The Official Graphics Card and PC gaming Thread

This spammer is all over the forums, with different names. The spammer has been reported.

 

Wow Jeff,

Thanks for sharing. The set I used to use up in LA left black on my ears the last time (intense summer heat melted them) so I tossed them - been using a very cheap $16 pair from radio shack that I keep in the laptop case - okay in a pinch but you can't call them comfortable.

So I need one in LA, and I put a Y on my gaming machine headphone output and tested the radio shacks, and if anybody watched me game, they could listen too.

My brother did a year ago before I ruined my old medusa by banging it - when it turned out to just be a cabling issue of reseating all the cables. I had my old medusa that I ruined, and another old medusa with some of the 5.1 speakers not quite working right.

But I lucked out and bought another 5.1 Medusa on Amazon for $130, and it fits way better around my glasses, so I don't have that severe pain in my ears that I used to have after a gaming session.

I tossed out all the old medusas but kept the ear cups. So I need a decent headphone for LA and another for here if my brother wants to watch Arma 3 again - or for somebody else - or if I want to watch a movie in the sunroom and be totally silent like I did a few months ago using the cheap radio shacks.

So I am right now buying TWO of those headphones you clued us in about - wow - like you said, you might pick up an extra - that was my thought too - but if I wait they'll be sold out.

Thanks for that great tip!

Rich

EDIT! Wow what a review you wrote! I copied and kept it all as a giant postit note on one page in the paperport section with this purchase. So it takes batteries, and I have to keep ANC turned on. Okay! thanks again.

 

Glad you liked the headphone recommendation Rich! Give them a whirl and let me know how you like them. I found them quite good at a wide variety of music especially acoustic and classic rock. However they're not quite as good as my true audiophile headphones, and I made the decision to sell today them simply because they don't fit a niche in my collection. If I didn't already have several much more expensive pairs I'd probably keep them. I just don't have the space. Priorities... lol

They're quite a good deal for what they are. They aren't totally amazing but I found them balanced and smooth for my uses. I listen to a lot of equipment-challenging music that makes lesser headphones/speakers distort or otherwise misbehave quite easily. In that music the House of Marleys performed well. Not "wow" type sound but very well balanced and far above what $30 headphones are normally capable of. Pretty much all my more expensive headphones outperform them to some degree, but at 30 bucks there simply is no better deal. And as I mentioned in my review, they're far more competent than any $200-300 pair of Beats by Dre they would likely share a retail shelf with.

The House of Marleys are also a better deal price-wise than the open-backs I linked below them. Those open back Philips are a better overall headphone IMO, but that becomes a discussion of open vs closed back. Both do different things better than the other. The House of Marleys have that punchy closed back bass that most open headphones just don't have. However the Philips SHP9500s have insane detail and mids rivaling $200 AKGs and Beyerdynamics. For that crystal-clear audiophile sound, the Marleys just didn't cut it for me. For portable usage I'm still hanging onto my VE Monk $5 miracle earbuds until something truly blows my mind. I'd use the Philips but without a hard case they're a pretty fragile headphone to be lugging back and forth to work in a backpack.

 

Your amazon review was so awesome I commented on it.


By the way, you mention taking a backpack to work, what kind of work are you doing these days?

I remember when you were in that one store, which at first was a cool job, but you couldn't keep recommending useless repairs which your boss wanted you to do. At least that's how I remember it. Good for you, I thought at the time.

You didn't feel like you were serving the customer. The worst thing a skilled salesman can ever do - to himself - is to use his sales skills to make money, at the expense of serving his customer. Ultimately the conscience kicks in, and then you have a brilliant sales career that is ruined. They say that in essence, sales is the transference of belief. So the skilled salesperson must believe in what he is selling, the product, or the repair.

Otherwise only the true con artists survive - but being a con artist is its own hell. Like the saying, honesty is its own reward. Dishonesty is its own punishment.

So the skilled salesperson, for his own safety and sanity, MUST find a job where he performs a service - the more service, the more money he makes - but nothing is ever required of him that would not be in the best interests of the customer.



