Thanks to those, I could buy almost complete discographies for $2-5 per record in the 90’s. As a student, used vinyl was much cheaper than CD’s.
3 Likes
Every dead horse has a silver lining, so count me in 
1 Like
And thanks to people getting bored and driving random revivals, new vinyl is now a lot more expensive than both CDs and downloads.
BTW, I still have a couple of VCRs I could sell. You can record hi-fi analog audio on those tapes with a whooping 70dB SNR and 90dB dynamic range. That’s almost as good as CD. How cool is that?
Do you follow Techmoan on YouTube?? He tests all that old stuff. Even a machine that records digital audio on VHS in 1981.
1 Like
Yes, helical scanning achieves a very high effective tape speed. The VHS drum has a diameter of 62mm and spins at 1,800RPM, so the speed of the head relative to the tape is about 230ips. Compare that to professional audio tape, which goes up to 30ips. Because of that, you can use FM modulation for audio and also record digital signals. Subsequent digital tape formats (e.g. DAT, MiniDV) were basically miniature VHS tapes.
2 Likes
There was still one of biggest US banks using that to record their London trading floor in 2000 (Racal Wordsafe)
I visited a small radio station in southern Italy in 1996 and they were using two-hour VHS tapes in EP mode to record 6 hours of high quality audio on one tape.
1 Like
This whole discussion piqued my interest, so I acquired a Silent Angel Bonn N8.
I am a self-confessed subjectivist (in that I prefer to trust my ears).
Here’s what I did. I ‘lived’ with the audiophile switch for more than three weeks. Now I’ve taken it out of my hifi system and replaced with a standard Netgear switch. The idea is to see whether I will miss something re audio quality. Rather than making up my mind when putting a new component into my system (which lends itself to the full implementation of unconscious biases), I prefer to judge a component when I’ve taken it out. Should I detect a degradation of the SQ, I will know that the component was doing something useful. If not, well, then I send it back.
My conclusion re the Silent Angel? Nothing – it doesn’t do anything to improve audio quality (well, at least it doesn’t degrade it either).
So I will send it back.
No money lost, very little time invested, and I have my conclusion through my ears.
P.S. After all, we subjectivists aren’t mad hatters! Because it would be mad to hang on to a component even after our own ears have clearly demonstrated to us that its actual performance falls far short of its hyped promise.
8 Likes
“Did you know that 70% of dirt is invisible on your clothes? Tide Hygienic Clean removes visible and invisible dirt.” Tide ad That darned invisible dirt!
Just because you can’t hear a difference, it doesn’t mean there isn’t one! You may need it after all, if you want your sound clean!
3 Likes
Thanks for reporting this @Poseidon77. As a mostly “objectivist” I also make most audio decisions listening to my own ears. I suspect the only difference is that, when reasonably possible, I use a double- or single-blind test to allow me to determine whether I can reliably hear a difference (and its not just statistically random guesses on my part).
p.s. I don’t think the folks at hydrogenaud.io forum would consider themselves subjectivists at all. But they have no use for measurements. To post about differences they prefer (demand) blind tests based on listening (one’s ears).
TOS 8. All members that put forth a statement concerning subjective sound quality, must – to the best of their ability – provide objective support for their claims. Acceptable means of support are double blind listening tests (ABX or ABC/HR) demonstrating that the member can discern a difference perceptually, together with a test sample to allow others to reproduce their findings. Graphs, non-blind listening tests, waveform difference comparisons, and so on, are not acceptable means of providing support.
1 Like
ADAT perhaps! A very popular and good sounding studio format for a time. It wasn’t without its issues however - which typically came down to the abundance of very small (breakage prone) parts inside the cartridge or problems with print-through (high energy magnetics printing through to subsequent tape layers)
1 Like
From what I’ve read on t’internet, the Silent Angel Bonn 8 and English Electric 8 switches are but slightly modified Zyxel GS108B v3 switches.
I’ve ordered one from Amazon so I can take a look inside…
I think they were using actual VCRs, but I might be wrong. I didn’t know much back then.
Can’t wait to hear about how much SANA changed your life.
- Customized Silent Angel Noise Absorber (SANA)
I should have made that clearer - I’ve ordered a Zyxel, to see if the internals are the same as the internals of the Silent Angel and English Electric.
I’ve seen photos of a modded Zyxel GS108B V3:
And here’s a screen shot from Hans Beekhuyzen’s “review”:
Those switches share the same board. The Silent Angel has a 0.1ppm 25MHz TCXO on a separate board in place of the stock XO. You can buy one on eBay for about £20. Not that changing the clock makes any difference to how a network switch performs…
The Zyxel costs £20, The Silent Angel costs £399.
Where does the other £359 come from?
From the wet dreams of quick fortune by some clever guys, I would suggest.
In my version, the watch gives details and saturation. Lost digital sound.
In a switch we only talk about packets, chunks of information that can be assembled by a networked device into whate ever the packets contain.
There is absolutely NO sound representation in a switch.
3 Likes
Let us know what you find. I’d also like to know if there’s anything in that switch that might justify its price.
