OT? testing computer speakers with cell phone?

[Seymore4Head]

John Lennon was asked......'Is Ringo the best drummer in the world.' John said......?He's not even the best drummer in the Beatles.?

(Not true, but still pretty funny)

[Paul in Houston TX]

Much easier to use a 9v battery.

[thekmanrocks]

Micky wrote: "I'm sure there was a Beatles song or two. I wasn't crazy about the Beatles but I spent years trying to learn to like them like everyone else did.

Eventually I noticed violins in Eleanor Rigby and other non-4-piece "

Alright, so you're probably a bit older than the average poster on this Usenet group, judging from your response you probably attended high school around 50 years ago,

Guys, have some respect for Micky, seriously! He's trying to learn this stuff, so just explain it, and leave the sarcasm and drama out of your replies. Might come a time when you all need to ask HIM a question about "way back when", so, what goes around comes back around.

Just sayin'

[thekmanrocks]

Much easier to use a 9v battery. "

I haven't seen computer speakers that run on batteries since the CLINTON era. Nowadays they all run on AC, and increasing percentages run off a USB port on your PC or Mac.

[Micky]

And that I liked, if it wasn't clear. And there were as song or two I suppose in the 50's every year that I didn't like.

Here's an example:

1960 by The Shirelles, another girl group that I liked.

"Will You Love Me Tomorrow"

Tonight you're mine completely You give your love so sweetly Tonight the light of love is in your eyes But will you love me tomorrow

Is this a lasting treasure Or just a moment's pleasure Can I believe the magic of your sighs Will you still love me tomorrow

Tonight with words unspoken You say that I'm the only one But will my heart be broken When the night meets the morning sun

I'd like to know that your love Is love I can be sure of So tell me now and I won't ask again Will you still love me tomorrow

Wikip says "However, [the lead singer] Owens recalled on Jim Parsons' syndicated oldies radio program, Shake Rattle Showtime, that some radio stations had banned the record because they had felt the lyrics were too sexually charged." So as vague and ambiguous as the song is, at least for people not already thinking in sexual terms, it was marginally acceptable. And the others were just about love and not about sex.

And another factoid, Because I didn't collect records (with pictures on the covers), go to concerts (where were few if any in Indianapolis, and expensive when my mother was a widow). and didn't watch American Bandstand, I had no idea which singers were white and which were black. I still often don't know.

[The Real Bev]

OTOH, you might have still been in the area and wanted to give him a final chance to get rid of it before he decides he'll have to have it buried with him. A friend liked to say, when all hope was lost, "Perhaps your widow will be more reasonable at the estate sale..."

Only one serious burn: an electronic keyboard at a church rummage sale. The minister himself swore it was working. $100, which was a really good price at the time. Unfortunately the bastard lied -- the power supply was burned out. Fortunately my son had a spare PC power supply that worked, and he was the one the keyboard was for. Destroyed my faith (ha!) in organized religion, it did!

Mostly we assume that stuff is broken and pay accordingly. Hubby is good at fixing things. Long ago we got my 1960 Ducati for $50 because the guy had set the timing exactly wrong and it wouldn't start.

Heretofore I've bought only fairly old cars, such that I could pretty much tell what was wrong with them, and I've been right. This is my first experience at buying a newish car (2014 or 15 Corolla -- starting serious shopping next week) for significant money and I'm not feeling at all comfy about it.

People who don't actually shop at yard sales haven't a clue. Neither do well-to-do sellers who think their castoffs should go for 10-25% less than they paid.

What does the IRS allow for charitable contributions? Something that allows you to contribute stuff you bought at a yard sale and make a profit, I just don't know how much; we haven't itemized for decades, and then only because we had a mortgage and paid California income taxes.

That's what's nice about yardsale shopping -- you never know what you'll come home with!

She's just clueless.

The insurance companies get off easy when they "make whole" the victims of their insureds. Actual 'making whole' for a totaled car = somebody finds an exact duplicate (or satisfactorily similar car approved by the victim) of the totaled car and delivers it with a full tank to the home/office of the victim. Yeah, like that's gonna happen!

[Micky]

That's a good line too. I'll use it.

Actually, I go to a lot of hamfests, and lately there have been some old coots selling off their stuff, so they can move to a smaller place or something.

And twice in the last year, there have been tables for guys selling someone's stuff, with the money going to his recent widow. Usually the belong to the same ham radio club, or a radio collectors club.

