For your listening pleasure: The quick audio questions megathread!

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > For your listening pleasure: The quick audio questions megathread!

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Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

ItalicSquirrels posted:

Maybe I just haven't seen it, but I'm looking for a PC-based music player with specific capabilities. I'd like to find one that allows the user to input metadata beyond artist, album, and song name; things like liner notes. I would then like to be able to search by this metadata. Anygoon out there have any idea of a program like that?

MediaMonkey did great for me in the tagging and searching department. There are alternatives in this category, but I don't have experience with them.

I strongly disagree with the notion that Winamp is either great or versatile.

# ¿ Nov 24, 2011 08:09

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# ¿ Apr 24, 2024 08:53

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

Bobulus posted:

I want to get my technology-uncomfortable uncle one of those USB record turntables / software combos that lets you import your records to MP3s in something like iTunes. He's got a whole pile of records he never got CDs for.

Any recommendations? I know absolutely nothing about record player quality, and the easier the software, the better.

I'm gonna throw in my two cents here and say there's no magical silver bullet here. The quality of these turntables is crap. Their pre-amps, their A/D-convertors, crap. The software, crap. After processing the sound wil be dull and/or tinny.

Cleaning up the sound to even just an acceptable level requires more expensive hardware and software and hours of tedious manual work. And even then it's like trying to polish turd upon turd upon turd :suicide:

Freshly pressed, pristine 45rpm 10" singles may produce ok results; old, slightly dusty 33rpm albums with ~20 minutes on each side will not. The nearer you get to the hole in the record, the grittier the sound, so the rotten quality isn't even constant.

Even with a fully automated solution, recording from vinyl, not unlike scanning photo albums, is a long winded, boring, unrewarding job, especially for a technophobe. I suspect it would be used once or twice for the novelty value, then determined not worth the time and effort.

In some countries (like the Netherlands) it's actually legal to go the :filez:

route as long as you own an original copy of the record, but intellectual property right in the USA isn't that pragmatic or progressive. I'd rather recommend you find out which of these records are his favorites and spend the ~$120 you would have sunk into one of these turntables towards some cds, mp3s or an iTunes gift card.

# ¿ Dec 12, 2011 15:09

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

Molimo posted:

So, I'm having a problem with my subwoofer, and I'm hoping this is the right place to ask, since I'm an idiot about home electronic things. I'm using Altec Lansing VS4621 2.1 speakers hooked up directly to my computer, mostly for playing music. I've noticed that the sub seems to, for lack of a better word, sound like crap when it's playing certain frequencies. It still moves just fine, the bass is definitely there, but it also makes a loud rattling/buzzing sound some of the time.

I don't THINK it's blown, because I can still push it in with no scratching and it sounds perfectly fine most of the time. Any ideas how to fix it?

edit: and, as a side question, should I be investing in an amp or receiver? Or is it fine to just plug right into the audio jack?

As these are active speakers, they are fine being plugged into the audio jack. An amp would gain you nothing in this situation.

That said, it's possible your soundcard outputs on an already amplified level to accomodate passive speakers. Something you should certainly try is setting the master volume level about halfway (possibly even lower) in your software mixer and regulate the volume using the knob on the speakers only; see where that takes you.

# ¿ Dec 16, 2011 00:56

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

Plastik posted:

I know that I could do this with acoustic foam and acoustic adhesive, but that's not really reversible and is extremely obvious. What are the other ways?

Acoustic treatment ≠ soundproofing. Common misconception. Coating the walls in acoustic foam will do nothing in preventing sound from leaking into the other room.

If you want to go above and beyond, fill up the wall with sand, add extra layers of drywall, double up on doors and plug even the tiniest hole.

Other than that, you can move the sound source further away from the other room, play at a lower levels, give your roommate earplugs or, you know, use headphones.

There isn't much in between those, sadly.

# ¿ Jan 4, 2012 17:01

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

Plastik posted:

Headphones seem like the logical choice, but I'm going to go home and measure up my walls and price out what it'd cost me to install a second sheet of drywall with a 1/2 inch airspace between it and the current wall. I've hung drywall before, so this option, though admittedly impractical and kind of silly, shouldn't be very expensive for me to implement. Unfortunately, vinyl sound isolation barrier is incredibly expensive or I'd go with that between the two sheets of drywall instead. Still, a half-inch of air is better than nothing, and two sheets of drywall alone are pretty good at isolating sound.

I don't think it's silly at all. If you can keep the new drywall decoupled from the old one, you've got yourself something that could really work.

EDIT: I found this article useful in refreshing the basics.

Flipperwaldt fucked around with this message at 20:02 on Jan 4, 2012

# ¿ Jan 4, 2012 19:48

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

dalp posted:

Ok, so, I have a question for my idiot brother.

He wants to get a FiiO E7 for a DAC/headphone amp for his laptop.

But, lets say he later wants to get a decent pair of bookshelf speakers. I assume that the E7 wouldn't be a sufficient amp, but could it still be used as the DAC and that signal then sent to a speaker amp?

Technically? Likely, yes. Hooked up to the headphone out, as this abomination has no real line level output. It's not even remotely it's intended use, though. I wouldn't do it, but it would sort of work.

And on the other hand, I have driven a pair of bookshelf speakers from a battery driven headphone amp, and that sort of worked too.

Both are wrong though, and go against everything I irrationally and fanatically believe in. The right tool for the right job.

Additionally, if it is to be used in conjunction with the laptop only, it's completely pointless that there's a battery in the thing. This goes against my OCD. Make him buy the E10, if it has to be something from this brand and he needs its associated buzzwords. Unnecessary points of failure :argh:

Why does it have a display anyway?

