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I must admit the thread title could have been better!
Luckily I have only had good experiences buying on Ebay, but 99% of what I have bought from Ebay have been books, and the sellers have all had good reviews.
I try to avoid "nice to have" gadgets as much as I can these days. Often they see limited use, and just end up in a drawer!
I am forever attempting to go minimalist though I am like a magpie when i see shiny new gadgets. I have boxed some more stuff up to get rid of, I did donate most of my books to charity recently, I have a sound bar and speakers I don't use though they were not cheap I am very reluctant to give them away.
The thread title is absolutely fine.
Take one example: I've been following this British watch brand for some years now. I'm not much of a watch guy, but I've been tempted to get myself a proper watch at some point, and this brand have some really nice, and quite different looking watch designs. About three years ago they mentioned that they were looking to bring a watch with a smaller case diameter into production, and as someone with a smaller wrist, that caught my attention. Upon release I wasn't sure if buying a wristwatch at that price point was right for me, as, again, I'm not much of a watch guy. It's been nearly two years since the watch became available, and after a long time of consideration, I decided to get it. It arrived on Monday this week, and I'm really happy about it. I think part of this is because it was as far away from being an impulse buy as it gets!
I have quite a few books boxed up in the attic. I might consider giving some of them away to charity too, at some point. I'm looking to build a proper bookcase soon, and what I won't have room for there, I will probably have to get rid of. Selling some books online is also an option, but it will be very time consuming…
It's good to have a good watch and you put alot of consideration into it. I am not a watch person either until recently. My last watch purchase prior to my recent purchase was 20 years ago and it was a camera watch 😂 my newest watch is a Garmin military grade watch which I use for running and cycling etc, being a James Bond fan has nothing to do with my watch choices 😂
Talking of impulse purchases just bought some new headphones 😂
I just ordered two bookshelves from Amazon though they are for my plants in hallway, the current shelf is DIY and low, the two I ordered are tall so will create space
I don't really own any decent in Ear earphones, these have good reviews.
Mine are black not white.
I have been looking at several MP3/Dap players though can't find any great reviews and many seem overpriced.
I found this CD case today in a charity shop for £3, they sell for £35 on Etsy, bargain this will be extremely handy.
Which features does your Garmin watch have, @Fire_and_Ice_Returns. I considered a digital smart watch, but in the end I didn't want to have another device to deal with. I spend enough time on various screens every day!
I've been trying to find the perfect bookshelves for a long time. There's no lack of option, but many of those I've found have either looked too flimsy, have been too pricy, or not that good looking.
Those certainly look unique! I have little experience with in ear earbuds, other than Apple EarPods. They do the job fine, but I'm sure there are a lot of better options out there.
Likewise with DAP players. I've only owned a couple of MP3 players, but that's it.
Looks sturdy! How many CD's does it hold?
When in my living room, relaxing or on my laptop, a cd is always playing on my trusty Arcam Solo Mini which I've had for almost twenty years. Never felt the need to upgrade since it still performs as admirably as the day I bought it.
When travelling to work or lounging late at night when everyone else's asleep, I plug in my Grado 220GT wireless earbuds to listen to my favorite tracks on my IPhone 12's music library. Phenomenal sound quality and worth every cent of its 279€ price tag.
Here is a peek into the most sacred relic in our humble abode. My beautiful custom built wooden cabinet.
The whole left side and the two bottom right shelves contain what is basically my whole film and music collection. The remaining three shelves house most of my wife's cd collection.
It's not a massive collection by any means but one I am proud of and cherish dearly.
Instinct® 2 Solar Tactical Edition
I opted for this design...
The watch features include...
Switch between daytime view and night time view with a screen designed to be read by night vision goggles.
STEALTH MODE
Go dark by enabling stealth mode to stop storing and sharing your GPS position and disable wireless connectivity and communication.
DUAL-FORMAT GPS
Dual-format GPS coordinates with latitude and longitude references offer unparalleled situational awareness.
