through are somehow indicative of their inherent meangfulness.

But even without psychoanalysing it, as much as I fondly remember the days of cassette tapes and before that, vinyl, I also clearly remember how liberating it was (and still is) to go digital.

That teens (and slightly older young adults) are turning to cassette tapes and film cameras is, however, damning evidence of how today's fast-paced, instant gratification lifestyle is not really very satisfying at all.

Slowing down and living a meaningful life can still be compatible with modern technology, but that's a whole different discussion.

I miss/don’t miss hearing the tape get caught in the player and hearing the chipmunk-esque squealing vocals and then having to manually wind the cassette on a pencil/Bic pen. My brothers and I used to have cassette winding races…


~edit - I just realized we invented fidget spinners!

 

[drftr]

I miss/don’t miss hearing the tape get caught in the player and hearing the chipmunk-esque squealing vocals and then having to manually wind the cassette on a pencil/Bic pen. My brothers and I used to have cassette winding races…


~edit - I just realized we invented fidget spinners!

It literally takes forever to get those familiar passages out of my memory! Last time I listened to such a tape must be like 35 years ago, and whenever I listen to a digital version I still think back when "it" happened. Absurd.

drftr

 

[gLer]

It literally takes forever to get those familiar passages out of my memory! Last time I listened to such a tape must be like 35 years ago, and whenever I listen to a digital version I still think back when "it" happened. Absurd.

drftr

One of there biggest 'issues' I feel happens in this hobby is chasing the "dragon" - the feeling we had when we first heard a certain song back when we were teens, or at a different time in life, and now our mind's ear has romanticised it to the point where we have to constantly cycle through gear trying to recapture that feeling...but of course, we never will.

A great way to get around that, I find, is to take long pauses - days, weeks, even months - between listening to some of your favorite music or favorite gear. Just by doing that, you get a certain freshness and feeling of familiarity when you pick it up again or hear that song again, which generates a higher degree of awe than if you had the gear/track on constant rotation.

Just like eating your favorite food every day, twice a day, will get boring fast, no matter how good it is, so it is with music, or gear, or anything really. I urge everyone who's suddenly feeling this or that (previously favorite) IEM/DAP/cable/track is suddenly meh to put it aside, go do something else, go use other gear, then come back to it in a week's time and try again. I can almost guarantee those feeling of "I must sell this" frustration will be replaced with "damn, this is good stuff".

 

[drftr]

One of there biggest 'issues' I feel happens in this hobby is chasing the "dragon" - the feeling we had when we first heard a certain song back when we were teens, or at a different time in life, and now our mind's ear has romanticised it to the point where we have to constantly cycle through gear trying to recapture that feeling...but of course, we never will.

A great way to get around that, I find, is to take long pauses - days, weeks, even months - between listening to some of your favorite music or favorite gear. Just by doing that, you get a certain freshness and feeling of familiarity when you pick it up again or hear that song again, which generates a higher degree of awe than if you had the gear/track on constant rotation.

Just like eating your favorite food every day, twice a day, will get boring fast, no matter how good it is, so it is with music, or gear, or anything really. I urge everyone who's suddenly feeling this or that (previously favorite) IEM/DAP/cable/track is suddenly meh to put it aside, go do something else, go use other gear, then come back to it in a week's time and try again. I can almost guarantee those feeling of "I must sell this" frustration will be replaced with "damn, this is good stuff".

?

I don't think @rantng's and my posts were about that. It was about damaged tapes, about the way it F'd up the music, and the way you still expect that to happen in the digital age because you heard that exact distorted passage so often that the crystal clear version can never undo the damaged passage.

drftr

 

[fejnomit]

One of there biggest 'issues' I feel happens in this hobby is chasing the "dragon" - the feeling we had when we first heard a certain song back when we were teens, or at a different time in life, and now our mind's ear has romanticised it to the point where we have to constantly cycle through gear trying to recapture that feeling...but of course, we never will.

A great way to get around that, I find, is to take long pauses - days, weeks, even months - between listening to some of your favorite music or favorite gear. Just by doing that, you get a certain freshness and feeling of familiarity when you pick it up again or hear that song again, which generates a higher degree of awe than if you had the gear/track on constant rotation.

Just like eating your favorite food every day, twice a day, will get boring fast, no matter how good it is, so it is with music, or gear, or anything really. I urge everyone who's suddenly feeling this or that (previously favorite) IEM/DAP/cable/track is suddenly meh to put it aside, go do something else, go use other gear, then come back to it in a week's time and try again. I can almost guarantee those feeling of "I must sell this" frustration will be replaced with "damn, this is good stuff".

Well said, and couldn't agree more. I have learned this the hard way throughout my audio journey. I am also a fan of mixing up combinations - for instance, if you painstakingly A/B'ed until you decided that this cable belongs to this IEM but then later you start to wonder... Mix it up! Try another cable. Another DAP, etc. Go through the fun process of listening all over again to see what you find, mind open... That's another way to 're'-listen and bring back the joy of discovery...

 

[rantng]

?

I don't think @rantng's and my posts were about that. It was about damaged tapes, about the way it F'd up the music, and the way you still expect that to happen in the digital age because you heard that exact distorted passage so often that the crystal clear version can never undo the damaged passage.

drftr

To bring it to a ‘more’ modern era, I also remember the early days of Napster with a 56K modem. You’d spend so long downloading a song and be really happy when you finally get to listen to it; sometimes you’d be a minute into the song, sometimes it would be all the way at the end, but then you’d get the 1-second, almost chipmunk-like chirp letting you know the song/file was damaged.