What he's really looking for though, is a decent quality external soundcard. Not some goddamn hyped chinese gadget.

# ¿ Jan 5, 2012 02:39

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

dalp posted:

So would the correct setup be an external sounds card and separate headphone and speaker amps?

Any recommendations for entry level equipment especially for the external soundcard?

A (semi) professional external soundcard could offer a built in headphone amplifier.

But I went a bit overboard with my raging, in a way that's not really helpful to you or your friend. The sound cards I'm talking about are a lot more expensive and offer functionality that's interesting to me, but that he won't need. My main beef with the Fiio stuff is the way it's marketed, not necessarily the product itself. I don't like that there is an audiophile section in the market, muddying up the natural consumer/professional divide with untested or unproven claims of superior quality. And I don't like people revering devices in this section as if they're the holy grail or something.

But budget is a real issue too, as well as portability. Even looks might factor in. If it's used strictly with the laptop and headphones, he can't really go too far wrong with the Fiio E10 at that price. It's likely better than the built in soundcard at least. And even the E7 is a viable option if the intention is actually there to carry it around connected to an iPod or something.

Once the point in time is there that speakers and an amp come into play, I still would recommend looking out for something more suited to the job, like an usb-to-spdif box or something (if the amp has a spdif in). I think that's my main point.

# ¿ Jan 5, 2012 13:58

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

Uppa posted:

Any way I could connect an old powered subwoofer with a DIN plug (Klipsch Promedia 4.1 gaming system) to a modern receiver?

Standard subwoofer jack from the receiver to an 8-pin DIN plug in the subwoofer. I have a wiring diagram for the sub, which looks like only a single one of those pins is actually for the sub itself, and the rest are because the sub was also the amplifier for the 4 speakers that connected to it.

So, would it be as simple as disconnecting 7 of the 8 wires within that DIN and running the one active wire to the receiver, or would I be playing with fire mucking about with this?

This depends on whether your receiver has a "sub pre out" or only an amplified sub out. Not speaking from extensive experience, but I would expect the latter to be connected with speaker wire clamps, not a 'jack' as you mentioned.

With the sub pre out, you're good to go to just connect it, as this is a mono line level out. You might need an adapter, as it seems the Klipsch uses 3.5mm jacks and I assume the sub connection is RCA. You only need to connect the jack that's normally used for the front speakers.

You do not need to disconnect any wires in any case.

If you're still not sure, please post make and model of the receiver.

EDIT: terminology, link

Flipperwaldt fucked around with this message at 20:44 on Jan 23, 2012

# ¿ Jan 23, 2012 20:31

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

Uppa posted:

I have a sub pre-out on my receiver (Denon AVR-1612) that's RCA, yes. My problem is that Klipsch subwoofer which doesn't have any input but the previously mentioned DIN connector. Here's a picture (google images, but mine's the same) of the back of the sub in question. All of the wire connectors on the sub are to go out to the speakers - the only input is the DIN connector. No RCA, no 3.5, just that.

My mistake. From the pictures I googled, the control pod seemed to be a standalone volume control box that served as the cable you need (it's sold separately as well). That would have made this very easy. Upon closer inspection, it's intended as part of one of the front speakers you actually want to ditch. I don't know for sure what happens in that pod apart from volume control, so I can't really rule out skipping it is a bad idea.

You're right that it's possible to make your own cable, by connecting pin 1 to the tip of an RCA lead and pin 7 to the shield of the RCA lead. Assuming the diagram on the right is what we're talking about. And I assume that that is indeed a line level input. You could try that and I honestly believe you're not risking much by connecting it to a sub pre out, as long as you're careful with the levels as you test. But I'm gonna admit that I don't really know all these things.

It's a few assumptions too many to make this a confident recommendation, sorry about that :blush:

# ¿ Jan 23, 2012 23:30

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

Uppa posted:

If anything explodes you only have to pay half

Don't even joke about that, man

I've got a number of problems slightly below a hundred and neither the delightful presence of a wench nor a joyous abundance of moolah are part of that.

For what it's worth, once you get the thing out of storage, do take a look at how easy it actually is to detach the control pod and with the available cables in hand, judge whether it isn't just easier to make it work with the adapter I linked earlier. It's basically risk free as far as solutions go and a separate volume controller for a subwoofer can be useful. The only compromise seems a bit of cable mess and finding a place to put the control pod.

^{Yes, I flipped again, based on evilalien and taqueso's additional information.} :ssh:

# ¿ Jan 24, 2012 02:50

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

Ribsauce posted:

I am sure this is something simple, but I tried to google search it and I honestly cannot think of what terms I even need to use to find the product.

Basically my parents just moved into a house which has those speakers in every room on the first floor built into the wall. I think there are 7 of them. My dad has a receiver with Zone 1 and Zone 2. What we want to do is combine all 7 sets of speaker wire coming out of the wall into 1 set of wires to plug into his zone two output on his receiver. They are the standard red/black speaker wires of course. Is there some type of box I can plug all the wires into and get one (or two) set or wires to plug into the zone 2 output. Basically I need to do the opposite of split them.

Is this question even worded in a way which makes sense?

7 is an odd number, that would be weird for a stereo setup, even if extended.

A term that will help you search more effectively is speaker selector (switch) with impedance protection. The one I linked is just an example, I know nothing about it specifically. Some say they all influence sound quality with more than one pair of speakers active, I have no idea to what degree.

