Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Saskia]

If you want Windows 10 and you are going to do a fresh install, just go download it from Microsoft's site, use their media creation tool to make a flash drive, and try installing it.  It's possible they will let you have it for free.  I heard rumors of this repeatedly so I tried it and it worked.
...

Try to get a mainboard being resold as a factury refurb. If they were activated with W10 before they blew, there is a good chance that by reinstalling and going through the "I don't have a product key" they will auto activate.
Just don't enter/change the product key when doing the install and try to figure out if there was W10Home or prof installed.

BTW I just reinstalled a rather modern Skylake based system with XP. I don't intend to scrap my scanners and other Lab equipment just because someone thinks that drivers are a luxury.

And looking at that W10 crap I am majestetically (sp) pissed of and really thinking about going to Linux.

[Saskia]

Ok, in 10 min I will be married. Just checking here before my TEA career will change forever.
Sorry misspelled with a phone.

congrats.
My husband won't interfere with my habit as long as I don't interfere with his knife/axe/tomahawk/... collecting habit.

Maybe you can strike a similar deal ? It all boils down to the proper bribe 

[beanflying]

Ok, in 10 min I will be married. Just checking here before my TEA career will change forever.
Sorry misspelled with a phone.

Run away now your life will be better with out a HWMBO  Congrats 

[Saskia]

Threshold wants similar money for upgrading their old amps. fortunately I was able to trade a PC for my Threshold boat anchor

You got a refurb Threshold in exchange for a PC...? Unless it was a dreadnought-class gaming rig, still a good deal... 

mnem
My Denon hates me.

I think I need a bigger rack (it's in the garage, but I hate to lug 350 lbs to the 2nd floor).
The turntable will move to the different rack, whereas the small Nakamichi power amp moved to the secondary stereo.

I just could not pass on the Threshold trade, and the PC I forked over was very decent and will be used for astro photography. Also I just traded another PC for a decent high end turntable plus an active crossover for hooking up my EAR 519 monoblocks when they come out of maintenance. (those are 100W tube amps).

Yes, I am into vintage stuff. I hate that modern plastics crap. However, moving is a big pain, therefore I am looking for a loft which supports a fork lift.

[mansaxel]

As far as musicians looking for a "certain sound" there really can be a huge difference in where a tube came from, and even when in the production history due to changes in manufacturing techniques; to them, a grand for a set of tubes to get "that sound" is no different from us spending a grand on probes or interconnects. 

That is another thing! 

The Audiophool believes in anti-physics that will render more true to form the signal that has passed several dozen TL072 opamps (a quite good opamp that is often seen as detrimental to quality by purists) and been run, digitized, over an Ethernet cable without direction marks on it before being mauled by the mastering process.

Expecting a different waveform from a different set of valves that are borderline operating in a non-optimised circuit (as discussed above) is, IMNSHO not only possible but also technologically sound, as far as method goes.

[bd139]

Best way to piss off an audiophool.

Best hifi I have ever owned:

[med6753]

Ok, in 10 min I will be married. Just checking here before my TEA career will change forever.
Sorry misspelled with a phone.

congrats.
My husband won't interfere with my habit as long as I don't interfere with his knife/axe/tomahawk/... collecting habit.

Maybe you can strike a similar deal ? It all boils down to the proper bribe 

Better still...she has her place. I have mine. We prefer it that way. (No, we're not married). I don't interfere with her thousands of shoes, she doesn't interfere with my TEA. 

Edit.....Zucca.....I have to "ditto" what bd139 said. 

[bd139]

Indeed. Time will tell. 17 years it took here  . After retrospective analysis I can only conclude that the concept is a social construct designed to efficiently produce more humans with the same ideology instilled in their parents rather than any practical use. If that wasn’t the case then the structures that support it wouldn’t be based on shame which is pretty lame. Similar thing to many years ago when someone worked out it felt good to huff the smoke off a plant that was on fire. Seemed like a good idea at the time 

[med6753]

It took me more than once to figure that out. I will say no more. 

