Re: I Finally Found Myself a Christmas Present (Better Late Than Never)

On Sun, 04 Jan 2009 22:32:24 -0800, Rumpelstiltskin
<PleaseDoNotReplyByEmail@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Sun, 04 Jan 2009 19:33:27 -0800, Rita <Rita@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Sun, 4 Jan 2009 18:14:01 -0800 (PST), mg <mgkelson@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

On Jan 4, 12:05 pm, Rumpelstiltskin
<PleaseDoNotReplyByEm...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Sat, 3 Jan 2009 21:17:30 -0800 (PST), mg <mgkel...@xxxxxxxxx>

<snip>

What I'm really hoping for is a little more clarity in the voices
since I have a hard time hearing the words with most all modern songs.
One of the reviewers said the voices were so clear you could hear the
singer breathing -- I dunno we'll see. In any case, that will still
allow me to get rid of some cheaper rear speakers and replace them
with my current front speakers which really aren't too bad.

   I often don't bother even trying to understand the words in
singing, classical or popular.  I could understand the words in
most groups of the '60's, but Creedence Clearwater, though I
love their work, was always unintelligible to me.  Classical I
think is worse.  Maybe one can understand one's mother when
she's screeching at one, but it's much harder to understand a
complete stranger screeching at one.  It's usually in Czech or
Italian or some other furrin' language, though with Classical
music it might be in English but I don't even recognize it as
English.



I generally listen to my stereo with the actual CD, but when I
transfer them to my computer, I always use 320Kb/sec although I do
have some "borrowed" MP3s compressed at 120 and 160. Can I actually
tell the difference between 320 and 120kbs, for instance? I don't
know.

   I habitually use VBR.  I understand some players won't play
that though.  My worse problem is that I put text and graphic
files on the end of MP3 CD's, so I have to have a dedicated
CD player to play them, because a player that plays DVDs or
something like that will see the last tracks and think the whole
disk has no music on it.  I've never seen a player with an
override - there is such a thing as "too much automation".
Also, it seems like control makers are really liberal with buttons
for things I don't use or can't figure out what they're for, and
make up for it by eliminating clear indications for essential
features that I do want, hiding stuff instead in unintelligibly
cryptic ersatz hieroglyphics, as my digital camera does, so
that I have to carry the manual around with me if I want to do
anything at all out of the ordinary.  I guess the idea of using
the weird symbols is that nobody from any culture
understands them, so the manufacturers can't be accused
of showing preference to anglophones.  I'd rather the
symbols were in Chinese or in real hieroglyphics, because
then at least there'd be some consistency and I could learn
enough Chinese or ancient Egyptian to get by.

   Or maybe it's just that the people who make up those
symbols do lots of drugs.

With me, the problem isn't just with song lyrics. I also have a
problem with many movies. So, I'm hoping the speakers might help a
little bit with that also. Of course one can always turn the captions
on, but it takes a lot of fun out of it

I hate to mention it, but have you had a hearing test? I ask because
when my hearing started to go it was certain ranges that went first.
And it took me a long, long time to pick up on what was wrong.

I use an infra red device, wireless and with a very lightweight
headset that plugs into the TV and I can adjust the sound and keep
the sound on the TV low. But even if I have the sound turned way
up -- which would certainly annoy my neighbors -- the clarity is
not there.

With the portable mp3 player I recently bought I use ear buds a
daughter sent me as a gift -- they go in the ear far better and
I can hear the music in all ranges clearly. They are ear buds that
conform to the ear and shut out outside noise which helps a great
deal.

If I listened to a regular stereo I'd buy wireless headphones made
especially for hard of hearing folks. There are many gadgets out
there now that help.


There are some preliminary hearing tests on the web.
Here's one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4G60hM1W_mk



My sound seems to be working after all, or perhaps
working again, because with Windows sometimes things
don't work for a while, and then they start working again.

I wasn't too impressed with the abover site. I could
hear something all the time, but it was all the same pitch.
I had that experience in a couple of other sites too. In
one, you clicked a radio button to hear different
frequencies, but no matter which button you clicked,
you got the same pitch. On another one there was
dead silence on anything above 500KHZ. It all seems
pretty flaky.


This is about the best one I ran into:
http://www.freehearingtest.com/
You have to look around for "take the Free Hearing
Test" on the page that comes up after you "Skip Intro".
Then you have to click another "Take Free Hearing
Test" on the next page.

When I turned the test sound down to "barely audible"
as per instructions, I couldn't hear anything at 8MHZ,
though if I turned the sound up I could. There's
nothing offered between 4 and 8 MHZ. Not very
exhaustive.

Of course I skipped any site that wanted me to
get a password, or seemed to be going on and on
with a sales pitch, or asked me to download
something, or wanted me to put on headphones,
or had a popup blocked by my safety precautions,
or wanted me to take a radio-button questionnaire
with probably no tones to hear at the end, or was
nothing but a warning that online hearing tests are
unreliable. There were an awful lot of those.







I can't listen to it because the sound on my computer
has died, unless my hearing has deteriorated much
more than I think. I guess it's time for a new computer
for me. Either that or wipe the disk clean and install an
operating system afresh, which is eventually the only
recourse, since Windows' pipes gradually get clogged
irretrievably with calcium deposits. I might as well get
a new computer as go through all that hassle though,
then I'll still have this one as a backup. It would be
nice to just buy a full operating system instead of
the cut-down versions that come with computers, but
Microsoft has its one-computer licensing system and
they keep changing the damned thing anyway, so
it's an exercise in futility to think you can just buy a
full version of one of the stupid operating systems and
end the annoyances. The least fascinating area of
computer software I can possibly imagine is the
operating system.









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