lorin schultz
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Apple refreshes MacBook Pro with six-core processors, 32GB of RAM
I was in another camp. I thought 16GB would be fine. For most of what I do, I was right. Unfortunately, for the most important thing I do, the thing that was the reason for buying the machine in the first place, the thing that pays the bills, I was wrong. Since I linked my sound effects library to Pro Tools it stops every few minutes to complain that I don't have enough RAM. It's really annoying and counter-productive.melgross said:
[...] Maybe 5% of people “need” 32GB RAM. Another 15%, or so “think” they need it, and the rest don’t.
I'm thrilled to now have the option to increase RAM capacity!
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The Touch Bar on the MacBook Pro is well implemented, but serves no useful purpose
Take a look at these screens and figure out how a Touch Bar or trackpad could be implemented in a way that makes them a better solution than a touch screen?
Note that all of them include controls that are not well suited to touch. For those, we use the keyboard or trackpad.
The primary functions are MUCH more easily accomplished with touch. Some can ONLY be accomplished with touch.
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The Touch Bar on the MacBook Pro is well implemented, but serves no useful purpose
They absolutely ARE separate. One is a touch sensitive rectangular screen, the other is a physical switch with a fingerprint reader. They're not even physically attached to each other. Where the two controls are physically situated and what they look like is irrelevant.darkpaw said:
The MBP with a Touch Bar comes with Touch ID. They are not currently separate, so it's absolutely fine for me to claim it's part of it. It's right next to it and has the same dimensions. It's designed to look like a part of it. The Touch Bar points to it when you need to use Touch ID.
You said you like the Touch Bar because you like Touch ID. I'm saying the two have nothing to do with each other, and you could have Touch ID without needing the Touch Bar. You could punch holes in the Touch Bar with an ice pick and still have all the advantages of Touch ID because it's a separate control.
The utility of the Touch Bar is not tied to the existence of Touch ID. Either may exist without the other. -
How to make stereo HomePods louder when paired with Apple TV 4K
The *measured* difference is probably exactly the same between your receiver and the HomePod. The catch is that human ears don't behave like measurement mics. Our hearing is not linear. Our sensitivity and acuity drop off markedly as loudness goes down.zroger73 said:
You make a good point, BUT... The difference in volume between music and movies played through my receiver at 50% volume is MUCH less than the difference in volume between music and movies played through my HomePod at 50% volume. (For the record, I have all compression and processing turned OFF on my receiver.)unne said:There’s a simple explanation for all this: Music audiofiles like the ones streamed from Apple Music and Spotify or downloaded from iTunes (or ripped from a CD for people who still buy those) are generally mastered at very loud volume levels (google volume wars) while movies are not. So the same song as part of the movie soundtrack will have much less volume since it has to have a level that fit with the rest of the movie. Movie soundtracks are mixed with much more dynamic range and so the playback system needs much more headroom.
HP is optimized for audio playback and they would need to change the gainstaging significantly to deal with soundtracks properly.
Perhaps this would be easily done in software, perhaps not. Regardless, a movie playback audio mode would have to be restricted to movie playback, or regular music would be able to totally overload and distort the HP.
Apple generally want to keep things simple for consumers, ie not allowing them to push way too loud volume to the speaker, so they would have to figure out a good way to know what type of material is being played back. I imagine that would be possible through ATV since the player would be aware of the source but not from other sources.
Its highly unlikely Apple would choose the easy way out and simply allow much higher gain. That’s what Google, Samescum etc would have done. They will take their time to figure it out or choose not to do it at all since HP is supposed to be a music device and not home theatre speakers.
My guess is that 50% volume on your receiver is actually louder than 50% volume on your HomePod. That puts both music and movies in a range where your ears adjust well to the difference. The difference seems more pronounced with the HomePod because the overall level is actually lower, putting the movie sound into a range at which your hearing is less sensitive. That makes the perceived difference greater.
The way to test the theory is to play pink noise through both the HomePod and your receiver and adjust the volume on each until they show the same level on a sound pressure level meter. Compared that way I'd bet a week's pay that the difference will seem more similar. There may still be some apparent difference due to differences in the frequency spectrum each system reproduces, but it'll be a lot closer. -
How to make stereo HomePods louder when paired with Apple TV 4K
@unne is right. The difference in volume between music and movies is down to the fact that music files actually ARE "louder."
Think about a file having a certain amount space for audio. Let's say a file can hold a 100 units of sound. If you go over 100 units, the file explodes and ruins the sound.
A typical pop CD or iTunes track stays at pretty close to the same loudness from beginning to end. There are variations, but they're not that big. The difference between the quietest part and the loudest part is what we call dynamic range. Pop music doesn't have much dynamic range. Let's say the difference from the quietest part to the loudest is 10 units. That means the mastering engineer can set the baseline volume at 90 units. That leaves room for the 10 units of volume variation without going over the 100 unit maximum.
A movie has MUCH more variation in loudness than a pop song. An gun shot may be much, much louder than a line of dialog. It may only be that loud for a moment, but since we can never, ever go over the 100 unit maximum the file can hold, we have to turn down the overall volume to make room for that gun shot to play at or below 100. That means the dialog winds up being a whole helluvalot quieter. That's what we mean when we say a movie has more dynamic range than most music (not including classical, which may have as much dynamic range as a movie or even more).
Most music is mixed to be as close to the maximum volume as possible. You don't have to turn it up very much to achieve a comfortable listening level. Movies and TV shows are mixed to a standard that puts the average sound level about 20-24 dB below the maximum, which with human hearing translates to about a quarter of the maximum volume. The solution is to use more powerful amplifiers and turn it up. Doing so will mean that loud parts, like robot battles, may break your windows, cause the dog to pee on your pillow, and bring villagers with torches and pitchforks to your door, but that's the price you pay for being able to hear what the actors are saying.
The HomePod just doesn't have enough juice for stuff with really wide dynamic range. The robot battles will be at a comfortable volume, but the quiet parts will be too low.
The solution? Don't use HomePods for home theatre. They're not the right tool for the job.
