Dying devices and technologies

[rodi]

I work in the cable industry. I've been predicting "less than 5 years left in this industry for 8 years now. Obviously, I've been wrong, since I still work here.... developing new settop boxes.

But - OTT (over the top) is hitting traditional cable hard. As are the telco versions of cable (uverse, fios).

Changing topics obsolete devices. Just remodeled our kitchen to get a SECOND oven. One was not enough. I don't need more specific devices to clutter up my counters and my cabinets. All those specialty devices listed have to be stored. I bake bread, roast chickens and veggies, etc... at least one oven gets used daily. Sometimes both. But I'm feeding a family of four and we don't eat out often.

 

[Chuckanut]

Cable companies are hanging on do to laws that allow them to operate in a near monopoly situation. For example: The traditional telephone companies had to allow other DSL providers to use their lines to provide DSL internet to customers, but the cable companies are under no obligation to allow a competitor the use of the cables to provide anything.

Another example: Most cable subscribers pay about $5 a month for ESPN which is perhaps the single most expensive source of product for the cable companies. They have no choice. One can hate sports and never watch it, and one still pays for ESPN in their cable bills.

They are ripe for a disruptor. Maybe companies like Aereo if they win in the Supreme Court.

 

[travelover]

.............It might just be that since we're retired and around the house more, we're experiencing outages that normally occurred but we just were not here to observe. ........

I've lived the same house for the past 25 years. For the first 15 or so years outages were rare. Then came the emerald ash borer infestation and we had frequent and long outages until about the last year, when the last of the dead ash trees seem to have keeled over. Most of my neighbors popped for automatic generators, which run for a half hour every week, needed or not.

 

[marko]

I tried selling a very nice stereo cabinet for cheap on Craig's recently. No takers! Not even an inquiry.

I think the traditional 'stereo system' is gone.

 

[NW-Bound]

Not quite. At least not for me. The LP is for when I want to sit down and enjoy the music. The mp3 is for when I'm on the go and want some background music.

While I agree that MP3 files often sound truly awful, I believe a 24-bit audio stream at 48KHz sampling will not cause any loss in quality that would be aurally detectable.

And talk about stereo systems being out, that may be true as young people often just listen with earphones. However, I often turn my stereo on quite loud, up in my boonies home and not the metro home, and darn, it just sounds so good, when you do not just hear the bass but also feel it.

 

[ERD50]

While I agree that MP3 files often sound truly awful, I believe a 24-bit audio stream at 48KHz sampling will not cause any loss in quality that would be aurally detectable. ...

But they will still sound different from vinyl.

I don't think you can have a very meaningful discussion about whether vinyl is 'better' or 'worse' than a decent digital format. Vinyl will have a certain sound, and some prefer it. I think some prefer the 'ritual', or at least it adds to the experience.

I like the convenience, flexibility and reliability of digital format, but I won't compress anything (other than lossless format), except for casual use on a portable player.

-ERD50

 

[NW-Bound]

But they will still sound different from vinyl.

I don't think you can have a very meaningful discussion about whether vinyl is 'better' or 'worse' than a decent digital format. Vinyl will have a certain sound, and some prefer it. I think some prefer the 'ritual', or at least it adds to the experience...
-ERD50

I agree that there's might be a thing call "vinyl quality" to the sound of a record. It might not be there at the master tape taken at the recording studio, but then who cares? The master tape is mixed and remixed before the disc is cut anyway. And then, our own speakers and surrounding add all kinds of coloration to the sound. If one likes it, that's a good enough reason.

I am not at all particular, but do not like records because of the inevitable pops. I had a favorite disc of a guitar concerto that I digitized just to edit out the pops.

 

[Keim]

While I agree that MP3 files often sound truly awful, I believe a 24-bit audio stream at 48KHz sampling will not cause any loss in quality that would be aurally detectable.

And talk about stereo systems being out, that may be true as young people often just listen with earphones. However, I often turn my stereo on quite loud, up in my boonies home and not the metro home, and darn, it just sounds so good, when you do not just hear the bass but also feel it.

ERD50 beat me to the punch. Both can sound good. Or bad. My point was for many purchasers of new vinyl, the vinyl is not simply a physical artifact for shelving after digitizing. We prefer the sound of the vinyl. I don't have a format preference myself. I just want to play it in the best sounding version.

You mention pops and scratches. I have MANY 40 year old albums that still sound like new. Depends on how they were maintained.

I still enjoy my component stereo. Outdated as it may appear.

And you can have my handmade wall phone when I die.

 

[NW-Bound]

Looks like you should be able to feel that bass allright.

About that phone, how are you dialing out?

 

[Keim]

n

Looks like you should be able to feel that bass allright.

About that phone, how are you dialing out?

I had plans to install a rotary dial in the old battery compartment. I have the parts. For now I use it only to receive. It was fun modifying it for use on a modern line.

 

[meierlde]

I had plans to install a rotary dial in the old battery compartment. I have the parts. For now I use it only to receive. It was fun modifying it for use on a modern line.

Here is a wild idea see if you can find a voice recognition dialing unit and put it in the case, (such as some cell phones have). Then you could come close to the original experience if you program it to associate names and numbers. It would be the modern equivalent of the operator that used to live at the other end of the line. You could also fix it up so you have to turn the crank a couple of times to wake up the dialing unit.

 

[ERD50]

And you can have my handmade wall phone when I die.

Here is a wild idea see if you can find a voice recognition dialing unit and put it in the case, (such as some cell phones have). Then you could come close to the original experience if you program it to associate names and numbers. It would be the modern equivalent of the operator that used to live at the other end of the line. You could also fix it up so you have to turn the crank a couple of times to wake up the dialing unit.

