Our Onkyo was giving problems, some channels are breaking up. To have some channels back, we needed to crank up the volume for a few seconds.
So I thought .. preamps!
So I opened the Onkyo and started investigating.
We used it as a 5.1 surround sound system. So I’ve got PreAmp channels to spare, so lets switch the boards!
Well, that didn’t work. Reading forums, it COULD be the sound chip, on the main board. Because of the heat over the years, it could losing contact with the main PCB.
So I put my heatgun to work, but to no avail. One of the square chips on the right in first photo.
The AMP being 15+ years old, we decided to get a new one. Researching best amp’s in 2026 … in our price range.
Onkyo TX-RZ50
Amazing …
Using the DIRAC sound setup, perfect again.
Using the same IP, our Home Assistant setup mostly worked without changing much.
UPDATE 20260729 : There are EXIF filters in workflows now!
Put your media in the correct directories using workflows.
Below the regex for a Samsung phone
Image
^\d{8}_\d{6}\.(jpg|jpeg|heic|png)$
Video
^\d{8}_\d{6}\.(mp4|mov|mkv)$
WhatsApp Image
^IMG-\d{8}-WA\d+\.(jpg|jpeg|png|webp)$
WhatsApp Video
^VID-\d{8}-WA\d+\.(mp4|3gp)$
Signal Image
^(signal-|Signal-).*\.(jpg|jpeg|png|webp)$
Signal Video
^(signal-|Signal-).*\.(mp4|mov)$
While browsing the Internet, something popped up. An image of a spaceship, and I instantly remembered where I’ve seen it before.
When I was a teenager I got hold of a book from Chris Foss, it was a large book with only around 8-10 pages.
But I loved the images. (I shamefully admit, that I traded the book for something else a long time ago) 46x29cm printed in 1977 (See more at end of post)
At that time I had several artists that really peaked my interest in graphical arts. I still love to paint and draw.
A Swiss artist best known for his airbrushed images that blended human physiques with machines, an art style known as “biomechanical”. He designed for several movies : Alien, Species and Dune
I listen to all kinds of music, metal till classical.
Mostly Celtic/Irish/Scottish/Bagpipes. But i’ve listen to below also.
In the summer I often listen to Cuban/Latin music when outside.
Most of what I listen too, has to have some technical or difficult hints to get me interested.
Master of puppets metallica
“La campanella” is a revision of an earlier version from 1838, the Études d’exécution transcendante d’après Paganini, S. 140. Its melody comes from the final movement of Niccolò Paganini‘s Violin Concerto No. 2 in B minor (yeah as mentioned in another post, I am a Paganini fan)
Very nice technique on Guzheng using two slides, key change and vibrato.
Some classic composers ( When I’m in the mood, these will be played )
First time listening to classical music, was in 6 grade (8 nowadays). The Four Seasons by Vivaldi, another great composer