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Doh004 posted:Do we know if any wireless subwoofer would be able to work with my current soundbar?
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Mar 18, 2012 19:11
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I'm looking to upgrade my pc's audio capabilities, right now I've got a 2.1 logitech LS21 setup and wanted to do a full upgrade, soundcard and everything. What should I be looking for? Also, what are some decent priced headphones, or some confortable earsets, to plug into my mp3 player?
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Mar 18, 2012 20:57
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Flipperwaldt posted:Your current soundbar supports streaming audio over bluetooth, but as far as I can understand from what's in the manual, that will stop output to the speakers. ie. they assumed you would use this function to connect bluetooth headphones. The specs say "Bluetooth Streaming - Stream music from your smart phone". Which is still not helping him, I guess. No, if you need connectivity and flexibility, a soundbar is probably not the way to go.
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Mar 18, 2012 21:27
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Honest Thief posted:I'm looking to upgrade my pc's audio capabilities, right now I've got a 2.1 logitech LS21 setup and wanted to do a full upgrade, soundcard and everything. What should I be looking for? Don't spend money upgrading your sound card unless there's something about your current sound card you're unhappy with. As for speakers and/or headphones, what's your budget? (This thread might have more advice for headphones though, they love that sort of thing over there.)
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Mar 18, 2012 21:29
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Crapola... Thanks for the help guys. I guess I'll hold off on upgrading for now. Seems to be more trouble than its worth.
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Mar 18, 2012 21:41
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Hippie Hedgehog posted:The specs say "Bluetooth Streaming - Stream music from your smart phone". Manual > Specs
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Mar 18, 2012 21:57
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Barry posted:It's a 90+ year old co-op with lathe and plaster walls that are just an enormous pain in the rear end to deal with. As much as I'd prefer to run the wire in the walls, I wouldn't even know where to start. Fuuuuuck lathe and plaster! Seriously, I have an 84 year old house and there is enough of that stuff in here to give me headaches whenever I want to do something. On the plus side, you've got some sweet looking trim and moulding. Be sure to let the rest of us know how it turns out after the patching and painting. It would be nice to get a few decent photos as well, to put a stop to all the current ones on review sites that are tiny, taken from far away, and show significant signs of photo shopping. Barry posted:They're Klipsch RS-52 II's if you're curious. I WASN'T  (kidding)
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Mar 18, 2012 23:29
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Blistex posted:Fuuuuuck lathe and plaster! Seriously, I have an 84 year old house and there is enough of that stuff in here to give me headaches whenever I want to do something. On the plus side, you've got some sweet looking trim and moulding. Be sure to let the rest of us know how it turns out after the patching and painting. It would be nice to get a few decent photos as well, to put a stop to all the current ones on review sites that are tiny, taken from far away, and show significant signs of photo shopping. Yeah, it's a real pain. That really nice trim/moulding was a major deterrent from doing any serious in-wall wiring work. It's too nice to damage. After a day it doesn't seem like any of the adhesive has let go at all. My only real worry at this point is how to hold down the 90's so they look ok post-painting. I'll take some photos when I'm done with the painting, should be within a few weeks at most. Thanks for your suggestions. quote:I WASN'T If it's any consolation, they sound great!
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Mar 18, 2012 23:56
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Squirt in some crazy glue to keep the 90's flat and Spackle over them with a wide scraper and a thin layer of drywall compound.
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Mar 19, 2012 00:29
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Hippie Hedgehog posted:Don't spend money upgrading your sound card unless there's something about your current sound card you're unhappy with. I was trying to keep it under 200$, but I have no idea if that's enough or not.
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Mar 19, 2012 15:24
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I went from http://www.alteclansing.com/computer-speakers/fx4021/invt/fx4021/ to the audio engine A2s recommended in this thread. The sound quality is way better but the bass is very weak. Im not expecting much but its just like a little tap sound. I mostly game and it feels like there is no low end sound. The gunshots are very sharp but the explosions are weak "pfff". Im confused because all the reviews say it has a strong bass output. Is there some program I can run to boost it or do I need a sub? Fauxtool fucked around with this message at 04:38 on Mar 20, 2012 |
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Mar 20, 2012 04:34
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Fauxtool posted:I went from http://www.alteclansing.com/computer-speakers/fx4021/invt/fx4021/ A guy I knew had an Altec Lansing 2.1 speakerset a few years ago and it was a completely overpowering muddy bassfest, even at low volumes. It may be that you're 'spoilt' by something like that and have gotten used to such an imbalance, as well. Listening is a largely subjective experience. Anyway, I don't think boosting in software is going to give you what you are looking for, whereas a sub might. Honest Thief posted:I was trying to keep it under 200$, but I have no idea if that's enough or not.