# ¿ Jan 24, 2012 17:19

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

Thom P. Tiers posted:

http://audinst.com/en/bbs/board.php?bo_table=HUDmx1&wr_id=5

I could hook up headphones via the Phone output in the front, my PC speakers via the RCA output in the back, and my 5.1 system via the optical output in the back (to my receiver in my TV room). I would then never have to switch my playback device within Windows 7 to change what I wanted to listen to. I could simply flip to front switch to toggle between headphones and PC Speakers/5.1 depending on which I had turned on.

There was a slight risk that the optical out would present itself to the system as a separate device, but from the screenshots in the manual, that doesn't seem to be the case. So it should work exactly how you want it.

It looks good on paper and the price isn't wrong. Should you order this, please report back. I'm looking for something I can recommend with exactly this functionality at around this price point.

# ¿ Jan 26, 2012 01:10

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

Kyle Hyde posted:

So I'm a student and as such I'm poor as gently caress. I spent all my disposable income on a cheap little 32" HDTV but holy crap the built in speakers blow, there's almost no low end and everything sounds tinny. I was thinking about picking up some cheap bookshelf speakers and possibly a sub, but the only audio out on the tv is some kind of optical out and a headphone jack. I don't have a receiver nor do I have the means to acquire one.

My question then is would it be possible to rig up some cheap 2.1 system through the headphone jack or something or am I basically hosed until I can get a receiver? Or, I suppose, last resort I could just get some headphones with a long cord since I mostly just game on it. I apologize if this is a dumb question.

It's certainly possible to connect some computer speakers to the headphone jack. There's the possibility of distortion with the tv turned up loud though. Otherwise it could be an acceptable temporary solution on nearly no budget at all. Like $30 for a used system.

If you can scrape together ~$100, I can't resist to point you in the direction of something like this though. Because you can find an old amplifier and a set of bookshelf speakers for next to nothing at goodwill or craigslist. I'd prefer the sound of that combination over any set of 2.1 computer speakers, regardless of price. I've been using the same combination of 70's speakers and 80's amp with my computer for the last 15 years. It's not as good or balanced as a $1000 set of studio reference speakers, sure, but other than that... never felt the need to upgrade, even though I've heard a lot of more expensive systems.

I'd say $100 for a system that can serve you throughout your student years is better than $30 for crap you'll want to replace in half a year. But that's likely just the opinion of someone on the internet with a different life and different needs.

# ¿ Jan 27, 2012 02:46

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

mik posted:

What are the alternatives to Audioengine A2's with a headphone jack? Am I better off getting an amp (such as the N22) and some passive speakers? Just looking for decent 2.0 for my home office computer.

Getting that amp will give you the benefit of being able to connect an mp3 player as well. Other than that, I don't really see the benefit. It's definitely not as easy as saying an amp+passive system is inherently better than powered speakers, if that's what you're asking. Going for the amp will leave you with the difficulty of not only choosing good speakers to go with it, they have to match the amp as well, to some degree, for optimal sound quality. Powered speakers are easier in that respect.

I also would like to point out that it's pretty pointless to invest hundreds of dollars in quality speakers if your soundcard is mediocre. That's something to keep in mind as well. Onboard soundcards can sound muddy and have poor stereo separation and $50 spent there will deliver noticably more tangible gains than deciding between say $300 and $800 speakers. There's no need to go overboard there, something like the Behringer UCA-222 (or 202) mentioned by japtor will do nicely. It even has a headphone out, expanding your options as far as speakers are concerned.

If you're just looking for a cheapish step up from typical computer speakers, look into the M-Audio Studiophile AV40s. Unless you already have a halfway decent soundcard or are planning to look into getting one, I personally wouldn't spend much more anyway.

If money's no object, get yourself a soundcard and a pair of KRKs. The bigger, the better. I love those.

Nothing wrong with the A2's though, that's not what I'm saying.

# ¿ Jan 29, 2012 17:13

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

ohkuipo posted:

So I think I'll be picking up a pair of Rokit 6s for like $200 to replace my old Logitechs. What's the best way to interface them with my computer? A DAC, external sound card, or what? I'd like something with a volume knob that looks nice sitting on my desk, so I don't have to mess with independent volume knobs for both speakers. Can this also do whatever processing magic needs to happen for optimal sound quality? I'd also like the option to expand with a powered sub in the future, if I feel like I need it.

Right now, I'm just using onboard sound with a Logitech Z-5300 set, so I'm still a little mystified as to what I should be looking into.

Tough call. There are products that offer all this at more than three times what you paid the speakers. Or are mac only. Or need firewire. Or aren't pretty at all and only offer 32bit Windows 7 drivers. Or are made by Creative. I assumed none of them would do.

I was about to give up my search, when I saw this after searching one last time for "big knob". Combine it with a soundcard like this and you're golden. You'll need a couple of odd cables and a couple of these as well (check the length). Bam, elegant, quality solution under $100.

The only thing left out is the possible addition of a subwoofer, but then I think that's an unnecessary addition to a pair of rokit 6's. There will be plenty of bass, you can only make them sound muddled and less clear with one. And optimal sound to me is a realistic flat response, so special processing magic (whatever you might have meant by that) isn't included either. Couldn't recommend something that would depend on software tricks to compensate for poor quality components or poor source material in good faith.

# ¿ Jan 30, 2012 02:33

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

Epiphyte posted:

Doing some preliminary googling, I've read some good things about the Pioneer BS41-LR. Is this something I could build on in the future?

Not commenting on the quality of these speakers, since I know nothing about them. Just wanted to show you that according to this link, yes, they have a matching, seperately sold tower speakers, center speaker and subwoofer to make a 3.1/5.1 setup. They're relatively new, so I'd expect them to stay in production for a while. That's of course hard to predict reliably. But having their names will allow you to do more research on availability yourself.