KILL SWITCH
If security becomes an issue, the kill switch wipes the device of all user memory.
JUMPMASTER MODE
Calculate high-altitude release points according to military guidelines while navigating to your objective once you’ve jumped.
TACTICAL ACTIVITY
See time, pace, time of day, elevation and your location in both coordinate types.
MULTI-GNSS SUPPORT
Whether you’re hiking, mountain biking, trail running or skiing, you’ll have access to multiple global navigation satellite systems (GPS, GLONASS and Galileo) to track in more challenging environments than GPS alone.
ABC SENSORS
Navigate your next trail with ABC sensors, including an altimeter for elevation data, barometer to monitor weather and 3-axis electronic compass.
TRACBACK® ROUTING
Take the guesswork out of your return journey by using this feature to navigate the same route back to your starting point.
REFERENCE POINT
Keep track of a known place — such as your car or the trailhead — relative to your location, and easily find your way back to it.
SMART NOTIFICATIONS
Receive emails, texts and alerts right on your watch when paired with your compatible smartphone.
CONNECT IQ™ STORE
Download custom watch faces, add data fields, and get apps and widgets from the Connect IQ Store app on your compatible smartphone.
GARMIN PAY™ CONTACTLESS PAYMENTS
Breeze through checkout lines and select transit systems with Garmin Pay contactless payments through participating providers.
SAFETY AND TRACKING FEATURES
When your watch and phone are paired, your live location can be sent to your contacts manually or — during select outdoor activities — automatically with built-in incident Detection2.
CALENDAR VIEW
Easily see your plans for the day with a dedicated calendar screen when paired with your compatible smartphone.
SYNC WITH THE GARMIN CONNECT™ APP
See your health and fitness information all in one place. The Garmin Connect app on your compatible smartphone is a thriving online community where people on the go can connect, compete and share.
BUILT-IN SPORTS APPS
Do whatever you love with preloaded activity profiles for running, cycling, swimming, strength training, indoor climbing, virtual running, golf, yoga and more.
HIIT WORKOUTS
This activity profile tracks your HIIT workouts, including AMRAP, EMOM, Tabata and custom. Set the number of rounds, work/rest intervals and more.
VO2 MAX
Train smarter with VO2 max, an indicator of how you can expect to perform. It even accounts for changes in performance that could be caused by heat or altitude.
DAILY WORKOUT SUGGESTIONS
For training guidance that takes you and your fitness level into account, get daily recommendations based on your current training load and training status.
RECOVERY TIME
After each workout, recovery time lets you know when you’ll be ready for another hard workout. It even accounts for training intensity and factors such as stress, daily activity and sleep.
MTB DYNAMICS
Track the details of every ride with mountain biking metrics plus specialised Grit™ and Flow™ measurements that rate trail difficulty and how smoothly you descend, giving you a score to beat next time.
RUNNING POWER
Get a continuous measurement on your wrist of how much power you’re applying to the road as you run when using a Running Dynamics Pod or HRM-Pro™ monitor.
WRIST-BASED HEART RATE
Get estimated heart rate3 data along with alerts if your heart rate stays too high or too low while you’re at rest. Gauge how hard your heart is working during activities.
STRESS TRACKING
Heart rate variability is used to calculate your stress level score, so you can see if you’re having a calm, balanced or stressful day.
SLEEP SCORE AND ADVANCED SLEEP MONITORING
Get a full breakdown of your light, deep and REM sleep stages. View it all on a dedicated widget that includes your sleep score and insights.
BODY BATTERY™ ENERGY MONITORING
Optimize your body’s energy reserves, using heart rate variability, stress, sleep and other data to gauge when you’re ready to be active or when you may need to rest.
PULSE OX
For altitude acclimation or sleep monitoring, a Pulse Ox sensor4 uses light beams at your wrist to estimate how well your body is absorbing oxygen.
FITNESS AGE
This feature uses chronological age, your weekly vigorous activity, resting heart rate and BMI to estimate if your body is younger or older than you are. Get tips to lower your fitness age.