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Mar 20, 2012 15:39
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My car has an ancient CD player with no AUX in or any other inputs. I want to listen to my iPod Touch through my car speakers, but it looks like my only option other than installing a new stereo would be an FM transmitter. I've heard a lot of mixed opinions of FM transmitters ranging from "never use an FM transmitter, they all cause unbearable static" to "great quality", so I wanted to ask about them here before I wasted any money on something that sounds like garbage. I know audio through an FM transmitter will be at least a little fuzzy, and I'm okay with that as long as it's not glaringly obvious. Would buying an FM transmitter be a good idea? edit: I live out in the middle of nowhere. I've heard FM transmitters don't work well in densely populated cities, so I thought I should mention it. Hamsterlady fucked around with this message at 16:29 on Mar 21, 2012 |
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Mar 21, 2012 16:27
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DarkHamsterlord posted:My car has an ancient CD player with no AUX in or any other inputs. I want to listen to my iPod Touch through my car speakers, but it looks like my only option other than installing a new stereo would be an FM transmitter. I've heard a lot of mixed opinions of FM transmitters ranging from "never use an FM transmitter, they all cause unbearable static" to "great quality", so I wanted to ask about them here before I wasted any money on something that sounds like garbage. My wife uses an iPod-specific FM transmitter we picked up off Dealextreme for like $8. It's not completely terrible, works with my iPhone. If you can stand waiting a month on shipping from China, it might be worth trying.
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Mar 21, 2012 18:21
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I got a Polk psw10 off amazon for 80.00 today. It was very easy to hookup to my A2s. I just did rca-rca and put both dials to 12o'clock. Sounds great, thanks for the help everyone
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Mar 22, 2012 05:16
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I'm in the process of building a race seat cockpit for my Fanatec wheel, and I'd love to install a 5.1 surround system into it. Ideally everything would be quite modest in size, including the subwoofer and control unit. As I wouldn't be needing a DVD player for this, a full size home cinema dvd player would be useless to me. It would also have to be compatible with my Xbox 360 (so... Toslink I suppose? I have no idea how else to get surround sound from Xbox. if there are better ways, please tell me!) I've got a budget of up to £250.
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Mar 24, 2012 12:58
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Falken posted:I'm in the process of building a race seat cockpit for my Fanatec wheel, and I'd love to install a 5.1 surround system into it. Ideally everything would be quite modest in size, including the subwoofer and control unit. As I wouldn't be needing a DVD player for this, a full size home cinema dvd player would be useless to me. It would also have to be compatible with my Xbox 360 (so... Toslink I suppose? I have no idea how else to get surround sound from Xbox. if there are better ways, please tell me!) Due to how close you will be to the speakers and your budget you may want to look into computer speakers. Logitech offers a few systems that meet your criteria.
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Mar 24, 2012 15:10
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Giblet posted:Due to how close you will be to the speakers and your budget you may want to look into computer speakers. Logitech offers a few systems that meet your criteria. I looked at a couple of logitech options, and these two looked good. Logitech X-530 PC and Logitech Z-906 I've got a set of Logitech LS21's for my PC which I quite like, so I'm very happy with Logitech's products. The other thing is, how well will they interface with my Xbox? Before I used a toslink cable into the back of my LG surround sound, but the sound began to lag after a while. Is this inherent of optical cables, or was my unit just a bit stupid? (tried 3 different cables)
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Mar 25, 2012 00:39
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Falken posted:Yeah, that was what I was thinking. I used to use my LG home cinema for this purpose, and whilst it was nice, the huge tower speakers were intrusive and they just cluttered up my simracing corner, so those are being sold now whenever I get round to throwing them on gumtree or something. By the nature of optical cables using light to transmit information there should never be lag due to the cable. It would either be a problem with the output on the Xbox or the input on the speakers.
