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By admin, December 2, 2011 2:53 pm

聽了一年多JVC的EX-A15﹐其專利Wood Cone喇叭的聲音很不錯﹐尤其播放人聲和管絃樂的時候﹐但總覺得始終低重音差了些﹐所以聽交響樂的時候就略嫌不足了。

Sub-Woofer這個設備完全是跟金錢成正比的﹐當然想買KEF﹐B&W甚至JBL的產品。但是要麼就是尺寸太大﹐要麼就是價錢太嚇人﹗難道真的要用兩三倍于JVC EX-A15的價錢去買台高端的Sub-Woofer來聽2.1聲道嗎﹖如果真的這麼做﹐那根本就是本末倒置﹐鬧大笑話了﹗

最近幾天出去轉了一圈﹐走遍大小影音舖﹐終于找到了個尺寸大小合適我的客廳﹐性價比又十分之高的8寸小Sub-Woofer﹐而且還有華麗的黑色鋼琴表面Coating。加上商家比較誠實有禮﹐還送了條不太差的Prolink Woofer線給我﹐最主要他分析得有道理﹐尤其是提出了上面的看法。

這是台來自加拿大Marquis MQ88﹐其實懷疑它根本就是本地薑﹐因為Marquis總部就是華人聚集的多倫多Richmond Hill。

最後這次尋找和購買的過程還經歷了各種冷嘲熱諷和受儘白眼﹐開始討厭和鄙視那些自以為是的PRO AV 銷售員了﹐很多都完全不是做生意的材料﹐老以為人家買低端的產品就是沒銀子﹐簡直就是TMD井底之蛙﹗

怎麼最近老花錢升級這樣那樣的﹐難道Xmas is around﹖哈哈。。。

Update Dec 3, 2011

無意間在論壇看到一篇很有意思的對答﹕

音樂真的不是單單講解釋力,高低伸延越高,就是越好的…要知道人類聽覺最敏感是中頻,大約從300Hz – 1000Hz…所以當有某牌子/器材在這方面較為出息,會較容易被人所接受…音響世界裏即使用上十萬,幾十萬甚至上百萬元級數器材,其實你一様都需要取捨!

不要過份沉迷於硬件方面,多花些時間去好好享受自己的音樂吧!

如果注意力過份投放於個別硬件上…的而且確會出現你所講的問題,一套較完整音響器材包含多個環節,聆聽環境(當中包含大量聲學…可能同時間既要吸音亦要擴散),其他器材配合,電源,線材調較,防振等等千變萬化…

小弟年少時已熱愛音樂,但由於家庭環境,能夠有錢買一張黑膠碟已非常開心(當時CD尚未普及),到開始踏足社會工作…一度成為一名音響發燒友,,所花金錢不下數十萬,當時互聯網尚未普及,網上評測,用家評語,二手買賣途徑少之又少…只能每月購買音響雜誌,經常到當時位於女人街旺角音響,西洋菜街新時代音響聽下,比較下…

香港人玩音響其實非常狂熱,全世界生產音響公司都非常重視香港巿場,原因真的有人會花上百萬只為玩好一對3/5A,有人於線材方面已花好幾十萬,一旦有新產品可以改善音質亦敢於嘗試,即使低燒,買幾粒RCA頭亦已過千…

從來音響市場都極少出現所謂性價比高產品,因為多數只有不同特性,不同味度(印象中只有多年前一部PS Audio Ultralink技驚四座! 如果有一定音響年資應該都會知道…),有別於電腦領域,因為你不能單純地以速度,價格去評估,你只能不停嘗試,不停組合…有人會覺麻煩,亦有人樂此不疲!