They look pretty neat and appear to be reviewed well, for what that's worth

# ¿ Jan 30, 2012 02:56

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

ohkuipo posted:

Here's my plan as it exists in my head now:
code:
[Computer] >TOSLINK> [DAC] >speaker wire> [SUB IN] [SUB OUT] >speaker wire> [SPEAKERS]
I think it's pretty ingenious. Am I going about anything wrong? Could I make any improvements?

edit: Actually, hm. I'm unsure of how to connect the sub (featuring standard wire terminal posts) to the speakers (featuring TRS, XLR, or RCA). Anyone have any recommendations on this?

I'm usually very weary of things aimed clearly at the audiophile market, but the Zero seems nifty and certainly isn't extraordinarily overpriced, so I don't think you're going wrong there. As far as the sub is concerned, I could go on about what I think you need and what not, but if you want one, you should buy one. It's as simple as that.

I do need to warn you about this, however:

[DAC > speaker wire > SUB IN] won't be possible because the DAC sends out a line level signal and the sub expects an amplified signal at the speaker wire connectors there.

[SUB OUT > speaker wire > speakers] won't work because what's passed through is an amplified signal and the speakers expect a line level signal.

So if you do this, the sub won't give a peep and/or you'll blow up your speakers.

You'd either need a sub that passes through a stereo line leve signal (those do exist eg. Dayton SUB-100, but it's a limited selection) or replace the DAC with an amp (with built in DAC) and your active speakers with passive speakers (which defeats about everything in the original plan). What would be neat, is a DAC with a separate line level output for the sub, but I wouldn't know how to search for that.

EDIT: Silly me, the matching KRK sub simply has the necessary ins and outs.

Flipperwaldt fucked around with this message at 16:04 on Jan 30, 2012

# ¿ Jan 30, 2012 15:32

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

chedemefedeme posted:

Maybe this is a stupid question but...why on earth would you bother to especially get a sub that has line level passthrough. Would you not just use Y cables? Unless these subs are modifying the signal inside (perhaps rolling off the lows via a crossover) would it not be exactly the same?

Maybe the crossover thing is the whole point. An honest question cause I mainly play with home theater stuff where we just do a dedicated line level channel for the sub.

Well, you would basically be splitting the signal in half, which wouldn't be good for the signal to noise ratio, as you'd have to amplify more after that. Don't know if I'm expressing myself 100% correctly, but, although it might work to a degree under the right circumstances, it's just not a proper thing to do.

The crossover thing would be a great argument, but I'd have to look up if the passthrough is actually affected in this specific case instead of just saying "Yeah, that too"

# ¿ Jan 31, 2012 03:57

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

taqueso posted:

I'm not really an audio guy, but I don't see why it wouldn't work electrically. The output driver is attempting to drive the line to a certain voltage. The voltage is "read" by the input on the other side of the line. Assuming the output is low impedance and the inputs are much higher impedance (this is almost certain), the driver will be able to drive the line just fine with 1 or 2 devices on the other end.

The levels of the signal will not be divided in half.

(PS I would love to be corrected if this is wrong.)

I was working from a sneaking suspicion, the knowledge splitting's not simply ok when working with speaker wire and a poor experience I once had with a Y-cable that came with a TV capture card in 1999. Nothing solid really, I'll admit that. I googled a bit and everywhere the question was asked I found someone agreeing with me and suggesting to do it the right way instead. Only one person I found said it wouldn't matter much when splitting the cable in two, but suggested it would become a problem when splitting it in 4 or 8. Which still lead me to conclude you'd be doing something you're not supposed to.

Maybe I shouldn't just go by anything I read on the internet, especially if I'm just looking to confirm my suspicions :blush:

If nothing else, I'll try to be clearer about where I'm working from experience and knowledge and where it's just lame-rear end, possibly deficient reasoning based on internet rumours.

Although I understood it wasn't the level (voltage) of the signal that would be divided by two, the part on the impedance and where to expect a high one and where a low one is where my knowledge was lacking. If what you say is true, there would indeed not be much of a problem, as far as I understand it now.

ohkuipo posted:

So, drat. Okay. How about this?

This way, I can avoid having to use the passive lines. The subwoofer I want has an 3.5mm stereo jack. Subwoofers with RCA seem very hard to come by in the $200 price range. The matching KRK sub with RCA passthroughs is twice the price. (And for half the wattage!)

My new uncertainties are the quality lost by splitting the cable, and the quality lost by using 3.5mm TRS. Am I worrying too much?

Taking all the above in account, that should work then. I saw the subwoofers you mentioned you were looking at at Amazon for around $300-$350, the KRK didn't seem like an enormous price hike in that context. Twice the price is a bit steep, of course. The wattage isn't all that important, however. For a normal sized living room, 50W could produce more than you would ever need. (I do have a passive subwoofer hooked up to a 50W amp) More Watts is better isn't a hard and fast rule in any case, of that much I'm sure.

Quality lost by splitting the cable, I'll say I don't really know at this point. If taqueso's right, nothing to worry about. Quality lost by using a 3.5mm TRS would be zero. Any considerations there would be at that front wouldn't matter much for a subwoofer anyway.

# ¿ Jan 31, 2012 16:03

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

ohkuipo posted:

As far as I can tell, I don't think there's any way to control the volume level in the signal before it's amplified from line level. Can anyone back me up on this?

