I forgot to mention, I still have two stereo receivers. One is a Sony, I think, and it feels cheap as hell. Like, one side is a lot heavier than the other side and it feels like if you stacked anything on top of it, the case would cave in. It's old enough that it doesn't support HDMI or optical audio or even 5.1. I set it up for my retro computer desk, but it's turned out not to be worth the effort. First, I hooked up my C64 to it and was using it for audio. Then, when I set up my Apple II and my old PC, I added a switch box, ran everything into it, and then ran that into the amp. What I didn't take into account was all the HDMI things that plug into the TV (Raspberry Pi, PS3, etc) all have their audio coming from the television speakers. So, I ran a cable out of the audio out of the television and into the receiver. This is all a great idea when you use all those things every day, but when you only turn those things on once or twice a month you end up spending five minutes punching buttons and flipping switches just trying to get sound out of anything.

I have a real nice tuner up in my movie room. It's older, too -- it does optical, but not HDMI. Of course if you turn anything up past 1 or 2 up there it rattles the whole house, so it never gets powered on.

In my next house I'm going to have a dedicated movie room.

In my heyday of delivering pizzas, I was making $5/hour and bringing home anywhere from $50-$75 cash every night. My paychecks covered my monthly bills, and the cash I brought home every night was bonus spending money.

Everyone who delivered pizzas there was my age (18, give or take) save for one or two "lifers." One of those lifers was Barry, a dirty fellow who wasn't too bright and was missing more than a few teeth.

Barry came to work one night trying to sell a stereo receiver, a tape deck, and a CD changer. I seem to recall he wanted $200 for it all. I had enough cash on me at the time to buy it all, so I did.

Six months later, Barry and I were talking about electronics and he said, "you should just go to auctions and buy things and resell them. I bought a whole stereo system for like $20 at an auction six months ago and sold it here at work for $200!" Obviously, he didn't remember that he had sold it to me.

I'm pretty sure I keyed Barry's car that night, not that he or anyone else could tell.

Anyway, I used that tuner for years on my computer. I bought a giant pair of Jensen home speakers with 15" subwoofers and hooked it all up to my computer and listened to MOD files cranked up to 10 like a motherfucker. Six months later, the right channel on the amp blew out and I ended up throwing it away. The CD changer and speakers are out in my garage collecting dust. The tape deck is hooked up to my PC right now. I use it for converting cassettes into mp3s.

CO wrote:They can't make a reliable receiver for $500 either. I've had horrible JVC's, Sony's, Pioneer's, etc. I could bore you with the tale of the months and trips to Best Electronics it took so to get an intermittent popping noise diagnosed in a top end JVC. My dad says it's because you shouldn't put that many functions together with a hot amplifier but I think it's that everything is made in China so all consumer electronics are total crap.

It's crazy -- I believe your father is a wise man, BUT STILL, I want to say that modern technology should be able to create a stereo receiver that works for 10 years. They can't do it! They won't do it!

CO wrote:

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:Then the receiver died. I got another one. Then that one died. At that point I decided that manufacturers couldn't make a reliable receiver for $100 and let that go.

They can't make a reliable receiver for $500 either.

It was at this point I was going to make a joke about firearm receivers and pretend I misunderstood but I decided to rise above a cheap joke and instead ask for clarification.

What do you mean by "receiver"? Are you using it in the sense of a device that picks up radio signals, or like an amplifier or something else? Because it was mentioned about sending a computer through a receiver which I wasn't sure if you meant something like a stereo set that has a radio built in but could switch to other things like a phonograph, tape player, aux devices and so on.

Those big radio things with a half-dozen features and made like a fine piece of wood furniture were a big thing back in the '60s and '70s.

[quote="Ice Cream JonseyThen the receiver died. I got another one. Then that one died. At that point I decided that manufacturers couldn't make a reliable receiver for $100 and let that go. [/quote]They can't make a reliable receiver for $500 either. I've had horrible JVC's, Sony's, Pioneer's, etc. I could bore you with the tale of the months and trips to Best Electronics it took so to get an intermittent popping noise diagnosed in a top end JVC. My dad says it's because you shouldn't put that many functions together with a hot amplifier but I think it's that everything is made in China so all consumer electronics are total crap.

I used to have a nice setup where I had my computer go through a receiver, and the receiver went to a couple of big Bose speakers.

Then the receiver died. I got another one. Then that one died. At that point I decided that manufacturers couldn't make a reliable receiver for $100 and let that go.

That meant that I had no use for the Bose speakers. They are great speakers! They have been in storage for 2 homes in a row now.

Add the fact that Bluetooth took over... and the times I've checked, I've never seen a Bluetooth-to-wired speaker dongle... and the fact that surround sound is a thing... and the fact that in the city I have no need for loud sounds... and I just have a pair of headphones right now. When I don't feel like having the headphones cover my ears, I turn all the 10 audio settings to max and do it that way.

Not having so much sound meant that I left the audio profile on default. Or I turned it off. One or the other, heh.

AArdvark wrote:Does anyone still use a sound scheme on their desktop?

I stopped probably 10 or more years ago. I used to enable the "shroom" sound on minimize/maximize window but it gets annoying. All I leave is the current version of "The Microsoft Sound" for startup (the sound of "The Microsoft Sound" changes on every release of Windows) and whatever the shutdown sound is.

Does anyone still use a sound scheme on their desktop? The last time I think I even enabled sounds on mine was my first 286. It was just after my C64 and having sound events was sooooo cool. Then it got annoying. I used to have The Simpsons and South Park and Monty Python.


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