deviant. posted:

Pull a single hair from your head. Now split it.

Now I'm sure that I have enraged the audiophiles, I can tell you quite honestly that the differences between SACD and DVD-A compared to plain Jane CD audio are slim. The only nice thing is that most of the hi-res discs are remixed and remastered with musicality rather than sheer loudness in mind. What that means is that you'll get a less "bright n' boomy" presentation and there seems to be a LOT less compression/maximization. So the improvement in sound quality has a lot more to do with production values than the extra data. It's nice, but is it worth buying into two formats that are essentially dead?

I can't say that I'm convinced, and I've owned a DVD-A player for almost five years. In that time I've had the dubious pleasure of waiting for decent titles (and sometimes ANY titles) to come out, higher prices and poor availability. All this for a difference in sound quality that would be miniscule in a studio listening enviroment with a direct A/B comparison. There are much better values for your money. If your listening room is untreated, buy some basic acoustic treatments to damp spurious echoes and bass nodes. It's a one-time (and relatively low cost) investment that works with all the music you already have and will have. It's a far bigger difference in sound quality and a far better expenditure of your hard-earned money.

deviant. posted:

No it isn't. You'll also note that I never said there isn't a differnece. It's just that the most audible differences are likely due to the different mixes and masters and are really not worht the asking price.

BAN ME PLEASE posted:

Anybody?

shrike82 posted:

Do USB/DACs have a big impact on the listening experience? I listen to my iTunes collection through my Macbook and Grado SR80s. Browsing through head-fi and seeing them rave about USB/DACs, I wonder if I'm missing out on something.

What do you guys think? Are $200-500 USB/DACs worth the money?

Thermopyle posted:

I'm planning out a home theater system and I have some questions about in-wall speakers.

I'm considering using some in-walls, but I'm wondering if at the same price level stand alone speakers are better quality? That seems possible to me since the manufacturer controls the size of the speaker box...

Anyway, I'm not a huge audiophile or anything, so as long as it's not a big difference, that probably doesn't matter.

What does matter is that I can find some "best speakers" lists like the one at cnet, but they don't usually include in-wall/ceiling speakers, so I have no idea whats good. I'm going to do a 5.1 or maybe 7.1 system (doesn't matter if sub is in wall or not), and I'd like to spend less than $1000. Closer to $500 would be even better.

It'll mainly be for movies/TV, but I'd like something loud enough that I can crank up for music when guests are over.

TenementFunster posted:

i bet she made you put the TV over the fireplace, too

Narwhale posted:

At first I thought you had either a really tiny tv or a huge Bose Soundwave radio.

Narwhale posted:

I meant that your table thing looked like a giant one of these:


Click here for the full 1800x804 image.

Thermopyle posted:

Well...poo poo. I can't talk the wife into standalone speakers for my home theater. It's got to be in-wall/ceiling. Many questions:

• I realize the ideal would be to have them at ear level surrounds, but just how non-ideal would it be to have them in the ceiling?
  
• Can you get in-ceiling speakers that are ... umm ... I think it's called timbre-matched to my front in-wall speakers?
  
• Recommendation on which in-wall/ceiling speakers to look at?

(This is the receiver I'm considering)

Thermopyle posted:

Since no one had any suggestions for in-wall speakers, can anyone recommend a good site I can find some people who have some recommendations?

It's just so hard to find any objective information on these things...

illcendiary posted:

Hey guys, got some questions for you.

For the last two or three years (poor college student) my audio setup has been an old rig that my parents bought when we built a house 15 years ago. It is an Onkyo TX-SV313Pro receiver with two Sony SSU6030 floor speakers. The equipment, as I understand it, was pretty solid at the time of purchase (1994), and it has served me well up until this point.

My parents are in town this weekend, and last night my dad bought some audio equipment off some dude in a van. It is a Paramax P-510 system, and I am more than sure it is a piece of garbage (I'm really glad my dad only paid $100).

With that having been said, would I be better off using this garbage system, or the old Onkyo system? The Onkyo setup is kinda broken (one of my friends dropped the receiver, and the motor that turns the volume knob no longer works, so I can only raise the volume manually), and the P-510 at least works with a remote.

