Linux. Runit. SwayWM. Colemak-CAWS. Espresso. Cycling. The list goes on; stop using so many god-damn periods!

  • 2 Posts
  • 131 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
Cake day: February 19th, 2024
  • Übercomplicated@lemmy.mltoLinux@lemmy.ml•PipeWire 1.4.6 Adds New Option to Disable RAOP, Improves the ALSA Plugin
    2·
    4 days ago

    If it’s a pure DAC, it’s default output will likely be between 1 to 2 Volts RMS. If your listening on iems or ~30 Ohm headphones that is gonna be crazy loud. It seems like you are using digital audio control to manage this (i.e., the audio level in your DE), which is possible, but certainly not ideal. It also is kinda bad for the audio quality, as you are digitally remixing it, and if you ever switch to high impedance headphones (or already have), the output current will be sub-ideal.

    If I’m assessing your situation correctly, then this is quite easy to solve though. You just need a preamp! This will give a nice knob to control audio with much more precision and finesse. I know that both JDS Labs and Schiit Audio offer headphone amps with built in preamps in the USA. I can highly recommend the JDS Labs Atom Amp 2. In Europe your a little more limited, but FiiO has some nice options I think.

    Of course none of this is necessary if you don’t want audiophile levels of quality, but it would boost the audio quality (presuming your DAC doesn’t have a proper preamp), and would certainly give you a tactile, wonderful knob.

    I can certainly attest that my HD600s sound quite a bit better out of a JDS Labs Atom Amp 2 than out of just my DAC or—god forbid—my Mobo audio… They sound even better out of my vintage 100W Onkyo amp, of course, but really not by much. I am really impressed by the Atom Amp. I initially just bought it for travelling, but it has now basically become my main amp lol.

    Okay, ramble over.

  • Übercomplicated@lemmy.mltoLinux@lemmy.ml•What problems can I expect using Linux (Fedora) with an NVIDIA GPU?
    31·
    7 days ago

    I had a 3060 Ti.

    I couldn’t game on Wayland for about 20% of my games (very frustrating), couldn’t use specific Window Managers like Sway, experience constant screen tearing on X11 (which I often had to use, because the game would crash on Wayland) when gaming, and had a significant performance hit in some games.

    CS:GO ran like a dream and actually better than on Windows, but with the release of CS2 my performance on Linux was about 20% worse than on Windows. My 1% lows were also crazy on Linux (median=190fps, %1=80fps). This meant, among others things, that I just couldn’t play death match anymore — my FPS would make it unplayable. This was largely an optimization issue and I think some of the 2025 Nvidia driver updates of improved the situation a little for CS2 specifically. The screen tearing on X and the buggyness on Wayland were enough for me to switch though, even if eventual improvements might come.

    I am now extremely happy with my 7900 XT, which I got for less than any available 9070 XT (in my region) and which amusingly actually has better performance in CS2 then then the 9070 XT on Linux. It’s massively overkill though, I could have just as well gotten a 7800 XT or 9070 (non-XT).

    I am still very, very pleased. Hopefully this will last me a few years, unlike the gosh darn 3060 Ti.

    Alright, I’m done with my huge block of text. Hopefully this was helpful.

  • Übercomplicated@lemmy.mltoEurope@feddit.org•I landed a remote job for a European company, and now I'd find it hard to go back to a US-based company — I feel spoiled by the perksEnglish
    4·
    25 days ago

    CDU is center right by normal terms, so no, Merz as an individual is likely not more progressive than Biden or Harris. But because the existing systems that Biden, Harris, and Merz occupy are radically different, the ultimate effect of their politics isn’t decided exclusively by some meter of how progressive they are. Anti-immigration vis-a-vis Germany is very different to anti-immigration vis-a-vis the US, for example. (edit: bad example)

    What I mean to say is that a conservative led government in Europe, such as Germany under Merz, will still be much, much more progressive than a progressive led government in the US (i.e. hypothetically Harris with dems controlling the house and senate). This is because progressive issues like gun control and healthcare are unrealistic dreams even for Dems in the US, while they are established policy in Germany, that even Merz will not change.

    So while you are right that Harris and Biden are, as individuals, more progressive than Merz, I think that in the grand scheme of things this does not show itself in the governments that they would run. This is also often what is meant with “Europe’s Right is America’s Left.”

    Edit: Merz, not März; thanks for the correction.

  • Übercomplicated@lemmy.mltoMemes@sopuli.xyz•A simple solution, really
    103·
    25 days ago

    As a trained barista I very much disagree… while I don’t work as one professionally, coffee, or rather espresso, has been a core part of my life. The same way a sommelier might find pleasure in life through buying expensive and exotic wines (and by extensions tasting them), there have been periods of my life where I almost exclusively survived by buying expensive espresso roasts and tasting the resulting coffee.

    In today’s world many passions and pleasures that can be intrinsic to someone’s being cost money. I couldn’t even tell you how much money I have spent on espresso beans, coffee equipment (machines, grinders, etc), audiophile equipment, synthesizers, and records. These are the things, along with my family and job, that make life worth living for me — and my family is not always available, and my job not always good. If I’m struggling to wake up in the morning, I dial in a new bean. If I had a tough day, I put on a record.