INTENSITY MINUTES
Track how many minutes of vigorous activity you’re getting, when you earn them and during which activity. You can even view them as a data field during timed activities.
HYDRATION TRACKING
Log daily fluid intake as a reminder to stay hydrated. When auto goal is enabled, you’ll even see estimated sweat loss after an activity, and your goal will adjust accordingly.
I also connect my Tactical watch to 4 other devices, a Garmin chest heart rate monitor when running, 3 Garmin devices on my mountain bike 1) bike computer 2) cadence sensor 3) speed sensor. this watch does everything I love it lol.
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Regarding the Linsoul KZ ZS10 Pro wired earbuds, the only in Ear buds that I have spent any kind of money on previously were Bluetooth sets. The only other wired ear buds that I have that are any good are some Sony's that came with my Sony mobile phone.
Linsoul The KZ ZS10 Pro wired earbuds cost around £50 and are worth the price they have excellent sound quality and build quality. Whilst watching numerous videos on MP3/DAP reviews on YouTube I noticed many audiophiles using these earbuds.
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The suitcase holds around 180 CD's, not sure what I will use it for yet also I recently read to be cautious of PVC plastic and disks. some of my other cases are PVC though have layers of cloth and CD cover art card between the disks and plastic.
I am the same regarding Cinema and Music, I had a vast collection of music in my youth, (LP's, Tapes, CD's) which I discarded which I do regret.
I did jump on the streaming music and movies bandwagon using smart speakers for some time though recently I have been buying CD's again and on last count have roughly 400 CD's. I recently bought the reissues of the Red and Blue Beatles albums on CD and the glossy LP style cases and booklets are great which add to the listening experience.
Seeing all my physical media... movies and CD's on shelf's also makes me proud, I am very much pro physical media and it is something that should not be lost.
Your Grado 220GT wireless ear buds look very good, I have had a few ear bud sets with the same design though at lower price points, the battery life tends to be excellent.
Space being the main issue, I opted for the next best thing which is Japanese mini-lp replica cds.
I have about 30 of those (mostly classic rock) and only wish every album I have existed in that packaging.
I had near to 1000 vinyl records and singles and left them when I moved house many years ago, the collection was built up over many years, space is often the issue I threw away hundreds of VHS tapes for that reason.
I decided not to make the same mistake with CD's and DVD's, I have found ways to reduce the space my collection takes up.
Japanese mini-lp replica cds do look great I only have a handful of CD's that have that presentation.
I've been looking at various Grado products previously, but they're a bit outside my price range. They don't ship to Norway either, by the looks of it. Looking up a few reviews right now, the Grado 220 GT wireless earbuds would have been a great match with my preferences!
_______
The Instinct® 2 Solar Tactical Edition looks like quite the watch, @Fire_and_Ice_Returns! Looks wise it kind of reminds me of Casio G-Shock, but it's certainly a whole different kind of watch, reading through those features. Not sure I'd be comfortable with so much tracking, myself – most of all fitness age! :))
Thankfully my current fitness age is several years younger than my real age lol
A lot of the info is useful especially sleep tracking which i had issues with previously.
I got mine from German retailer respectphone.de. Shipping is free.
I fear it's the other way around for me, haha! At least I have a relatively healthy diet, so it shouldn't be all bad (I hope!).
One of my colleagues uses an Oura Ring to track his sleep, and a guy who rents an office space at my workplace uses The Whoop band. Both are subscription services, I think.
Thanks, I'll make a note of that, @R1s1ngs0n! I don't think there are any retailers in Norway, and there's import costs to add to the cost of a pair of Grados, but you never know, I might be tempted to buy a pair at some point.
I have just bought myself a hi fi Sony Walkman dap as an early birthday gift to myself 😂 it arrives tomorrow.
A friend of mine has repaired a double tape deck he owns recently and the sound is pretty good through his system, he tends to purchase 'sold for parts' models of retro equipment in case something he already owns breaks down.