至於內地產品,實在有如天上繁星…自己小心選擇! 我自己未曾用過,未敢武斷…當中可能有不少優秀產品,但相信亦有唔少粗制濫造! 始終一般用家大多會從品牌,軟件支援,信心,甚至二手市場…等等因素去作出選擇…

回想當年, 也曾走過和師兄差不多的心路歷程…花費不少在各個硬件環節上, 為了追求一點點效果, 摩改補品不計其數。一有空就去西洋菜街…經常都聽住嗰幾隻天碟/試音碟…重複比較人聲甜唔甜, 空氣感好唔好, 打爛玻璃聲夠唔夠清脆, 1812嘅炮聲有冇失真…

兜兜轉轉, 而家用返電腦聽歌, 又自得其樂…

其實用什麼器材也好, 最終目的是聽音樂, 而不是聽效果, 所以應該用多啲時間, 聽多啲音樂, 建立自己嘅口味, 品味, 聽力同分析力, 然後跟據自己嘅需要同能力, 去選擇合適嘅器材…

喺追尋嘅過程中, 要客觀冷靜, 小心分析, 不要人云亦云, 胡亂浪費金錢…

當你完全進入發燒階段,莫講話聽到更好既音響器材和音質,就連你腦海閃過一些假設,一些想法…你都會欲罷不能!

玩音響其實大致可分為兩類:

1) 懂得利用適當器材去享受,去欣賞自己喜歡的音樂,適當地花錢,在有限聆聽環境裏利用器材間之匹配,發揮最大潛質,能夠取捨,只求一個平衡點…

2) 經常利用音樂,試音天碟去測試自己器材(情況跟樓上位師兄所講一樣),不計較價錢,會經常換機,換線材,頻頻較音…貪新棄舊,欲罷不能,永無止境!

如果你發覺有第2類徵狀,証明你中毒已深……只能嘗試抽身……

我都係過來人, 又點會唔明白箇中嘅感受呢!!

不過正正因為面對嘅誘惑越大, 就越需要保持冷靜, 越要小心考慮自己嘅真正需要… 因為每個人嘅口味同需要係可以完全唔同嘅 : —-例如有人要買Amp, 你介紹一部出名人聲靚嘅Class A比佢, 點知原來佢係用黎聽Rock嘅

我亦唔係反對摩機改機和使用補品, 但係要適可而止, 同因材施教, 避免浪費金錢, 交左學費而又學唔到野 : —-例如聽到有人話某部機點摩點改, 就會脫胎換骨, 於是就買部新機, 交比人照板煮碗, 結果係有改善, 但係問返機主, 到底邊方面改善左, 佢完全唔識答, 因為部機本身嘅聲底, 每樣補品嘅特性同效果, 佢完全唔知… 呢種食快餐式嘅玩法完全忽略左過程之中嘅領略同趣味, 錢花費了但係又一無所知…可能呢部機嘅聲底跟本就唔啱佢嘅口味, 另外一部可能更加合適…又或者只要摩其中一樣野, 已經可以滿足機主嘅需要…

所以要清楚知道自己嘅真正需要, 然後用最小嘅支出, 得到最大嘅滿足…

要知道”滿足感”係相對而唔係絕對嘅, 例如有人用一千蚊買對電腦喇叭, 小摩後比得上一部六千蚊嘅迷你HiFi, 佢覺得非常滿足, 開開心心去聽音樂…

相反, 有人用兩萬蚊買左套HiFi, 但覺得比部六千蚊嘅迷你HiFi只係好少少, 非常煩惱, 終日攪來攪去, 左試右試, 冇乜時間去聽音樂…

你會係邊一個呢??

事實如此…早年多前有朋友要求我幫忙一同選購一套2聲道音響器材,其中有一部大約10K左右英國制5,60W合拼(原子粒),如果你只以外觀加上內裏平凡用料,非常簡單線路…你難以想像/解釋為何有如此美妙聲音,當時配搭一對ProAc 1SC開聲….

電子零件選配雖然是當中重要環節…但其實更重要是線路設計,生產者/設計人員對音樂認知,理念…如果單純選用高級,名貴零件,就能有好聲音…相信全世界生產音響公司都能夠生產出Hi End級數器材!

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By admin, December 2, 2011 2:15 pm

I will soon purchase a SSD for testing ESX performance on Poweredge R710 (H700 512MB raid card), After researching a bit on Storage Review and AnandTech, I narrowed down to two most reliable branded SSD.

