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Yeah I found those guys, that’s pretty much what I’m looking for in terms of options I just wondered if there were any other popular options.
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May 29, 2025 19:35
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Hi all. Are there any companies that still make speakers that only need the aux cord to run (like how headphones work)? I had a really old set that worked like that but I haven't been able to find any in the months since it died. Sound quality is not a big concern for me. Smaller is better so I can move it around the house more easily, but I am only really concerned with the cord requirement. I like not having to find a wall outlet every time I want to use my cd player in a different room. Thanks for the help.
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Jun 1, 2025 00:28
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Look up computer speaker sets, that’ll often have options like that still.
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Jun 1, 2025 00:32
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Yeah you're after passive 3.5mm speakers. They're not easy to find but also not impossible.
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Jun 1, 2025 10:57
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Bad Munki posted:Look up computer speaker sets, that’ll often have options like that still. Computer speakers usually have powered amp stages so those don't solve op outlet hunting problem. I would suggest a bluetooth speaker with aux in like the Anker motion+ https://www.soundcore.com/products/a3116011?ref=speakers.
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Jun 1, 2025 12:53
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Exactly what does DSD audio do, or how does it differ from other formats? Bitrate? latency? something else? A brief google gave me an AI summary and someone on r/audiophiles saying it provides "increased clarity" and "instrument separation" which is obviously bullshit.
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Jun 3, 2025 12:11
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DSD is just a lossless format like FLAC, WAV etc... It isn't inherently better than other lossless formats because there's multiple standards of DSD and those other formats can also match the sample rate of DSD in a lot of cases.
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Jun 3, 2025 12:28
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Cheers, that answers my question perfectly. Don't really need lossless. Maybe one day if I ever get back into mixing and set up ASIO
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Jun 3, 2025 12:39
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It works very differently under the hood. Where PCM audio has a fixed grid in time and bit depth, DSD clocks at an immensly high sample rate but modulates the density of the data points in time and instead of absolute depth values, it's more like "up a bit here, down a bit there". At the time it was conceived, there would have been some concern that making regular high quality DACs couldn't be done cheaply and that DSD offered a different set of tradeoffs for manufacturers, where you could lowpass less steep and from a higher frequency. By the time it came to market though, it was unabashedly aimed at audiophiles only, because economies of scale had come through for DACs and no one but Sony was interested in doing a whole top down tech refresh throughout the whole industry for mostly literally imperceptible advances.
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Jun 3, 2025 13:23
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DSD is the format for people who are upset they can't use green highlighters to "improve" the sound of their CDs anymore. Its "popularity" is because of its obscurity, limited support and expense [the license fees are still stupid high]. Moderately high resolution PCM [I'm looking for the exact numbers but it might be as low as 24/96] has a lower noise floor so if you convert it you're not missing anything. Also much like most super high resolution music the releases are almost all up-sampled from 16/44 or 24/48 anyway.
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Jun 3, 2025 13:54
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So it treats the data as relative values? Neat, that's interesting and I didn't really understand how PCM worked either until now. I get the impression that DSD is verging on "the map is the territory". Thanks thread (and wikipedia for follow-up info) It looks like Traktor and Ableton don't support DSD without some messing around anyways, so I'm just gonna drop the idea entirely
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Jun 3, 2025 14:00
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Fruits of the sea posted:So it treats the data as relative values?
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Jun 3, 2025 14:34
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Fruits of the sea posted:It looks like Traktor and Ableton don't support DSD without some messing around anyways, so I'm just gonna drop the idea entirely
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Jun 3, 2025 14:50
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Fruits of the sea posted:It looks like Traktor and Ableton don't support DSD without some messing around anyways, so I'm just gonna drop the idea entirely DJ software sometimes doesn't even like the formats it's supposed to read so yeah, good idea 
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Jun 3, 2025 15:58
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Fruits of the sea posted:Exactly what does DSD audio do, or how does it differ from other formats? Bitrate? latency? something else? 44.1khz/16bit redbook CD quality is and forever be completely sufficient for playback purposes unless you want to listen at SPLs so high guaranteed to give yourself hearing damage
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Jun 9, 2025 15:33
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High res audio is fun because every so often some well meaning but naive person will ask "well it can't all be completely useless, can it? I mean they made this huge deal out of it and all these glowing reviews"
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Jun 9, 2025 16:50
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At least we have atmos?