I have considered getting a tape deck retro or high quality modern one but decided against it. I threw away hundreds of tapes years ago and I am not willing to commit to building up another collection of media on a different format. I half heatedly started collecting vinyl again and stopped, it is all about CD's for me going forward.
Sony NW-A306 walkman, high-end portable audio player
The Sony NW-A306 Walkman is a portable music player with the following specifications12:
3.6-inch HD (1280 x 720 Pixels) TFT colour display with white LED-backlight
Android 12
Ports – USB Type-C (USB3.2 Gen1), Stereo mini-jack, MicroSD card support
Wi-Fi 802.11 ac (2.4GHz + 5GHz), Bluetooth 5.0
Supported Bluetooth Codec: SBC, LDAC, aptX, aptX HD, AAC
32GB internal memory
Battery life - Bluetooth (transmitter mode) MP3 (128 kbps)/SBC-Connection pref: Approx. 22 hrs
Dimensions (W x H x D) Approx. 2.23 x 3.88 x 0.47"
Weight Approx. 3.99 oz
Supported formats...
32 kbps - 320 kbps (Supports variable bit rate (VBR)) / 32 kHz, 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz
WMA (.wma)
32 kbps - 320 kbps (Supports variable bit rate (VBR)) / 44.1 kHz (STEREO)
32 kbps - 48 kbps / 44.1 kHz (MONO)
FLAC (.flac)
16 bit, 24 bit / 8 kHz - 384 kHz
WAV (.wav)
16 bit, 24 bit, 32 bit (Float/Integer) / 8 kHz - 384 kHz
AAC (.mp4, .m4a, .3gp)
16 kbps - 320 kbps / 8 kHz - 48 kHz
HE-AAC (.mp4, .m4a, .3gp)
32 kbps - 144 kbps / 8 kHz - 48 kHz
Apple Lossless (.mp4, .m4a)
16 bit, 24 bit / 8 kHz - 384 kHz
AIFF (.aif, .aiff, .afc, .aifc)
16 bit, 24 bit, 32 bit / 8 kHz - 384 kHz
DSD (.dsf, .dff) (*1)
1 bit / 2.8224 MHz, 5.6448 MHz, 11.2896 MHz
APE (.ape)
8 bit, 16 bit, 24 bit / 8 kHz - 192 kHz (Fast, Normal, High)
MQA (.mqa.flac)
The animated screen saver with track playing displayed is a nice retro touch that harks back to the original Walkman.
I have no experience in repairing tape decks myself, but as far as I know, it shouldn't be a big job to repair a tape deck for someone who's done so before. I am confident that your Yamaha will see many years of use after a bit of service, @j_w_pepper!
This one looks great, @Fire_and_Ice_Returns. Looking up prices online, it doesn't look to be that expensive either for what you're getting. I remember back in the last few years before smartphones became a thing, ordinary MP3 players which packed a bit more memory could cost just as much.
I got the Sony Walkman on offer, I paid around £330 for it, its bloody amazing I am so impressed, I watched 20 or 30 audiophile reviews and everyone raves about it which convinced me to buy. My next mission is to have most of my music on FLAK or DSD format not decided which as yet, this Walkman exposes how crappy some MP3 music is, though how the music was originally recorded is a factor in many cases.
I have also realized to best way to listen to music is using wired in ear monitors, you get a totally different listening experience, I am pretty sure it was the Beatles who first used the idea of speaker monitors.
My monitors have 5 drivers in each ear, I am already thinking about get a set with more drivers.
Haha, yes! Back in the mid 00's when downloading MP3 music was something everyone did (at least people my age), you often got small files, which was great since you could get more songs available, but the audio quality was often very questionable!
