Ask Lemmy

I'm having a hard time defining "best", so I'll put out a few categories:

• Most used: my rooted Samsung Galaxy S23, which I use for listening to HiFi music (Tidal + Android USB Audio Player + AudioQuest DrangFly Cobalt DAC + Sennheiser IE 900).
• Most fun tinkering with: used Lenovo ThinPad T480, on which I swapped out the storage, RAM and wireless network module {1TB, 32GB, WiFi 6e}. I also learned Arch Linux and some C programming on it.
• Bringing it with me everywhere and is not my phone: my rooted Samsung Galaxy Tab A9+ and my Deltaco WK90b keyboard, a form factor which they have stopped making, which is bonkers. I bring these two to local coffee shops and libraries and learn coding on Termux.
• Having own the longest: my sound mixer Notepad 8fx by Soundcraft, 42 inch 4K Philips TV and Adam A5X studio monitors. The studio monitors, I have had for more than ten years. The mixer and TV, for about seven. This is my media setup for consuming video and audio. I play video on the above mentioned Lenovo laptop, streamed from my Linux ISO torrenting rig and audio I mostly play from my vinyl player. This also used to be me karaoke setup when I still had a Nintendo Switch and when I still was happy.

A few years ago, I used my meager seniority award at work ($100 for ten years! Yay...?) to get a Monoprice Select Mini 3D printer. That set off a journey that has been a lot of fun. I'm using a Sovol SV08 now, but the Mini was a great gateway printer at that time.

• Not a purchased by me, but the mechanical watch my grandfather gave to me some 40+ years ago. It was his watch, and was already used when he gave it to me, but it still works great today.
• A good stack of quality paper (don't get me started on watercolor paper).
• The humble pencil, B2 or B4. This may sound like a joke but despite its age and it being so low-tech the pencil is still an unrivaled piece of technology that even Apple can only try to mimic with its expensive Apple Pencil.
• My most recent purchase, and a lot more 'high' tech than the pencil: a pocket Sony voice recorder, from the 90s. It uses standard AA batteries (that will last for weeks if not months), it needs no monthly subscription, and no online access, it fully respects my privacy, there is no ads in it, it uses MP3 and can record on either its internal memory or use SD cards, and it... works great with Linux. I love it.

I'd say purely based on usage time, my Bose Quiet Comfort headphones. I've had them since 2013 and have gone through a few pairs. My first set got chewed up by my then young now late guide dog. I was unaware you could replace the ear pads, so I bought a whole second pair. My bad. This second pair has lasted until today, though I upgraded to the QC ultra for the built-in bluetooth and use the old wired pair in my ham shack.

I bought them originally for work. I worked in a call center. The crappy plantronics headset they gave me wasn't going to cut it for 8 hours a day, so I looked for something better. Ended up buying the QC's plus an adaptor for a standard Cisco VOIP phone to TRS connectors. Used the QC's plus a cheap lapel mic.

I'd say the name "quiet comfort" says it all. I didn't care about how they sound since they handily beat the cheap earbuds that came with phones at the time as well as that plantronics nightmare from work. What they are is quiet and comfortable. They served me for 8 hours a day over four years.

JBL Charge 2 and 2015 13" MacBook Pro.

Kind of my desktop PC as well but it's almost 20 years old already and the case is the only original component on it so I'm not sure if it counts as the same PC anymore.

Roland AE-30 (wind synth). It's great to get back to playing "saxophone," as well as use it in my MIDI setup to control other synths. Added bonus: it's small enough to pack just about anywhere, and I can practice anywhere, anytime with headphones. Even just running scales is chill, meditative time, especially during stressful workdays.

Work Focused Answer (no joy, just relief)

I think that, for the majority of my IT career of ~30 years, it has got to be Thinkpads. First IBM and then Lenovo. If you pick the correct model, you get a solid workhorse with a fantastic warranty/service plan and amazing Linux support if you need it.

More recently, it has to be the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7x Gen 1 (not the Gen 2). In my firm we spend ungodly amount of hours on calls and the Nova 7x is extremely comfortable, it has superb built in background noise suppression, a fully retractable mic, a mechanical mute button and, most importantly, the Gen 1 supports three separate modes of connectivity (four if you count the dongle.toggle switch). The Gen 1's three connection modes are Bluetooth, 3.5mm wired, and 2.4 ghz wireless (via usb-c dongle). The 2.4ghz dongle can switch between PC and Xbox. Linux users who have trouble with the input/output mix while on wireless can use a standard 4 pole 3.5mm cord to connect the headset without issue. I have mine connected via wire to my linux main, 2.4ghz to my client compatibility Windows system, and Bluetooth to my phone.

NOTE: The Razer Barracuda X is also triple input, but the mic does not retract and I have not tested to see if it has built in background noise suppression/voice isolation like the SteelSeries do.

EDIT: With the Nova 7 Gen 2, SteelSeries removed the 3.5mm port.

Probably either my steam deck or hearing aids.

Like I could go on a rant about how much better hearing aids are these days than when I started wearing them 20 years or so ago. They were annoying pains in the ass back then and now they work better, sound better, and are significantly less inconvenient. And i don't have to ask my wife to speak up as often.

So far, my phone, a Google Pixel 6a bought and promptly Graphenified 4.5 years ago that is still going strong. Not perfect but it does it job

Steam Deck is a close second, it has rotated between being my primary/secondary gaming device and even my primary desktop for varying amounts of time, and it served every single role well. All while being dirt-cheap for the specs it have

• car

• desktop pc

• drawing tablet for said pc (bought in 2010 and still going strong)

• automatic pencil sharpener

Bought a refurbished Thinkpad T480s a year ago. It got me back into Linux on the desktop which brought a lot of joy into my computing life.

Garmin running watch. Never liked running but am a list checker and analyst; seeing my inactivity or progress drive me to be more consistent and active. I'm massively healthier and happier as a result. Also first one lasted 10 years, 1-week battery life. Just bought a replacement last year(face was scuffed up after 10 years but was still running like a champ). No idea why other watches have such crap battery life without offering more features than Garmin but it's brought me joy, mental and physical health.

Xreal One Pro head-mounted display glasses. They've really changed how I watch TV shows and movies.

128GB RAM, and a 2TB SSD, mid 2025.

Samsung QD-OLED
Playstation 5
intel iMac
Garmin 955 Forerunner
Asioma Mx-2 power meter pedals

This year I'm going to get an Acura Integra A-Spec Tech, reviews on it are stellar. Replacing a 12 year old Civic .

I am on the fence about getting a Switch 2. Never got a Switch because it wasn't 4K and the games seemed meh.