Crucial M4 128GB 2.5″ SATA 3 6Gb/s SSD (FIRMWARE 009)

Intel 320 Series 120GB (Retail Box w/External Case) G3 Postville SSDSA2CW120G3B5 2.5″ SATA SSD

1. Intel has two more years of warranty (5 years) vs Crucial has 3 years.

Locally Intel is warranted by聯強 (Synnex), Crucial is warranted by建達 (Xander), I had good experience with both.

2. Intel Retail box comes with USB 3 connector and I really like this! As after the testing, I can still use it with my desktop USB 3.0.

3. Crucial M4 is much faster in terms of sequential read/write, its random IOPS is extremely impressive according various benchmarking and random IOPS is what SSD all about for VM.

http://www.anandtech.com/print/4256
http://www.anandtech.com/print/4421

4. Intel SSD offers a free nice GUI  “Intel SSD Toolbox”, it comes with nicer feature too, like update firmware and erase SSD to have faster speed like new, M4 got nothing to compare in this area.

5. Intel has Power Lost Data Protection, M4 got nothing. However, Intel 320 had a dark period three month ago that losing power of SSD will render the SSD to 8MB bug, may be it’s just a gimmick thing from Intel like always.

6. Intel 320 is still SATA2, 3Gbps, Curcial M4 is SATA3, 6Gbps

7. Both Intel 320 and Crucial M4 uses 25nm NAND.

8. Also found out the latest Crucial M4 is the SAME as Crucial C400 (just a different name) and it’s the newer generation of its famous Crucial C300.

I don’t like OCZ, as I read so many negative reports about their firmware problem previously.

Seemed Crucial M4 120GB SSD is the right one for me, it’s 25nm, SATA3, 6Gbps, 2-3 times faster than Intel 320 120GB SSD in terms of  random 4k IOPS. 

I have decided go for M4 and I can live up by giving up Intel SSD Toolbox feature and USB 3.0 cable, well the compatible SSD USB 3.0 should be very easy to find for M4.

All I want is the huge IOPS, seemed a Single Crucial M4 advertised as 40,000 IOPS for 4k is equivalent to 10 Equallogic PS6000XV boxes with 16 x 15KRPM disks each. That’s 160 15K RPM spindle compares to 1 SSD, absolutely ridiculous! Not to mention the cost is 1,000 times LESS, OMG!!! I CAN’T BELIEVE MY CALCULATION!!!.

That’s in theory, I’ve read the actualy M4 IOPS for 4k reallife 60%random65%read is about 8,000, so equivalent to 2 PS6000XV with 16 x 15KRPM disks each, still that’s amazing! 1 SSD kills 32 enterprise 15K RPM SAS in terms of IOPS.  In additional, the actualy sustained IOPS over a long period still proves 15K RPM SAS is better than SSD, the extremely high number can only sustain for the first few minutes and then it dropped rapidly to 1/10 over a period of serveral hours, so this means if you have a heavy OLTP or transactional based application runs 24/7, 15K RPM SAS is still the only choice.

So who cares about that extra 2 more years of warranties from Intel, if I am looking for reliability later, all I need is to purchase another unit and make it a RAID1.

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By admin, December 2, 2011 8:57 am

During the Equallogic Seminar yesterday, Dell’s storage consultant introduced DPACK (Dell Performance Analysis Collection Kit) to us.

Basically it’s a Monitoring and Reporting utility that will run over time (4-24 hours) to collect data (such as CPU, Memory, IOPS, network traffic etc) from your physical or virtual servers.

The best thing is the footprint of this program is very small, about 1.5MB, still remember that crappy Dell Management Console 2.0?

The best part is you don’t need to install it at all, simply run it, key in the server or vcenter parameters, select a time range, run it, wait for a few hours, that’s it.

The output is a single file with extension .iokit, then you are supposed to use the online generator to get the DPACK result in PDF. (http://go.us.dell.com/DPACK). However, the site is currently not working as it’s still not ready according to DPACK team.

So what to do? DPACK team is kind enough, I sent the result.iokit to them and Dell helped me to generate the PDF manually.

The Overview of DPACK and Download DPACK.

Finally, I would say it’s a lite version of Veeam Monitor and Veeam Monitor does a lot more and it’s also free.