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Cake day: January 7th, 2024

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  • Ross_audio@lemmy.worldtoMemes@lemmy.mlcurved it is
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    7 days ago

    You’ve proven yourself wrong.

    Mochi Tetsu is mentioned in that article as being a source that produces higher quality products than iron sand. Exactly what you’re arguing against.

    The facts are that due to the limited availability of good quality iron ore the steel produced in Japan often used iron sand and that led to lower quality products.


  • Ross_audio@lemmy.worldtoMemes@lemmy.mlDiscogs users be like
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    11 days ago

    Why? The past lives long in the memory.

    Sony was at the Vanguard of Japan’s post-war recovery. Making any electronics for the home.

    Rice cookers and standard small white goods in the 40s.

    They had a huge success with the transistor radios in the mid 50s.

    Bearing in mind transistors themselves were first created in 1947. Sony is putting them in consumer products 8 years later. Copying a product produced in small numbers but making it better. Using the latest technology.

    I own a 1960s reel to reel machine that still works perfectly. Sound on sound recording, echo and reverb effects. Built using transistors and “solid state” amplifies. Not at the cutting edge but using transistors to mass produce a product more reliably than previous tech.

    All high fi equipment following the same pattern. Can they replace the old style amplifiers in record players. Yep.

    The cassette tape comes along Sony makes it portable. And this is the point they also start hitting the top of the market in quality.

    The portable tape decks Sony produced are considered the best.

    This is while they’re dealing with videotape and producing betamax and the first consumer recorders and cameras.

    Sony is a mark of reliability from the 50s by replacing old tech with transistors and a mark of quality by being better than the mass market competition by the 70s.

    They then look at digital and create their own media. Betamax is a war they eventually lost even though it was better quality than VHS. But they made money on the professionals end of the market because of that quality.

    This moved Sony into that direction. Focusing on the premium product, aiming high and for the mass market, but with the idea that quality will guarantee the high end segment.

    In audio

    Digital cassette DCC, DAT CD SACD Competition for Dolby Surround SPDIF optical audio. LDAC Bluetooth protocol

    All the devices to play and record/transmit these.

    In video: U-matic Betamax MMCD (mothballed to then partnering with DVD) Blu-ray Blu-ray 4K

    The devices to play and produce them. The media to go on them from Sony Music and Sony Pictures.

    Displays they created Trinitron displays to go with their analogue video cameras and formats.

    They produced the first LED backlit LCDs. They produced the first quantum dot displays to go with the professional cinema quality digital cameras.

    In the computing world they produced the first 3.5" floppies then CDs, then flash memory storage.

    They tried to partner with Nintendo on the first CD-Rom gaming system and, when they were kicked out, launched their own console.

    Sony have aimed for the professional market and bring those lessons learned to the masses.

    Always based around a media format.

    1999 Sony produced SACD. R&D in audio finished when that wound up in 2007.

    High end audio equipment before that point is great. After that it’s just badges up stuff made to the lowest price.

    2006 Sony produced Blu-ray. Blu-ray 4K looks to be the last gasp in 2016.

    They were aiming for the top with video, TVs and blu ray players were great.

    They’re still the best quality audio and video products you can buy.

    But no one is buying them. We left quality of CDs for the convenience of mp3. We left Blu-ray for streaming.

    We left high quality physical products for software products and codecs for convenience.

    We left individual electronic devices for smart phones.

    Sony have stopped R&D and quality control on devices as the market for them has dropped.

    You can still buy a great high end TV from Sony.

    Everything else, they’ve let the high end go.

    If the high end isn’t mass market. Then they’re not going to make it high end anymore.

    But as the last mass manufacturer to leave so many segments over the years. The cheapest high end device is still often a second hand Sony.

    When the high end drops out of a segment all the individual components they would mass produce get penny pinched. Before they would produce huge numbers of lasers for CD players and make sure they were all good enough across the whole range.

    When no one wants a high end CD player, no more high quality lasers get made.

    The same with each component. Amplifiers, connectors, buttons, power supplies.