I like that idea - imagine picking it up and saying "Mabel, can you put me through to the Pharmacy?", and have it dialing your local Walgreens? That would be a hoot!

...

I agree that there's might be a thing call "vinyl quality" to the sound of a record. It might not be there at the master tape taken at the recording studio, but then who cares? The master tape is mixed and remixed before the disc is cut anyway. And then, our own speakers and surrounding add all kinds of coloration to the sound. If one likes it, that's a good enough reason.

I am not at all particular, but do not like records because of the inevitable pops. I had a favorite disc of a guitar concerto that I digitized just to edit out the pops.

You mention pops and scratches. I have MANY 40 year old albums that still sound like new. Depends on how they were maintained. ...

I haven't bought any new vinyl, but I think most of it is very high quality, to appeal to that limited market. I don't think there will be much in the way of pops, crackles or surface noise.

My vinyl is mostly 70's stuff, and not so great. Even at that, some of can go for many minutes without a pop, and some have low surface noise. I spend some time de-clicking them (manually) if I'm digitizing them.

Here's a link to current vinyl store:

Vinyl Records | Acoustic Sounds

Interesting that #1, 2, 3 on their best sellers is from the Fritz Reiner era of the Chicago Symphony. The 200 gram designation is the weight of the vinyl it is pressed from, the 70's stuff was 130 gram, and often recycled vinyl, the new ones are mostly labeled 'virgin vinyl'. I don't doubt for a second that they are far superior to the stuff we bought at K-Mart back then.

I get a kick out of some of some of the vinyl 'purists'. Now, if you like vinyl, fine - that's subjective and personal and I won't argue it. But some of them seem to be ignorant of all the processing that has to go on to get acoustic waves cut to a disc and what it goes through to get it back out (RIAA equalization and all the mechanical and electrical resonances in the cutter and cartridge, for example). There is a lot of mucking of the sound, it isn't 'pure' by any means. In some cases, what people like are the distortions that are inherent in the process (like people will say this is a 'warm' cartridge, or a 'revealing' cartridge). Any reproduced sound has been affected - you pick your poison.

There is nothing like live acoustic music, in a quiet setting with good acoustics (good luck with that!). Live, amplified music can sound fantastic if and only if (I'm a 'never say never' guy, but I'll make an exception here) each instrument is played through its own amplifier - no mixing board and mushing it together through the same speakers. As soon as you mix it, it turns into mush.

-ERD50

 

[Keim]

Here is a wild idea see if you can find a voice recognition dialing unit and put it in the case, (such as some cell phones have). Then you could come close to the original experience if you program it to associate names and numbers. It would be the modern equivalent of the operator that used to live at the other end of the line. You could also fix it up so you have to turn the crank a couple of times to wake up the dialing unit.

Fun idea. I'll have to discuss this with a friend of mine that knows modern electronics.

 

[Walt34]

Fun idea. I'll have to discuss this with a friend of mine that knows modern electronics.

That would be a howl to pull that off. That phone would just have to be in the kitchen, where everyone seems to gather when friends/relatives are over.

Worth the effort just to see the looks you got.

 

[meierlde]

Fun idea. I'll have to discuss this with a friend of mine that knows modern electronics.

Just out of curiosity I looked for voice recognition dialer on the web and found several hits. One standalone unit was about $210 Voice Activated Telephone Dialer (I don't know how well it works, but it shows that it is possible. Now you might have to work to put a modern phone jack on the phone. The only think it would not do would be require the crank to get its attention (in fact turning the crank might fry it since the crank turns a magneto). The interfacing could be as simple as a modern jack on the output of the phone, but I suspect there are voltage differences.

 

[Keim]

Just out of curiosity I looked for voice recognition dialer on the web and found several hits. One standalone unit was about $210 Voice Activated Telephone Dialer (I don't know how well it works, but it shows that it is possible. Now you might have to work to put a modern phone jack on the phone. The only think it would not do would be require the crank to get its attention (in fact turning the crank might fry it since the crank turns a magneto). The interfacing could be as simple as a modern jack on the output of the phone, but I suspect there are voltage differences.

Actually, I've already re-wired it with a modern jack, and made necessary changes for voltage differences.

 

[Keim]

Just out of curiosity I looked for voice recognition dialer on the web and found several hits. One standalone unit was about $210 Voice Activated Telephone Dialer (I don't know how well it works, but it shows that it is possible. Now you might have to work to put a modern phone jack on the phone. The only think it would not do would be require the crank to get its attention (in fact turning the crank might fry it since the crank turns a magneto). The interfacing could be as simple as a modern jack on the output of the phone, but I suspect there are voltage differences.

Too bad that's so expensive. If it was under $100 I'd go for it.

 

[haha]

About 2 yrs ago I stopped wearing a wristwatch because I always have an iPhone with me. I check the time on the phone.

I read recently that roughly 50% of street robberies in SF are smartphones being grabbed. Similar but not quite as high % in Seattle. I wouldn't pull my phone out of my pocket anywhere but in a coffee house, decent bar/restaurant, or where I have cover. Hotel lobbies are great; quiet, warm/dry, and safe. Thankfully no one wants my Timex watch.

Ha

 

[Redbugdave]

That old phone has a hand crank generator in it. Those generators make great fish shockers for catfish, etc.

 

[braumeister]

That old phone has a hand crank generator in it. Those generators make great fish shockers for catfish, etc.

When I was a kid, I used one to bring up worms for bait.

 

[Redbugdave]

Shows how old we are there Braumeister...