Tag Mclaren.

ALXAndy · 24 Jul 2023 at 22:41

I had to put ground loop isolators on every sound producing device in the flat. 3 pcs, three headphone amps and god knows what else. Which left it all sounded flat and a bit muffled.

Been doing some more poking. People are using them on better setups than mine. I guess like me they don’t buy snake oil and ain’t stupid. Especially when all it’s doing is shoving out 1s and 0s. I don’t see any way of ever improving that tbh. Eveeywhere you can make slight differences? They’re on it charging thousands of pounds.

I’m not an audiophile. At all. That’s why I love TMC. Because they make brutally flat non EQ stuff. Meaning when I listen to anything it’s how it should sound. So if it sounds crap? It is crap. That’s all I ever wanted hence buying parts that are up to 20 years old now.

But when someone does sound good like when Thom Yorke sang fake plastic trees live in a studio? Dear god things get emotional fast.

piggin · 24 Jul 2023 at 22:56

I know what you mean and I have purchased a lot of snake oil over the years. However, I have learnt from my mistakes
However, I have a friend who does a lot of studio work in Rockfields (rebuilt their desk etc) and helps out as an audio engineer. Now we have some intersting conversations about how it should all sound. But if it makes you laugh or cry then its doing its job in my book

ALXAndy · 25 Jul 2023 at 13:53

OK so one last bit for the sound part.

It's a USB isolator. Also stops power spikes and etc. Good thing is it has a switch to turn it on and off, so I can see if it causes any sound degradation. It shouldn't because it has a proper Analogue Devices chip on it.

I've also ordered another A3 sheet of acrylic. Mainly for the small pieces I will need, and the PSU cap (will explain that at a later date, no point now I can't design it until I have the PSU to measure).

piggin · 25 Jul 2023 at 18:15

Sounds like you will be doing lots of testing to ensure you get that perfect sound from this new setup

ALXAndy · 25 Jul 2023 at 22:30

Well at £4 I couldn't see any reason not to

I have decided on the OS. Seems absolutely perfect. It's called LibreELEC and I think it is a tiny Linux with Kodi in it. So it boots straight into Kodi, which should immediately just use the remote I bought. Did a bit of research and Kodi can indeed play DVDs, so it should just be a case of pointing it to my server and yeah, job done.

I also read that VLC ignores the region on a DVD drive. Like, you can open any DVD in it without switching regions. Hopefully Kodi is the same, but I will need to check into that. Either way I have no UK DVDs at least not here. There are a few at mum's I wouldn't mind watching, but it wouldn't be the end of the world if I can't.

piggin · 25 Jul 2023 at 23:11

I haven't ever seen LibreELEC before but used Kodi as a side loader before with great success. As for VLC, thats played everything I have ever thrown at it. So I think you will be good with that setup

ALXAndy · 26 Jul 2023 at 12:17

That is what I used to run. I had Win 10 slimmed down as much as possible, with all icons removed and it booting straight into a skinned VLC. The problem was it does not work with a remote (so I had to have a horrid little kbm trackpad thing that is awful) and Windows continually interrupted me with nags about updating and so on. Nothing like turning it on to play some music and it then spends over 30 mins doing updates you don't want or need. Or every few months making you refuse to let it have access to everything again.

That is also what I use on my FireTV for streaming video and listening to music. Though for music it leaves a lot to be desired.

piggin · 26 Jul 2023 at 17:03

Can can see windows notifications being an issue when you are listening to a good piece of music or watching a film :cry:

As for the fire stick, I have never used it just for music so couldn't comment but from what you are saying I will give that a miss

ALXAndy · 26 Jul 2023 at 17:30

piggin said:
Can can see windows notifications being an issue when you are listening to a good piece of music or watching a film

As for the fire stick, I have never used it just for music so couldn't comment but from what you are saying I will give that a miss

I have the Fire Cube. It's way more beefy. I used to buy sticks, but every year or two they start to crawl. The Cube has been going for 4 years at this point, and is still very fast and nippy. I use that to watch SmartTubeNext which blocks ads, sponsors and even subscribe reminders. I used to watch the ads, but YT started getting greedy and pushing me to stop it. Was bad enough before, but 30 second unskippable ads over and over got on my nerves. I also use it to watch Prime, and the channels I am subbed to on there.

OK so I figured out what OS I am going to use a couple of days back. It's called LibreElec and is basically, from what I can see, a type of Linux that is shaved down to almost nothing and boots straight into Kodi. Problem is I have never used Kodi. I thought it was just a way to pirate and steal, so I figured I should install it on my Fire stick first to see if it does what I need.

What a wally. I've been using VLC, which is incredibly basic and old fashioned as a front end.

Took me literally two minutes to access my server and be playing music. And, it does not have the audio issues that VLC does on high res flac. Obviously that will be less of an issue on a PC with a better sound device, but still. Apparently if you have a drive installed (DVD BR etc) a disc icon appears on the side and yeah, it will play DVDs too.