[bd139]

LMAO yeaaah.

One thing Zucca needs to experience is my day today which is directly related to the above. It’s the hell known as “other people’s kids”. Something which no one tells you about when you get married.

I am in a scabby horrible bowling alley with about 30x 7 year old nasty little estate shits. The balloon dude can only make swords so it’s turned into mad max. Shirts off and everything. One has blood on it. Child that is.  Mine is sitting there asking when we can leave and go to the tip and Tesco 

Still beats my sisters wedding reception which I watched two shirtless feral kids beating the shit out of a giant minion under Concorde (was on the floor at duxford).

I’m sitting at the bar reading EMRFD. 

[xrunner]

Still beats my sisters wedding reception which I watched two shirtless feral kids beating the shit out of a giant minion under Concorde (was on the floor at duxford).

Feral kids ... we have programs here to deal with feral cats, might be adaptable to children but I'm not an expert. 

[Saskia]

my husband just agreed with you 

[bd139]

 

Feral kids ... we have programs here to deal with feral cats, might be adaptable to children but I'm not an expert. 

No comment 

[mnementh]

Ok, in 10 min I will be married. Just checking here before my TEA career will change forever.
Sorry misspelled with a phone.

Welcome to the ranks of the "men who live mumblety percent longer than unmarried men"... 

congrats. My husband won't interfere with my habit as long as I don't interfere with his knife/axe/tomahawk/... collecting habit.

Maybe you can strike a similar deal ? It all boils down to the proper bribe 

My wife and I have a similar arrangement... she says nothing about my "whirry little flying thing" and "man-eating black boxes full of circuits" habits, and I say nothing about her "mani-pedi" and "purse" habits. 

Bonus points in her favor; she is sometimes an enabler. My last two acro quads, my 1054Zed and my Ryzen 3700X were all gifts from her.

mnem

[mnementh]

If you want Windows 10 and you are going to do a fresh install, just go download it from Microsoft's site, use their media creation tool to make a flash drive, and try installing it.  It's possible they will let you have it for free.  I heard rumors of this repeatedly so I tried it and it worked.
...

Try to get a mainboard being resold as a factury refurb. If they were activated with W10 before they blew, there is a good chance that by reinstalling and going through the "I don't have a product key" they will auto activate.
Just don't enter/change the product key when doing the install and try to figure out if there was W10Home or prof installed.

BTW I just reinstalled a rather modern Skylake based system with XP. I don't intend to scrap my scanners and other Lab equipment just because someone thinks that drivers are a luxury.

And looking at that W10 crap I am majestetically (sp) pissed of and really thinking about going to Linux.

Unfortunately for many of us, even tho Win10 is a majestically elevated steaming pile, abandoning the platform is really not an option. Our work requires that we be conversant enough in the workings of the current version of whatever Redmond deigns to splatter the world with to competently diag  ever they've fucked up this "update" and fix it for our tech-illiterate bosses, coworkers or clients. This of course requires that we actually USE their "conveniently-packaged malware with the most successful marketing campaign in history" frequently enough to know what we're doing.

OTOH, if MS weren't such a flupping self-absorbed screech of feces-flinging howler monkeys, I for one would be out of a job. 

Just to keep my soul rooted in reality, though... I still keep an old ToughBook with XP on it for programming flight controllers and nuking CISCOs.   It doesn't need to connect to the internet, so what do I care if it's 20 years out of date?

mnem

[Cerebus]

One thing Zucca needs to experience is my day today which is directly related to the above. It’s the hell known as “other people’s kids”. Something which no one tells you about when you get married.

There's a step worse, the in-law's out-law's kids. You can't even get away with scaring them off when no-one's watching, the little rodents go and rat on you to the sister-in-law. 

I've found the best defence to all kinds of rugrat is to learn to produce a convincing animal growl, something close to Rottweiler-that's-just-about-ready-for-lunch. 

