Post what you are thinking right now, part two

[odeon]

Thinking about old pre-internet communication now.

I had penpals at my school. I think I had 3. Never got into chain letters though. I guess I broke the chains.

IMO, people had more fun before social media like Facebook.

I posted on the Usenet before there was an internet. It was fun but the trolls were everywhere and it got worse when the bandwidth increased.

How did trolling work back then? Were there types?

Think of a text-based version of the trolls today and you get the idea. Nothing's really changed - people post for a reaction.

[odeon]

Cassette tapes usually are terrible quality. I have a few that are about as good as they get, but I'm not sure I still have the equipment required.

A Walkman would have terrible s/n ratio, and the curve is nowhere near flat. You'll get your audio across but it's not going to be brilliant.

Hmm. The other option is a Panasonic (They always used to be excellent as well as Sony) Powerblaster with the cable linked between that and my laptop. Would that be a lot better?

I'm guessing about the same. The headphone connector would be about the same, but the amps aren't great, your sound card isn't great, and the impedances differ. The problem is that you're mixing apples and oranges.

I must stress that a Walkman was an amazing piece of kit in its day. It's just that your laptop sound card is not made for that input, and you don't have anything to compensate for the differences.

[DirtDawg]

Cassette tapes usually are terrible quality. I have a few that are about as good as they get, but I'm not sure I still have the equipment required.

A Walkman would have terrible s/n ratio, and the curve is nowhere near flat. You'll get your audio across but it's not going to be brilliant.

I still have my Nakamichi dual cassette deck, which was a pretty good choice for the format in those days. I also remember it is very heavy.
I don't even remember when I plugged it in last. It's boxed up in the attic.
I kept about fifty cassettes.
I'm not sure why.

[DirtDawg]

As far as being honest with myself, I should just get rid of that tape deck and the cassettes I kept along with a lot more stuff.

I mean I have four eighteen inch JBLs I will probably never use again, in addition to maybe thirty fifteen inchers, six twelves and I don't even know how many tens I have hoarded/stored and quite a few horns, multitudes of electronics that only work in a vintage system.

There is no reason to keep any of it these days.
I have my massive mono stack I always wanted set up (but buried by albums and CDs right now), all my "H Frame" dipole drivers. Maybe keep some of the Dayton and the Jamo (I will challenge anyone to keep pissing on Jamo drivers the way they do, after hearing how I have them set up. These things kick ass in an infinite baffle or open baffle configuration - pre Klipsch!), incase I want to change it up a bit, but seriously, WTF am I doing hoarding so much!?!

What I watched my friend's widow, June going through last month to get her husband's things removed from her life finally after over a year of deliberation and anxiety so she could sell the home they built together. All the while she was needing some outside help. I do not want to burden my family with these mountains of crap I have kept, "For No Reason."

I ended up with over two thousand of his most favored LPs that he had carefully cleaned thoroughly (from my initial inspection of about a hundred beautiful old records) protected with high quality inner sleeves and outers, placed them in specialized containers, catalogued them OCD-ishly, placed them carefully to be sold or dealt with thoughtfully, but then, he died. I was one on a list of trusted people he left for her to contact.

While I am the happenstance, temporary beneficiary of his ultimate collection, which I will enjoy for eons, I am afraid I will end up leaving some similar burden to my own family.
I mean no one even knows what half of my shit is, let alone what to do to organize a suitable disposal of the items with historical and archival significance I have gathered over a lifetime, in any responsible way.

I really need to streamline a few things in preparation for what WILL come. I mean I hope That Time is a long way away toward the future, but consolidate, incorporate, get things ready to go and get them gone.

I've been mulling it over for long enough. The car is the next to go.

[Fun With Matches]

Cassette tapes usually are terrible quality. I have a few that are about as good as they get, but I'm not sure I still have the equipment required.

A Walkman would have terrible s/n ratio, and the curve is nowhere near flat. You'll get your audio across but it's not going to be brilliant.

Hmm. The other option is a Panasonic (They always used to be excellent as well as Sony) Powerblaster with the cable linked between that and my laptop. Would that be a lot better?