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Mar 25, 2012 01:07
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Giblet posted:By the nature of optical cables using light to transmit information there should never be lag due to the cable. It would either be a problem with the output on the Xbox or the input on the speakers. Z-5500
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Mar 25, 2012 01:15
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can someone recommend me a decent desktop mic that plugs in via 3.5mm? Something directional or with some kind of background noise cancelling is a must because it will be placed in between me and my speakers. My pc has bluetooth if that matters I have no brand loyalty, just need best price/performance. Its for gaming on my pc, im not doing any kind of professional work Fauxtool fucked around with this message at 04:32 on Mar 25, 2012 |
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Mar 25, 2012 02:05
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okay, so I'm trying to figure out how to wire my home theater in my new house... I have a 3.1 system with some aperion audio intimus 5b bookshelf speakers and a velodyne sub that I'm using for watching tv/movies through my Pioneer vsx-1020-k receiver. The home I moved into has 6 speakers on the main floor pre-wired mounted to the ceiling. The thing is the speakers are in really poor locations for surround-sound so I just want to use them for listening to music and what not when I'm wandering around the house or have guests over. I just installed a banana-plug 7.1 wallplate where the speaker wires for these 6 were coming out of the wall behind my tv/entertainment center. I'm guessing there won't be an easy way to run them all off of my receiver but hopefully I can at least get 4 of them hooked up or something, maybe the living room and kitchen. Ideally I'd like to have a 3.1 channel 1st zone and 6 channel 2nd zone. Can anyone tell me if there's a way to do something like this with my receiver or am I going to need a 2nd receiver to pull this off? here's a diagram of where the speakers are located and an image of the outputs on my receiver. In the diagram the maroon is my tv and 3.1 system, blue is my couch, grey is the 6 flown speakers and wall plate.  
MMD3 fucked around with this message at 08:11 on Mar 26, 2012 |
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Mar 26, 2012 07:13
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MMD3 posted:I just installed a banana-plug 7.1 wallplate where the speaker wires for these 6 were coming out of the wall behind my tv/entertainment center. I'm guessing there won't be an easy way to run them all off of my receiver but hopefully I can at least get 4 of them hooked up or something, maybe the living room and kitchen. Ideally I'd like to have a 3.1 channel 1st zone and 6 channel 2nd zone. You connect the 3.1 speakers to "Speakers A" as you would normally, you connect the switch to "Speakers B" and the ceiling speakers to the switch. You configure the amplifier to use "Speakers B" as Zone 2 rather than Front Height or Front Wide (p21 & p100 of the manual). Shop around a bit and read reviews, I picked a switch at random to demonstrate the concept. Another amp would likely give you uncompromised sound quality (I don't know how serious that problem is with these switches, to be honest, but I can't imagine ceiling speakers to be great sounding anyway), but you'd end up with a mess routing the input sources and possibly still end up leaving one pair of speakers disconnected or playing the surround channels or something. So this seems simple, convenient and cheap and probably satisfactory. (edit: check the speaker's impedance, shouldn't be lower than 8 for the switch I linked) Flipperwaldt fucked around with this message at 14:23 on Mar 26, 2012 |
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Mar 26, 2012 14:21
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Flipperwaldt posted:Speaker selector switch with impedance protection. Allows you to connect multiple sets of stereo speakers to one pair of speaker terminals and switch between them or have them playing concurrently (the impedance protection is important for that). this looks like it's perfect, great suggestion, thanks! yeah, the quality of these speakers isn't going to be anything great so I'm not too worried about a little degradation. The speakers are some KLH's that look like these so I think it's safe to assume they're 8ohm http://www.shopping.com/KLH-SS02/info I'll spend some time familiarizing myself with the manual for my receiver since this is the first time I've setup zone 2 at all.
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Mar 26, 2012 18:59
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Years ago (going on 11 now) I bought a speaker in a box package from Circuit City. It was an RM6600 package by Polk. http://www.polkaudio.com/homeaudio/products/recent/rm6600/ The only difference is, mine came with a PSW250 rather than a PSW350. This system is made up of 4 RM2300 sats and one RM2600 center. The specifications that polk gives for the RM2300s are as follows (the RM2600 is similar, it just has one more midrange driver) Overall frequency response: 100Hz–24kHz -3dB limits: 140Hz–20kHz Recommended Amplification: 20–125Wrms Sensitivity: 89dB SPL @1m (2.83 Vrms drive level) Nominal Impedance: compatible with 8 ohm outputs Bass-Mid Drive Unit:1–3.25" Dynamic Balance driver magnetically shielded, Polypropylene composit cone, rubber surround Tweeter:1-.75" dome, self-shielded Neodymium magnet, silk diaphragm Crossover:3.1kHz Enclosure Type:Sealed Box The system has served me well over the years, but I'm thinking of potential upgrades. This is mainly because I'm planning on wall mounting the front and rear L/R channels and don't want to bother with the current speakers if I'm going to upgrade. Space is a concern in the room. As much as I would like to put a pair of floor standing speakers up front, they simply aren't going to fit on either side of the TV. The room itself is 25x12 and the TV and front speakers are setup in one corner. The rears I'm planning to wall mount high on the opposite wall in the corners and let audyssey figure out the room geometry. Right now they are just on floor stands generally behind the seating area. I was tossing around the idea of getting some Polk OWM3s for the rear and OWM5s for the front, but I really can't determine if that's a significant upgrade over what I have now. My budget right now is in the $1k-$1.5k range (though I may extend it if something dramatically better could be had for a little more.) My AVR is a Denon 2310ci and the primary function of the system will be watching TV and movies.
