New direction for Exxos...?

[JezC]

Nice idea.
I've got some retro Arcam Alpha 8s in my study that I blast computer files through now and again.
So Alpha 8 amp and CD separates and some Mission speakers (bi-wired)...small but perfect for audio.

I've often wondered what the best audio songs are in terms of production quality, that would be my first question in such a forum.
Through my own catalogue my answer is Michael Jackson's "Man in the Mirror" :-)

Sounds a bit like my setup - Arcam 8R + 8P (bi-amped) feeding into my Mission 752 Freedoms...with the old Marantz KI Signature CD player...lovely (to me, at least!)

[exxos]

I've often wondered what the best audio songs are in terms of production quality, that would be my first question in such a forum.

SACD ;)

[JezC]

SACD ;)

Yes, they're pretty impressive (I have a Pioneer DVD & Sony Blu-ray player that can both play SACD discs)... ;)

[exxos]

Yes, they're pretty impressive (I have a Pioneer DVD & Sony Blu-ray player that can both play SACD discs)... ;)

Welcome to the club ;)

Its a shame SACD didn't catch on. If I listen to a normal CD and then its SACD part, its like "the veil has been lifted". Normal CD sounds like it's all through a sheet of polythene. Muddy and horrible. Always thought 44khz sampling rate was a bit rubbish anyway. Then we back to the Vinyl 33khz, BUT it's analog argument :lol:

I did have a LP but it played as a 45, was 2 unlimited. Pretty odd having a LP sized record and playing it at 45 speed :lol: . My deck is cheap crap so sounded bad anyway. Wish I never sold my Teac deck years back. Lost that LP as well somehow :( Ahh the good old Vinyl days. My deck used to be on the wall with the speakers.. oh the feedback problems I had .... :lol: :roll:

[viking272]

Well there is ATARI and AMIGA....so another A would work :lol:
How about:

AUDIO
-> AUDIO KIT & HARDWARE
-> COMPUTER AUDIO
-> CABLES & WIRING
-> MUSIC
-> SOUND SCIENCE
-> KIT FOR SALE
-> BLOGS
-> DIY

[exxos]

I've just opened a vintage gear forum.

viewforum.php?f=116

If we get loads of audio posts or whatever, then I will open up sub forums. But for now, just see how it goes.

[exxos]

Another thought.. Is what happens when all us old timers retire. Will forums even be a thing in years to come ? Will anyone know how to even maintain the stuff ?

It's one thing I had in mind during the server move. A few people have accesses to the server and hosting account. So should I kick the bucket tomorrow, all someone needs to do is put money in the hosting account. Then the forum and my whole domain will remain up. All software was updated so shouldn't be any panic to update anything for a while now anyway.

[exxos]

I have also been toying with the idea of starting off with some very simple digital audio amplifier designs. Not sure if they would be interested in them but I found the whole technology very interesting overall.

Thing is my first initial order amplifier used the same chip is in the STs. The TL494 type chips. It also had 2 10amp mosfet gate driver chips to buffer it to drive headphones and indeed a speaker. That is pretty much all you need to get started and it sounds really good as well. Where it gets more complicated as they need to remove the modulation frequency which is normally around 100khz - 1MHz.

For example the parts above the inductor in THIS POST is the output filter. So is not really massively complicated.

Anyway I was just merely thinking about more diversifying away from Atari stuff in the near future. Certainly not abandoning the Atari work but it is just something I don't want to continue doing indefinitely. Also since considering I have been doing stuff for the best part of almost 30 years now.

Anyway, I've accumulated a lot of experience and knowledge in amplifier designs over the years which is just basically rotting at the back of my brain.

So I may do a miniseries of getting started in digital power amplifier designs one day if there is any sort of interest that is.

[Steve]

@exxos not sure if this is your forte or not but have you ever considered looking into DACs and headphone amplifiers? From a business perspective I think you can do very well in the 'bespoke' audio market, headphone amps and dacs are all the rage.

[exxos]

@exxos not sure if this is your forte or not but have you ever considered looking into DACs and headphone amplifiers? From a business perspective I think you can do very well in the 'bespoke' audio market, headphone amps and dacs are all the rage.