I'm guessing about the same. The headphone connector would be about the same, but the amps aren't great, your sound card isn't great, and the impedances differ. The problem is that you're mixing apples and oranges.

I must stress that a Walkman was an amazing piece of kit in its day. It's just that your laptop sound card is not made for that input, and you don't have anything to compensate for the differences.

Would a desktop PC soundcard be decent enough?

Yes, the Walkman was great. So was the Discman, which was waaaaaaaay better. My mp3 players never beat the sound on that, though they saved me having to carry around a big wallet of CDs. Still much prefer CDs.

[DirtDawg]

Would a desktop PC soundcard be decent enough?

If you are thinking of the soundcard I was talking about earlier, it is completely different from what comes in any typical PC. Typical PC sound uses the main processors to do all the work. All the work!

The sound card I use has its own seperate processors built in and requires a much higher output type of power supply to do what it does.
One of the reasons to go to all that trouble and do all that is to get better, smoother, more refined and stable DC voltage for your sound processors to work from. This will be miles ahead of what ever DC power soup floats along the typical USB buss or even a spare out at the original power supply.

This card is older, but it originally cost more than the PC I used it in. I have since upgraded to an even more advanced sound card for the music server I built for JUST music storage and playback.

The Win 10 computer I am typing on right now uses the older sound card after upgrading my main one. I use this one mainly for transfer of analog (LPs or reel to reel tapes) to digital files in a most convenient way.
I had to refit this computer with about double the power suppy size. It came with 400W PS and I replaced the original with a 950W PS.

Now the original motherboard based sound on this machine, which would be comparable to almost any other pre-built, off the shelf macine sound is adequate for most uses and yes, again the software comes into play.
Since this machine came with a DVD player, it also had some rather advanced options native to using a Home Theater set up with this PC. All that software was a part of the Real-tek built in sound.

Before I could use any of my upgraded sound card's features, I had to go in and clear out all that Real-tek installation stuff,  "The Hard Way!"

So a shorter answer might be, "Yes, the PC sound is probably better than the sound from a hand held portable device."
The problem is, like Odeon mentioned, those devices you are connectiong to did not have very good sound to start with.

You can not improve upon or fix what is not already there.

The easier answer still is to plug it in, give it a listen and draw your own conclusions about the quality.
 

It should be fine for most uses.

[DirtDawg]

Sorry, I just realized how long winded that was.
You probably did not need so much background as to why I demand the highest quality digital signal I can get.
But, I use specialized high quality speakers and some external electroncs that demand the same.

I really like good sound and I have to pay for it.
 

[Genesis]

It's not the basis of faith that annoys me, it's the people who use it to bash others with their personal "unwritten rules". It's all bullshit when you add the legalism, everything else doesn't get looked at carefully... if it was looked at carefully, wouldn't they realize by now that their messiah was an early socialist?

[odeon]

Cassette tapes usually are terrible quality. I have a few that are about as good as they get, but I'm not sure I still have the equipment required.

A Walkman would have terrible s/n ratio, and the curve is nowhere near flat. You'll get your audio across but it's not going to be brilliant.

I still have my Nakamichi dual cassette deck, which was a pretty good choice for the format in those days. I also remember it is very heavy.
I don't even remember when I plugged it in last. It's boxed up in the attic.
I kept about fifty cassettes.
I'm not sure why.

If you're like me, then it's because you loved the sound produced by it. I've got a Yamaha that I liked a lot. I suppose I could plug it into the Denon but I honestly don't think I will. I just can't part with it.

[Genesis]

It's raining... it's pouring, and yes it's obvious that the old man is snoring.... the old man being my father

[odeon]

Thinking about my dad.

[Genesis]

I need razor blades

[Fun With Matches]

My life is extremely boring. I want fun and adventure.

I want decent friends.

I want to have a really great time.

I really want this. I want a relationship with someone awesome and very fun, who gives a damn about me, who takes charge, has lots of love for me and shows me a great/amazing time.

[Gopher Gary]

I need razor blades

Now I'm thinking about you shaving stuff. 

[Gopher Gary]

Too many retirement gift suggestions for men revolve around booze.