[Cerebus]

Welcome to the ranks of the "men who live mumblety percent longer than unmarried men"... 

It's like those "follow this diet and you'll live forever" diets. You don't actually live longer, it just feels like it's going on forever. 

[mnementh]

As far as musicians looking for a "certain sound" there really can be a huge difference in where a tube came from, and even when in the production history due to changes in manufacturing techniques; to them, a grand for a set of tubes to get "that sound" is no different from us spending a grand on probes or interconnects. 

That is another thing!

The Audiophool believes in anti-physics that will render more true to form the signal that has passed several dozen TL072 opamps (a quite good opamp that is often seen as detrimental to quality by purists) and been run, digitized, over an Ethernet cable without direction marks on it before being mauled by the mastering process.

Expecting a different waveform from a different set of valves that are borderline operating in a non-optimised circuit (as discussed above) is, IMNSHO not only possible but also technologically sound, as far as method goes.

Which is precisely why I very clearly predicated my treatise with the phrase "Ehhhhhhh.... on this one, I'm going to say that it is not NECESSARILY so."

These ARE sought-after tubes for MANY reasons. They DO perform differently from the original Marconi/Genalex design KT88 tubes, EVEN in an optimal-design amplifier circuit. Whether you consider that "warmer" sound a "distortion" of the source music or an "enhancement", there are SOME valid parts to SOME of the arguments in SOME of the audiophool logic. That is what is so infuriating about it... they'll take a grain of truth or a sliver of real engineering and build a fucking belief system that is 90% hooey. That does NOT invalidate the 10% that is based in reality...

For example... there is nothing wrong with seeking out the closest approximation you can manage of the amplifier circuitry that music was created with in your pursuit of the ultimate listening experience; regardless of how much sausage-grinder cluster-fuckery that signal may have been subjected to in the interim as part of the recording process. THAT IS A VALID QUEST, just like any of the other hobbies we all enjoy and spend so much money on.

mnem
I prefer my hooey to be 100% solid-state. 

[mnementh]

Indeed. Time will tell. 17 years it took here  . After retrospective analysis I can only conclude that the concept is a social construct designed to efficiently produce more humans with the same ideology instilled in their parents rather than any practical use. If that wasn’t the case then the structures that support it wouldn’t be based on shame which is pretty lame. Similar thing to many years ago when someone worked out it felt good to huff the smoke off a plant that was on fire. Seemed like a good idea at the time 

Yes, but you say "social construct" as if it were a bad thing. Human beings are a highly social animal; without those social constructs we quickly devolve into competing shrieks of feces-flinging howler monkeys. Like our current White House. 

mnem
"Moderation in all things, including this." ~ Thomas Jefferson

[Kosmic]

Ok, in 10 min I will be married. Just checking here before my TEA career will change forever.
Sorry misspelled with a phone.

Congratulations Zucca! 

[bd139]

@mnem: Social constructs as a whole are fine but the particular one I am bitching about happens to be about piggy bagging a prehistoric viral meme on the ethic of reciprocity which is roughly “do unto others, oh except him, he’s a prick, and stay together and miserable because we need you to spread this meme. Kthx”

On windows 10, the trick is to learn how to do a Viennese Waltz without stepping on any turds. Expertise can be learned by having kids who leave Lego everywhere in the dark.

Now practicing Cerebus’ aforementioned Rottweiler growl

[mnementh]

One thing Zucca needs to experience is my day today which is directly related to the above. It’s the hell known as “other people’s kids”. Something which no one tells you about when you get married.

There's a step worse, the in-law's out-law's kids. You can't even get away with scaring them off when no-one's watching, the little rodents go and rat on you to the sister-in-law. 

I've found the best defence to all kinds of rugrat is to learn to produce a convincing animal growl, something close to Rottweiler-that's-just-about-ready-for-lunch. 