And one of them was something with a phone jack, just a skeleton of one, a U-shaped heavy wire with 4 spring contacts, that was totally broken off but I didn't know enough to notice it was missing. And just as I was typing my previous post it occurred to me that I could solder on a wire with a jack attached. Now if I can only remember what that thing was and where I put it. It was small, I remember that. (That's why the jack was so small and light.)

That's pretty bad.

This story and something below reminds me of the time I was trying to sell one of those metal shelves that attach via the trailer hitch** receiver, as wide as the car and 15" or so deep. So a woman calls and she talks a lot about how much she and her husband and kids will use it for camping, and she's going to have her husband call me for the final decision, and all of a sudden she says her husband is a minister and I could donate it to the church and deduct what I would have sold it for. And of course since I was in the 30 or 35% bracket, I would only get a third of what it was worth, and she hadn't said a thing before about using it for church activities. I said I wouldn't do that and the husband never called.

**One time I put 24 pieces of sod on it and then opened the door to get in, and the car bent and I couldn't shut the door. A Lebaron convertible. I should have climbed in over the door, but I put some of the sod on the back seat, which was probably better for the car. It sprang back to shape.

So why are you doing it?

I have a friend who comments on that, that some of the people she knows expect far too much for things they sell. We are sort of in the same circles but she's from Baltimore and knows 30x as many people as I do. And I guess she knows how much they charge for things. I remember, there used to be an email newsletter we both read and we'd talk about the prices, and they confirmed what she already had learned elsewhere.

I don't know. I save the receipts and then never itemize my deductions. The IRS used to be much more liberal, too liberal. They let Goodwill give people blank receipts so they fill in their own price, and people donating cars would value them much more than they were worth. Although a car I had towed away 13 years ago the tow truck driver looked at all the parts I removed (because my newer car was similar) and he said, "I can't give you a receipt.". I give the guy credit for the that. I just said Okay, but I really should have told him I was favorably impressed with his policy.

She seems down to earth a lot of the time, but you may be right about this topic.

You're right.

[Micky]

Good point. I didn't have one of those either.

[Micky]

When the computer speakers have one speaker that plugs into the sound card and another speaker that plugs into the first speaker, is there a convention about whether the first speaker is left or right?

[Travis Bickle]

"Stupid is as stupid does." - Forrest Gump

[thekmanrocks]

Micky wrote: "When the computer speakers have one speaker that plugs into the sound card and another speaker that plugs into the first speaker, is there a convention about whether the first speaker is left or right?

Some, but not all, computer pairs have "(L)eft" and "(R)ight" subtly marked somewhere on the back or bottom of the cabinets. Some might contain a "L" or "R" in the model#. All depends on the manufacturer.

I own the Finlandia Surround test CD, from which I have ripped the Channel ID track to every portable device I own. I can plug it into anything I'm testing - desktop PC speakers, a home theater, even an outdoor festival PA, and that track has never let me down.

[The Real Bev]

It's totally nonproductive, just an enjoyable -- for you -- exit line.

We used to go to the one at TRW in El Segundo (?) after they added computer stuff. Interesting place because of the old-fart hamstuff. Also the ACP swap meet on Edinger in the Irvine area. Haven't gone to either since 1999, and they probably don't exist any more.

There's a monthly swap meet behind a local hardwood store for guys selling antique tools for outrageous prices. Went once.

We put two 90cc motorcycles VERTICALLY in the back of our 1960 Ford station wagon. They were just tall enough that the frame compressed the seats so they stood up nicely with the window open and the tailgate down.

Because I never want to fix anything on a car ever again EVER. I love tools, I just don't want to use them. The kids' ancient Toyotas were bulletproof and had to be dragged kicking and screaming to the wrecking yard when they wanted newer cars. I'm willing to pay money to avoid aggravation now.

[Paul in Houston TX]

I don't know if there is a convention about the powered one being R or L. However, all the ones that I have ever worked with always had the powered one R and the plug in one L.

[nospam]

i have two pairs of advents, one has everything on the right and the other has everything on the left.

fortunately, they're labeled, so it doesn't actually matter.

the only thing that happens if they're reversed is it sounds wrong. no harm is done.

[Paul]

You can swap left and right channel with cabling. The following two, plug red cable into white hole, white cable into red hole, oughta do it. You would think someone could make a compact solution to do this, but I never seem to be able to locate such an animal.