Wow! I really got on a train trip there! But I got off at the last station. I only want to say this - I am very sure that DDP would never recommend a repair that he didn't think was in his client's best interests. Right, DDP?


So Jeff, do you feel good about the work you have now? What are you doing these days?

Rich

 

ha ha ha ha ha I knew it! (I barely hit the enter key and ddp responded already!!!!!!!)

 

Time team, hmmmm.

DDP - watching the british tellie - reminds me of my brother who really got into Dr. Who.

I watched about 6 episodes of Hell on Wheels - it's kind of good, the black guy, Common, is the best part - I really am not too sure if I like it or not

I watched the first episode of Homeland with Clare Danes - hmmmm - pretty intense, with the guy from Band of Brothers as the suspected POW now turned terrorist - she's intense - manic depressive taking pills to keep her "balanced"

I watched all 10 of Westworld with Anthony Hopkins and a mostly naked Thandie Newton - she is always great, and Tony, of course he is magnificent. Ed Harris is in it too.

I watched the first few of Madame Secretary and now I have the whole season - I really like Tia Leoni.

Oh, and I watched the only 7 segments I could find of the first season of Don't Trust the B... in Apartment 23 with Krysten Ritter (I'm going to buy the $20 dvd with 26 more segments of the second season) (she was in about 3 episodes of Breaking Bad as the young guy's girlfriend)

and all of the 8 episodes of Krysten Ritter again in the Marvel comic reproduction, Jessica Jones.

And of course, Game of Thrones, Walking Dead, and Fear the Walking Dead

But I never heard of Time Team.

Are you familiar with any (or all) of the ones I just mentioned?

Rich

 

Oh, the Time Team, archeologists. Looks very interesting. I might check out some episodes. I do kind of like that sort of thing - I watch Anthony Bourdain on CNN - Parts Unknown, a food show and much more - travel all over.

The boats. Wow.

Oh yeah David Perry, aka ddp,

I forgot: Admiral Perry who opened up Japan I believe - was your - great grandfather? Or your great-grandfather's brother - a great great uncle of some type?

I have it recorded somewhere.

So you've finished some of your models?

I pulled up the first link and it's beautiful. I'll pull up the others next time - thanks for sharing.

Rich

 

I currently work at a fairly large potato processing plant. It's a solid company that pays relatively well for the type of work, and there's lot of room to move around and advance. A lot of people in this area have raised families with that job. I'm a good and fast worker, if talkative, and have some machine operator experience so hopefully I can move right up once I become established. I have an Associates degree in IT Network Engineering, and an Associates in Business Communication. I also had very good SAT scores, with top marks for math. Hopefully that makes me a good candidate to move up. It's really not a lucrative job with a high ceiling, but if I do well it could give me a pretty comfortable living. The base wage is already quite good and I enjoy that.

It's a 12 hour shift with 4 half hour breaks. That's a lot of time with nothing to do. Everyone sits around looking bored in the breakroom. I'd rather bring some headphones hooked to my phone and surf the web and jam to music. Currently the VE Monk $5 miracle earbuds are my go-to headphone for work. They're insanely cheap and the sound is off the charts good for most types of music. I have a drawstring sport bag I bring to work with my lunch and stuff. It wouldn't be hard at all to throw a headphone case in and bring some larger headphones to work. The Philips SHP9500s were relatively cheap at $50 so I wouldn't mind having them instead of the earbuds. They definitely sound better. Music is super therapeutic for me, like I'm probably somewhere on the autistic spectrum type of therapeutic. I can jam literally anytime anywhere.

The work is a bit mind-numbing and repetitive, but it's certainly a 100% honest wage. IDK about feel good but I do feel like I've earned what I have.

I am an okay salesperson, but ultimately my social skills are weak so I prefer to pursue simpler careers. I'd rather advanced based on pure performance alone.

 

Well Jeff, the work sounds like honest good work - you're helping them process food - and I for one, f**king LOVE potatoes.

