Akiatech Solutions - We review Technology especially Music, Photography centric tech and electronics

AMD Ryzen 2700X vs Ryzen 1600

Ryzen 7 2700X vs Ryzen 5 1600 Intro I’ve always been a fan of AMD processors. I remember a looong time ago when Windows 98 and a song by a certain “artist” was all the craze, I saw an ad from an unknown (to me) CPU manufacturer for a 500MHz chip. That manufacturer was AMD and the chip was their flagship at the time, the AMD K7 based Athlon 500. Outside of that ad I never had the opportunity to experience any of AMD’s chips first hand until about 8 years later. This was when I bought a Turion X2 based Laptop to rebel against Intel leaving [...]

May 12, 2018 By AKiATECH Product Reviews 0 Comments

WatchAir TV/DVR Antenna Review 2018

The WatchAir TV Antenna/DVR Recently on one of my Amazon binge shopping runs I came across this weird but cool device called the WatchAir “Smart Antenna”. The WatchAir is a hybrid Antenna/DVR that you can access via applications on the Android and iOS platforms. There are also other apps being rolled out on Smart TV/Devices and possibly a PC or Mac app in the future. When I tested my unit I was able to access it from an Android tablet, iPad, FireTV and Samsung TV. The various application interfaces are very fluid and easy to navigate. The initial configuration of [...]

April 25, 2018 By AKiATECH Tech Tidbits 0 Comments

IK Multimedia iRig Keys I/O 25 Review

IK Multimedia iRig Keys I/O 25 Review Intro IK Multimedia is a company that has been making musician focused software and hardware since 1996. They are best known for their T-RackS plugins and have a very loyal following on social media. I’ve followed this company’s products for a while, but I’ve never found a reason to acquire one until now. Why? well If you’ve ever considered or attempted to make music on the road using either a laptop or mobile device you’ve probably come across this problem…audio. One of the major downsides to making music on the road is access to [...]

February 6, 2018 By AKiATECH Product Reviews 0 Comments

How to crop a layer in Serif Affinity Photo

This guide will show you how to crop an image in Affinity Photo. This is a workaround until an “official” method exists: 1. Select the Marquee Tool 2. Marquee Select the area that you want to crop 3. Go to the “Edit” menu and click on “Copy Flattened” 4. Go to the “Edit” menu and select “Paste” 5. Select the “Move Tool” (Black Arrow) 6. Position the cropped image 7. Right-click on the original layer and delete it. 8. Final Cropped Image Hotkeys if you’re into that stuff 😊: M > Ctrl-Shift-C > V > Ctrl-V > Right-Click original layer > Delete Layer Tell your Friends:Click to print (Opens in [...]

January 29, 2018 By AKiATECH Tech Tidbits 0 Comments

LG 43UJ6200 Cheapest 4K “Monitor” for its Size!

LG 43UJ6200/43UJ6300 The Monitor, maybe one of the most overlooked parts of the computing experience. It’s a little like the tires on your car, or your Network Router…. Things that are so important yet tend to be ignored. The times are changing though. With CPU and GPU performance increases slowly stabilizing. People are looking for more things to upgrade. First, it was Hard Drives and now it’s monitors. Like the tires on your car, the monitor is your primary interface for gauging the video performance of your machine, no matter how fast your GPU, how high the DPI is on [...]

November 22, 2017 By AKiATECH Product Reviews 0 Comments

Sennheiser HD7 DJ Headphone Review and Comparison

If you are a regular visitor to the blog then you already know that I’m a notorious Cheapskate and not in the sense that I like cheap things. I always seek out the best products at the most affordable prices. This typically means that anything you see me reviewing is probably selling at a significant discount under retail. Case in point, these great Headphones from Sennheiser. The HD7 DJ Headphones came out a couple of years ago as part of a trio of DJ/Producer-centric gear. The HD7 falls right between the HD8 and HD6 Mix headphones from Sennheiser and [...]

May 26, 2017 By AKiATECH Product Reviews 0 Comments

Zotac GTX 1070 Mini | Size Means Nothing!

Zotac GTX 1070 Mini I’ve always been a Nvidia Fanatic, my first card was the Vanta then I got a hold of a Geforce 3 and after that a 440MX. I’ve had laptops with Nvidia graphics even my current Model has a Quadro chip under the hood. I’ve been rolling with Nvidia since PCI was cool and N00B5 were getting “Godliked” via Railgun in UT99. That being said you can imagine how much it hurt me to step over to the Red Team when I purchased my Radeon HD6950, exactly 6 years ago. I cannot lie though, that was the best [...]

April 21, 2017 By AKiATECH Product Reviews 0 Comments

The Roland A-01K Better Late Than Never Review

The Roland A-01 and A-01K variant were released a little over a year ago. The A-01 is listed as a Controller+Generator by Roland and rightfully so. It has a plethora of connectivity options in addition to a neat little 8Bit synth that can produce some hardcore, gritty basslines in addition to the beeps and pops that 8Bit music is known for. I’ve been following the progress of this unit for a while now and one thing that I see trending across almost all the sites and forums I’ve visited is that people really don’t know what to make of [...]

March 13, 2017 By AKiATECH Product Reviews 0 Comments

Arturia Minilab MKII vs Minilab Comparison

The reason I’m doing this review is because like you I was considering purchasing the newly released Minilab MK2. The problem for me and potentially anyone else reading this post is that I already have the previous Minilab model and I love it! When the updated controller was released I was ready to throw all my money at Arturia, but as an owner of almost all the sub $200 Arturia controllers, I had to stop and think about whether it was wise to add yet another MIDI keyboard to my already overcrowded “Studio”. After meditating on it for a [...]

January 26, 2017 By AKiATECH Product Reviews 2 Comments

The Samson Conspiracy is Shockingly…Okay

The Samson Conspiracy! Its name conjures up images of secret hideouts, sinister plots, and dastardly deeds. Its design is a cross between a Novation Launchpad and a Rii Mini, and its support framework is practically nonexistent. The conspiracy also features a design that unfortunately only a mother could love. I can’t knock it too much, though, this device is definitely the definition of “Function over Form”. I think Samson set out to design a competitive product that would appeal to a variety of individuals, and for the most part, they succeeded in this goal. There are compromises though and also [...]

January 13, 2017 By AKiATECH Product Reviews 0 Comments