Of course I also owned a physical CD version of all the songs I downloaded….

 

[drftr]

Of course I also owned a physical CD version of all the songs I downloaded….

Ah, was that you!

drftr

 

[gLer]

?

I don't think @rantng's and my posts were about that. It was about damaged tapes, about the way it F'd up the music, and the way you still expect that to happen in the digital age because you heard that exact distorted passage so often that the crystal clear version can never undo the damaged passage.

drftr

Oh damn, sorry. Got it mixed up with what you were saying about pre-echo and what someone else said about tape nostalgia. My bad! Just append it to my comments on going back to tape and ignore the context

 

[mvvRAZ]

One of there biggest 'issues' I feel happens in this hobby is chasing the "dragon" - the feeling we had when we first heard a certain song back when we were teens, or at a different time in life, and now our mind's ear has romanticised it to the point where we have to constantly cycle through gear trying to recapture that feeling...but of course, we never will.

A great way to get around that, I find, is to take long pauses - days, weeks, even months - between listening to some of your favorite music or favorite gear. Just by doing that, you get a certain freshness and feeling of familiarity when you pick it up again or hear that song again, which generates a higher degree of awe than if you had the gear/track on constant rotation.

Just like eating your favorite food every day, twice a day, will get boring fast, no matter how good it is, so it is with music, or gear, or anything really. I urge everyone who's suddenly feeling this or that (previously favorite) IEM/DAP/cable/track is suddenly meh to put it aside, go do something else, go use other gear, then come back to it in a week's time and try again. I can almost guarantee those feeling of "I must sell this" frustration will be replaced with "damn, this is good stuff".

I've fully embraced that I'm not even chasing a dragon at this point. I was content for a few years listening to just my A18s with Apple dongle and Spotify.

Performance, dynamics, texture, instrumental separation or tonal balance never even crossed my mind. Music just sounded as it was supposed to and I actually enjoyed my music more than I ever have I think

It's been just about 2 months since I returned now I think, and I'm farming a different kind of dopamine, which is more in the direction of enjoying how good my music can sound on various equipment, swapping IEMs, cables, DAPs, moving to high res files, and most of all - the excitement of the DHL "out for delivery" email

I'd say it's a net negative overall though, because I've ended up enjoying my music less on a setup that sounds so much better

I guess I'll eventually quit again at some point when I find a setup that I just can't beat (the APX SE is already a top contender for that mythical set), but in the meantime what I'll enjoy more than anything is the community, which is honestly among the very best I've come across from any hobby

Even when I had no desire to try out new stuff, and I felt really burned out from all the new gear, I missed these threads and all the chats - keeping up with at least some of the new gear is in some way a requirement for participation, otherwise you end up running out of things to say. I kept in touch with a lot of people even though I wasn't chasing anything anymore, but it just isn't the same as when you have some fresh IEMs to talk about

 

[Aetherhole]

Hey WC Folks! Just wanted to share my review of the Quill Satin. You can find it here:

https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/quill-acoustics-satin.28190/reviews#review-38082

Would love comments and feedback!

 

[Frankie D]

With all the cassette talk I happened upon this yesterday in my house:

The Sony WM-D6C Walkman Professional


The Sony WM-D6C in its leather case


Sony WM-D6C out of its case



To provide an idea of the size, the Walkman Professional if next to my N8 DAP


Lifting the case cover reveals the D6C. Maroon velour lining baby!

The Sony Walkman Professional WM-D6C was actually Sony’s best cassette deck ( IMHO ) even though it was meant to be mobile. It came out toward the end of 1984. It could both play and record cassette tapes. I purchased it to use along with my Nakamichi RX505 Cassette deck. If I needed to copy a cassette tape ( I used to record my own albums and play lists using “metal” tape direct from vinyl in those days as they sounded better than purchasing the recording on cassette ), I used this to play back my original copy on the WM-D6C to feed my big Nakamichi deck to make cassette copies for friends. The Nakamichi decks were over $1000.00 in the early 1980’s. The Sony was only about $350.00 ( this is roughly $1,000 today )and sounded great. It could record well also, but not to the level of the Nak. I checked and it looks like the Sony WM-D6C has increased in value fetching from over $1000 to over $2,000 used in excellent condition.

I thought I would connect my Traillii to it after all these decades and describe its sound. Unfortunately I have no idea where I put my old cassette tapes! Anyway some more pics below.


The back of the unit. You could modify the speed of the tape if needed.


The controls on the front of it. The Volume was a slider.


The top up. You would manually raise it to insert the cassette. I removed the battery compartment which is on the left.


Another pic showing the battery compartment removed. It fit on the left side of the unit.


Hope this was some fun checking out a 40 year old Sony WM-D6C.

 

[stacey]

Wow, that looks beautiful!

Given how the market moves, I'm forever 'between IEMs'
Currently I have the Thieaudio Valhalla (that's not going anywhere), CP54e, and Spectrumica. The HEX and some others are incoming (hopefully) soon.

I wonder if you’re gonna hop on to the SP4000? Aside from HEX that’s the one thing that caught my eye this year.