Got me two a little while back: a pair of Atalaia jungle boots and a set of earmuffs. Both are sturdy built and very comfortable.
Finally received my Sony MDR-EX650AP headphones today, and itās incredible what kind audio quality is nowadays possible with a budget player and headphones. True audiophiles will probably sneer at this, but Iām pretty overwhelmed by the sound!
Faber Castell Polychromos! Nice! Now those are expensive. Itās an awesome set too. Itās oil based as compared to wax based. Faber and Prismacolor are basically the top two for color pencils. I got the Premiers as a gift. The Verithin and pouch I got on sale.
So, after I tried them as a PC headset, which worked fine, I then made the mistake of listening to some music with them, and the lack of bass began to bug me, just knowing that these would never work for music for me. So I caved in and ordered their bigger brother, the X2HR, which are known for better bass. Got them in yesterday, and while they do have somewhat better bass than SHP9500, they still donāt have enough for my liking, being the bass head that I am, and messing with EQ doesnāt really help much either. On top of it, the X2HR exert more pressure on your head, so they donāt feel as comfortable as the SHP9500 during extended use periods. The SHP9500 are lighter and have less clamping force. Debating which one to keep now or whether to return bothā¦
Another option would be to try to power them with a dedicated headphone amp for music, alas, thatās another $100 that I wasnāt planning on spending, and there is no guarantee that this will bring out the missing bass.
I did hook them up to my home theater receiver last night to watch an episode of the Expanse on Prime Video, and that was an enjoyable experience where I felt that bass was well represented.
Ahh, sorry, my last 3 PCs have had both digital and coaxial S/PDIF built in on the motherboard.
These E35 headphones are still $15 with free shipping on harmanaudio.com. For the price, theyāre actually quite decent. Sound quality is quite OK. The cable is detachable and includes an in-line mic so these can be used as a headset. I picked them up to have as backup, or maybe Iāll give them to my kid.
Power Bank and Charger XTAR PB2S yellow look including yellow Liitokala batteries.
Just got my Christmas present to myself !
Nice!
Gorgeous! Was that found used or did you buy brand new?
At much less fanfare, I received a TUSA Splendid Dive II diving mask with original case, used on just one dive trip. Looks like new. Got it for 60% off of retail cost of new one. Major āfeel good!ā 
I donāt use my car for work commuting so it ends up sitting for long periods without use. This has gradually taxed the battery. In my āprevious lifeā I drove my car practically every day, so using a battery maintainer seemed a superfluous idea. Now, Iāve come to learn about how important it is to keep the battery topped off. There are so many car battery chargers & maintainers available on the market, with the bulk coming from China. Lots of them are quite cheap with inflated positive reviews on Amazon. Itās hard to know whatās worthwhile, because stalwart brands like Stanley, Black & Decker, DeWalt, & DieHard are averaging about 3.5 stars on reviews. Finally found one that seems to be āabout rightā for my needs. I wanted to get a more robust charger with testing capabilities, butā¦ I realized all but the basic functions is really all I need. If the battery canāt maintain a good charge, itāll be time to replace. Pretty easy to figure that out. I just wanted something that would be useful during periods when I use my car less, to recharge the battery back up to full. I ended up getting this:
ADPOW 5A 12V Automatic Smart Battery Charger Automotive Maintainer 7-Stages Trickle Charger
There are models that boast much higher amps, but in reality I donāt mind a couple extra hours required to get a full charge. I donāt plan on using this on a frequent basis. $37.99 seemed like a reasonable price relative to what else is available (too many are crappy weird designs). Iāll try it out & if it fails to meet my standards Iāll just return it.
The main drive for my getting this battery charger was because I had deep discharged my battery (down to 11.5v), when I taxed it too much during a stereo installation over several days (some night sessions where I used cabin lighting, ran stereo, without car on).
The next day after the installation, the car wouldnāt start. Jump-starting worked and I drove for 30 mins after that. Car seemed fine, but I tested with a multi-meter and found the voltage resting a bit low. After a 3 week trip over the holidays, I came back to find the voltage at 11.9v. Thatās dangerously low. Thankfully the battery charger arrived the day I returned. Next day, I plugged it in. Wires are 8 gauge with an ingenious connector system (you can also just use the alligator clips). The unit has a bit of heft, made with a strong plastic casing. It ran through an initial check, did a boost charge, then an absorption steady current charge. After about 3.5 hours, it had determined that the battery needed reconditioning. 15.5v for the next 3~4 hours. After that, it ran through a test and the battery passed. Car is running smoothly & starts instantly, like it has a fine working battery. However, after letting the car sit for a couple days, the resting voltage showed 12.26v. So it seems my battery wasnāt quite as healthy as Iād hoped. But at least this charger did a good job of salvaging it back into workable shape.
Two days later, I ran the charger system again. This time it was faster. At the end, when the charger indicated āFULLY CHARGEDā I tested the battery. It showed 13.75 volts. But I let it sit for about 30 mins to āsettle.ā It came back with 12.7v. An hour later, still 12.7v. Thatās smack down on the 100% charge indication. Of course, will have to see how it goes from here. But for the most part, looks like my battery will last a good bit longer. FWIW, I did test voltage while car is running and it shows 13.7v, so alternator is still doing its job. Overall, quite happy I bought this charger. Seems money well spentā¦ even if the battery ultimately doesnāt hold up much longer. At least the charger did all the right things.
Good deal!
Keeping a battery topped off on an infrequently driven vehicle is a good idea. Itās good for the battery. My Charger (car) sits in the garage the whole winter so I top off its battery once every few weeks or so. Iāve got several more powerful battery chargers, but my favorite is still BatteryMinder 2012 that does desulfation and has temperature compensation and just plain works.
Looks like a ctek mxs5.0 knockoff.
Yes, I was a car battery n00b up until now. Iād mistakenly thought that the alternator always ātops offā the battery, just drawing more power from the engine when it needs to. But learned thatās definitely NOT the case. Even a daily driver can benefit from a periodic battery charging, as resting voltage can drop over time when commuting trips are fairly short. I wish I had my own garage, but I live in a building with outdoor parking. THANKFULLY, I can leverage an AC outlet using a 50ā extension cord, run through the crevice of the back door. That BatteryMinder 2012 certainly looks capable. Mine doesnāt have temp compensation.
I donāt see a tremendous similarity. The concept of the charging stages isnāt a patented idea. And who knows which came first?
Agreed. My daily driver is parked outside, and is mostly being short tripped. It definitely benefits from periodic charging.
I hardly use my van & havnt charged the battery in over 2 years , I have a solar charger that plugs in the cigarette lighter socket that compensates for self discharge.
Also, with a vehicle parked outside it will experience greater temperature extremes than if parked in a garage. Even if itās a port or shaded area, ambient temps in hot summer and dead winter will stress a battery.
Youāre fortunate to have an electrical system compatible with that. A lot of modern cars donāt even come with a cigarette lighter socket, and USB connectors are not designed to feed a charge back to the battery. I havenāt looked at any new cars over the last few years, and if theyāre not already doing this it sure would be a great idea if theyād provide a dedicated port that can accept a device (solar, power pack, etc.) for feeding a charge to the battery.
For sure. And for those of us living up north and keeping cars parked out side, sometimes itās challenging to charge a battery. Iāve read that trying to charge a frozen battery is a bad idea. I usually wait until temps rebound above freezing before putting the battery in my daily driver on the charger.