That is a long shift - like a fireman's job. So can I assume it's 4 days on, 3 days off?

Maybe not - maybe you work the whole 50 hour week with overtime, but if so, like the firemen, having a long weekend all the time is pretty cool.

You don't have to compromise your ethics at all - that's the important thing. As far as mind-numbing repetitive, and boring - I hear you - and that's a challenge to turn off that part of our mind that looks at something and says "This is boring."

The mind wants to be stimulated. But we are much more than our little chatty talkative minds.

For about 10 years now I have been "studying" a book - I sent a copy to Kevin - The Power of Now by Ekhart Tolle. You can see some of his stuff - with Oprah - on youtube. But the little book is really intense. If you had the book and read about 5 mins a day, during some of those breaks, you'd finish it in 90-180 days or so, and then you can start over again. I've been reading and listening (audio tapes in English, also in Spanish) to the same book over and over again, and maybe just a few concepts are possibly starting to sink in.

Anyway, congrats - sounds like a good job with a good company.

Rich

Edit - I still have not gone and looked at all of your boats, David - but I will - very soon - putting this in to remind me.

 

ddp, as someone from a family of model enthusiasts, I appreciate the work and effort that goes into what you are doing in those photos. Fantastic. Look forward to seeing that finished and detailed out. Keep us updated.

Rich, the job is as solid as any other and I plan to aim for a long-term position where I can settle in and have a normal career for once. Yes the schedule is 4 on 3 off rotating which is really exceptionally nice. Very rarely more than two days of work in a row. A stark contrast from my last job which was 10 hours a day 6 days a week for a far less satisfying wage. I make more money AND have more free time now.

My wage would seem pretty meager in a major metropolitan area in California. However here in rural Wisconsin, it's considered a VERY decent wage. Easily enough to support myself and have no problems supporting my computing habits and other recreational uses of money The job has its ups and down but some days I am extremely busy and moving around a lot which I really like.

Finally got around to correcting some deficiencies in my headphone collection. Got a pair of Beyerdynamic DT880 Special Editions. Brand New Open Box for the awesome price of $150! They are a very recent model and retail around $250.

Absolutely jawdropping crisp sound. Acoustic monsters with endless detail. They sound like someone knew my tastes and adjusted the headphones accordingly. Couldn't be happier with them. Like zero problems rivaling my AKGs and Sennheisers in capability. No mean feat. They are also capable of scaling higher when fed with better gear, much like my other performers. Price is definitely not indicative of performance here, because they are often compared favorably to headphones twice what I paid.

The Beyer DT880s in particular are a very very old design. Debuted in 1980 I think. Only truly good products go unchanged for that long. Beyerdynamic are basically the oldest name in the business. They're a veteran of the early days of development of the concept of headphones. Their original model, the DT48 made in 1937, is still being made and used today. It was intended as a precision medical and analytical instrument. However it's always had a small niche among audio guys for its insanely flat and detailed sound. Basically take music, make it boring, and put in under a microscope. An indispensable tool to exacting listeners.

Currently I do most of my gaming with my AKG K712s because they have the modmic attachment on them, lol. I need to buy a package of those magnetic attachments and outfit my fleet. Everything I have is excellent with games. One of my favorite test games, STALKER Call of Pripyat, uses OpenAL sound. It's an outdated and complicated sound renderer, but it sounds excellent and supports HRTF(Binaural) for headphones if you activate it with 3rd party utilities. Amazing 3D effects even without HRTF. One of the better sounding games out there. With some mods the graphics are quite nice, and the sound effects really make it sing. Insanely scary in some parts of the game. You are forced to fight in pitch black or track invisible enemies in narrow winding corridors. You almost have to depend on sound to stay alive. A very atmospheric game that makes you feel like a real survivor when you master it. It sounds incredibly good on capable headphones, in a way that few other games do. The sound in Metro Last Light Redux is very good for example, but it's not a rival to the dynamic, engaging soundscape made possible in STALKER. Not a matter of quality, but technology and how it's used. Environmental reverb, distance, overlapping effects, spatial positioning. Stuff that newer sound engines just haven't mastered yet. The sharpness, 3D positioning, and density of detail is superb in OpenAL. Like Creative EAX without the hardware dependence.

