What piece of kit or setup represents the pinnacle of your hobby/profession?

Even if it's not expensive, Is there a high quality item every serious enthusiast owns?

Or maybe it's a highly prized holy grail item you'd give your right arm for.

Is there something you've had an eye on for a while and you're just waiting for an excuse to treat yourself?

EmptyRadar,
EmptyRadar avatar

I'm into 3D printing, so for me right now the piece of kit I'm drooling over is the X1 Carbon by Bambu Lab. It has a lot of fancy features but what I most want is the 16-color mixer. It would be great because it would significantly reduce the painting overhead. I'm hoping to have it before the end of the year, if there's not something fancier out by then.

Jon-H558,

If it has multiple spools does that mean one spool can be disolvable for ease of support removal

-spam-,
-spam- avatar

For sure, PVA filament for supports that dissolve.

Spiff,

There is special support material available that you can set as support. Ins not soluble but apparently makes removing the support much easier.

Also, I have this printer and it’s really nice.

EmptyRadar,
EmptyRadar avatar

Yes exactly, that's one of the main things I want it for

-spam-,
-spam- avatar

I'm patiently waiting for the cash free for the P1P and AMS. More colours would be cool but just being able to use a couple of different filaments without manually changing them will be wild.

Seraph,
Seraph avatar

There's always something fancier out! Or new tech, just this morning I saw that AI adjustment tech, auto-adjusting flow, temp or z height.

Still, it's pretty incredible the stuff we can make in our own home, even with "older" 3D printers.

keeb420,

damn you i need to save money not spend it.

DarkGamer,
DarkGamer avatar

Whoa, that is cool, thanks for sharing it! Might be time to replace my old replicator 2 soon.

VeeSilverball,
VeeSilverball avatar

Recently I entered the world of dip pens and got a set from Deleter: Dip pen holder, G-nibs, and the Black 4 Ink. The G-nib is the most common nib used in manga drawing. It needs some pressure to do its work, but it's flexible enough to do thin and thick strokes.

They aren't hugely expensive items - the nibs can be bought in large packs for a few dollars at stationary stores, and are made to last for a few months of heavy use each. The ink is a little more expensive. It's the kind of thing where the results are better in that you can get some really sharp lines by using viscous ink that would clog anything else, but also, you'd only use it if you're deep into working with ink and aren't satisfied with felt fineliners. It's just logistically harder to deal with keeping an ink pot secure on the desk, dipping the pen, cleaning the nib, putting everything away. Fountain pens are way more popular with collectors, but dip pens are workhorses and there's almost nothing to troubleshoot, just "how do I keep ink from blobbing on it" (scrub off the protective factory coating with mild detergents or just using the ink itself) and "how do I clean it" (rinse with water).

The other tool of that type is the kolinsky sable brush - sable hair is more springy than synthetics. I am on the fence about actually getting one of those, my rubberized-felt brush pens do a decent job of getting the elements of brushes that I want, and cleaning brushes is more annoying.

Devi,

In reef aquariums people are currently obsessed with this -

https://charterhouse-aquatics.com/shop/aquatics/pumps/aqua-illumination/ai-nero-5-powerhead

It moves water. Not anywhere in particular, just makes it move within the tank. It does this job quite well. It sounds ridiculous when you try to explain it to anyone that's not part of the hobby.

!deleted193696,

deleted_by_author

  • Loading...
  • FrostTom,
    FrostTom avatar

    Fish like it. And it moves the water around to get flow to corals and to kick crap into the overflow.

    Devi,

    It's good for the corals, they like being bashed about a bit, like the waves would in the sea. Corals are very weird animals.

    HidingCat,

    Marine tanks are just full of weird things. Love hearing the stories from friends and acquaintances who're into it.

    keeb420,

    my mom had one growing up. the person we got it from had a maroon clownfish that was full size. it would sometimes attack when my mom was doing stuff in the tank and even drew blood. she ended up trading it in to the dealer she bought stuff from and he put it in his display tank. youd think with now much she spent on the thing wed have had a generator of some kind but nope. i even suggested it. it sucked having to clean the tank after losing power for a week from a hurricane or winter storm.

    Dsco,

    The Sennheiser HD650 is a staple in headphone HiFi. The fact that Amir demos everything with it is evidence enough.

    foof,

    It's a staple but hardly the pinnacle.

    Dsco,

    You're right. HD 800S are pretty high up there. Maybe some Audeze LCD-5's or Dan Clark's Ether 2.

    But the 650's are a high quality item every enthusiast owns...

    Alexmitter,
    Alexmitter avatar

    Everyone toying with system level stuff on ARM devices should have a cheap but Linux mainline capable board. Like a classic Allwinner A64 based board.

    al177,

    If for anything but having a baseline known-good platform when dorking with devicetree

    !deleted193696,

    deleted_by_author

  • Loading...
  • Friend,
    Friend avatar

    Ohh do you have a preference? Are you one of these mechanical keyboard enthusiasts or do you prefer a slimline Bluetooth softkey type setup?

    Dsco,

    Software Engineer here: Filco Majestouch 2 w/ Silent Reds is my daily driver.

    wjrii,
    wjrii avatar

    Not a coder, but a mid-range 1800 format with loud ass Box Navy switches is my (WFH) daily driver.

    My browsing/gaming desktop has even louder budeget outemu greens on a budget board.

    I have a couple of megacheap Filco clone gamerboards lying around my home office, but even they are a huge step up from OEM membrane garbage.

    HidingCat,

    If you haven't, try the Box White Owls. Super sharp tactility, they're my current daily driver.

    Flaky_Fish69,
    Flaky_Fish69 avatar

    Heheh. the others in my office made fun of me when I convinced the IT people that I needed a GMMK (full) frame with kahlil jade switches. I got my sweet sweet revenge by typing at something like 100 words per minute... it's not an open office but it doesn't matter...

    although, they've since asked for 'accessibility' upgrades to theirs as well...

    fisteroboto,

    Software engineer here
    Zsa Moonlander. Xda profile keycaps. Zealios 78g.

    This has been a dream to work on

    Dsco,

    Just ordered one of these. We'll see how it goes

    EmptyRadar,
    EmptyRadar avatar

    I feel that. I'm using an old Cougar mechanical keyboard for work still, just because it has the key feel I want. Other features are nice but if I don't get that clacky sensation I just can't write code.

    zannzen,

    Got the dygma raise last year with silent pinks and the tenting. It was a massive game changer. Of course now I’m thinking of diving into the 30% ergo keyboards and that looks like a deep rabbit hole

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • AskKbin
  • rosin
  • thenastyranch
  • ethstaker
  • osvaldo12
  • mdbf
  • DreamBathrooms
  • InstantRegret
  • magazineikmin
  • Youngstown
  • ngwrru68w68
  • slotface
  • GTA5RPClips
  • kavyap
  • cubers
  • JUstTest
  • everett
  • cisconetworking
  • tacticalgear
  • anitta
  • khanakhh
  • normalnudes
  • Durango
  • modclub
  • tester
  • provamag3
  • Leos
  • megavids
  • lostlight
  • All magazines