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Audiophile new to computer audio would like a little advice

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hey, foobar and asio aint that hard... didnt take me too long to figure out, why should it for anyone 😛

the jumpers do not have to be moved; that was a subjective observation from the guy who wrote the review which i provided the link with in another thread. what J3/J4 jumper affects is just the front output, not the one Wolfson DAC is playing on.
 
Originally posted by: Nebor
Originally posted by: VanillaH
if you do get the chaintech card make sure you use the 'high sample rate 2channel' mode, otherwise you wouldnt be using the high quality wolfson DAC. by doing so you are losing some analog functionality, nothing an audiophile could care less about tho 🙂

cmon people lets get real. the guy needs a speaker he could use at work, doubt he can crank it up all the way if he gets a klipsch. if you dont wanna go headphone route just get swan m200s, they wont dissapoint (klipschs are no match)
Click to expand...

The chaintech also requires some jumpers to be moved, I believe.

And I seriously doubt this guy is going to notice the difference between 48khz CDs and 44.1 khz CDs. Besides, even if he gets a card that doesn't do hardware remixing like the audigies, he's still going to have to wrestle with foobar and ASIO output to circumvent Kmixer with any othe rcard.
Click to expand...

I don't understand something.

So you said that he would not notice the difference between 44.1khz cds and 48khz CDs. Were do you buy these 48khz music cd's from?

I thought that 16bit/44.1khz cd's were the standard for audio cds and that the only stuff you can get nicer would be DVD-style 24bit/96khz dvd music.

I also thought that ASIO was just for low-lantency connections between devices, which is useless for music listenning, or is it just to by-pass the kmixer stuff? And then why would the kmixer cause anything bad to happen?

Also the last question is that on your audio card when you play CDROM's does it come out at 44.1khz when you do digital output, or does it do 48khz or 96khz output? And if it does 48khz/96khz/192khz and then how is that different from what the audigy does?
 
I'm not much an audiophile, but what I do, is connect the speakers in my room my computer. Instead of getting specifically made computer speakers, I find it best to just plug your home theater set up directly into your computer. This has worked wonderfully for me and its cheap.
 
Being into audio myself, i would then suggest monsoon speakers. They are very directional and do not do high volume well, but have great sound for the price. Also not overpowering bass. I would think perfect for an office. Besides I think most here do know what they are talking about, just some confuse money and size with good ears. Altec lansing are another good choice, but bass is exaggerated usually and upper mid tends to crap out on their more ecconomic lines. Keep away from logitech, fantastic gaming or boom box , but not the most accurate sound. Klipsch are ok, but pricey and a bit tinny sounding to my ears. Have I insulted everyone yet with my unqualified opinion (as a lot of this is personal taste). I tried to buy one of those mb's with a tube, but could not find one locally. I find the audigy 2 oem is fine, but have not tried any of the more audio orientated cards.:music:
 
When the promedia 2.1's came out. Monsoon Planar speakers were recommended. Cheaper "I think" but just as accurate reproducing sound and music. Though if dynamics and sheer power are what you want, it's probably not it.
 
Klipsch is good for rock music and movies. The promedias follow the same design as their regular speakers. And the sats are virtually identical to the quintets.
 
I run 2 Polk Audio Monitor 7B and an Adcom GFA 535II (modded). I run the signal from my Audigy2 directly to the amp. It's a good setup. The speakers are in the corners of the room, about six feet from the front of the desk. It's hard to beat the clean power from the amp, and no desktop speaker will likely compare to a "true" speaker, even these smaller ones.

Save your money for real things, and use your home stereo for the computer. Now all you need is a good source card. Audigy2 cards cost around 65-75 dollars around the web.
 
Originally posted by: Quadophile
VanillaH,

To each his own!

I am not interested in a stupid flame war.
Click to expand...

no, i am not tryin to start some ish either, i was merely stating i did recommend in my reply to get an amp to go with HD-580; as a head-fi reader you seem to identify yourself as, you should be well aware of the fact there is a plethora of amps that work great with generic consumer grade sound cards. of course i would be damned to hook up my senns directly to any sound card.

My appologies if you took an offence in my reply. i just felt you were implying i am maintaing something i have not tried on my own, which is not the case - my zen is up and running 24/7 right up there with my computer. no hard feelings, thats what i had a smiley face for! 😛
 
VanillaH,

In normal circumstances folks would invariably come back with a vengence, you did not, I appreciate that very much. No hard feelings at this end as well. I look forward to bumping into you on this site again.

Happy Listening!

PS: I use a custom made hand built headphone amp with my HD-580's 🙂 When I get tired of listening to the headphones I power up my Quad and enjoy it with LS3/5a's (Chartwell circa 1978) ocassionally switching on the REL Strata III's
 
Originally posted by: drag
Originally posted by: Nebor
Originally posted by: VanillaH
if you do get the chaintech card make sure you use the 'high sample rate 2channel' mode, otherwise you wouldnt be using the high quality wolfson DAC. by doing so you are losing some analog functionality, nothing an audiophile could care less about tho 🙂

cmon people lets get real. the guy needs a speaker he could use at work, doubt he can crank it up all the way if he gets a klipsch. if you dont wanna go headphone route just get swan m200s, they wont dissapoint (klipschs are no match)
Click to expand...

The chaintech also requires some jumpers to be moved, I believe.

And I seriously doubt this guy is going to notice the difference between 48khz CDs and 44.1 khz CDs. Besides, even if he gets a card that doesn't do hardware remixing like the audigies, he's still going to have to wrestle with foobar and ASIO output to circumvent Kmixer with any othe rcard.
Click to expand...

I don't understand something.

So you said that he would not notice the difference between 44.1khz cds and 48khz CDs. Were do you buy these 48khz music cd's from?

I thought that 16bit/44.1khz cd's were the standard for audio cds and that the only stuff you can get nicer would be DVD-style 24bit/96khz dvd music.

I also thought that ASIO was just for low-lantency connections between devices, which is useless for music listenning, or is it just to by-pass the kmixer stuff? And then why would the kmixer cause anything bad to happen?

Also the last question is that on your audio card when you play CDROM's does it come out at 44.1khz when you do digital output, or does it do 48khz or 96khz output? And if it does 48khz/96khz/192khz and then how is that different from what the audigy does?
Click to expand...

CDs are 44.1khz standard, Audigy cards do hardware resampling to 48khz. They do that on digital out or analog out.

ASIO is low latency, but it as well as Kernel Streaming circumvent kmixer, which resamples all sound to 44.1khz.
 
i would personally go with the chaintech envy24ht-s card. it only costs you $25 from newegg. if you want a better quality card, i would recommend the maudio audiophile 24/96 ($150). it has SPDIF and rca gold plated outputs. it also has a very mature ASIO driver and the card itself is of better than consumer level quality.

I use ASIO for professional audio production in Cubase SX and Nuendo. It was a standard developed by Steinberg (history on their webpage). as for being an 'audiophile' dictionary.com defines it as -A person having an ardent interest in stereo or high-fidelity sound reproduction.

i dont know why people spend so much money on stereo hi-fi equipment when they can go to the pro-audio department and purchase studio monitors for the same price.

i've got a motu 828 mkII (www.motu.com) and event tr8 studio monitors. for quiet monitoring i use a pair of sony mdr-7506's running through an ART headamp.

good luck with your hunt!
 
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