Artemis

Very cool collection!

My dad is recovering from cancer and it was a hard fight, I sincerely wish the best for Stallman.

My last DAP is a Sony A35 with a firmware mod and with the unlocked amplifier flag but I rarely use it these days. Make no mistake that thing sounds wonderful and I actually use it on my desktop rig everytime I want to play meme high resolution songs. The modded firmware also lets me use it as a Bluetooth receiver/DAC, but I rarely do it. With that out of the way, I think a DAP is only worth it if you have IEMs or headphones that can take the full potential from it. Imo usually stuff way above 300USD. If you listen to music from streaming services (lossless or not) just take the money you would spend on the DAP and buy a better smartphone that can be used with a simple passive USB C to 3.5mm adaptor, or if you enjoy dongles get a simple DAC. So my answer is not worth it unless you have really great IEMs. (Edit for grammar)

Did you check with an audiologist afterwards? If you are lucky that problem might get better over time. There's many types of hearing damage and not all is permanent. Best regards.

When I was a teen I would literally spend all my day with earphones on, with music actually very loud (but not dangerously loud) guess I was lucky.

I worked in construction for a long time, and everytime I had to work with power tools I would just use some diy earplugs made with toilet paper, while it might sound hilarious it actually saved my hearing in the long run, for the ones who might ask why I didn't use correct earplugs. Well, in dusty environments it's actually better to use something cheap like paper mostly because you will be "burning" a ton of earplugs during the day and let's face it I wasn't in great shape regarding my finances, so every penny counted. Later on I would change jobs and actually buy decent earplugs so I could work nearby gas turbines.

Anyway long story short, use proper hearing protection because depending on the exposure you might actually lose your hearing without noticing it. As for tinnitus, besides the usual damage done by not using hearing protection, it can be genetic. My dad had tinnitus due to his exposure to power tools, but I know people who have it since birth.

Some last thoughts, I think younglings should be educated regarding hearing protection. I mean youth will be youth, but I'm pretty sure they don't want to lose their hearing in the long run.

Best regards.

Much appreciated! I'm sure those details might help someone in the future.

Great buy and upgrades, btw what is the model number of the RAM sticks? It's actually useful if someone needs to buy compatible RAM.

Oh my! I'm sure most of us didn't know this isn't Reddit...Thank you for the impressive, useful and most informative comment which imagine that, is actually very Reddit like. 🤭

Btw regarding the design, closest term I know on a similar design is the "racing stripe".

This looks like custom made, I would like to see details on the corners of the Thinkpad lid, mostly curious. Lovely design imo.

The HDD section is just great to watch.

You all might not believe me but last year I knew someone who ran XP on his daily machine. It obviously didn't work correctly with a bunch of things. I advised him to at least use a light Linux distro to access the internet, he didn't care , and I didn't push the subject anymore.

He was a curious and very nice lad, pretty much "stuck" in the early www days (including his online minset), totally into retro anime but current online security wasn't in his agenda. 😖

Nothing against retro OSes, I have a old laptop with XP installed just for legacy stuff, but I don't connect that thing directly to the internet.