Thanks for the suggestion though I've not done a lot of that stuff. I do actually have a DAC headphone amp on my new PC. But it would be a phenomenal amount of work to get to a sellable product of such. Mostly just comes down to whatever chip is popular at the time and how fancy you can make the case and power supply.

But is the problem of making a brand name for yourself in terms of the market. As I found ,you can sell incredible amounts of garbage if you have the correct marketing and financial backing to push it out of the door and spam people until they buy it. All people just solely go for cheap china crap. The market is just simply saturated beyond belief.

That first amp I posted in my blog had massive amounts of good reviews and people hacking it to make it better and all sorts. A complete amateur designed that amplifier but gained much respect in recent years and I believe is still going strong. But I mean that amplifier used a 555 timer to generate a triangle wave which you cannot do. It will basically just charging and discharging a capacitor which is not linear to start with. So right from the start that design was just fundamentally flawed. It killed my speakers because the output filter was garbage despite using relatively large inductors as well. The whole thing was just completely inadequate. So I kind of gave up on my audio business and just decided it wasn't worth the effort any more. You can see a lot of the amps I made in my blog.viewtopic.php?f=116&t=5900 . I reluctantly decided not to renew my audio website domain as well a few weeks ago. I just don't see me trying to compete in that world again.

I do see audio stuff mentioned on linus tech tips, various sorts of audio stuff now and then. But I can pretty much guarantee all the high-end stuff they are buying is probably garbage. Ordinarily back in the day you would send your amplifier to one of the hi-fi magazines to review. But that sort of thing is just annoying because I don't really have any respect for anyone in the audio world. People should be sending *me* their products to review not the other way around. Not trying to sound like a bigheaded know it all, but I've seen so much bad audio gear over the years it really does make me cringe. It's user base are mostly deranged people believe me. They are just not worth the effort.

Then like many things in the world, if I speak up against any sort of well-known big brand which has a massive loyal user base and point out all the shortfalls.. Well you can pretty much guess how that will ultimately end. Hence why I just don't bother any more. Again this also backs onto why I started this forum because I just got sick of arguing with idiots all the time. If I started in the audio world I would be up against thousands of self educated experts. But anyway going off into a tangent rant as usual.

The way I look at things these days it is like if I was to start selling toothbrushes. Have the potential to sell them to billions of people. But you also getting into a already saturated market where it would be impossible to compete in. Basically just comes down to marketing where you need a lot of funds to make a difference. This is pretty much why I just diverged into Atari stuff. Near non-existent market but at least I can make a bit of a difference in that world. Me selling audio stuff to the masses Is the same as toothbrushes. It is just not going to happen regardless how good the product may be.

So I was more thinking of smaller projects which would not really take much time or effort on my part. I'm getting too old for doing 15 hour unpaid days doing electronics stuff all day every day. Plus again because of my RSI it is greatly limiting what I can get done.

It is little-known my father and I tried to start up a website a long time ago, sort of similar to eBay, but for people to sell their art on. At the time my dad knew several people which were doing fantastic artwork but had no way to advertise or sell it. He actually brought a couple of pieces and were not really that much. So we had the idea of setting up a website for people to sell stuff on. Basically we would only take a small commission on things which sold. We had a couple of people listing stuff.. BUT...

My father was a lot more of a positive person then I will ever be. I remember he spent an entire day I think going through the yellow pages or hunting out phone numbers to ring people if they would be interested in advertising on our website will basically free. It was actually a bit shocking to see my dad after the end of the day how pi$$sed off he ended up. He basically concluded that they were mostly overall, total nutters. I think the last one he rang up basically said her artwork is far too good to be advertised on the Internet. My dad basically admitted defeat and we just gave up on the idea. I mean, considering we had good intentions of helping people out because people had no way to advertise their artwork to the masses.. And got thrown in our faces the entire time..

Always boils down to the fact that a lot of people are simply just not worth the effort. It is comes down to the power of advertising. Of course if anyone wants to pay me big money to do such work then I may consider it but I really don't have enthusiasm for a lot of things these days. Again this is why I was just thinking more of doing more introductory type of stuff. Little projects which people may find interesting and enjoyable to do.