Time Life Rock 'N' Roll Era 1959 2RNR-13 OPCD-2543 OOP
$5.00
About
I have a lot of interests, and I'm always looking for stuff to sell on eBay.
Even though I don't do very high volume, I treat eBay like it's my business, so I do my best for my customers, and strive for 100% positive Feedback.
Even though I don't do very high volume, I treat eBay like it's my business, so I do my best for my customers, and strive for 100% positive Feedback.
All feedback (2,688)
- worldofbooksusa (1168133)- Feedback left by buyer.More than a year agoVerified purchaseGood buyer, prompt payment, valued customer, highly recommended.
- marlen02 (326)- Feedback left by buyer.More than a year agoVerified purchaseGood buyer, prompt payment, valued customer, highly recommended.
- *****- Feedback left by buyer.More than a year agoVerified purchaseGood buyer, prompt payment, valued customer, highly recommended.
- rosalyn111357 (3646)- Feedback left by buyer.Past monthVerified purchaseEnjoy Your Tunes!
- khakushia (1109)- Feedback left by buyer.Past monthVerified purchaseThank you so much for your purchase!
- cp*group (28203)- Feedback left by buyer.Past monthVerified purchaseA++++ Thank you for your business.
Reviews (6)
May 06, 2023
Smart HDMI Switch that implements real CEC for auto switching.
First, a little explanation of HDMI switching and a thing called CEC (Consumer Electronics Control):
CEC has been a part of the HDMI specification for a while now, and a lot of video equipment implements it. Unfortunately, a lot of equipment doesn't implement it the same, or completely, and it doesn't even work on some products. However, when it does work, it's a great convenience, because it allows a device (such as a DVR, streamer, or disk player), when it's turned on, to send a signal up the HDMI cable to tell your TV to turn on and select that HDMI port. There are lots of other features such as being able to control a DVR with your TV's remote, but I have yet to see that work in my environment. Just the "Turn the TV on and select the device that was just powered up" part makes this switch worth the money if you can find it at a decent price.
You should do an Internet search on "HDMI CEC" to learn more, including what all the different vendors such as Samsung, Panasonic, and DuMont call it. (That last one was a joke. DuMont hasn't made TVs since the 1950s!)
You may be saying: "Lots of cheap HDMI switches claim to auto switch to the device that was just turned on", and you'd be correct. However, most of them don't know what CEC is, and they "cheat" by looking for a voltage to appear on the HDMI port of the device. (On a TV, that voltage would power your streaming stick, etc.) If you have a setup like mine, you would soon discover that many devices, such as your DIRECTV DVR, and your Roku device won't automatically switch when you turn them on. That's because in reality, they are always "on" (powered up) even when they're turned "off" (put in standby), which defeats the "cheat" those cheaper switches use.
Further, all you can do with those switches is maybe (on a few devices such as a BD player), switch to that port, but they won't turn your TV on or anything else like that.
So, with real CEC control, the way this switch operates, when you power on your device that supports a standard (ish) version of CEC, it sends a signal to this switch that it's "awake" now, plus some information on what it is. The switch wakes up (if it was off), and passes that information to your TV, which hopefully is smart enough to power up and select the HDMI port you plugged the switch into. Now, your TV is talking directly to your device through this switch, and can either control that device or complain to you that this feature is not supported, just as if your device was connected directly to the TV!
Here's a rundown of my system, so you can see some examples:
Old, cheap switch:
If I want to watch DIRECTV or Roku, I need my TV's remote to turn on the TV and select the HDMI input that my switch is connected to. I need the switch's remote to select the port my DVR or Roku are connected to, and I need the Roku or DVR's remotes to watch them.
If I want to watch my older Panasonic BD player, I can skip the switch's remote because the Panny will turn on the 5 Volts when it turns on and the switch will select it. I still need the other remotes.
This switch:
If I want to watch DIRECTV or Roku, I only need the remote for those devices. I'll power them on, and the switch will power on by itself, and then tell the TV to power on and select its HDMI port. All I have to do is control the device with its own remote!
If I want to watch my older Panasonic BD player, I need the switch's remote, the TV remote, and the BD player's remote because it does not "speak" proper CEC for the switch or TV, as far as I can figure out. Well, I rarely watch DVDs or BDs, so mostly this works for me. There are newer BD players out there that probably work better, and they're cheap here on eBay, as long as you can find one that doesn't update itself to a brick! (Don't get me started, Samsung!)
If you don't believe anything I'm saying here, you can (a) find the owners manual for this switch on line, where they describe how it works, and (b) learn about HDMI CEC, and the names each brand calls it, and how it works. Then you can find out how smart and cooperative your TV and devices are, and test them with this switch!