Any (DJ) mixer would do that, although severely lacking in aesthetics, obviously. This thing I linked earlier still does exactly that too. Doesn't have te be used in the configuration I suggested then. Provided with the right cables, it will adjust the volume of any stereo line level signal. Just to confirm there is not not any way to do that. There are cheaper DACs out there if you don't need the headphone output, if you need to offset the cost somehow. I don't know what else to offer that doesn't just smack $400 on top of your budget.

I'll agree that it's annoying that there seem to be so little options for a solution for what seems something almost every active speaker owner would face. It's really odd.

Quite the bummer that the knob on the DAC only changes the heaphone output. Forgot to check that earlier. Very good that you didn't forget.

Flipperwaldt fucked around with this message at 09:39 on Feb 2, 2012

# ¿ Feb 2, 2012 09:34

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

Thom P. Tiers posted:

http://audinst.com/en/bbs/board.php?bo_table=HUDmx1&wr_id=5

So I did end up ordering this, and it works great.

Thanks for this! As a departure from what I would tend to recommend, this one isn't focussed on having lots of inputs for recording that wouldn't be used, but that add to the price anyway. Questions about something with a decent headphone output seem to pop up often enough too, so it's good to know this thingy.

big business sloth posted:

Is this the place I could get a recommendation?

If it doesn't work out here, there's a headphone thread you could try. There's some recommendations in the OP there, but I don't know if they fit your bill.

# ¿ Feb 2, 2012 21:06

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

Shogunner posted:

If I plugged my 3.5mm mic into a 6.3mm adapter that came with some headphones and plug it into my 6.3mm microphone jack, would it work?

Yes. Even with a mono (tip-sleeve) mic and a stereo (tip-ring-sleeve) adapter.

The only possible problem I can think of, is if the interface can provide phantom power for some types of condenser microphone. In that case, make sure phantom power is switched off. If this is a feature of your interface, it should be clearly documented in the manual, as this isn't very common as far as I know.

# ¿ Feb 5, 2012 15:24

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

Pursus posted:

Is there an easy to use program for ripping CDs into FLAC with CDDB naming support? I'm on XP.

I used to use Xing Audiocatalyst for MP3s, and it's pretty much exactly what I'm looking for. It was simple, lightweight, and it named the files for me. Unfortunately, I don't think even the new version supports FLAC.

I currently use Nero 7.11.10 with a FLAC plugin which works fine, but for some reason it just stopped reading CDDB tracklists one day and I've spent hours trying to fix it to no avail and I don't particularly want to upgrade Nero or flatten and reinstall my machine.

I tried the EAC & plugin method and that was completely unintelligible. So I guess that puts my skill level somewhere between "knows what plugin is" and "manually writes command line scripts".

Just tried it and can confirm MediaMonkey does this properly without needing extra plugins. Wasn't too difficult either. You can ignore the clutter of the interface by just starting the program, inserting a CD and pressing CTRL+SHIFT+R.

Take note of where it puts the files though, default is a folder in the root of the C drive. You'll only have to change this once, however.

:ninja:

edit: just noticed it uses FreeDB, not CDDB. Hopefully not too much of an issue. It's also pretty good at pulling information from Amazon, should the occasional cd not be found in FreeDB.

# ¿ Feb 6, 2012 18:16

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

souphanousinphone posted:

I've been trying to convert this .pcm file to .wav (or anything I can put on my iTunes) using Audacity, Reaper, a few other programs and every time I try, it's compressed to a 15-minute high pitched, sped up file. I tried messing with some of the settings (clearly I know nothing about audio) and all I managed was converting it to white noise. For anyone interested it's a recording of a Jeff Mangum show I really, really want in a listenable format so help would be much appreciated.

I'm guessing you're opening it at a sample rate of 44100 Hz while it was recorded at a lower sample rate. Try 22050, 11025, 8000 or even 4000.

8000 Hz is a typical sample rate for recordings made with voice recording options on mp3 players and cellphones, in my experience.

The white noise is probably from selecting the wrong bitrate (8 & 16 bit & their variations). Whatever option gave you the sped up sound is the right one.

I'm making a few assumptions here (like that the pcm file is a wav file without header), still hope it helps.

# ¿ Feb 12, 2012 03:59

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

Ramadu posted:

I guess I have a quick question. I have a fiio e7 and I was wondering what the fiio e9 does? I see it bundled with the with the e7 on amazon and it has an e7 dock but I can't figure out what it actually does. Can anyone tell me and if I should buy it?

Fiio website posted:

E7 special base, perfect realization USB connection with audio decoding DAC, also can to E7 charging

... which probably makes sense in chinese.

It's easiest to see the e9 as an external soundcard for your pc. It does pretty much the same thing as the e7 with the difference that it hasn't got a built in battery. In addition to that, it has a line out to connect it to an amplifier or active speakers. It also had a big knob on the front, if that appeals to you.

You should only buy it if you already needed a way to connect amp/speakers to your laptop and the slightly neater/more convenient way to recharge the e7 appeals to your ocd.

It's far from a must have to enjoy the e7 as it is, if that's your question.

Off topic, this caught my eye:

Fiio website posted:

Note: Due to the USB spec restriction on digital audio format. This device only support up to 48kHz / 16bits USB decoding function.

There is no such restriction, there are plenty of 96kHz/24bits usb soundcards, multichannel and all. I wonder why they would say that.

Fiio website posted:

Frequency response: 10Hz~100KHz

That also makes this a totally bullshit claim.

# ¿ Feb 17, 2012 13:42

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

Leperflesh posted:

So, I'm down to this: either the sub is bad, the cable is bad, or the Pioneer is bad, or I've misconfigured something. What I'm hoping for is advice on how best to troubleshoot this.