    Sony’s products borrowed from each other’s tech and as the high end went in one area it had knock on effects in others.

    Look at the PS5, the components are not produced in Japan by Sony. They’re outsourcing.

    The 4K Blu-Ray disk drive is optional.

    They say they’re unlikely to ever release their 8K Blu-Ray standard.

    Top quality is no longer a priority and you place 20 years ago about right for audio. Probably 10 years ago for video.

    The playstation 3 was Sony’s last CD player in a console. The last to be backwards compatible. The last of the Sony attitude of trying to be the best and trying to be backwards compatible.

    The best CD players, SACD, players, DVD players etc all come in one Sony 4k UHD Blu Ray box.

    Then you need a decent receiver and speakers to take that digital signal through a DAC, and amplify it. The last vestage of high end Sony audio is there.

    The TVs the last of Sony’s high end lines in general.

    The best portable cd players without breaking the bank, old Sony’s.







  • Is the internet scarier?

    Or is it just millennials and “internet natives” having kids and more of them knowing better what the internet actually is.

    I tell people to imagine a public place with everyone in it, the majority wearing masks or costumes. With constantly recording surveillance. Do you take off your mask.

    Sure the mask is not perfect protection, and there are areas off to the side where people seem to not be wearing masks. But go ahead and choose a way to keep your kids safe.








  • You can’t stop a genocide with reason, to commit a genocide you have to dehumanise people, you’re beyond reason.

    The only response to genocide is materially affecting the perpetrators. The time for diplomacy stops at atrocities.

    Don’t talk to Likud’s supporters about anything. Defund and boycott the country until Likud is not in power.

    That requires speaking to the international community and especially American voters to see what effect they can have on the current president.



  • There’s a Russian Pravda and a Ukrainian Pravda.

    Both extremely partisan. Neither what I’d call reliable sources of news but you’ve probably seen propaganda from both.

    Of course the Ukrainian Pravda has literally been able to print facts, unguilded, and they’ve matched what they would say as propaganda anyway so it’s appeared like a reputable news source recently.

    That’s what happens when Russia genuinely does things like use chemical weapons (cs gas) banned by the Geneva convention.

    (For those wondering, even though cs gas is used in riots the convention bans all gas based weapons as they target indiscriminately and could easily be mistaken for nerve agents by either side. Leading to either accidental use of nerve agents or accidental retaliation with something similarly destructive)

    Or when the Russians directly hit a nuclear reactor 3 times.

    Meanwhile the Russian Pravda has to manufacture its propaganda, like claiming an Islamic State attack which Islamic State issued video evidence of and claimed was somehow Ukrainian.


  • People will say it’s not the same as the other Boeing incidents.

    They’re right, it’s not.

    Unfortunately this is a new normal.

    The Federal Aviation Authority has succumbed to regulatory capture. The FAA is no longer capable of protecting American’s from poor design and build quality by American manufacturers, or from poor maintenance by American airlines

    The best way to stay safe is to do 2 things:

    1. Choose to fly on Aircraft designed and built in Europe recently, or perhaps America before 2007.

    The FAA had massive budget cuts after the financial the crisis and even though they were meant to be temporary putting the budget back has been a political football ever since. American Aircraft designed and built since those budget cuts are the problem.

    1. Choose an airline that has routes in Europe and not just domestically. That means maintenance is likely to have to comply with a better funded regulatory body in addition to the FAA.

    Do one and 2 and you’ll almost certainly be safe. Aircraft design and build will be as safe as we’d come to expect, so will the maintenance.

    I’d prioritise 1 if you can’t do both. Even though it seems bad, a well designed aircraft losing a piece like this mid flight isn’t going to bring it down. Even if it’s not good enough to catch things like this I’d expect maintenance by domestic American Airlines to still avoid a crash, even without FAA oversight being effective. If a piece falls off, redundancy or simply the fact it’s not critical to flight means the pilot will be able to simply divert and land. Delays, not deaths.

    The problem Boeing has brought in is we’re now flying modern aircraft without redundancy in key systems and structures. The FAA has allowed it. It’s the thing that’s most likely to cause fatal accidents.