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Jun 9, 2025 17:15
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It’s a little late, but the only times I’ve preferred lossless are when I’m recording a live mix. The difference is probably marginal but I figure it’s nice to start with a good source before applying a ton of post-processing. Literally nobody would notice in a club setting but I just like to mess around with mixtapes at home with a nice set of cans  DSD seemingly being even less cooperative with DJ software than other lossless formats makes it kinda pointless imo. E: and I would sometimes draw jazz and blues from my library which wasn’t already clipped into oblivion Fruits of the sea fucked around with this message at 17:46 on Jun 9, 2025 |
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Jun 9, 2025 17:35
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Fruits of the sea posted:
I mean nobody would notice in a blindfold test either
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Jun 9, 2025 17:58
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Sorry if this isn't the correct place to ask this but it seemed like the best option. I have a general question about my current PC audio set up and was looking for improvements or recommendations, if any exist. I'll explain my current set up as best I can. I have an HDMI cable going from my PC GPU going to a Yamaha RX-V381 AVR and that has an HDMI cable going to a secondary basic 1080p monitor, which I thought the monitor being on was needed in order to get working hdmi audio but I just learned right now that the monitor being on is not needed to still get working audio. My Yamaha RX-V381 AVR is powering a pair of KEF Q150 bookshelf speakers through speaker wire and a Polk Audio PSW10 subwoofer through the subwoofer pre-out port. I'm bit confused as to how or why I'm getting working audio from the HDMI out from my PC despite my monitor not being on. Everything I read online made it sound the HDMI signal would not work without a video signal accompanying it. Even Windows 10 has accurately identified and named the source of the audio as being from the Yamaha instead of from the monitor when the monitor is on. Maybe it's still sending a video signal and I just don't know it? My question is, is there any easier way of getting this audio set up working that may save space by eliminating the Yamaha AVR? I saw some online recommendations for using an external amp or dac but I don't really understand what those are and the ones I looked at and tried to understand don't seem to support subwoofers. I realize while typing this out that it's probably best to just leave things alone as is instead of trying to further complicate things but would still be nice to hear from people who are smarter and know better than me. I have another question and it's regarding my headphones. I have a pair of Sennheiser 598SE with an antilion mod mic and I'll be connecting it to a new PC through the motherboard onboard audio port. Will that be good enough to drive/power the headphones? Thanks for any help.
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Jun 12, 2025 19:52
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Ryuga Death posted:Sorry if this isn't the correct place to ask this but it seemed like the best option. I have a general question about my current PC audio set up and was looking for improvements or recommendations, if any exist. The HDMI signal going to the AVR has video and audio signals. The AVR passes the full signal to the monitor (so if it was a TV you’d still be able to use the built in TV speakers if you wanted to) and also outputs the sound via your speakers and subwoofer. An AVR contains an amplifier and a DAC. The DAC takes the digital audio signal from your PC’s HDMI out and converts it into an analog signal, which is amplified by the amplifier section and drives the speakers. You could eliminate the AVR, run your monitors straight to your GPU, and use a much physically smaller 2.1 channel amp like a Fosi Audio unit or similar. You could run analog out from your computer’s headphone port, but those are often noisy, I would recommend an inexpensive USB DAC, even a cheap dongle DAC like the Apple/FiiO ones. The AVR probably has its benefits like a remote control, so you’ll have to look for gear that has similar features if you want them.
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Jun 12, 2025 20:12
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trilobite terror posted:The HDMI signal going to the AVR has video and audio signals. The AVR passes the full signal to the monitor (so if it was a TV you’d still be able to use the built in TV speakers if you wanted to) and also outputs the sound via your speakers and subwoofer. Thank you for helping. So for example, this Fosi Audio BT30D would work? Looking at the back of it, it has an R and L in. If I'm reading and understanding your post correctly (bear with me, I'm slow), I would need both an amp like the Fosi Audio thing that was linked AND a USB DAC such as the FiiO KA11? Would the whole process be: connect the KA11 to a USB C port on my PC then connect a 3.5mm to rca cable to the Fosi Audio's L/R IN ports? -------------- On the Yamaha AVR front, would it be possible to use the HDMI out of the GPU to deliver only audio to the Yamaha AVR and not have the AVR hooked up to any monitor/display? Would that cause any complications on the PC side of things, especially if I were to hook up multiple monitors directly from the GPU? Ryuga Death fucked around with this message at 21:14 on Jun 12, 2025 |
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Jun 12, 2025 21:06
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Ryuga Death posted:Thank you for helping. Yerp. Although that particular Fosi unit is pretty old at this point, and has been supplanted by a lot of other amps by a couple of manufacturers, including Fosi. Otherwise yeah, you got the idea. You could also look at something that has a headphone amp+mic input for your Sennheiser, maybe a preamp that contains a DAC if not a complete all-in-one unit that can also drive speakers.