2 x RCA Male, 1 x 3.5mm Stereo Female, Y-Cable 6-Inch

3.5mm Stereo Male to 2 x RCA Female

While sound cards typically have a special option for swapping Center/Sub, the practice does not extend to all output ports. When it really should, as the OS should be able to "patch panel" anything, given a chance.

They could also have put a DPDT switch on the speaker housing, to implement "reverse" channel assignment on the master speaker, but of course that's never going to happen. Too "inelegant".

Paul

[thekmanrocks]

nospam wrote: "the only thing that happens if they're reversed is it sounds wrong."

How does it sound wrong? It's not a matter of polarity, it's just a matter of left switched with right.

I guess left-switched-right could sound wrong if you are intimately familiar with the stereo positioning of elements on specific songs or albums. Something I'm actually amazed that so many fm stereo radio stations can't seem to get right!

I recall back in '87, when "Sgt. Pepper" debuted on CD over several NY City metro rock stations, two stations were playing "When I'm Sixty-Four" at about the same time. On one station, Paul's vocal was on the right, on the other, it was on the left! Did not all components in a station's studio or tower chain have the same convention for ID'ing Left & Right(white = left and red = right) - to ensure proper hooking up?

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

In message , Micky writes: []

[] If you mean ordinary FM radio, then probably yes: most small portable radios that are designed to work with earphones (including 'phones that have an FM radio built in) use the earphone lead as an aerial to help them pick up enough radio signal to work.

[Micky]

All of this is because of my friend. He wants a speaker to run the wire through the wall between his kitchen and his office, to stream a local radio station on his laptop that his radios won't receive.

I suggested wireless. He wasn't interested.

I pointed out speakers come in pairs but he wasn't interested.

So earlier, on one of these 3 groups I asked about software to convert stereo sound to monaural, and I've been trying out various software, just in case he shows signs of discontent. But it's been hard to test the stereo/monaural of the software when one of my speakers didn't work!!

As it happens, with my own speakers, the non-powered one is broken and I've been trying to fix it. I've known about using a battery -- I figured it out myself 40 years ago -- but I forgot. Since the light was on on the non--powered one, I opened it up and besides a couple wires all it had was a speaker and a 1000uF cap. The speaker measured 4 ohms, so I replaced the cap. Didn't help!! But finally I used a battery, and it makes a distinct noise when even a mostly dead

9v battery is connected the first time. After that, it doesn't make any noise until I remove the battery and short the plug. Then it makes the same noise, well, probably the opposite noise. So it's probably good.

In a storage box buried somewhere in my house I have an RCA jack to

3.5mm plug adapter, and when I find that, I'll try the speaker off the cell phone.

But I guess it's the powered speaker that has a problem with the second channel. It's not the sound card because I replaced both speakers and then both worked.

[Micky]

Me neither.

Yeah, these ought to do it. (Good idea. I may want to do this myself some day. )

My friend hasn't complained yet. He doesn't even have the speaker yet, and he probably won't complain.

I have seen wireless speakers that give a choice of L, Mono, and R. This is good for me, because I buy a pair of speakers and put one in one room and one in another. I listen to a lot of talk radio where stereio doesn't matter, and a lot of

, which I get with RadioMaximus, free software that doesn't rely on the webbrowser to play any of 100 stations (plus you can put in your own, if you know a good link. Though not every link I think should work works.).

181FM is oldies radio, and much of that stuff was recorded in mono also, though some was sort of converted to stereo.

Anyhow, in the last 180 hours, I've noticed 1 or maybe 2 songs where I couldn't hear the singer, and I assume that's because he was on the other channel.

Otherwise having only one channel has been fine.

My friend listens mostly to classical and of course the violins should be on the left, etc. So maybe if he only has the right channel, he won't hear the violins much. So that's why I wanted to know which channel he was likely to have. I'll feel him out to see if he's satisfied and if he's not I'll tell him about the software, once I've evaluated all of them.

I'm playing the speaker I'm going to give him right now, but I don't know how to tell if it's left or right.

....Am I stupid? It occurred to me I have dl'd the manual for the next size bigger from the same company, and I looked at it, and it had a photograph of the back of the powered speaker with a wire marked "To the left speaker". So I looked on the back of the speaker I'm using and it said the same thing! I still learned something from your answers. ;-)

[Micky]

Very nice!

I can see that. If I live long enough, there will be a time when I can't fix my car, or my house, maybe can't even mow my lawn. Hoping to postpone that.