Or, even better, what's a good receiver that I can save up for and buy? I'm intriuged by the Emotiva ERM-1's that got linked to earlier in the thread, but they are low-impedance and I'm pretty sure my receiver is 8-ohm minimum (maybe 6, not sure). I'm looking to buy two ERM-1's, a nice sub, and a receiver eventually. What are my options?

If it matters, my audio sources are a Directv receiver, an Xbox 360, a PS3, and a computer. Thanks for the help.

johndis posted:

I'm looking to get a pair of portable USB-powered speakers to carry around with my laptop, making it easier to watch movies on the go! I saw these on Amazon and Newegg (they were well rated) and thought they could be pretty nice: http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-970155-0403-Notebook-Speakers-Black/dp/B0009WKBGC/ref=sr_1_24?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1255620621&sr=1-24

But I'm not sure if there are maybe some more obscure brands out there that might be better sounding or perhaps cheaper for the same quality. Anyone know of any other decent USB powered speakers?

vanilla slimfast posted:

General consensus around here is that Bose is crap. Someone else asked a similar question a little earlier in the thread and some other brand/models were suggested

Agreed posted:

I have a multi-thousand tuned monitoring rig hooked up to my studio PC. I have Sennheiser HD-650s and a nice headphone amp to power them. I know what audio is supposed to sound like. Hell, I even started the headphone thread sticky, in a past life

However, for this application, none of that fidelity crap matters and I don't especially care.

I want to get a decent sounding but not very expensive stereo setup for use with my new TV. I figure Stereo is the way to go here because it seems like the best bang for my buck if I'm stuck with a budget. I refuse to get a garbage HTIAB setup, but I don't have to have the same kind of sound quality that my studio rig offers. I want good enough, and nice and powerful/loud. Not like "900W without any mention of RMS figures" but actually good sound and projection. I've decided against a subwoofer-enhanced setup even though this will be used to listen to home theater stuff, because at the moment I can't afford to do that whole thing right and half-assing it isn't cool with me. A stereo configuration will be useful later when I have the money to setup a real 5.1 configuration for my home theater, so that's what I've decided on.

I've had good experienced with Sony's consumer-level gear in the past, and right now this is what I'm looking at. All I need from you guys is a general sense of whether this is a decent setup for my current needs. Considering the price is competitive with the more expensive stupid boombox things at Wal-Mart, and reviews are generally positive (though not generally trustworthy, granted), this is sitting well with me, conceptually. However I wanted to get your opinions before I pulled the trigger.

1. Sony STR-DH100 2-channel receiver for ~$130

2. Sony SSF-7000 Floor-Standing 4-way Speaker with 8" Woofer for ~$230

Clearly I'm not expecting miracles in the sound quality and fidelity department, but I would like pretty good sound (basically, I want it to completely walk on my HDTV's built-in speakers, which it should have no problem doing). Of course they don't publish meaningful frequency response specs or anything like that, but reviews suggesting that it sounds good without a sub are encouraging, and it seems to offer some decent equalization options which should make it easier to tune, roughly, to my room and preferences. Like I said, for critical listening I'm hooked up already. I just want this to have a fun, punchy, sound that can perform well for games and movies, on a budget.

Thoughts? I appreciate any input you can offer.

Salvor_Hardin posted:

Here goes: I want to get a nice sound system going to compliment my HDTV and PS3. In my present situation I can probably only accommodate a 3.1 set up with tower speakers on either side of the TV. But I want the possibility of upgrading to 5.1 or 7.1 later when I get a bigger living room.

I am new at this so I suppose I am looking for recommendations on what receiver and speakers I should look into. I plan on using optical as the source.

Agreed posted:

If I were in the area I'd take you up on it. As it is, I decided to go with the higher end one in the same series (the $80 more one that has similar THD and output specs, but with 3 HDMI inputs that carry audio, 4 optical inputs, etc.). It looks like it has some features that specifically interface well with the PS3, too, which as the heart of my DVD/Blu-Ray experience should make it a good fit.

Maybe I'll end up building a low-mid range HT setup around this after all, I don't know. But this gives me the connectivity I need and the options I want at a price that I can swing right now - without ending up with garbage. HTIAB just don't (doesn't?) at all seem worth it, I'd rather have a project to put together starting with a pretty decent stereo pair than get a whole lot of channels of mediocre audio that won't hold up over a couple years anyway.

Agreed posted:

Indeed. Apologies for having doubted you in the slightest.