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Mar 26, 2012 19:26
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Flipperwaldt posted:Speaker selector switch with impedance protection. Allows you to connect multiple sets of stereo speakers to one pair of speaker terminals and switch between them or have them playing concurrently (the impedance protection is important for that). So I couldn't find the specs on that switch you linked but I found the specs on this Dayton Audio switch as well as looked up the speakers that are mounted in this house. It looks like they're rated at 4-6ohm. The Dayton spec sheet shows that with 6 6ohm speakers playing I'd have an impedance of effectively 5ohms. I don't understand impedance well enough to get what this fully means. Can someone help explain if this would work or not assuming my speakers (KLH SPro-4) are 4-6 ohm?
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Mar 28, 2012 01:25
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I'm looking for a half-decent shelf system for my kitchen that can play CDs, FM radio and hook up to my iPod. Most of the choices at retail stores (Target, etc.) look and sound like cheap pieces of poo poo. This was confirmed when I bought one a few years ago and have hated it ever since. I'm looking for something reasonably compact, but with good sound and that isn't a cheap piece of poo poo. Am I basically screwed for quality if I'm not buying a receiver/component system? Any suggested models?
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Mar 29, 2012 17:01
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Caustic posted:I'm looking for something reasonably compact, but with good sound and that isn't a cheap piece of poo poo. Am I basically screwed for quality if I'm not buying a receiver/component system? Any suggested models? Two. These are the best integrated systems I've seen or heard. I haven't heard the FM tuners so I've got no idea how good they are (or aren't). These also aren't exactly cheap, and availability in United States may be limited. And unfortunately, nice as they may be, separates are simply better especially if you factor in the cost. Geneva M +CD http://uk.genevalab.ch/shop/default/genevasound-m-cd Loewe Soundbox http://www.loewe.tv/int/products/soundbox/soundbox.html
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Mar 29, 2012 17:42
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I bought the Audio Engine A2 speakers for my computer and I'm looking to pick up a DAC to replace my onboard sound. There's some hissing coming from the speakers, which I think is coming from the onboard sound. I was thinking of getting the Fiio E10 to go with it. Will the DAC/amp combo interfere with the powered amp on the A2s? I'd also like to pair the E10 with my headphones, so I plan to hook up the A2s through RCA cables and the headphones with 3.5 mm jack through the E10. Will doing this screw up the sound in any way?
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Mar 30, 2012 20:14
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Chow-King posted:I bought the Audio Engine A2 speakers for my computer and I'm looking to pick up a DAC to replace my onboard sound. There's some hissing coming from the speakers, which I think is coming from the onboard sound. I was thinking of getting the Fiio E10 to go with it. Will the DAC/amp combo interfere with the powered amp on the A2s? You'll need an adapter like this for your headphones. This is all using the device as intended, the cables or adapters do not screw with the sound in any way. This alternative to the E10 is also worth looking at. Flipperwaldt fucked around with this message at 21:02 on Mar 30, 2012 |
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Mar 30, 2012 20:59
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PHONO INPUT QUESTION Just got a Onkyo 609 and I love the poo poo out of it, but I failed to remember when shopping for it that I've got an old record player I wanted to hook up, and the new reciever lacks a phono input. As far as I can tell, things that are advertised as having a phono input just have a grounding post/screw near a set of RCA inputs. Could I just hook up my turntable to some input and ground it somewhere to the case, or is a dedicated phono input more complicated than that? Alternate ways of grounding it? Just don't use the ground? I would just hook it up and see what happens, but the turntable is *somewhere* and I don't want to spend time finding it if this flat out won't work.
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Mar 31, 2012 14:15
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intheflesh posted:PHONO INPUT QUESTION Luckily you can buy phono preamps separately for use with amplifiers that don't have them built in. These will provide the grounding contact you'd need as well.