I could replace the cable, but I don't own another one long enough so I'd have to go buy one. Is there something else I could plug in to the LFE input on the sub to test it? I have all manner of computers, devices, etc. but I don't want to plug something in that would produce too much ouput or something.

I could also try plugging something else into the output on the receiver. I don't have any other speakers that run on RCA though - just some old speakers that use a pair of bare wires.

I could try any configuration anyone can suggest.

This bit in the manual seems relevant, I don't know if you tried all that already.

If so, you should be able to plug the subwoofer into anything marked Line Out. You can test the Subwoofer Pre Out of the Pioneer by connecting it to anything marked Line In (that's not on the Pioneer itself).

Since you have a tape player that probably has both Line In and Line Out and visual feedback for input levels, your best bet is using that with some blank tape you have lying around. You can't do much wrong with all that, provided you immediately stop when you hear distortion or see meters going into the red consistently. This will allow you to test the various cables and settings.

fake edit: Link to the manual should page numbers not match with the paper version you have.

# ¿ Feb 24, 2012 15:29

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

Leperflesh posted:

When I plug my tape player's output into the sub's input (same input as I used from the sub out on my receiver), and play a blank tape, I get a wonderful rumble. This is using the same RCA cable.

So I conclude that the sub is fine and the cable is fine, and my receiver is not sending out a signal on the sub out line.

Goddamnit.

I can work around this, of course, by routing my front speakers through the sub and using the sub's own crossover. But this means twice the length of speaker wire, and also probably means I can't use the receiver's own logic and various digital modes and whatnot for the subwoofer, right?

And does it mean the receiver is broken? I still have the box, but it's, um, I think nearly two years old at this point.

I'm guessing that the subwoofer and cable are indeed ok.

Gonna give this one more shot.

Going through the manual, step by step.
1. Your front speakers are connected to the terminals marked Speaker A Front L/R? (B (only) will not work with a subwoofer under any circumstance!)
2. Subwoofer is connected to Subwoofer Pre Out, on and at a reasonable volume setting.
3. On the front panel, press the SPEAKER button until SP>A is selected.
4. On the front panel, press SURROUND until the mode is DOLBY PRO LOGIC
5. In the Manual SP Setup, set the subwoofer to PLUS (for now)

Select TAPE as input and play a tape (with music on this time). Checking with an analog input is best now to avoid confusion over whether DTS is offered with nothing on the SUB channel.
Pro Logic is a fake-ish surround mode, by the way, that decodes the rear channels from a stereo signal, but doesn't alter what goes to the front speakers. We're using this to test whether the receiver forces 2.0 in pure stereo mode rather than 2.1

This should make the subwoofer make sound. If it still doesn't, there's an option to reset the Pioneer to factory settings (p74 of the manual I linked earlier), then try the same thing again.

If it still doesn't make any sound, you'll have to look at other options, like connecting the speakers through the subwoofer or having the Pioneer looked at by someone. Buying more speaker wire will likely be the cheapest option and normally reasonably satisfactory.

# ¿ Feb 25, 2012 12:24

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

Leperflesh posted:

The little "Digital" flashes (I'm not sure why it would since this is an analog input), the four-squares that mean Up Mix are on, and "Dir." is lit, which means auto surround is in direct or pure direct mode.

[...]mashing the STANDARD button is supposed to cycle through those various Dolby PL modes, but it just flashes "2-CHANNEL" at me and makes no other change.

edit: more info. I reset the system again, and after resetting but before messing with anything else, I was able to use the STANDARD button to select dolby pro logic modes. I think that it let me do this because I had not yet turned off surround speakers in the MCCAC setup menu.

Despite this, the setup menu test tones did not produce sound from the woofer, and playback from tape does not produce sound from the woofer.

Everything before your edit isn't conclusive that something is wrong, you could just be getting hosed in the rear end by a recalcitrant AI, I guess. The thing after the edit screams that something is not how it should be. It could be anything from a bug in the internal logic to a loose wire.

I can reminisce about when devices hadn't enough awareness to force their will upon you or look forward to the moment when I can root my amp and flash it with custom firmware. I hate it when an amp says: "I don't see no subwoofer, man! You must be mistaken! Wait, I'll adjust the settings myself... No. No! What did I say? There's no subwoofer! Stop touching me!" and there isn't poo poo you can do about that. That's just wrong.

Fatty Patty posted:

I assumed since it does not fit in any of my 3.5mm ports.

What matters is whether it really is thinner (hotdog down a hallway style, you'd really notice) or whether it doesn't work in/click into other devices because the headset has TRRS (extra ring for the microphone) where normal stereo 3.5mm jacks are TRS.

If it's really thinner, then, yes, you'll need the extra adapter. But it's also weird because that's different from what's listed on the Amazon page and different from what's required for straightforward iPhone compatibility.

So, if you say it doesn't fit in the other ports, does that mean you can rattle it around in the hole or not?

Flipperwaldt fucked around with this message at 22:44 on Feb 25, 2012

# ¿ Feb 25, 2012 22:33

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

Demostrs posted:

Could I have blown all the other parts in that channel

Yes. Yes, you could and likely have. Any other scenario seems extremely less likely.

Barnabas posted:

I bought a Samsung HDTV / 5.1 surround package about three years ago. [...] Is it likely a defective subwoofer? Something I've set up wrong? Can I just take the subwoofer out of the system and forget about it?

For useful feedback on any of these questions, you're going to have to be a lot more specific than that. Model numbers can generally be found on the back of things (the speakers, the sub, eventual receiver/amplifier/dvdplayer that was part of the package).

