Admit your ignorance - things you've only just realised/learned

[Chris S]

A wireless what?

It's what they called radios in the olden days.

 

[matticus]

Receiver

So how DO you receive?

 

[presta]

....that my spex needed a clean.

 

[Profpointy]

That Elvis had a twin brother, died at birth apparently.
I didn't know that until yesterday.

Elvis the Pelvis had a twin brother called Enis

 

[Ming the Merciless]

I don't have a wireless

I don’t have a wireless video monitor

 

[Accy cyclist]

Not only just realised as I did about 18 or 19 years ago and I have mentioned it before on CC, maybe even in this thread, but it won't hurt to post it again if I have. When I first bought my window cleaning round I had a customer who had a plastic sign on the top of his car that read DR VING. I thought he must be some sort of herbal medicine doctor maybe.🤔 After a few visits to clean his windows I decided to look closer at the sign. It should've read
DRIVING
INSTRUCTOR
but the I had fallen off and the INSTRUCTOR bit was so hard to see till you got up to it.

 

[HMS_Dave]

Not only just realised as I did so about 18 or 19 years ago and I have mentioned it before on CC, maybe even in this thread , but it won't hurt to post it again. When I first bought my window cleaning round I had a customer who had a plastic sign on the top of his car that read DR VING. I thought he must be some sort of herbal medicine doctor maybe.🤔 After a few visits to clean his windows I decided to look closer at the sign. It should've read
DRIVING
INSTRUCTOR
but the I had fallen off and the 'instructor' was hard to see till you got up to it.

Either that or it was Hollywood actor Ving Rhames going to watch a game of Football at Accrington Stanley?

Second thoughts you're probably right Accy.

 

[ColinJ]

I have discovered the following:

1. Feeding the iffy headphone output of an old Samsung TV into a good stereo system does not produce a good overall sound quality.
2. (a) Modern TVs have digital audio outputs, but... (b) A decent DAC (digital to analogue converter) to feed an analogue signal into the stereo amp must be a costly proposition?
3. (a) 2(b) turns out to be totally incorrect. I found THIS DAC on Amazon for £2.79!!! (It has gone up 1p since then ) For a DAC in a metal box (not a flimsy piece of plastic), an optical signal cable, and a USB power cable, and postage. I couldn't believe it would be any good, but for £2.79 I would take a punt. It came today and... I plugged it in and the sound quality of my system was hugely improved! And then it stopped working, so... (b) Cheapo DACs are a waste of money!
4. BUT... (there had to be a 'but', didn't there!) 3(b) also turns out to be totally incorrect! You know those little lenses on the end of TOSLINK cables? They are NOT lenses after all - they are in fact covers for the delicate ends of the cable! Once they are removed, the cable can be plugged in properly and doesn't have bits of semi-translucent rubber blocking the signal!
5. WOW - my TV sounds good now!
6. Oh, and... Lip sync can be messed up. I had to put 150 ms worth of delay in to get it right again.

 

[presta]

Feeding the iffy headphone output of an old Samsung TV into a good stereo system does not produce a good overall sound quality

Doesn't it have a L-R Phono output?

 

[ColinJ]

Doesn't it have a L-R Phono output?

I was a bit surprised to find that the answer was no. I was also surprised to discover how bad the quality of the headphone signal was when used to feed into the amp!

I'm amazed at how much difference the little £2.79 DAC box made. (I had assumed that the difference would be minimal and I hadn't wanted to spend, £50, £60, whatever on a DAC to prove it. Once I found a really cheap one, it seemed daft not to try it.)

 

[DaveReading]

It sounds like you're using an analogue-to-digital converter, rather than vice versa.

 

[Alex321]

It sounds like you're using an analogue-to-digital converter, rather than vice versa.

Not to me it doesn't.

His TV will have a digitial (optical) output, and it sounds like that is what he is sending into the DAC box, and then sending the output from that into his (analogue) stero amp.

 

[wiggydiggy]

I have discovered the following:

1. Feeding the iffy headphone output of an old Samsung TV into a good stereo system does not produce a good overall sound quality.
2. (a) Modern TVs have digital audio outputs, but... (b) A decent DAC (digital to analogue converter) to feed an analogue signal into the stereo amp must be a costly proposition?
3. (a) 2(b) turns out to be totally incorrect. I found THIS DAC on Amazon for £2.79!!! (It has gone up 1p since then ) For a DAC in a metal box (not a flimsy piece of plastic), an optical signal cable, and a USB power cable, and postage. I couldn't believe it would be any good, but for £2.79 I would take a punt. It came today and... I plugged it in and the sound quality of my system was hugely improved! And then it stopped working, so... (b) Cheapo DACs are a waste of money!
4. 
5. WOW - my TV sounds good now!
6. Oh, and... Lip sync can be messed up. I had to put 150 ms worth of delay in to get it right again.

If you ever want to try something different a lot of older stereos (especially those made when Mini-Disc was popular) have the TOSLink input so you could connect a portable Mini-Disc to it. I bought this Sony CMT-CP100 a couple years back for use in my office and it has a TOSLink so it would take the TV output without issues

1. BUT... (there had to be a 'but', didn't there!) 3(b) also turns out to be totally incorrect! You know those little lenses on the end of TOSLINK cables? They are NOT lenses after all - they are in fact covers for the delicate ends of the cable! Once they are removed, the cable can be plugged in properly and doesn't have bits of semi-translucent rubber blocking the signal!

Frankly I'm shocked it even worked with those on!

 

[ColinJ]

I am still shocked at how much better the sound quality is... Last night, I was going to watch the final episode of a series on Netflix but I got distracted by music videos on YouTube. I ended up playing them until gone 04:00. Even with my dodgy hearing, with a decent pair of headphones I was hearing things that I had never heard before.

The best £2.79 that I have ever spent!

 

[matticus]

I've realised I don't know how to answer this: