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HARDWAREGADGETS FROM AROUND THE WORLD
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Waves Through My BrainSound is very important to me and design too As for media speakers these are in my opinion the most beautiful set out there, I have been keen for a pair of these Acoustic Lab Zeta 2.0 from the moment I saw them in a Danish hi-fi forum. Then I found them on sale in one of the danish discount chains, I love things on sale, but these are actually so good and gorgeous looking that I would have payed full price without a twitch.
The set contains two speakers, an amplifier, cables, wall mounts for speakers, test CD and a small manual. the full packkage ways in 8,5 kg which is extraordinary in my opinion for a two channel media speaker set.
SPEAKER SPECIFICATIONS : 1-way closed construction
3” full range unit from TangBand w3-871 which is used by Germen Klang und Ton in a few well sounding DIY project like the Cyburgs Needle for example.
Frequency range (-3 dB): 110-20.000 Hz
Impedance: 8 ohm
Sensitivity: 87 dB
Dimensions: 15,4 x 18,5 x 11,6 cm (WxHxD)
Weight: 1,6 kg pr. speaker
AMPLIFIER SPECIFICATION:A fat toroidal power transformer and one LM3886 pr. channel comparable to a Gainclone
Frequency range (-3 dB): 20Hz -20.000 Hz
Maximum Power output : 56 Watt pr. ch. 8 Ohm
Input connector : 1x Gold plated RCA
Output connector 1x Gold plated speakers posts (Left+Right), 1x 3,5mm line out (subwoofer)
Dimensions: 22 x 10 x 23,1 cm (WxHxD)
Weight: 3,15 kg |
The sound is superb, clean heights, great middle with a little nasal sound on voices and the only thing lacking is the bottom notes. The sound is very open with a decent stereo perspective and good dynamics, it's a pleasure to listen to them but a sub woofer would be nice.
Rumors was that there was going to be a matching sub but developer Christian M. Andersen is saying that its not coming, there is some trouble with some of the partners see here and here and AcousticLab is shutting down. A very sad thing as the time is ripe for decent sound on the PC. RIP.
| POSTED BY : |
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LINK(POPUP): |
| MARZ |
SEP.23.2006 |
ACOUSTIC LAB |
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Smooth Path One of the most important computing accessories
The time was ripe my mouse mat had to go.The fUnc 1030 surface was totally worn out and myCorepad® Magna Grey just isn't suited for laser precision.they had served me well and will be remembered.
Mouse surface preferences are very individual, and personally I tend to be a sucker for smooth and controlled mouse movement. After a lot of searching I had to pick between two great pads and after a lot of consulting with my usual connoisseur shop I picked out the X-ray Thunder9 rough pad. And a good choice it was... Except for the very, very... very ugly prints and vulnerability for burns from cigaretttes
The thunder does the work well, actually very well indeed. My frag rate has risen from 1.9/1 to 2.3/1, and it is a dream to work with when photo editing, surfing or just relaxing. My mouse is naturally equipped with HyperGlide mouse skates.
And again it was a pleasure shopping and talking to Webdanes, thank you for the good service.
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CRT vs. LCD My long time companion pt775 CRT is dead long live LCD. Or so i thought As mentioned my CRT monitor died on me yesterday after 9 years of all round use, many 1000's of hours with graphic production, gaming and video watching and my CRT did it all perfectly at 1280x960@85Hz.
In the meantime LCD grow up and and now that I was looking for a substituting my old CRT, every site i visited said LCD was the way to go. All the monitor reviews from the last couple of years have been howling about the greatness of LCD and after many hours reading about monitors I decided to get myself an Viewsonic vp930, a semi pro LCD, with blistering respondstime of 8ms, true 8bit colors and a very nice finish.
The vp930 should be perfect for graphic work, games and movies, yay...
I got my new monitor Wednesday, connected it to my computer and fired it up. WOW the image was clear and very nice colors and contrast, the monitor even looked great on my desk, which I'm not used to as CRT are very bulky and ugly. I was very happy.
I was behind with a job so I started up Photoshop and was very pleased with the look of things even though I could wish for some more image real estate and the 'silk screen' effect annoyed me a little bit. but that how it usually is with new hardware, you have to get use to it.
But but but, as soon as something is in motion on screen I really started to wonder if I had gotten a faulty monitor, the motion seemed not fluid, not because it was jerke or anything, it was more like a 'nervous' kinda thing both in games and movies. Another thing i noticed was the dark shades have a kinda reflective quality and black was most definitely not black and the back light bleeding in the 4 corners made the black seem like 80% gray, terrible, I was stumped and quickly got in touch with Viewsonic and other experts who claims that it was very normal and that the vp930 was even better then most, whoot!!!
I suddenly found my self back in time when the CD came out to revolutionize the music industry and outdo the long time renowned LP, or when the battle stood between the superb Betamax vs. the inferior VHS... we all now what happened and it just happened for me again.
I contacted a very good flat panel site www.Flatpanels.dk trying to find out what to do, the conclusion was that for my needs i needed at least two LCD monitors, one for my work, and one for fun... yeah right, thats about 1000-1200$ for the work monitor and another 300-400$ for a fast gaming monitor.
At this moment i decided to give up on modern times and go back to crt, I started googling for crt reviews and found nothing, there has not been a crt review for the past 2-4 years, whoot!!! It actually made my think that there must bee something totally wrong with my person... or the time just had passed me by and i was left in an old world of analog sound and video.
I was very determent and visited all my favorite brands for CRT just to find out that most had gived up on CRT only Viewsonic, Philips and Samsung still had these curious dinosaurs in their catalogs and that the CRT monitors the sold where all back from 2003-2004, but still i decided to get my self an Viewsonic p227, a 21" pro monitor.
Half a cubic meter of monitor goodness, 26kg of weight and 130 watts an hour just to keep this beast alive. Oh how I would wish for modern times.
| POSTED BY : |
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| MARZ |
FEB.12.2006 |
VIEWSONIC |
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The Apple bites backApple just announced a new product, the previously unannounced iPod nano The iPod nano is the new beast on the block to beat. No big changes in the functionality department, but a huge revolution in the look's department. With the iPod nano Apple has once again shown the world that well made design can rock the world big time.
Every designer in the world must love Apple for what they do for focusing so much on the design of their products, and the fact that it helps making the industry aware of the necessity of design in their products, how much a design can do for a product. Has it really not been even four years since Apple reviled what was to become the biggest media revolution in the world. The revolution that brought back the Apple brand name to the public, the Apple iPod. Since then every company have tried to compete with the iPod, from the smallest new companies to the big boys on the block, but non have to date catched up to the iPod's pole position in music players.
| POSTED BY : |
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| MARZ |
SEP.11.2005 |
iPOD NANO |
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Media playersIt's about time for me to get a mediaplayer The nicest design i have seen for a long time. I love this minimalistic design and I'm looking forward to see the i-River U10 in real life. This mini media player got my juices flowing and I just can't wait for it to get to Denmark.
| POSTED BY : |
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| MARZ |
SEP.09.2005 |
iRIVER U10 |
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Mouse Surprise I just bought a new mouse and I was shocked to feel the difference I had finally decided to go shopping for a new mouse. I had to replace my old Microsoft Intellimouse bacause the mouse feet are totally worn out and changing the batteries ever so frequently just annoyed me.
After reading up on stuff about mice I decided on the corded Logitech MX510, high resolution optical mouse. Corded because i wanted great responds time and wanted to get rid of the batteries and the choice fell on the MX510 beacause it has an higher resolution optical system than any other ordinary optical mouse.
I went to the local hardware pusher to pick up the MX510. To my big surprise the store had the MX510 on sale, how lucky can one be? I got hold on a store clerk and insisted at trying the mouse out; my long time computer experience demanded me to feel the mouse in my hand. The clerk at the shop didn't want to open the box at first but did so eventually after a lot of marz-persuading, I have actually scored easier then this.
THE MAGIC I expected to feel the magic I had read in every article about the MX510...
I closed my eyes and slowly grabbed the mouse to feel the energy flow but nothing happened... The mouse just felt wrong in MY hand it was too small and had some really bad old school ergonomics. Damn!!!
All the Microsoft mice I had owned; and I have owned a lot of mice, have all have great ergonomics and every single one has worked perfectly but most importantly they have fitted my hand as a pro tool should.
What should i do now? My plan was no more. I couldn't buy the MX510 it wasn't right.
Should I go back the Microsoft path or should I maybe just pick the Razor Boomslang which supposedly has even better optics then the MX510. Personally I find the Boomslang damn ugly and for daily use I know I would miss all the extra buttons modern mice normally offer today...
THE DESIGN Then suddenly my eyes were drawn towards some flickering, as i focused, my sight fell on the brand spanking new Logitech MX1000 box, it looked savoir with all the holographic stuff on the package and the word LASER on the cover. It immediately drew me back to my first laser experience in an episode of Startrek first generation... I was sold, I just had to own this LASER mouse even though I was told not to. Many people were speaking very poorly about the new laser technology; mouse pointer skipping, trouble relocating the mouse on mousing surfaces and the fact that non hardcore gamer would ever like to be caught with a wireless mouse because of lag issues corded mice just don't have.
THE FEEL I couldn't resist trying out the mouse. I just had to. The MX1000 is just so beautiful compared to the other mice and it seemed Logitech had addressed some of the ergonomic issues that just had put me of the MX510.
The MX1000 is wireless not good but it comes with a rechargeable battery and a recharging cradle so no more batteries exchange for me thank you. Now I just had to remember to put the mouse in the recharger from time to time.
INSTALLATION It's always cool to plug in a new gadget so I was looking forward making my first frag with this new wonder.
The package had the docking station, a power supply for the base, driver cd and a manual, maybe there is more but I haven't opened the package yet, lol. Everything plugde right in no surprises there. I download the newest drivers from the Logitech site and installed them without a glitch, everything seemed to work perfectly, nice!
And the best off it all; the mouse has three light diodes for battery charge status a nice touch and that brings the frag factor up a nudge just funny I didn't noticed them before so this was really a pimp like surprise for me. I just love gadgets with lights, don't you?
THE TROUBLE I started my favourite online shooter DoD but to my big surprise the "back and forward" buttons didn't work. Couldn't figure out was wrong, tried many different things and finally found out that when i closed the mouse program everything worked fine inside the game... yay... but not inside Windows damn!.
After spending sometime surfing the internet with out any luck I decided to visit the Logitech user forum. It has been a long time since I had to visit a user fora for a hardware company. I just hate those places they are allways filled up with freak posts and a lot of testostedick measuring and the information you look for is very hard, sometimes impossible to find.
Luckily for me a guy just had posted about his own trouble similar to mine but in a other game, I joined in and wrote about my own experience hopefully someone would be able to help me out as well.
THE SOLUTIONSSet the 'back' and 'forward' buttons to Generic buttons in the mouse ware.
Worked for me in DoD but not for the poor guy who had started the thread.
There is another issue. The mouse cursor keeps jumping up a notch from time to time. I have tried relocating the base station for interference but that didn't help. The only working solution i found is plugging the mouse in the ps/2 port instead of the USB port, but remember setting the PS/2 refresh rate in your windows mouse control panel located in:
Control panel / mouse / hardware / properties / advanced settings to 200MHZ
THE EXPERIENCE After playing around in different programs I use on a daily basis, entertainment, work and games I must confess that this is the best mouse i have ever tried.
The mouse is a bit on the heavy side, but most wireless are, butt the feeling with the mouse cursor is fabulous one can feel the heightened resolution of the optical sensor.
In my work I'm very depended on pixel precision, and the MX1000 is a dream to work with.
In my daily tasks I use many of the extra buttons and they are great, there are many.
In games precision, resolution and reaction is the bliss, and the MX1000 is better then anything else, my frag ratio has improved by 50% or so to my surprise, I hadn't expected impact like this, wow. Using the MX1000 is fantastic.
WHAT I WOULD WHISH FOR IN THE NEXT UPDATE The wide thumb support is fantastic, but I miss support for the little finger and ring finger as well see illustration below. The primary mouse button is to narrow please widen it a bit, see illustration below.
(IT TAKES A MOMENT FOR THE IMAGE TO KLOAD WHEN HOVERED)
Hover mouse over image to see what i would like |
| POSTED BY : |
DATE: |
LINK(POPUP): |
| MARZ |
FEB.21.2005 |
MX1000 |
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Mouse Skates For true mice optimizingWHAT IS IT
Mouse skates are actually special non friction mouse feet. I have tried many different moseskates in my life. Mouse skates comes in differen tflavours.
- Teflon tape which you just put on top of the existing mouse feet.
- Teflon skates for replacing your existing mouse feet.
- Teflon skates to put on top of existing mouse feet.
All I can say is that they are all great! What you choose is a matter of taste.
TEFLON TAPE The teflon tape is cheap and when freshly applied very smooth -some will argue that it becomes too smooth but i liked it. The tape works surpricingly for a long time. They have a tendency to gather up goo from mousing surface but wiped clean with a soft cloth or toiletpaper and some carefullnes rubbing. The proplem is that they can change smoothness very fast. When playing for an hour with coca cola and snacks the mousing experience goes from too smoothe when freshly cleaned to way too sticky in 30-60 minuttes depending on snack consumption.
MOUSE SKATES The mouse skates are a bit more expencive and as the tape very smooth when freshly applied. The mouse skates quickly become more controlled and last for a long time, much longer then the Teflon tape. The pick up less goo and are much easier to clean. They don't get as sticky as the Teflon tape does and not as quickly.
MY CHOICE My choice for my new MX1000 are Mouse Skates from Hyperglide, they have them tailormade for your mouse, if you have one of the big brands.
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Sonic Impact T-Amp - Integrated AmplifierTrue Giant-Killer Hi-Fi sound for under $40.
It's allmost too good to be true, I have ordered two and I am waiting. I will get back when it has arrived.
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Controlling The T-AmpMedia Hub I needed a cheap mixer as well so I'm able to connect more then one source to the T-amp. I found this "Behringer UB802 Eurorack 8 Input Mixer" for $50 perfect for my small setup.
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Hardware Review Thoughts Most people that upgrade their computers go for the best value stuff which is much less then the top hardware most hardware and game reviewers use. All the hardware sites I frequently visit have always the newest hardware on the testing bench and all new games are today tested on high end systems. A typically test computer for most hardware sites are more then 3,4 GHz processor 1 Gb ram or more and a top of the line video card. That means every game runs nice and smoothly but in real life we 'the normal people' don't have the means to buy top hardware at all. Here are the numbers for some of the most visited hardware sites on the internet:
| EXTREME TECH |
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3.4GHz P4 EE |
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NVIDIA 6800U or ATI X800 XT |
| RAM: |
2048MB RAM |
| [H]ARD OCP |
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| PROCESSOR: |
AMD 64 FX-53 |
| VIDEOCARD: |
NVIDIA 6800U or ATI X850 XT |
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2048MB RAM |
| ANANDTECH |
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| PROCESSOR: |
3.4GHz P4 EE |
| VIDEOCARD: |
ATI X800 XT |
| RAM: |
512MB RAM |
| TOMSHARWARE |
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AMD 3400+ |
| VIDEOCARD: |
NVIDIA 6800U or ATI X800 XT |
| RAM: |
1024MB RAM |
The top systems only make out 1-3% of the total hardwaremarket compared to mainstream systems that account for almost 40-50% of what real life people buy.
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A TYPICAL SYSTEM TODAY: |
| PROCESSOR: |
AMD 3200+ or P4 3000GHz |
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ATI X700 or NVIDIA 6600 |
| RAM: |
512-1024MB of cheap ram |
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MY OWN SYSTEM: |
| PROCESSOR: |
AMD XP 1700+ |
| VIDEOCARD: |
ATI 9600XT |
| RAM |
512MB RAM |
About half the power of a mainstream system today and almost less then 1/4 of the power a top of the line system used for testing today. But I will still be able to kick most of the top hardware butts in DoD the only online firstperson shooter I play.
Still I have been looking for a review on comparable system specs to my own or at least a mainstream system for a very long time. I'm still curious about how a game would run on an comparable system to my own.
Maybe it is time for the Hardware community to get realistic and also test on mainstream hardware.
| POSTED BY : |
DATE: |
NO LINK |
| MARZ |
DEC.14.2004 |
INHEAD |
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