[X] My Assistant

It's true what they say about success, it'll make you an absolute prick.

microsoft are the trouble makers
7024 and 7031 are just windows crashing on their own

I bypassed the amplifiers on an old ISA sound card of mine the other day, it sounds much nicer now (less noisy).
[postimg.cc] (IMG:[i.postimg.cc] https://i.postimg.cc/Gp6xdspj/IMG-20250531-031433-sm.jpg)
It originally was using two LM386 amplifier chips - a very common and very old amp chip which was already something like 12-20 years old when this board was made - to boost the line level signal the ES1688 chip was outputting to drive unpowered speakers. Since I have powered speakers, and incorrectly tuned LM386 chips have a lot of hiss, I wanted to output the line level signals from the chip and bypass the LM386 amps.
Some other sound cards I have have jumpers to facilitate this, but this card did not - so I took out the LM386 chips, added sockets for easy re-insertion if I ever change my mind, and did some trace following on the board to figure out where the line level signals were that I could easily solder to. I have a later card with a different ESS chip, ES1869, that has a jumper for bypassing its LM386 amps and I compared that card's circuitry to this one's to figure out what passive components on the board I was fine with letting the unamplified signal pass through - since I like the way the bypassed sound is on the ES1869 card.
I ended up bypassing only a couple resistors; I jumped the left and right outputs (after passing through a small surface mount ceramic capacitor each) to the output pins of the LM386 sockets and the result is pretty good for some random taiwanese card from the 1990's. I haven't even recapped it or turned off the line input mixing - I am feeding the output of a sound blaster live PCI card into it, so that I can use the Live for windows 9x games and the ESS card for DOS era games.
I have a real sound blaster 16, too, but I much prefer this card over it.

The other mod on this board was tying pin 77 of ES968 to ground (it had been tied to 5 volts) in order to prevent windows 98 from detecting the CD drive interface on the card. It was interfering with other stuff and I have no plans to use its CD drive interface on this computer. I had yet another card with an ES968 chip on it (but no ES1688, which has the FM implementation I like) that had a jumper for this, so I just traced it back and discovered it depended on grounding pin 77. The green wire ties the pin to ground; the blue wire restores 5 volts to things on either side of the 5 volt rail I cut on the back of the circuit board to isolate this pin. The red wires are the amplifier bypass.

My old Sound card Asus Xonar Essence STX is still worth retail price. Kinda crazy that they haven't made many better cards but also I think the demand isn't there for high end sound cards.


Also another company, Builder.AI turned out to be Actually Indians.... they scammed 1.5billion before investors discovered it was all Indians and not an AI that could code and develop apps. They scammed Microsoft, Qatar and the World Bank.

[www.unilad.com] https://www.unilad.com/technology/news/ai-s...975483-20250603

My old Sound card Asus Xonar Essence STX is still worth retail price. Kinda crazy that they haven't made many better cards but also I think the demand isn't there for high end sound cards.

The soundcard market moved to USB DACs. Plenty of them to choose from, and a lot of "audiophile" nonsense you can pay thousands for.

The previous hack to force update my profile pic by changing the file extension from PNG to JPG and vice versa doesn't seem to work anymore. Oh, well.

Finally!

This post has been edited by elda88: Jun 6 2025, 14:58

My old Sound card Asus Xonar Essence STX is still worth retail price. Kinda crazy that they haven't made many better cards but also I think the demand isn't there for high end sound cards.

Yeah, my PC is 12 years old or so but the most up to date that I own, it still has an audigy 2 ZS with the front panel breakout. It's still fantastic as long as you know how to treat it (don't let it do hardware resampling basically). So many input channels and capture channels.
In fact a primary reason I won't even consider anything new is that almost nothing has multiple conventional (parallel) PCI slots, and it seems like this last generation biostar finally stopped offering boards with a single conventional PCI on them.
The ZS is a monster of a card that no USB DAC/ADC will match in the foreseeable future in terms of how much I/O it offers, and it sounds subjectively good (VERY low noise, especially for an internal card) so I'm not really in need of a replacement. And the front panel gives me freaking MIDI ports and bidirectional TOSLINK (one in, one out). And firewire. And good linux support.

The Audigy Rx uses a very similar chipset to the 2 ZS, but without firewire - also a lot of I/O simply is not exposed on it. It's got a PCIe interface courtesy of a PCI-to-PCIe bridge chip on-board, but even though it gets you a fair amount of the 2ZS and good linux drivers, it doesn't get you everything. And I am not at all interested in their other offerings because creative can jump in a disney theme park pond and be eaten by alligators as far as I care. Fuck creative, it's always been a shit company that just happened to make cards that were good at one point (post e-mu buyout and prior to X-Fi).