Well, my studio setup is stereo (with an active crossover feeding a linear sub everything below 80hz) and 'til now my wife and I have enjoyed it for watching movies and TV shows - entirely aside from my audio work I just ended up getting a bit of a windfall this holiday season and after paying down some debt I decided we could use a real TV. Which of course led to me deciding we could use a real source for both movies and games and the PS2 just wasn't doing it into the 1080p Samsung HDTV... And after that, entirely on my own (for which I will hopefully not catch any flak this evening), deciding that if we're going to have quality picture fed by a quality source, it just won't do not to be stuck with the 2x10w speakers in the TV. I hope my wife shares my viewpoint, otherwise I'll be since they're already in the mail.

Now off to take some pictures of various guitar pedals and sell them. Santa needs to break even this holiday season. Thanks for your advice, guys.

Agreed posted:

Pibborando San posted:

From all the research I've done, I think this 4-ohm fear is not as cut and dry as you're making it out to be. Firstly, many speakers that are rated at 8-ohm nominal do drop down to 4-ohm and below at certain frequencies. Secondly, I've read many reports of people using their Emotiva speakers with Onkyo receivers without any problems.

You should only be worried if 1) the 4-ohm speakers you want to use are really inefficient (the ERM-6.2 is 89db (2.83volts @ 1 Meter), which is above average efficiency), 2) you have a huge room or plan on playing them REALLY REALLY LOUDLY, or 3) only have space for the receiver in a tight, poorly ventilated area.

As long as you've got some space around your receiver and aren't trying to achieve rock concert level decibels, you'll be fine.

Agreed posted:

DrBouvenstein posted:

I've got an iPhone, but I have a small problem. When I have it anywhere near my desk (like, on the desk or within 3') I get interference in my speakers. Not all the time, only when the phone is getting data. But that means every call, every text, every email, etc... causes the interference. It sounds like this:


So currently I'm forced to keep my phone several feet away, which is annoying when I have to actually answer it.

My speakers are fairly old, from late 2002. They're a Creative 5.1 system. If I get a new system that connects with an optical or digital interface, will I still get this problem? Near as I can tell, it's the speakers themselves causing the issue, not the connection (and besides, AFAIK only the connection to the subwoofer/"controller" or whatever is digital, the individual speakers are still regular wire.)

So am I going to have to pay out the rear end for some sort of crazy, Faraday-caged isolated speakers, or just deal with it and stop being a puss?

Siliziumleben posted:

All the CMOY and PA2V2 results on ebay run on batteries, which is out of the question since I wear my headphones pretty much all day.

andy17null posted:

I'm setting up a college recording studio. I have (inactive? non-active? they aren't powered) monitors that I would like to hook up. Can I use a Behringer Powerplay Pro-8 headphone amp to power them? If not, what should I use?

Sjurygg posted:

I'm in the market for an LP player, finally, and right now my choices narrow down to a nicely used Technics 1210 Mk2, and a demo-used Nad C555i for approximately the same price. Which one should I go for? I've never bought my own vinyl player, but based on my own limited technical insight I'm inclined towards the 1210. I'll play a wide range of music on it, but I'll definitely enjoy it most if it works well with noisy music. Suggestions welcome!

Edit: Seems like the Rega P1 is in the same price class, and I've had this recommended to me, but I didn't bring up the possibility of a 1210 during that discussion.

Creature posted:

I'm pretty sure I saw something posted about this somewhere on SA, but as I can't remember what it was called or where I read about it, searching is somewhat difficult.

I'm looking for a system that an iPod can be plugged into, but which bypasses the iPod's DAC. It's to play lossless audio in better quality than the iPod is able to output.

Does anybody know what I'm talking about? I'm not entirely sure, myself.

thehandtruck posted:

I moved my speakers around and I'm somewhat sure they sound different than before. I've heard that mixing up the + wire and - wire can make things sound different, is this true? (Checking is difficult because of where they're located so I'd rather not if it doesn't matter.)

Bigass Moth posted:

My wife has an XM receiver in her car and she wants to use XM service in the office. What are some good portable receivers that she can share service with? I looked at Squeezeboxes, are they worth it?

vanilla slimfast posted:

The problem is that you're converting between analog and digital. A cable adaptor alone won't do it.

You need a DAC (digital audio converter), which is what those $100 boxes are