Howard Gibson via Talk said on Sun, 29 Jun 2025 10:30:58 -0400
On Sun, 29 Jun 2025 03:39:02 -0400
Steve,
I am doing something here that has to be fairly common. I bought a cheap desktop, and I installed it next to my TV and stereo. I watch YouTube and Netflix. I connected the computer's HDMI to my TV. I connected my TV audio to my receiver.
Via what kind of interface do you connect TV audio to your receiver?
I wish my TV were a bit bigger, but otherise, I have excellent sound.
I have a now uncommon problem. I have about 600 LPs sitting around, and I am digitizing them for my car. That means plugging the auxiliary sound output to my computer. For some reason, my headphone jack does terrible sound. I have had the stereo for 45 years, and I have never owned headphones. Corrosion?
You're talking to exactly the right guy on the topics of digitizing vinyl and interface corrosion. Let's take the corrosion first: Howard, the 1/8 inch headphone jack and plug are one of the stupidest electronic connection standards ever created (but less stupid than that fiber red light thing). 1/8 headphone jack/plug are too small to keep constant contact as things wiggle, and the slightest corrosion makes them static or just plain not work. So the question becomes, what to do about corrosion, not only on this type of electronic interface, but more on this type than, let's say, RCA jack/plug. I did a pretty complete study of this corrosion problem back in the early 00's. Short version: Put some electronics lubricant on the plug, plug and unplug it 20 times to knock off corrosion. Repeat a couple more times. The lubricant must be both a cleaner and a lubricant, because this type of corrosion (it's called fretting corrosion) is the product of friction and vibration. You need to reduce that friction, and that's what a lubricant does. But the lubricant needs to be safe for plastics and electronics. Here's some stuff I think is pretty good and reasonably priced, but it's getting harder and harder to find: https://covalin.com/products/lube-job-electronics-lubricant-cleans-and-lubri... I've also used transmission fluid, Breakfree CLP, and even WD-40, but this was an off-label usage and iffy. For more info, read the following: https://troubleshooters.com/tpromag/200310/200310.htm DIGITIZING VINYL A real challenge if done right. The more bits your A to D converter, the less you need to constantly ride herd over your input volume control and your VU meters, and still use normalizing software so everything has the same general volume. Here are the slides of a presentation I made to Linux Enthusiasts and Professionals in 2010: https://troubleshooters.com/linux/presentations/leap_digitizing/leap_digitiz... HTH, SteveT Steve Litt http://444domains.com