Sorted.

piggin · 26 Jul 2023 at 19:11

ALXAndy said:
I have the Fire Cube. It's way more beefy. I used to buy sticks, but every year or two they start to crawl. The Cube has been going for 4 years at this point, and is still very fast and nippy. I use that to watch SmartTubeNext which blocks ads, sponsors and even subscribe reminders. I used to watch the ads, but YT started getting greedy and pushing me to stop it. Was bad enough before, but 30 second unskippable ads over and over got on my nerves. I also use it to watch Prime, and the channels I am subbed to on there.

I have solved the YT issues with living in Indra at the moment

ALXAndy said:
OK so I figured out what OS I am going to use a couple of days back. It's called LibreElec and is basically, from what I can see, a type of Linux that is shaved down to almost nothing and boots straight into Kodi. Problem is I have never used Kodi. I thought it was just a way to pirate and steal, so I figured I should install it on my Fire stick first to see if it does what I need.

What a wally. I've been using VLC, which is incredibly basic and old fashioned as a front end.

Took me literally two minutes to access my server and be playing music. And, it does not have the audio issues that VLC does on high res flac. Obviously that will be less of an issue on a PC with a better sound device, but still. Apparently if you have a drive installed (DVD BR etc) a disc icon appears on the side and yeah, it will play DVDs too.

Sorted.

Does this mean you could just have a stick & not the PC

ALXAndy · 26 Jul 2023 at 21:40

No.

A stick doesn't have a DVD drive. It is also not working on the TV side of things, freezing loading the PVR at 0%.

I mean, theoretically yes you can use a stick, but you give up a ton of features. It doesn't do anything more than VLC on the same stick does for me now. I mean yeah, it looks way nicer but I need a CD/DVD drive as well.

piggin · 26 Jul 2023 at 22:01

Glad you said that as it would be a pity after all this work

ALXAndy · 26 Jul 2023 at 23:03

Yeah the Amazon stick isn’t perfect. It has to side load and I know from doing that with my blackberry phones in the past it didn’t work too well.

You could use a pi4 I hear. You can even buy an audiophile DAC for a pi4 for £130 or so. Problem is can you hook a dvd player to that without buying more expensive addons? Who knows. And at the end of being done in the botty over pi4 prices? You would have a multi box and drive rat nest.

I got my board and ram free. It demolished a PI4 in every shape and form.

Remember, most of this was free. The shell of the CD player cost me £45 and was by far the most expensive piece. I didn’t even have to buy the alcohol or paint and I have loads of that left AND etc primer

Most of the touch ups I did on the face plate wore off when I was working on it. 100% because I should have put etch down first. I’ll cover the methods when the face comes back. I’ll get it out to G over the weekend.

Cool thing is hopefully my light diffuser will be done and can be shipped back with it.

piggin · 26 Jul 2023 at 23:08

As you said the costs are minimal and its always nice to have a project. Plus it will sit nicely with the rest of the Tag setup
And having a top quality media PC is just the icing on the cake

ALXAndy · 27 Jul 2023 at 14:11

OK just got over. Tested what I can, PSU seems to work fine. Wee bit noisy though so I got this coming tomorrow.

I would have ordered it before, but I wasn't sure whether it was 10mm or 20. Turns out it is 20.

ALXAndy · 27 Jul 2023 at 16:40

OK. So today I took the new used DVD drive apart, modded the power button again and sorted the LED.

I could immediately tell the side rails were thinner. Few measurements later proved this point. It was pretty much the same width as the opening. Which is sort of good but not good. As such when you put the drive in it likes to get stuck. Once lined up to the .mm? it works, but good luck ever getting the drive mounted right in that position. So I filed out the opening. Given it didn't need much I put on my brave big boy pants and yeah, filed it out. I then finished up the drive mod.

And that is ready to go.

G - I don't need you to machine anything now. I mean duh, obviously. What I would like, pretty please, is the printed LED box.

piggin · 27 Jul 2023 at 17:16

Glad the drive is a better fit & that you don't need to adjust the front panel

ALXAndy · 28 Jul 2023 at 14:45

OK so today I was going to be doing the floor. Note - was.

I realised that Houston had a problem last night.

I wondered where the strange 2 pin only cable came from a few weeks ago when it refused to go into a PC power supply. *sigh*.

Just one problem. The socket I have (left over from a case) is too wide. So I need to file that down.

With that out of the way I did something a bit more fun.

piggin · 28 Jul 2023 at 15:29

ALXAndy said:
OK so today I was going to be doing the floor. Note - was.

I realised that Houston had a problem last night.

I wondered where the strange 2 pin only cable came from a few weeks ago when it refused to go into a PC power supply. *sigh*.

Just one problem. The socket I have (left over from a case) is too wide. So I need to file that down.

With that out of the way I did something a bit more fun.

Unfortunately it's never easy but I am loving the Tag tick. Are you going to colour it in?

ALXAndy · 28 Jul 2023 at 15:36

No. I love machining marks. I have decided not to go nuts on detail on the inside. What's the point? I will see it a few times, then never seen it ever again lol.

Done.

The Noctua is out for delivery, so later on I will sort that and finish the connector wire inside. Will get the floor in tomorrow with any luck.