I do have a cheapish USB dac/adc so that I can use condenser mics, but that's it.

This post has been edited by Moonlight Rambler: Jun 10 2025, 04:21

Wondered why the jump (higher than usual) in bit rate between RF18 and RF18.5 (~800kbps) even though the image in the animated film is very soft to begin with. The resolution was not even a full 1080p after removing the black bars. I had to bring my eyes one feet away from the screen in order to notice micro-grains in the dark scenes and even closer to notice the same in the bright backgrounds (e.g. the sky).

The ZS is a monster of a card that no USB DAC/ADC will match in the foreseeable future in terms of how much I/O it offers, and it sounds subjectively good (VERY low noise, especially for an internal card) so I'm not really in need of a replacement. And the front panel gives me freaking MIDI ports and bidirectional TOSLINK (one in, one out). And firewire. And good linux support.

The Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS set the standard for years.


The Xonar Essence ST/X line defeated it absolutely except for some of the I/O you needed the 'prosumer' daughter board which is unobtainium. They also split some features between the ST (PCI) and STX (PCIE) versions which aggravated some users eg if they wanted the specific clock on the ST for production or compatibility with some older devices.

If you got the burson audio upgrade kit then the Xonar Essence ST/X is best consumer grade card that still works on Windows and Linux. I am actually surprised, Burson audio not only still supports the upgrade kit (even though the ASUS deal long expired) also they have a recent new version. It does cost a fortune though, but people must be buying it.

I see. The DNS server I've set on Android only applies to my phone's data connection but not for hotspot. I still have to set to use Cloudflare's DNS server on the laptop.

I see. The DNS server I've set on Android only applies to my phone's data connection but not for hotspot. I still have to set to use Cloudflare's DNS server on the laptop.

Apparently it has been this way for quite a few years.

Seems you still either need to use a VPN that can force DNS of all connected hotspot devices or configure it manually on your devices.

Building an adapter circuit to expose the MIDI I/O on my sound blaster 16 gameport (and on sound blaster pro compatible cards/clones). With opto-isolators. It's looking really ugly so far but I think it's going to work. Gotta drill some holes in a little project box i set aside for this to mount MIDI connectors in, which means I'll have to find my drill bits. :\

This post has been edited by Moonlight Rambler: Jun 14 2025, 10:05

Building an adapter circuit to expose the MIDI I/O on my sound blaster 16 gameport (and on sound blaster pro compatible cards/clones). With opto-isolators. It's looking really ugly so far but I think it's going to work. Gotta drill some holes in a little project box i set aside for this to mount MIDI connectors in, which means I'll have to find my drill bits. :\

That is the card you were reminding me about, the Auzen X-Fi Prelude with the Auzen X-tension din, gave full optical and midi I/O on creative's Creative CA20K1 DSP/APU.

[www.newegg.com] https://www.newegg.com/auzen-x-tension-din/...-tAd_2T_hLAk0P8


Or the X-fi cards had the i/o drive as you mentioned.



This post has been edited by EsotericSatire: Jun 14 2025, 13:12

That is the card you were reminding me about, the Auzen X-Fi Prelude with the Auzen X-tension din, gave full optical and midi I/O on creative's Creative CA20K1 DSP/APU.

[www.newegg.com] https://www.newegg.com/auzen-x-tension-din/...-tAd_2T_hLAk0P8
Or the X-fi cards had the i/o drive as you mentioned.

I have the audigy 2 ZS version of that (the LiveDrive thing) installed in my modernish desktop right now actually. But this adapter I'm making is for my NLX form factor Pentium II PC. Which only has one 5.25" bay (and I'm using it). So using the GamePort is the only real solution.

By the way, the Audigy 2 ZS ones are compatible with the X-Fi ones. And vice versa. Although Audigy 2 (non-ZS) and older are their own separate pinout all the way back to the SB Live. And unlike the X-Fi ones mine also has two firewire ports on it.
I've also got the non-ZS SB Audigy 2 version of the breakout thing, so if I had an extra 5.25" bay slot I could use it in my pentium II PC instead.


This post has been edited by Moonlight Rambler: Jun 15 2025, 19:41

I have the audigy 2 ZS version of that (the LiveDrive thing) installed in my modernish desktop right now actually. But this adapter I'm making is for my NLX form factor Pentium II PC. Which only has one 5.25" bay (and I'm using it). So using the GamePort is the only real solution.

The non-ZS SB Audigy 2 version of the breakout thing, so if I had an extra 5.25" bay slot I could use it in my pentium II PC instead.

