Interesting perspective and agree a good example of the Innovator's Dilemma. The IBM history is rife with innovation that is similar to much of what the tech industry is today, but what strikes me as the most important was the magic that happened in the mid-40s of IBM's Poughkeepsie Lab. So much happened in this period that were major catalysts but two struck me as the most important: the end of the war and leveraging code-breaking innovation (especially from those working in electronics) and a high-rank champion (Jr.) willing to embrace innovation (electronics). This all seemed to converge in the Poughkeepsie lab in short time and the rest, well, is history. There are same amazing books (https://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/20...), declassified documents relating to the early IBM employees post-wartime, and so much more that really tell amazing and still relevant stories.
I find the more I learn of the early IBM transition to electronics, the more I see direct parallels to the modern startup world. It was seemingly a startup within a massive company with a monetary "umbrella" to help foster innovation, although likely not the first. Another motivator for the lab's success was how they had to demonstrate value with electronics well beyond a normal burden of proof (overcoming the Innovator's Dilemma). There's still a lot more to learn from their stories.
I'm speculating here, but maybe there are better controls in Big Sur to easily mute input devices compared to prior versions of OSX. I've attempted building a global microphone mute app (for external microphones) on Catalina but never found an easy way to fully mute all mics such as external USB mics or a those connected through a USB ADC. The best I could get on Catalina was to lower the inputVolume to 0 which does not truly mute the microphone. I never found an app that "solved" this problem for all microphones on OSX versions prior to Big Sur.
It's also worth note that manufacturers like JLCPCB have SMT Assembly Service which might be able to deliver fully assembled boards. I haven't looked at the gerber+BOM to verify.
Designed and open-sourced a custom CNC Aluminum Unibody case for an existing open-source split-fixed mechanical keyboard PCB called the Arisu, similar to the TGR Alice.
Prototypes arrived in record time and definitely enjoying them as I type this.
This also brings back fond memories working for a larger resort and my team building an integrated lift status system. Simple API on top of a relational database, easy to use web application for lift operations to update lift status in realtime, integrated PDF generation to print reports for numerous front-desks (think all the main lodges, hotels, and businesses in town to receive and print). The big win was a large number of large plasma screens running out lift status flash application in various lodges with long runs of HDMI to proxy servers all getting pub/sub realtime status updates. The Flash application had continuous polling via AMF to our proxy servers with a cache layer, etc. and it was pretty well received by guests. We also had the same API support all mobile apps at the time. The big customer-loving feature was getting alerts when a lift was about to open on a bluebird powder day and get that to them in near realtime often before many of the "lifties" knew.
I've experienced a significant improvement listening to Tidal Masters tracks over Spotify. A very enjoyable improvement. Even non-Masters tracks on Tidal sound significantly better. Currently, almost all tracks on Tidal at the HiFi tier are 1411kbps (non-Masters) and still the Spotify desktop app caps out at 320kbps.
Spotify has been streaming 1411kbps for most tracks through their browser player in Chrome and only then I notice little difference between Spotify and Tidal HiFi. The Masters tracks still are noticeably better than the Spotify on Chrome app playing at 1411kbps.
There is an upside to streaming from the Spotify Chrome app for 1411kbps which doesn't incur extra cost but this is all functionality Spotify is not advertising. The downsides are this only currently works in the US (IIRC) and navigation in the Chrome Browser app is very limited compared to the desktop app.
I'm very surprised you were not able to notice a difference with such a great stack as the HD800s + Mojo and suspect it was something else in the chain limiting the potential. I suggest giving even just Spotify direct in the Chrome webapp a try again if not Tidal and ensure you have the chain configured properly.
>Currently, almost all tracks on Tidal at the HiFi tier are 1411kbps (non-Masters) and still the Spotify desktop app caps out at 320kbps.
You cannot compare bitrates directly like that.
1411.2kbps is uncompressed CD audio, while the 320kbps is a highly developed and advanced psychoacoustic format that aims to be completely equivalent to CD quality to the human ear.
So it's not "getting less than 1/4th of the music", like some audiophiles claim, based on faulty or non-existent understanding of audio codecs.
Also, you are absolutely not getting 1411.2kbps from the Spotify Chrome app. That is simply a display issue, or the actual decoding happening at another step in the chain, and it's either giving you Ogg Vorbis at 320kbps or AAC at 256kbps.
I find the more I learn of the early IBM transition to electronics, the more I see direct parallels to the modern startup world. It was seemingly a startup within a massive company with a monetary "umbrella" to help foster innovation, although likely not the first. Another motivator for the lab's success was how they had to demonstrate value with electronics well beyond a normal burden of proof (overcoming the Innovator's Dilemma). There's still a lot more to learn from their stories.