 

David Perry - I particularly like the Pennsylvania, with all those guns forward and aft. You have some photos up above from last year, but the Pennsylvania picture I remember from when you linked to it in 2014 - which is the photo above. And in that post you said that you were almost done - did you ever finish it? If so - did you ever post completely finished shots?

Or did you start on 5 more so that you could always be in the middle of a project .....

Okay, let me ask you - with your relative being the famous Admiral Perry - did you ever have a chance to get a tour on a full size battleship, or destroyer.

I am trying to remember - I think we Boy Scouts went down to San Diego one time and went on board a pretty big navy vessel. But since then it's only been in video games that I have gotten to run around any of the big ones, like Medal of Honor - Pacific Assault (which was a totally awesome game, even though it wasn't an Infinity Ward title.)

Wow, how did you score that job!!! You aced out!!

Yes, the area you live in does not have the same cost of living as down here - and it's getting more expensive all the time. So being up there with the deer and the trees - (in fact are you even actually north of ddp?) - surrounded by all that beauty, with a good solid job. Well - THAT can't be beat!

hahahahaha

What kinds of uses does a "tool" like that come in handy for?

I remember that game - I JUST could not get into it. I finally uninstalled it - not too long ago in fact. I said to myself - "What is this? Oh yeah, that one that Jeff liked."

I don't know - it was just not exactly my cup of tea - and I do like quite a few of the games that you like, but our tastes diverge sometimes.

Hey, so the last I heard, you were going to get into the new Tomb Raider. I just wanted to give you one little tip - I would suggest: don't bother spending your money for the assault rifle - it costs a fortune and after I bought it I wished I hadn't - I felt like I had wasted my money. The AK that you get for free is actually more powerful, but perhaps a bit harder to control - you can learn to handle it. The steady aim of the assault rifle is not worth the huge amount of money - plus I found that I tried to avoid using it as it ran through ammo too fast. Pistol worked better. Plus there are other things to spend money on that are much more important - like grenade launcher.

Oh yeah, I kind of remember being attacked by a javelin. And there were some weird people I bumped into. Oh, as I recall - I think I had problems running the game - driver problems.

Maybe around that time I got into Arma3 and never looked back.

But I remain grateful for the great tip about the two Metro Games, and of course Wildlands. Did you play the DLC Fallen Ghosts?

Rich

 

David Perry,

A rebuild of the torpedo bulges. Where are they? Not on top, right? Somewhere down below, near or below the water line, right? On both sides? Do you have a link?

Oh yeah, "Commodore Perry." A very famous name in history - I would say more famous probably than that of any Admiral that ever existed. The only Admiral name I can remember, is Nimitz. A submarine guy?

But everybody has heard and read about Commodore Perry.

How many of your Perry ancestors were Commodores?

So you toured a frigate - USS Oliver Hazard Perry. A frigate - is that a boat with sails, or a modern version without sails?

Oliver Hazard Perry is not the Commodore Perry who opened up Japan I don't believe. But correct me if I am wrong. Who are your famous Perry US navy ancestors?

Rich

 

Scored a pair of Sennheiser HD599s used on Ebay for $150. Same price I paid for my HD598s but a much more pleasing headphone for my ears. The HD598s were very relaxed, and a little bass light. Amazing for acoustic and jazz music, but boring in rock and roll, metal, electronic. It also had some sibilance issues with the treble. Hissing in voices and guitars and the like. Bass was underwhelming. Good quality and definition in the bass, but almost no thump or rumble.

Some runs of the HD598 sounded slightly different as well. More or less bass mainly. So they were inconsistent, and it was hard to compare and review them. Nonetheless they were legendary as an entry-level audiophile product and an overall solid set of headphones.