Or a hungry dwagon. Interestingly, I've found that with enough repetition this is actually effective with my own children. They have learned that if they don't cease and desist whatever deviltry they're currently committing immediately upon hearing that guttural warning they will very soon wish they had, no matter what the circumstances or who may be in audience at the time. It ALSO gets the undivided attention of whatever carpet rodent cohorts may be goading them on at the moment, unlike the more-universal "mother counting to 3".

mnem
*grrrr*

[mansaxel]

These ARE sought-after tubes for MANY reasons. They DO perform differently from the original Marconi/Genalex design KT88 tubes, EVEN in an optimal-design amplifier circuit.

Of course!

Another facet of the other-thing-ness is the observation that what the guitar amp is there to do is create a sound, not reproduce it. Guitar amps that simply amplify what comes down the wire are somewhat frowned on...  The Phool claims that he (and there are very few women there, so using gendered pronouns is a safe bet...) is recreating what happened before the microphone.  I'm laughing, because I know how recording gear looks inside, and what counts in building it, like it being a better idea if the mike preamp can reject EMI/RFI shit from 100 metres of cable than if said preamp is linear to 200KHz...

THAT IS A VALID QUEST, just like any of the other hobbies we all enjoy and spend so much money on.

(this is a rant at the Phool, not towards mnem, just to be very clear)

I happen to work in that industry, creation of sounds (although we hang pictures onto them and call the result television), but I've found myself spending loooong days trying to make a device (mic preamp+AD+multicast streamer) on top of a mountain in a blizzard have the same idea of 48KHz as the devices 600km away in the machine room, with stochastical networks like Ethernet being the only available communications channel in between. If sound survives that and comes out as believable without buffering (we can't buffer, it has to be absolutely minimal latency, for Reasons) I can't be arsed to even listen to a Phool who is so afraid of his illusions being smashed to bits that he refuses double-blind tests between zipcord and his $1000 "speaker interconnects". 

If you're going to use the sciency words, dear Phool, go with the method too. And question your ideas in the uncompromising light of scientific method.

Yeah, it is a valid quest, but like using coconut shells as horses in the search for the holy Grail, doing it wrong will be silly.

[Kosmic]

LMAO yeaaah.

One thing Zucca needs to experience is my day today which is directly related to the above. It’s the hell known as “other people’s kids”. Something which no one tells you about when you get married.

I am in a scabby horrible bowling alley with about 30x 7 year old nasty little estate shits. The balloon dude can only make swords so it’s turned into mad max. Shirts off and everything. One has blood on it. Child that is.  Mine is sitting there asking when we can leave and go to the tip and Tesco 

Still beats my sisters wedding reception which I watched two shirtless feral kids beating the shit out of a giant minion under Concorde (was on the floor at duxford).

I’m sitting at the bar reading EMRFD. 

Sound like fun. Normally I try to avoid any kind of social event and send my wife instead. Last time it was a kid birthday in a skate/roller park. She is still talking about it 

[mnementh]

@mnem: Social constructs as a whole are fine but the particular one I am bitching about happens to be about piggy bagging a prehistoric viral meme on the ethic of reciprocity which is roughly “do unto others, oh except him, he’s a prick, and stay together and miserable because we need you to spread this meme. Kthx”

On windows 10, the trick is to learn how to do a Viennese Waltz without stepping on any turds. Expertise can be learned by having kids who leave Lego everywhere in the dark.

Now practicing Cerebus’ aforementioned Rottweiler growl

No, you have this entirely wrong... the actual construct is: "You're both complete assholes, but you've found each other and have so lost your minds that you are willing to commit to that insanity in front of God and everybody. For the sake of everything that is good in the world, stay together and save two more deserving folk the horror of living with you for the rest of eternity. Kthx."

Expertise in the physical art of DANCING, yes. AND the requisite dodging/sidestepping/tiptoeing reflex actions. But the skill of navigating the psychological house-of-horrors that is Windoze can only be learned and kept proficient first-hand, and you know it.

Deeper. Darker. More "brown".

mnem
Add a little warmth, like those "Golden Aero" KT88 tubes.