# ¿ Feb 26, 2012 00:16

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

Demostrs posted:

Notice how the right one is flat. Could this be the source of the problem? An improperly made circuit of sorts?

The tweeter working and the rest not seems indicative of a problem inside the speaker.

I don't know how difficult these speakers are to open, but you could go through the motions of checking for a loose wire in there. See if anything looks or smells burnt.

You can basically blow the woofers and then it's game over, or you can blow up the internal electronicky bits (like the crossover), in which case someone who understands a bit about electronics might be able to repair them.

Many years ago I built my own speakers from some instructions on the internet. I remember there being caps and all kinds of stuff that I imagine can blow up when overloaded on the pre-built crossover board I bought. That's about as far as my knowledge of these things goes.

In any case, if there's doubt about the wires, switch those from the right to the left speaker (and vice versa) to test (at normal levels). I assume you tried connecting the right speaker to the left speaker output earlier, to verify that by any chance it isn't a problem with the source. It's not likely, but, hey.

# ¿ Feb 26, 2012 03:30

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

Demostrs posted:

Edit: Aha holy poo poo I know what the problem was! The cables were loose in the right channel so they fell out when I first set up everything!

Hell, yeah!

I jumped to conclusions earlier, but I'm glad you persisted.

Important lessons were learned by everybody, I think, so not a waste of time.

# ¿ Feb 26, 2012 12:19

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

Edmond Dantes posted:

When I use the optical out, I see the receiver on the speaker switch to DTS/Dolby Digital/whatever the movie is encoded in; am I correct in assuming the the Z-680's handle the DAC part?

I also noticed that for games that don't have Dolby Ditigal I have to use the "direct" analog connectors on the back of the card, if I use the optical it just puts out stereo sound (even if I set the card to output 5.1). Following previous logic, in these cases it would be the soundcard doing the DAC?

And finally... if those two assumptions I made before are correct and I wanted to use my 555's, my best bet would be to output through the z-680's using the optical out and connect them to its receiver? (it has a headphone out).

Yes, yes and yes.

The headphone amplifier in the Z-680's could still be poo poo, I have no idea, but it's the shortest analog path and the Realtek is cut out of the loop, so with what you have available, that should be the best option.

EDIT:

Edmond Dantes posted:

I also noticed that for games that don't have Dolby Ditigal I have to use the "direct" analog connectors on the back of the card, if I use the optical it just puts out stereo sound (even if I set the card to output 5.1).

You should still use optical and set the z-680's with its effect button to Dolby Pro Logic II Movie. The surround effect is just as fake (should you care) and just as good or bad, but no messing with cables, soundcard settings and sound quality should be as good as possible due to circumventing the Realtek.

Flipperwaldt fucked around with this message at 22:11 on Feb 26, 2012

# ¿ Feb 26, 2012 21:59

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

DeathChill posted:

I am having some issues with my surround sound speakers and a new TV I just bought off my friend. The TV is a Samsung UN55C6300SF and I am completely unsure of how to hook up my speakers to it. There doesn't appear to be any audio out for component/composite cables and I don't know exactly what I'm supposed to do.

If by "component/composite cables" you mean audio cables with RCA connectors, then no, this tv hasn't got an audio out for them. It has a 3.5mm jack for that, as shown in the picture on page 9 of the manual:

In short, buying one of these will be the easiest solution. Unless you already have one of these lying around somewhere.

# ¿ Feb 27, 2012 05:04

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

Edmond Dantes posted:

And a curious question, shouldn't the "6ch direct" setting (using all 3 analog connectors) be "true" sorround, seeing as it's using each cable for a different set of speakers? Or is it the same as using the optical out and PLII movie setting?

Technically it could be uncompressed multichannel sound. This would give true surround using the 6ch direct mode, but would be downmixed or stripped to stereo over the optical output. This would make a difference when listening to a DVD-A or SACD or when mixing your own music/soundtrack in surround. In the case of a game, it doesn't seem all that likely to me. They generally use DTS or Dolby Digital, which transfers fine through optical. There are, I assume, other (lossy and lossless) compressed multichannel implementations, but they are far, far from being the rock hard standard powerhouses both of these two are.

If a game gives you stereo when using the optical output, it's most likely because the source material is stereo (2 channel, it could have some Dolby Surround information encoded in it and you wouldn't technically call it stereo anymore). And then any surround sound the analog outputs produce is a software upmixed version of that.

Is it the same as letting the speakers upmix the stereo to surround? There could be subtle differences in the percieved quality of upmixing, especially in how wide and/or separated it is and where the bass is routed. Upmixing, as always when creating more out of less, isn't a completely hard science, so you could like one version more than the other. As the processing in the speakers is "aware" of the limits of the satellites and the subwoofer and it's also apparently THX compliant, I'd prefer that to the relative unknowns Realtek does with it on principle. Having a shorter analog path and especially not having to mess with cables and settings all the time would be more decisive considerations to me, though.

And please don't misunderstand me when I call it fake surround. As far as those go, Pro Logic II is a very decent one.

# ¿ Feb 27, 2012 20:26

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

Edmond Dantes posted:

I noticed while playing Skyrim that if I selected 5.1 in-game and output through optical, it would just revert to "stereo", and honestly didn't think of switching to PLII; I just connected it with the direct analog, set the realtek to output 5.1 and worked like a charm.