Wired in ear monitors can be great, but I've struggled to find ones I'm very happy with. Finding ones that offer great value for their price, have good sound quality which suits the range of music I like, and just as important, have a shape that fits the ear is difficult. Right now I just use Apple Airpods (both wired and ones without), simply because they sound alright with my Macbooks, my iPhone and iPad. But most of all, they fit my ears really well. I'd love to get a pair that's a step up or two, but they need to be somewhat similar in shape.
Which monitors do you currently own, @Fire_and_Ice_Returns?
I have been listening to high res music today I really have been missing out, Live and Let Die was incredible the title track is a masterpiece, it felt like it was the first time I had properly heard it.
I am listening to Jeff Waynes War of the Worlds on 24 bit wow.
I have never done a deep dive into audio formats and differing quality, i have learnt a lot in the last few days, much of my digital music needs an overhaul lol
The amount of albums I have bought from Amazon music and downloaded in lower res is ridiculous because I was not paying attention lol Though Amazon music has a cap on purchases which is irritating me now when i am seeing what is available on other music sites.
Apple Airpods (wireless ones) are about £120 here, so £50 for these are a good price, I imagine. Do you have any other pairs as well?
MP3 and high res audio can be night and day really. Having listened with MP3 players in my teens, and streaming services like Spotify since then, it's, for me at least, very easy to forget how good other audio formats can be, as MP3s and streaming has been the go-to ways of listening to music (as well as a way to discover new music too).
I am currently listening to The Jacksons Triumph MP3 on my Sony Walkman and the audio quality is very impressive, it sounds better than what it claims to be, admittedly I am not expert an regarding audio formats lol
At home, I primarily listen to music on vinyl (if I have it, that is; I'm very slowly rebuilding a record collection, so I don't have much, currently) on my Audio-Technica LP-120XUSB turntable with Edifier R1280DB powered speakers. The turntable has its own built-in preamp, so no need for a separate receiver or amp or whatever. It's also a three-speed table, so I'm looking forward to picking up some jazz 78 records when I can (and whenever I can also get a 78 RPM phono cartridge to properly play them). Considering the fact that music is my #1 favorite thing in the entire world, it's sort of surprising that I'm not really an audiophile. I just want the music to sound the best it can. I don't get deep into the nitty-gritty obsessive details about sound, for the most part. There certainly are more things that I would like to get to improve my setup some, but they're not gonna be real game changers.
I definitely plan on getting a higher quality phono cartridge (stylus) than the one that came with my turntable. Likely an Ortofon 2M Red. Ditto a new platter mat to replace the Audio-Technica felt one that came stock. I'm thinking probably a nice acrylic mat. We'll see.
On the go, on the bus to and from work and the like, I have little choice but Spotify, so that's what I use. And at home, if I don't have the album I want to listen to on vinyl, it's Spotify to the rescue there, too. I wish it were different. I think it will be, someday. Need more records!! 💸
I still have some 400 vinyl albums in my basement (including Hejira, by the way!) - tell me if you're interested in a list, putting them all on Discogs or eBay would be too much of a frustrating hassle. But progressively since getting my first CD player in 1986 until my Dual 1229 record player's drive motor gave up on me in the 90s, I quit listening to vinyl completely, having replaced all my favourites by CDs over time (also including Hejira ;) ). I am now planning to digitize the interesting part of what's left by using another old turntable (a Technics clone) for extraction. But I don't think I'll ever be eager to get back to flipping a record every 15 to 20 minutes. And given noise, hiss and scratches I truly don't agree that analogue sounds better than digital.
Oh, definitely! Back in the days where MP3 players was at their most popular, we often just found the music we wanted to check out from various torrent websites. You were lucky to find good quality MP3s on these sites though.
And for clarification: If I found anything interesting on these sites, I often ended up buying albums from these artists. That way I could listen to their songs – as intended.
I once had a turntable similar to your Audio-Technica one @Thunderball. It was a cheap knock-off of the Technics and Audio-Technica's in the same style, and I would never have been able to do many upgrades to improve the sound. These types of turntables (if not buying a cheap knock-off) are great; the feet are stable, and as you point out with your turntable, you get the three different speeds.