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Jun 12, 2025 21:12
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trilobite terror posted:Yerp. Although that particular Fosi unit is pretty old at this point, and has been supplanted by a lot of other amps by a couple of manufacturers, including Fosi. Cool, that's a lot simpler than I was expecting. Really appreciate the help. I edited my previous post with another question but I'll just put it here again for clarity's sake. On the Yamaha AVR front, would it be possible to use the HDMI out of the GPU to deliver only audio to the Yamaha AVR and not have the AVR hooked up to any monitor/display? Would that cause any complications on the PC side of things, especially if I were to hook up multiple monitors directly from the GPU? From what I can gather from my google searches, the onboard motherboard audio should be good enough for my sennheiser 598s, they apparently don't require much to drive them so I'll just leave it there unless I'm totally wrong about that. On my current PC, I have my headphones hooked up to a sound card (I made some dumb financial decisions when I was younger) so that I could have two different audio streams. My headphones are mostly for VOIP stuff and the HDMI speaker out is for basically everything else. I'll sometimes switch over to headphones for listening to music but it's not often. The all in one unit you mentioned sounds good but wouldn't be a good fit for my needs. Think I'll continue using the Yamaha AVR until it dies and then I'll switch over to the amp and dac setup you mentioned to save on money and space. Ryuga Death fucked around with this message at 21:27 on Jun 12, 2025 |
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Jun 12, 2025 21:24
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that AVR is almost certainly going to outlast your PC. Good receivers made by companies like Yamaha will run for decades. If you don’t want to use HDMI, you could grab one of the aforementioned inexpensive USB C DAC dongles and a $10 3.5mm to RCA cable and run it that way too. Easy peasy. Goonspeed 🫡
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Jun 12, 2025 22:45
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Ryuga Death posted:
Your Yamaha is pretty much the best and most versatile option you can have if the space is not an issue. Since you only need stereo audio you should check if the motherboard has SPDIF optical output. It would provide perfect sound, you would avoid any possible issues with electrical interference and the AVR wouldn't show as a display on the computer. Digital coaxial would do the same expect the interference. Another option is an USB. Apparently your Yamaha is an actual DAC and you could use it as an USB soundcard. It also had Bluetooth audio. Maybe not the best option for your PC, but very convenient with a cellphone.
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Jun 12, 2025 23:29
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Ryuga Death posted:Cool, that's a lot simpler than I was expecting. Really appreciate the help. I edited my previous post with another question but I'll just put it here again for clarity's sake. If your motherboard has an optical/toslink/spdif audio output, I would just run that to your Yamaha AVR. Then you can avoid buying a USB DAC, a separate amp, etc. If you want to do the best value(not cheapest) for dollar ChiFi setup, the SMSL Su-1 DAC is pretty much perfect, and the Fosi Audio V3 Amp is an excellent combo. The Fosi TB10D Amp is also good if you prefer a Treble/Bass control on the amp.
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Jun 13, 2025 01:45
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even a cheap SGM8262 dongle like the Jcally JM20 Max that I got for $20 has enough power to directly drive my HD650 (300 ohm), so that is also definitely more than good enough for far less demanding USB-to-unbalanced stereo line out duty my desktop setup has a Topping D50 III only because i need balanced line outs and LDAC BT in that i can stream from my phone with. This particular DAC is also just obsoleted by the new DX5 II that also adds PEQ to all inputs and as well as an insanely powerful balanced + unbalanced headphone amp Palladium fucked around with this message at 11:27 on Jun 13, 2025 |
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Jun 13, 2025 11:20
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Saukkis posted:Your Yamaha is pretty much the best and most versatile option you can have if the space is not an issue. Since you only need stereo audio you should check if the motherboard has SPDIF optical output. It would provide perfect sound, you would avoid any possible issues with electrical interference and the AVR wouldn't show as a display on the computer. Digital coaxial would do the same expect the interference. Mederlock posted:If your motherboard has an optical/toslink/spdif audio output, I would just run that to your Yamaha AVR. Then you can avoid buying a USB DAC, a separate amp, etc. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like my mobo has any of those options. 
