The All Purpose Advice Thread - Part 2

Discussion in 'Advice Threads' started by shotgunshane, Mar 27, 2022.

  1. artur9

    artur9 Almost "Made"

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    I've "been told" (but I never believed it) that no one makes hubs anymore.

    I'll have to watch all the blink-y lights to see which of these things are hubs and which are switches. I'm guessing they are mostly hubs....

    P.S. A brand/model to avoid. This is the "switch" that couldn't handle all ports being used:
    TP-Link TL-SG608 8-Port Gigabit Desktop Switch
     
    Last edited: Jan 17, 2025
  2. SofaSamuraiX

    SofaSamuraiX Almost "Made"

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    https://ui.com/us/en/switching/utility
     
  3. ogodei

    ogodei Friend

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    You can still buy a hub but you kinda have to go out of your way to find one. Unless you know the specific reason you need it replace any you have with a switch.

    TP-Link is a good enough brand but the switch you show is labeled as 'green' which means they tried to get cute with functionality in order to save a couple of pennies a year on energy. That could be the issue.

    Look for a gigabit switch that claims 'wire speed' and does NOT say 'green' or boasts about energy efficiency. If you're daisy-chaining multiple switches beware that the link between them might be part of the issue.

    And I guess basics first: Look on the streamer to make sure the connection is running at Gigabit speed and not 100 MB. If its 100MB force it to run gigabit.
     
  4. artur9

    artur9 Almost "Made"

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    @ogodel one thing new-ish to me is POE. I don't have any cameras or other Internet-of-things things.
    Why should I care about POE?

    I ordered this cisco from amazon:

    Cisco Business CBS110-8T-D
     
  5. SofaSamuraiX

    SofaSamuraiX Almost "Made"

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    You don't need POE, but tons of stuff just include it. It will also power wireless access points.
     
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  6. ogodei

    ogodei Friend

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    @artur9 Sounds like you already know, POE is to power end devices you can't otherwise plug in. Cameras, some wireless access points, doorbells. Just avoid it, you'd be paying extra for complications.

    The Cisco one you ordered looks solid. After you install it make sure the Mercury is connected at 1000 Mbs, aka gigabit speed. Possibly its connecting at 100 or even 10MB through some error.
     
  7. decompositions

    decompositions Facebook Friend

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    So I'm looking to try and do digital rips of some of the vinyl I have and wondering if anybody has experience with this or recommendations as far as the ADC part goes. I have a pretty basic setup anyways so I don't want to spend a fortune, I have the drop audio technica table with a mani and the stylus swapped for a microlinear one. I'm not sure whether this is even something worth caring about if I don't have a big boy table and if it would make sense to just grab some cheap focusrite thing. The stuff I'm looking to rip is more just for archival/preservation purposes rather than any hifi reason, but I obviously don't want it to sound like crap. For context, I don't really buy vinyl for the types of things that had a CD release, I'm mostly looking at doing rips of stuff like old bluegrass records for example.
     
  8. artur9

    artur9 Almost "Made"

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    My ADC is a cheese grater Mac. I rip at 96Khz and clean it up with Audacity. Works great, just takes a while. I've done about 10 albums that aren't available on CD (like Romeo Void :) ).

    I have a Thorens phono/ADC doohickey, the MM-08. Stay away from that! Seems to have no ability to "hear" anything above 5KHz.

    My table is a Music Hall MMF5.1 (something like that) and an Ortofon Blue into a Mani-2 (or maybe just the original Mani?). As with you, vinyl isn't my focus.

    Main thing, besides sample rate, is to make sure the LP is as clean as possible. A record cleaner is a must. I have one that uses distilled water and some roller wheels that retails for < $200 (I think, it was a gift.)
     
  9. JK47

    JK47 Friend

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    I used a Tascam DA-3000 for hundreds of my vinyl rips, but think it's out of production now. Worked very well and has lots of options. I used the free and simple to use Tascam Hi-Res editor software to split songs when I ripped an entire side of an album in one go. It was also handy for converting DSD to PCM if you so desired.
     
  10. Climber

    Climber Facebook Friend

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    I bought an ADC a couple years ago for exactly this, some Stanley Brothers recordings, Carter Family, Louvins, a few others. I don't remember my comparison shopping criteria or how I even came across it exactly (I assume a review pointed me to it) but ended up with this E1DA Cosmos ADC in to Vinyl Studio and was fairly happy with the results. I only did a couple dozen records so I can't tell you about UI and workflow efficiency vs Audacity or anything else. But as I said, happy with how it turned out for a couple hundred bucks or whatever it was.
     
  11. Armaegis

    Armaegis Friend

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    Asking for a coworker. What are some good open backed bass heavy headphones these days?
    edit: full sized over ear, budget up to $1k
     
    Last edited: Jan 20, 2025
  12. edd

    edd Almost "Made"

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    Used Aeolus? Maybe the bokeh’s tho I haven’t heard them so I don’t know how bassy they are.
     
  13. SoupRKnowva

    SoupRKnowva Official SBAF South Korean Ambassador

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    Any recommendations for a cheap but still decent dac/amp that is wall powered and has optical input to use for xbox 360 use? I was thinking one of the schiit things with a dac card but those are all usb only im pretty sure.
     
  14. atomicbob

    atomicbob dScope Yoda

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    The Schiit Fulla has optical input. Use a high quality USB C charger such as an Apple and it is wall powered.
     
  15. atomicbob

    atomicbob dScope Yoda

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  16. Riotvan

    Riotvan Snoofer in the Woofer

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    Looking for a quality toslink to aes converter box. No fancy stuff just in and out basically. Also no stupid money if possible, under a 100 would be good.
     
  17. SoupRKnowva

    SoupRKnowva Official SBAF South Korean Ambassador

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    I decided to go with the Fulla, not exactly what I wanted, but the value seemed too good, and it has the optical input I need. but then its backordered weeks, so I caved and got a b-stock modi+ and Magni Unity instead
     
  18. Sqveak

    Sqveak Friend

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    There's an affordable option on AliExpress here. Just one optical in and one AES out. Powered by USB.

    A less affordable option is a bi-directional model made by Hosa called the ODL-312. You might get lucky and find one second hand.
     
  19. Riotvan

    Riotvan Snoofer in the Woofer

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    Thanks, yeah i saw the hosa one but like you said more than I wish to spend. It's just for audio from my TV so not some critical audiophile business. I'll try out the one from Ali.
     
  20. artur9

    artur9 Almost "Made"

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    Does it have to be AES? I have several TOSLink -> Coax and the other way boxes that I'm not using.

    Got them because whatever you have (Toslink or coax) is often not what you need :grumble:.
     

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