I had a friend that used an external 5.25" mount bay for that reason. Though its a bit ghetto.

wait? What the heck? Why are external 5.25" mounts and enclosures so expensive now?

I had a friend that used an external 5.25" mount bay for that reason. Though its a bit ghetto.

wait? What the heck? Why are external 5.25" mounts and enclosures so expensive now?

because PC cases don't have 5.25" bays anymore probably, so demand's soared?

because PC cases don't have 5.25" bays anymore probably, so demand's soared?

Yeah, most do not have the bays, so probably supply crashed. It feels bad to me, to see products that were $10 pre-covid that are now $80-200.



Also are CDs really making a comeback? I have a stack of anime OST cds somewhere (most failed verification and were Taiwanese fakes lol). There was only one I was angry about, as I paid full price, the rest were priced appropriately. I think my bubblegum crisis OSTs were also probably fake, as their condition was too good. It reminds me of an old high end TEAC design but with modern parts now.


A Chinese company put out an amazing portable CD player, the Shanling EC Zero T. A portable player that has a high end dac and tubes? lol. If I had money, I'd buy it.

I haven't seen that before, but apparently the JAN6418 sub-miniature values / tubes have been popular in a lot of small portable amps lately.

FiiO has put out a much more reasonable DM13, which is probably good.

Yeah, most do not have the bays, so probably supply crashed. It feels bad to me, to see products that were $10 pre-covid that are now $80-200.
Also are CDs really making a comeback? I have a stack of anime OST cds somewhere (most failed verification and were Taiwanese fakes lol). There was only one I was angry about, as I paid full price, the rest were priced appropriately. I think my bubblegum crisis OSTs were also probably fake, as their condition was too good. It reminds me of an old high end TEAC design but with modern parts now.

Usually you can tell if a CD's a fake by the appearance, burned discs usually have a different hue than pressed discs.
Not always, but usually.
Although I guess pressed fakes are a thing too.

A Chinese company put out an amazing portable CD player, the Shanling EC Zero T. A portable player that has a high end dac and tubes? lol. If I had money, I'd buy it.

I haven't seen that before, but apparently the JAN6418 sub-miniature values / tubes have been popular in a lot of small portable amps lately.

FiiO has put out a much more reasonable DM13, which is probably good.

I'll play CD's on anything and most of them sound fine.
Those people who obsess over trying to modify early revision PS1's into actually good players because "it has a good dac" are crazy though. Tube amps are also silly but I won't call it wrong because it's not. It's just silly.

I'd probably rather rip a CD and then invest in the audio stack I wanted on my PC if I cared that much.

Usually you can tell if a CD's a fake by the appearance, burned discs usually have a different hue than pressed discs.
Not always, but usually.
Although I guess pressed fakes are a thing too.

Yeah they were the 'high end' pressed fakes, with the perfect replica cases and jackets. Some of them the different catalogue number but others had the correct number.

Confusingly, I looked up and some of the Taiwanese manufacturers were legit, as in they paid royalties and had licenses? That could explain the seemingly high quality of the 'fakes'. It would make sense for my country as well as, as there used to be lots of grey market importers.

I'll play CD's on anything and most of them sound fine.
Those people who obsess over trying to modify early revision PS1's into actually good players because "it has a good dac" are crazy though. Tube amps are also silly but I won't call it wrong because it's not. It's just silly.

I'd probably rather rip a CD and then invest in the audio stack I wanted on my PC if I cared that much.

yeah the dac was okay but the output stage was trash lol. It was the same with the PSP and PSVITA. Psvita was worse as they arbitrarily removed the high quality video and audio outputs last minute but left the chipset.


Edit: I am a little surprised by how much enthusiasm people are putting into converting the PS1 for audio play back.

One technical review says it used some good parts, has terrible technical measurements but in the implementation Sony engineers tuned it to sound warm and gloss over the weaknesses of the design.

So its like they did a good implementation of a very cut down version of their high end hardware, engineered to cover up the large amount of the jitter and noise that would typically sound bad. Having expert engineers that helped develop the CD audio standard tune the sound output obviously pays off.



This post has been edited by EsotericSatire: Jul 3 2025, 14:14

ASUS busted again with their mobos and the 'feature' to automatically download armoury crate and drivers and can run and silent install any executable with admin permissions.

Its a major security problem. A programmer trying to fix their bugged wifi worked out remote code execution easily.

Its pure luck that it was a white hat that found it and reported it. Otherwise any ASUS motherboard that left the default armory crate settings and/or have driverhub installed could easily be vulnerable to the exploit.