I visit deal sites online on a regular basis, watching for things that are cheap or free after rebate and such (more specifically I watch my RSS feed). Yesterday, one of my feeds pulled down 2 bizarre things in sequence that I felt necessary to showcase. Hopefully this won't turn me into Engadget, but I don't plan to start drooling over cell phones and endless stupid USB devices.
First, we have the USB Hub PowerBar. This seems in some ways like it would be really useful. In other ways, it looks and seems rather odd. It's currently free after rebate, so it might just be worth picking up.
Next, we have the fantastic Verbatim Digital Vinyl Spindle at Best Buy. This comes across as just plain lame to me. Oooh look, my shiny CD's look that smooth vinyl my grandpappy spun on the tables.
Now, I'm going to threadjack for a minute (I love that word -- wait, is it possible to threadjack yourself?). I have beef with some lazy engineers out there dealing with audio components for home and car. Why is it so damn hard to get a constant output level from a receiver with multiple input sources?
My biggest gripe with this is in the car. I have yet to have a radio, factory or not, where without changing the volume knob, I had a consistent output level while switching between CD and radio. That is pathetic. Okay, back in the old days when the volume knob was an actual potentiometer, I could see that. Now, the entire thing is software/hardware controlled though.
Given that both sources are completely controlled by the dash headunit, and that the volume can be adjusted on the fly, why on earth can't I get a consistent output level.
My current Pontiac Montana is the worst for this. The FM radio and CD output are not quite the same, the CD level is very "hot" in comparison. Flip over to XM satellite and it is MUCH worse. The volume needs to be turned up to about 3 times the level of FM or CD to be heard at a decent volume. Now, make the mistake of flipping over to CD from there, and your ears begin bleeding.
I have had similar issues at home as well. My DVD volume always has to be turned up substantially over the radio or CD on my receiver. I understand this is more difficult, as the source for everything except possibly tuner will be external to the receiver. However, I don't think it would take much in the way of software or a single DSP to handle this and adjust the output accordingly. Lazy.
5 years ago
3 comments:
Good post. I too hate the inconsistent volume level, especially since the volume knobs don't even have endpoints anymore. They simply raise and lower relatively. Most of them can be spun all damn day. Because of this, it should be dead simple to check the output level and at least get it close when switching inputs.
Now, as for the vinyl tatt'd CDRs. I'd actually like some of those. They would be perfect for me to transfer my vinyl on to. You laugh, but I do "rip" new vinyl that I buy. I then burn it back to CDR to use in my DJ CD players for looping and other effects. Having the "vinyl based" tracks on vinyl looking CDRs would actually be useful when I have to quickly sort through the stacks of discs to cue up the next track.
You're right Ian, but the software could be smart enough to set a ceiling. Let's go the Spinal Tap route. If the last 3 hours of music never peaked above level 'A', then we'll call that 10. If I switch the input and the output is an 11, it should auto-adjust down to the 10 level.
3 hours was the exaggerated example. As you say, an educated guess based on "recent" levels would be what I would want as well.
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