If you're looking at an HDMI switch, and they don't discuss CEC, then it doesn't have it. If they do mention CEC, it might just be a "pass through" where, without actually understanding the protocol, they just pass it to your TV when you select the device.
I don't think Monoprice makes this switch anymore, so hopefully there are others that work the way this one does!
Aug 05, 2022
A good low cost intro to Yamaha's MusicCast series receivers.
This is a very nice receiver from Yamaha's lower end of stereo receivers. This one is a relatively inexpensive way to introduce yourself to the Yamaha network receiver line, and for many people, it's all you need. It sounds quite good, but it's not the top of the line. It has all the connectivity one could probably think of, including Bluetooth and Internet.
As far as the audio chain, if you have basic speakers and want a basic do-everything receiver that sounds great, I can highly recommend this. It pairs quite well with the better speakers in the $500 to $600 range. However, if you're more of an audiophile and want better specs (mainly in THD and other numbers audiophiles consider important), I would recommend you upgrade to Yamaha's R-N602 or higher, which has the same basic features but a much better amplifier system with lower distortion and less Digital Signal Processing (DSP).
As for Internet connectivity, the WiFi is only 2.4GHz, and you may have performance issues, especially since that band is often crowded in most homes. I would highly recommend using a direct Ethernet connection (Receiver does have an RJ-11 jack on the back.) I haven't had any problems receiving Internet radio or playing music from my NAS. In my house, the 2.4G WiFi is not reliable for streaming.
For you vinyl fans out there, this receiver also has Phono inputs, so you don't need to provide your own preamp. So you can use any turntable that has direct cartridge output. (You can always use one of the Line inputs if your turntable has a preamp.)
The receiver can also receive services like Sirius XM, Deezer, and lots of services I don't subscribe to. (Go to Yamaha's web site and download the owner's manual to see everything.)
I upgraded my speakers and so I needed to upgrade to the better Yamaha R-N602, and moved the R-N303 to another room. Using Yamaha's MusicCast app, you can, for instance, play a turntable on the R-N602 and broadcast it to the R-N303 in your bedroom!
I'm a big fan of Yamaha's network stereo receivers. They just do what they're supposed to do, and when it's time to upgrade, Yamaha still has you covered.
In a nutshell, if you want a basic low(ish) cost stereo receiver that does everything, I recommend this one. If you can afford to be an audiophile and have a bigger budget, I'd look for higher numbers in Yamaha's R-N line. Check the specs and the cost of moving up and decide from there.
May 06, 2023
These are Enterprise Server disks, and probably won't work on your PC. Great for SAS controllers.
This is an Enterprise server class spinning disk that uses the SAS protocol. If you don't know what that means, you should probably stay away.
These disks are meant for servers, storage arrays, and only certain desktop workstations that have a SAS controller on them. If you're building a server with a RAID controller, such as an HP(E) ProLiant with a Smart Array controller, I can highly recommend these disks.
If you have an HP or HPE MicroServer Gen8, the controller built into the system board only supports SATA, so these drives aren't supported. However, if you add a Smart Array such as the P222, and move the SATA/SAS cable over to the Smart Array, you've got SAS Support, and up to 16 TB of raw storage (8 TB of RAID 1, 12 TB of RAID 5), and despite the "non-hot plug" labels on the carriers and no LED's, you can hot swap failed disks just like the "big boys" (rack servers).
My use case is a MicroServer Gen8 running VMWare, with a Linux host as my NAS. These disks can be found cheap nowadays, so I have 4 of them in a RAID 5. They are plenty fast enough so far, to not justify the (2023) still high cost of SSDs. Streaming audio and video: No problem at all. To get better performance, you're going to have to spend a lot more money!
If all of the above is gibberish to you, and you're just looking for a disk for your DVR or desktop PC, these will probably not work. (Look for SATA disks.) Here's the thing: When the IT nerds came up with SATA (Serial ATA) for lower cost storage on desktops and low end servers, they decided to make the plugs basically the same and compatible with SAS (Serial Attached SCSI), which big servers in data centers use. Which one is supported depends on the controller on one end and the disk on the other. Most controllers that support SAS (expensive, faster, more reliable) can also support SATA (cheaper, maybe slower, maybe lower reliability) devices.
So, if you bought one or more of these for your PC and discovered they don't work, if you end up stuck with them, find a friend with a server, and they may thank you for the spares!
If you have a stack of these from retired server equipment, pile them deep and sell them cheap! There are probably lots of home servers still using them and we need spares!