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Jun 13, 2025 13:59
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The 3.5mm main L/R might double up as a digital out.
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Jun 13, 2025 20:09
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EL BROMANCE posted:The 3.5mm main L/R might double up as a digital out. I checked the manual for that mobo and unfortunately it doesn't , it does do 7.1 audio though 
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Jun 14, 2025 00:14
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Oh I didn't know they could be used like that. How does a microphone port suddenly get turned into an audio out port?
Ryuga Death fucked around with this message at 00:25 on Jun 14, 2025 |
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Jun 14, 2025 00:22
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Ryuga Death posted:Oh I didn't know they could be used like that. How does a microphone port suddenly get turned into an audio out port? Multiple traces to the connector, with a control mechanism to choose whether it connects to the Mic ADC, or the audio out
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Jun 14, 2025 00:27
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I love it when goons deliver
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Jun 14, 2025 00:38
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Ryuga Death posted:Oh I didn't know they could be used like that. How does a microphone port suddenly get turned into an audio out port? realtek audio chips supports jack sensing and signal switching for a long time already
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Jun 14, 2025 01:49
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Sorry, I have another question though this might be more PC focused. As previously stated, I have a 2.1 setup from my Yamaha AVR with audio delivered to it through the 5070ti's HDMI. Since I just installed Windows 11, should I continue to configure the Windows sound/speaker settings as Stereo and setting both speakers as Full Range speakers?
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Jun 14, 2025 14:14
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Ryuga Death posted:Sorry, I have another question though this might be more PC focused. As previously stated, I have a 2.1 setup from my Yamaha AVR with audio delivered to it through the 5070ti's HDMI. Since I just installed Windows 11, should I continue to configure the Windows sound/speaker settings as Stereo and setting both speakers as Full Range speakers? Yes and yes. You want the full range signal sent to your receiver since you have a subwoofer. The receiver will handle crossover duties sending the bass to the sub and hi-pass to the speakers
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Jun 14, 2025 17:36
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trilobite terror posted:Yes and yes. You want the full range signal sent to your receiver since you have a subwoofer. The receiver will handle crossover duties sending the bass to the sub and hi-pass to the speakers Thank you. Another question, in Windows sound settings, the default quality format for my speakers went to 16 bit 48khz (DVD Quality). Should I leave that alone or change it? I noticed for my headphones that are connected just by the back of the mobo defaulted to 24 bit 48khz (Studio Quality).
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Jun 15, 2025 15:33
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Ryuga Death posted:Thank you. Another question, in Windows sound settings, the default quality format for my speakers went to 16 bit 48khz (DVD Quality). Should I leave that alone or change it? I noticed for my headphones that are connected just by the back of the mobo defaulted to 24 bit 48khz (Studio Quality). How is it connected? If you have the option to play at 24 I don’t see why not, but also you prolly won’t notice a difference.
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Jun 15, 2025 21:28
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| # ? Dec 16, 2025 08:44 |
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This is kind of an audio question, kind of an iphone question. I'm going to start here though. My dad has a lot of hearing loss. Even with hearing aids, he has trouble understanding what's being said on a phone's speaker audio. So he got a bluetooth speaker (I don't know what kind, probably a cheap soundbar). He can hear a lot better using that, but for whatever he sounds different to me if he's using the speaker, vs just the phone. No, he's not speaking into the soundbar (I asked), but the audio of his speech coming from my phone sounds much different. I don't know why it would sound different at all - the bluetooth speaker is for output, not input. The phone is handling input both ways. As an experiment, I tried it with my own soundbar and the same thing happened. Again, the problem isn't the sound quality coming from his soundbar, it's sound quality for me coming from my phone if he's using a soundbar to listen. I hope that makes sense. So the problem to solve is either a way to improve the sound quality coming from a phone, or to somehow avoid this problem of sound quality for person b if person a is using a bluetooth device. Any help appreciated, thanks.
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Jun 15, 2025 22:13
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