Hm. Google Image Search tells me Skyrim has both the Dolby Digital and the DTS logo on the back, as I would expect from any recent-ish big budget game. That confused me a lot, the reverting to stereo shouldn't happen. A bit of further googling learns me that games typically have the audio on disk in compressed format to save space, but they often actually do output uncompressed multichannel audio. Apparently to save the effort of recoding it on the fly after mixing different sounds together or something. That's laziness, the cpu overhead can't be that high compared to the rest of the game. That's a big surprise to me and frankly I think it's stupid. I guess Dolby cares more for licence fees for the use of their logo than actual compliance.

So the way I explained it is an ideal world situation, but in actual fact the analog outputs give you a "truer" surround sound for games after all. It's completely :butt:

-backwards. poo poo like that makes me angry :argh:

# ¿ Feb 28, 2012 02:06

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

WizardShotFood posted:

I feel kinda stupid asking this but I recently grabbed a Sumvision Cyclone Micro 2+ mini video streaming box to use with mkvs/xvids etc, it was really cheap but works fine via HDMI for everything I've thrown at it.

However it wont allow 5.1 audio via the HDMI, and according to others it needs to be hooked up via coaxial which my receiver supports. But I have no idea which cable I'm supposed to use.

Heres a pic of the ports, the bottom half shows the back of the thing, and the coaxial port is highlighted on the right. I've tried a 3.5mm toslink adaptor but its way too big, the port must be about 2mm tops (theres a 3.5mm AV jack on the left for comparison).

According to this:

the right cable should have been included. If that's not actually the case, my best guess is that this adapter could be useful. That is, if that actually is a hole for a 2.5mm jack.

# ¿ Mar 5, 2012 23:16

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

Barry posted:

Should I sand down my walls (they're going to be painted anyway)?

I'm gonna recommend against sanding, as the dust will prevent sticking and would be very hard to remove adequately.

# ¿ Mar 17, 2012 00:17

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

Rollofthedice posted:

I'm thinking about buying a new sound card for my computer - preferably one that sounds great with both headphones and my Logitech X-540 5.1 speakers. Currently, I have an HT Omega Striker 7.1. Are there any better sound cards in the $100-200 price range? Currently, I have my eye on the ASUS Xonar Essence, but I'd love to have some advice before I buy anything.

That Xonar seems to lack a few outputs to connect to those speakers. Upgrading the card won't make the speakers sound a noticable lot better either, I think.

I'm not aware of any cards that offer separate analog 7.1 outputs and a high quality headphone amp.

If the headphone out of the speakerset's control pod is truly terrible, you could add something like the AudioInst HUD-mx1 to your current system (earlier in this thread goon Thom P. Tiers had a good experience with it). Beware that in your situation this would mean some juggling with software output settings every time you want to switch from speaker to headphone sound. Or alternatively you can set the headphone amplifier as default output device and unplug it (or possiby switch it off using a usb hub with an off switch) when you want to hear sound through the speakers, windows will handle the switching automatically from that point.

Can't blame you if you want to keep looking at ths point, though.

# ¿ Mar 17, 2012 14:11

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

Doh004 posted:

Sorry about this, don't know if it got overlooked. Any advice would be greatly appreciated

That's because the question has no simple answers with the information provided.

If you could post make and model of the tv, the soundbar and -why not- the speaker setup from your pc, I'll see if some general advice can be distilled from that. Links to pdf manuals for any of them would even be better.

Also an indication of what "not too much money" means to you could be helpful.

# ¿ Mar 17, 2012 20:18

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# ¿ Apr 24, 2024 08:53

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

Doh004 posted:

Sorry

TV: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004OOVIEU/ref=oh_o00_s00_i00_details (manual)
Soundbar: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16882005085&cm_sp=DailyDeal-_-82-005-085-_-Product (manual)
Computer Speakers: http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Surround-Speaker-System-Subwoofer/dp/B000JJM8XE/ref=sr_1_5?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1332012529&sr=1-5 (manual)
Desktop soundcard is built into the mobo. Has 7.1 and a line in option. http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1366/P6T_Deluxe

I'd like to spend a maximum of $150 on the subwoofer. If I have to get a receiver I'd be willing to do that.

No sweat, man. I did not, at all, intend to suggest you were some sort of rear end for leaving out these things in the first place, I was just trying to be helpful by explaining why your post got skipped over most likely. Apparently it's difficult sometimes to convey tone of voice over an internet forum, sorry for the confusion.

The bad news is the only way to get sound out of your tv is the optical out you're already using for the soundbar. This rules out a lot of the easy solutions, as most subwoofers that accept optical input are part of a 5.1/7.1 speakerset and as such don't offer a line level output to connect your soundbar to the analog way, never mind an optical loopthrough.

I thought simplest would be to forget about the soundbar and buy a 2.1 speakerset with an optical input, but at first sight these seem hard to find as well.

An amplifier (or receiver) is an option, but as most subwoofers are powered and the soundbar has its own built in amplifier, it wouldn't do any amplifying at all. It would be nothing more than a glorified D/A converter and signal splitter. Something like this would do the same thing, although the reviews aren't universally convincing. I didn't see a direct alternative, though. Anyway, either would give you the option to buy just about any separate subwoofer that tickles your fancy.

I'm not the right person to give you a concrete recommendation for a subwoofer with line level input and (if you don't opt for the splitter I linked) possibly a cheapish amplifier with optical in and line level outs (as in for active speakers), but I hope I helped clarify that that is what you're looking for. Perhaps other people could help fill in those blanks.

Flipperwaldt fucked around with this message at 23:00 on Mar 17, 2012

# ¿ Mar 17, 2012 22:58

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > For your listening pleasure: The quick audio questions megathread!

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