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Mar 31, 2012 14:27
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Wow, there is a huge range of prices on those things. I am no audiophile when it comes to records, I just want to get something decent for those few times I do listen to them. Just get the cheapest one? Previous experience with the audio setups of friends makes me have the connection of pyle=utter poo poo and/or ghetto swap meet special, so would moving up in price just a little bit have any huge difference? Again, the turntable I have is probably nothing super nice, I just want to make sure I'm not going to get a phono preamp which would add large amounts of crap to the sound. This thing be decent? http://www.amazon.com/Behringer-PP400-Ultra-Compact-Phono-Preamp/dp/B000H2BC4E/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1333204432&sr=8-3 This one has a graph printed on it PLUS a knob, it must be fancier http://www.amazon.com/TC-750LC-BLACK-Professional-Moving-Magnet/dp/B000A36XZS/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1333204432&sr=8-7 I know nothing about record players what am I doing
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Mar 31, 2012 15:57
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Phono pre-amp, sub-$100: http://www.amazon.com/Cambridge-Audio-Phono-Pre-Amplifier-Silver/dp/B001052KDE If you want to invest more or scour Ebay, check out Pro-ject, NAD and maybe even Kenwood C-2. Black horse: http://www.amazon.com/TC-750-BLACK-Audiophile-Phono-Preamplifier/dp/B000A36LQ4 I'm sort of interested in this piece of hi-fi. It's cheap and on paper it looks very good. I just can't really recommend it since I haven't had the chance to play with it myself. If you're feeling lucky... There's a vintage thread where you might get better answers. Perhaps try your luck with the good people in there?
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Mar 31, 2012 16:35
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intheflesh posted:Wow, there is a huge range of prices on those things. I am no audiophile when it comes to records, I just want to get something decent for those few times I do listen to them. Just get the cheapest one? Previous experience with the audio setups of friends makes me have the connection of pyle=utter poo poo and/or ghetto swap meet special, so would moving up in price just a little bit have any huge difference? Again, the turntable I have is probably nothing super nice, I just want to make sure I'm not going to get a phono preamp which would add large amounts of crap to the sound. I have that Behringer. It works well for budget use.
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Mar 31, 2012 19:53
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I've just bought a Hitachi hi-fi second hand. It's a micro hi-fi with a USB socket and micro SD slot. I got it so I could have my MP3 collection on it. However, I've got two problems that I could do with help with. A) It doesn't read SDHC cards - it works fine with my 2GB card but not my 4GB SDHC card. Is it possible to get 4GB SD cards? Or are all 4GB SDHC? B) The USB slot doesn't provide enough power to power a USB stick. It works fine with my MP3 player running off battery, but plug in a USB stick or portable HD - I'd assume the former would require less power - and it doesn't detect it. Is this normal for a hi-fi with USB socket? And if not, are there certain sticks that require less USB power to run? EDIT: I've definitely got it formatted to FAT32 - my MP3 player's formatted that way too, as are both sticks I've tried. Darth Ronson fucked around with this message at 21:08 on Mar 31, 2012 |
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Mar 31, 2012 20:43
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Darth Ronson posted:I've just bought a Hitachi hi-fi second hand. It's a micro hi-fi with a USB socket and micro SD slot. I got it so I could have my MP3 collection on it. However, I've got two problems that I could do with help with. SD has a maximum capacity of 2GB, anything larger is SDHC (HC being High Capacity). For SD cards and the like, there could be additional limits to the accepted card size in the device's controller. I had an mp3 player that only accepted SD cards up to 512MB. USB stick, formatted in FAT32 should just work. EDIT: these devices can be slow, a large capacity usb stick with lots of files on it could take something like a minute to be ready to use, because the device is indexing the contents. You'd have no visual feedback of it being recognised in the mean time. Flipperwaldt fucked around with this message at 21:11 on Mar 31, 2012 |
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Mar 31, 2012 21:06
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I want to add a 5.1 system to the TV in my room. I'd like to be able to play music through it via my Bluetooth phone as well. Looking to do this for as cheap as possible - any recommendations for this kind of setup?
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Apr 1, 2012 02:29
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Does anyone have any opinions on the Yamaha YHT S401 soundbar? I'm interested in it because it's compact, looks nice, has a sub, seems to have a minimum of cables, and most importantly, is easy for me to get in Japan when I can afford it.
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Apr 1, 2012 13:37
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Gyshall posted:I want to add a 5.1 system to the TV in my room. I'd like to be able to play music through it via my Bluetooth phone as well. Looking to do this for as cheap as possible - any recommendations for this kind of setup? As far as the bluetooth streaming goes this looks like it would work. http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Wireless-Speaker-Bluetooth-980-000540/dp/B004VM1T5S/ref=pd_bxgy_e_text_b For the 5.1 system we would need to know what you mean by cheap.
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Apr 1, 2012 17:37
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