New place, new system
- Thread starter lulimet
- Start date
D
Deleted member 133
Guest
Or a Polonium-210 based static deionizer.
Tell me I'm not the only one who remembers those! The radioactive source was built into a handheld dust brush.
When I was a young business development guy in the nuclear industry, I designed something I called the Mac-Zap. It was a thin, semi-cylindrical container that held the source (sort of like a pencil but along it long axis) that would be affixed to the inside of the dust cover of a turntable, radially from the centre, which would zap the vinyl surface with ionizing radiation as it played. (The geometry was a little more complicated than that. For efficiency reasons you needed to get the alpha emitting source really close to the vinyl surface.) It would have cost a couple of hundred dollars. Polonium 210 has a half-life of 138 days, so to get an effective life of one year (including a short shelf life) you had to start with 8x more isotope than the minimum required as an effective anti- static device. Would have made for good ongoing sales. Then CD's hit the market.
Us common folk had to make due with a Zerostat.
Jeff
Tell me I'm not the only one who remembers those! The radioactive source was built into a handheld dust brush.
When I was a young business development guy in the nuclear industry, I designed something I called the Mac-Zap. It was a thin, semi-cylindrical container that held the source (sort of like a pencil but along it long axis) that would be affixed to the inside of the dust cover of a turntable, radially from the centre, which would zap the vinyl surface with ionizing radiation as it played. (The geometry was a little more complicated than that. For efficiency reasons you needed to get the alpha emitting source really close to the vinyl surface.) It would have cost a couple of hundred dollars. Polonium 210 has a half-life of 138 days, so to get an effective life of one year (including a short shelf life) you had to start with 8x more isotope than the minimum required as an effective anti- static device. Would have made for good ongoing sales. Then CD's hit the market.
Us common folk had to make due with a Zerostat.
Jeff
D
Deleted member 133
Guest
The same stuff. It's an extremely toxic substance and it takes very very little of it to kill. (By traditional poisoning - not because of its radioactivity. It's an alpha emitter - the first layer or two of skin is all the shielding you need.) When Polonium-210 is used in anti-static applications, you use thousands of times less of it than would be required to kill someone, as it's a prodigious alpha emitter. However the environment regarding such material was way different back in the '80s than what it likely is today - not that what I proposing was at all unsafe. Perhaps an analogy would be the use of mercury in thermometers and how it is being banned or phased-out, when every household used to have at least one when I was growing up.
lulimet
Well-Known Member
*update*
Because the Fire TV doesn't do HD audio, I bought a Zotac Zbox MI320 mini PC. It came with Win 8.1, 64GB SSD and 2GB RAM. Good deal at $160 for a complete box with Windows and SSD. I had an extra 2GB stick laying around so I put it in and doubled the memory.
Now I have HD audio. :music-rockout:
Also finally got around to hook up the Xbox One for some late night gaming. :mrgreen:
And I ordered 3 Wave Crest Audio HVL-1 bookshelf speakers to use as LCR. If I like them, I will keep them and add 2 more for surrounds. The Bostons are ok but not great.
We can do better :angelic-green:
The new speakers should get here Thursday.
Because the Fire TV doesn't do HD audio, I bought a Zotac Zbox MI320 mini PC. It came with Win 8.1, 64GB SSD and 2GB RAM. Good deal at $160 for a complete box with Windows and SSD. I had an extra 2GB stick laying around so I put it in and doubled the memory.
Now I have HD audio. :music-rockout:
Also finally got around to hook up the Xbox One for some late night gaming. :mrgreen:
And I ordered 3 Wave Crest Audio HVL-1 bookshelf speakers to use as LCR. If I like them, I will keep them and add 2 more for surrounds. The Bostons are ok but not great.
We can do better :angelic-green:
The new speakers should get here Thursday.
lulimet
Well-Known Member
My thought on these speakers.
Build quality is just ok. About what you expect from $200 speakers. One complain is the grilles. They are difficult to take off and it feels like they will break when you are trying to take them off.
Looks wise, yes they are just black boxes with sharp edges but I think they look pretty good with the grilles off.
Now on the most important thing, the sound. My first thought after listening to them is that they have a neutral sound. Very good balance of mids and highs. Bass is also pretty good for a speaker of this size. It is tight and not boomy. Maybe the front ports help with that?
The soundstage is not very wide but the depth is good. Very good actually for the price point. Good resolution too.
What impresses me the most with these speakers, is the highs. Very clear highs for a soft dome tweeter. Dialogue in movies is greatly improved from the Boston A series I was using before.
Movies sound very good even in my wide open living area. Music also sounds good. No mushy bass or piercing highs. Just the right amount of balance of highs and lows.
Overall, these are very good all around performers at the price point. I definitely recommend them to anyone with a limited budget. 5 of these and a $500 sub from one of the ID companies gives you a very capable system for $1000 in a small to medium room.
I am impressed for the price and satisfied with my purchase.
Build quality is just ok. About what you expect from $200 speakers. One complain is the grilles. They are difficult to take off and it feels like they will break when you are trying to take them off.
Looks wise, yes they are just black boxes with sharp edges but I think they look pretty good with the grilles off.
Now on the most important thing, the sound. My first thought after listening to them is that they have a neutral sound. Very good balance of mids and highs. Bass is also pretty good for a speaker of this size. It is tight and not boomy. Maybe the front ports help with that?
The soundstage is not very wide but the depth is good. Very good actually for the price point. Good resolution too.
What impresses me the most with these speakers, is the highs. Very clear highs for a soft dome tweeter. Dialogue in movies is greatly improved from the Boston A series I was using before.
Movies sound very good even in my wide open living area. Music also sounds good. No mushy bass or piercing highs. Just the right amount of balance of highs and lows.
Overall, these are very good all around performers at the price point. I definitely recommend them to anyone with a limited budget. 5 of these and a $500 sub from one of the ID companies gives you a very capable system for $1000 in a small to medium room.
I am impressed for the price and satisfied with my purchase.