Overall, the HD599s are less slow and slushy than the HD598s, with more engaging balance, and improved overall sound quality. Noticeably better bass as well. These are keepers until they die or I find something better. Beautiful Sennheiser sound. Not really in league with the HD600s and HD650 I've demo'd, but they also sound different so do their own thing.

Also, probably the best headphones I've used for gaming so far.

 

Wow, well sounds like you got the bass fixed. So how many headphones do you have right now - and what do you use them for?

Rich

Edit - the new Call of Duty - World War II just opened up, November 3rd.

Any of you guys, Jeff, Kevin, planning to get that title. I already got it but haven't installed it yet from steam. I still haven't finished Ghosts - that Wildlands DLC. And I might give that other DLC a try, using my new girl character that I'm playing. In fact I haven't done any gaming for about 6 weeks!!

You mentioned, Jeff, that you were looking at Tomb Raider Rises - the latest one, but you were going to re-play the one before that to re-familiarize yourself with the series - the one where they are trapped on an island. It was great also. So did you start any of those Tomb Raiders?

 

Reduced my collection to 4 pairs right now. Sold my cheaper ones and refined my setup a bit. Will be adding a pair or two in the future. Particularly want some magneplanars.

AKG K712 Pro - Absolutely superb fully-open headphone. Insane detail and flawless treble with no screech or sibilance even in harsh testing. My reference by which I measure other headphones. Very versatile but especially good with energetic rock and jazz music. Doobie Brothers, Rush, Steely Dan, etc. A great option for heavily distorted metal as well due to how clean it sounds and the very high power handling(low distortion when pushed loud). Easily the best of my headphones hands-down.

Beyerdynamic DT880 Chrome - Smooth, laid back, semi-open all-rounder but with very bright and detailed treble, and warm mid-bass. Very naturally energetic headphone with good bite. Excellent for classic rock, notably acoustic stuff. ZZ Top, Mountain, Uriah Heep, Wishbone Ash, Jethro Tull, etc. Excels at all genres but especially good for making more reserved music feel energetic and fun, and makes more energetic music smoother and better behaved. Sounds almost like listening on a tube-amp, even with my solid-state gear.

Beyerdynamic Custom Studio - A closed back pair of studio monitors. Cousin to the DT series. Essentially a modified Generation 3 DT770. The differences are more than skin deep but the overall feel of the DT880s is there. Probably my flattest and most boring headphone, due to their studio mastering design intent. Great for all genres of music, but excels at electronic and dance music. Justice, Lazerhawk, Daft Punk, etc. Really nice for their noise isolation, which makes them good for daytime gaming. A couple friends have given them the seal of approval for music recording. Very flat and neutral.

Sennheiser HD599 - Pretty much the ideal daily driver headphone. Generally very laid back and relaxed sound, but ready to become fun and energetic with just a little volume. In general is my easiest to drive headphone, and my most versatile for quiet sources, low bitrate youtube music, etc. However, when I give them high quality files they perform just as well as the others, if not better in some ways. My go-to for fast metal music due to how relaxed and well behaved they are. Especially good positional sound for gaming. Probably my best gaming headphones.

Generally I rotate the latter 3 pairs depending on my mood. The AKGs usually sit on display because I know they'll be superior and the comparison isn't as fun to analyze. They're simply better nearly universally. That said I try to give all of my headphones equal usage, and try to find niches where they fit best. They are all excellent multi-purpose headphones, and the fun is in how different their sound is. It's like hearing the same song, played on different instruments. Every headphone has its own very clear texture and subtle nuances.

The Beyerdynamic Custom Studios are my newest headphones. Interesting in that they have a clear power limit. Low gain only on my amp. Very good gaming headphones for immersion, but not for positional accuracy. Analytical but still fun to listen to. Also drive pretty well from my phone, but it has a weak headphone amp section. The newer Samsung Galaxy S6 my friend has, uses an exceptional headphone amp that drives them very well. They also drive well from his portable Creative Amp/DAC.