Top all-time · #351
Ken Rockwell
Personal blog · kenrockwell.comhardwaredesign
Ken Rockwell's personal blog at kenrockwell.com covers hardware and design. Since 2007, 150 different Hacker News readers have linked it 186 times, most often “Apple Lightning Adapter Audio Quality (2017)”. No feed was found, so read it on the site itself.
Rarely recommended · 3 of 40 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
Linked for measurements of Apple's Lightning adapter and iPhone DAC, camera lens and compatibility guides, and the two-hour rule essay on business.
- Recommended for · 3 comments
- 'Superb, hilarious' two-hour rule post; camera pick 'He was right!'; seeing-and-composing point 'really interesting'.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 40 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- Apple Lightning Adapter Audio Quality (2017)17 people · 18 mentions · first linked 2018-12-09
- The megapixel myth5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2007-12-28
- Apple Lightning Adapter Audio Quality4 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2017-09-12
- Film: The Real Raw (2009)4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2010-09-03
- Film Resolution3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2022-11-23
- How to Afford Anything3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2010-06-08
- IPhone 5 Audio Quality Measurements3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2013-03-22
- The Two-Hour Rule3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2009-08-23
- /tech/film-resolution.htm3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2009-03-17
- /tech/recommended-cameras.htm2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2022-08-10
What Hacker News says?
Just for reference, here are a couple breakdowns of how impressive the iPhone headphone jack is. It is impressive how good it is and how tiny it is. https://www.ifixit.com/News/8448/apple-audio-adapter-teardow... https://www.kenrockwell.com/apple/lightning-adapter-audio-qu...
Comment linking /apple/lightning-adapter-audio-quality.htm
on “O.mg Cable”Submitted How to Afford Anything as a story · 140 points
HN discussionThis person finds the DAC to be extremely high quality: https://www.kenrockwell.com/apple/lightning-adapter-audio-qu... . Perhaps it’s a placebo. Perhaps the performance has degraded. Or perhaps his measurements are wrong.
Comment linking /apple/lightning-adapter-audio-quality.htm
on “New iPhone SE”Submitted The Two-Hour Rule as a story · 102 points
HN discussionFirst of all, you haven't heard these headphones and neither have I. Second, I know a thing or two about audio. I saw an earlier comment mentioning that these use "plastic" drivers, as a sign that they are cheap. Generally speaking, the greatest speakers in the world use plastic or paper material for the cones in their drivers. (Google SEAS or Scan-Speak drivers for some examples). A minority of speakers use aluminu…
Comment linking /audio/index.htm
on “AirPods Max”Submitted The megapixel myth as a story · 47 points
HN discussionAs a counter point, Apple is bringing computation closer to ears. The Sennheiser 650 is an analog cabled experience and will accurately reflect the upstream digital to analog conversion, typically made without regard to the destination device. If Apple can use on-ear computation to make a plastic driver cone sound like a more expensive material, why would you care about the materials used? https://www.kenrockwell.co…
Comment linking /audio/sennheiser/hd-650.htm
on “AirPods Max”Submitted Video on DSLRs: why I don't care as a story · 42 points
HN discussionNope. According to this guy, it's actually slightly better . http://www.kenrockwell.com/apple/lightning-adapter-audio-qua...
Comment linking /apple/lightning-adapter-audio-quality.htm
on “iPhone X”Submitted JPG vs. RAW: Get it right the first time (2009) as a story · 34 points
HN discussionApple's DACs are excellent. Here's an analysis of the Lightning adapter, for instance: http://www.kenrockwell.com/apple/lightning-adapter-audio-qua...
Comment linking /apple/lightning-adapter-audio-quality.htm
on “iPhone X”Submitted A digital raw file is not an original image as a story · 16 points
HN discussionIt's an interesting mathematical result, but note that gives a solution for the problem of the spherical aberration, but real lens have also chromatic aberration. I.E. the speed of light for each color inside the glass is slightly different, so the value n (refraction index) in the equation is different, so in the equation you get a different surface for each color. In the real lens you must pick one surface, so the…
Comment linking /tech/lenstech.htm
on “Goodbye Aberration: Physicist Solves 2,000-Year-Old Optical Problem”Submitted Film vs. Digital as a story · 11 points
HN discussionI think the best (worst?) copyright notice is the following from Ken Rockwell[0]: "As this page is copyrighted and formally registered, it is unlawful to make copies, especially in the form of printouts for personal use. If you wish to make a printout for personal use, you are granted one-time permission only if you PayPal me $5.00 per printout or part thereof. Thank you!" [0] https://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/fart.h…
Comment linking /tech/fart.htm
on “How to Write in Plain English”Submitted The Megapixel Myth as a story · 10 points
HN discussionHN tip of the month ;) When Canon released the EOS M as its first mirrorless camera, it hasn't gone down well in many reviews as it's a slow performer[0]. Now, this has actually been addressed in a later firmware upgrade, but at that point the damage had already been done. After that, Canon basically dumped this camera on the market at very low prices. Good thing for us is that this little camera can now be bought v…
Comment linking /canon/eos-m/m.htm
on “Magic Lantern”Submitted Apple Lightning Adapter Audio Quality (2017) as a story · 5 points
HN discussionhttp://www.kenrockwell.com/canon/images/80d/810_9029-top.jpg https://www.ephotozine.com/articles/canon-eos-1d-x-mark-ii-v... This might blow your mind, but professionally-oriented cameras all have dedicated buttons to toggle metering modes without looking away from the viewfinder.
Comment linking /canon/images/80d/810_9029-top.jpg
on “Magic Lantern”Submitted IPhone 5 Audio Quality Measurements as a story · 4 points
HN discussionI find it funny that people care about the equipment a photo is taken on. Those photos are taken by professional photographers with professional lighting setups and professional models. I subscribe to Ken Rockwell's belief that you don't need a fancy camera to take a good photo, you just need to be a good photographer [0]. I used to sell cameras in high school/college, and ALWAYS steered people away from DSLRs/high…
Comment linking /tech/150-vs-5000-dollar-camera.htm
on “Samsung used my DSLR photo to fake their phone’s “portrait mode””Submitted How to Win at eBay: How to Search as a story · 3 points
HN discussionThe Sony A7S Mk II can do an effective ISO close to 4096000. http://www.kenrockwell.com/sony/a7s-ii.htm EDIT: fixed the actual ISO.
Comment linking /sony/a7s-ii.htm
on “Color Night Vision (2016) [video]”Submitted How to Learn Photography as a story · 3 points
HN discussionThere's a couple of lens advancements I've seen recently that I found particularly interesting: Canon putting Fresnel elements in their lenses to reduce size/weight: https://kenrockwell.com/canon/lenses/400mm-f4-do-is-ii.htm Canon making an f/11 800mm super telephoto lens that can still autofocus thanks to the new mirrorless camera bodies: https://www.kenrockwell.com/canon/eos-r/lenses/800mm.htm I think we'll see a…
Comment linking /canon/eos-r/lenses/800mm.htm
on “Nikon Is ending 70 years of camera production in Japan”Submitted Your Camera Doesn't Matter (2013) as a story · 3 points
HN discussion> The bodies of modern DSLRs are jampacked with every kind of knob, control, button, dial, and dongle that you can possibly think of. ... But in practice, 95% of users aren't using 95% of these adjusters 95% of the time. Amen. I've been casually shooting with a Nikon D70 and now a D7000 for around 15 years now. Here's an illustrated guide to every single physical control on the D7000, which isn't even a high-end cam…
Comment linking /nikon/d7000/users-guide/controls.htm
on “Dumb Things Camera Companies are Still Doing”Submitted How to Use Ultra-Wide Lenses (2015) as a story · 3 points
HN discussionThe speedtest http://webkay.robinlinus.com/scripts/speedtest.js downloads a 5mb file from http://www.kenrockwell.com/contax/images/g2/examples/3112003... . You might want to change that to something on a big company CDN to avoid killing kenrockwell.com's server.
Comment linking /contax/images/g2/examples/31120037-5mb.jpg
on “Show HN: What every browser knows about you”Submitted How to afford anything as a story · 3 points
HN discussion
