Hey Sup Forums I'm thinking about starting a new recurring thread dedicated to speakers, amplifiers, DACs, soundcards, connectivity, stereo, home theater/surround sound. This thread is intended for anyone with zero audio experience to ask questions, for anyone who's not certain about a purchase, and even for Schiit stacking audiophiles.
If this thread gets a good response, I'll work on keeping one in the catalog. I know there's already /hpg/, but this is intended to cover the more broad topics of home and car audio. Headphone discussion is welcome here, especially in relation to amplifiers.
What's the difference between tube DACs and normal ones? Does the former actually have a different sound or is it just because it looks neat?
Owen Martin
Pretty sure it's just for looks. Tube amps can have a (good) impact on sound because it add something to the analog input. A DAC has a digital input, so the only appropriate output is an analog output that matches that input as closely as possible
Keep it up OP, not everything belongs in /hpg/
Sebastian Russell
The tube is used presumably as part of the output amplifier stage. Or they could be going full stupid and using valves for logic.
The ability of listeners to perceive a difference in sound even though the stimulus has not changed is not to be underestimated. When tube amplifiers do change the sound, it synthesizes new components as well as compression of the waveform in larger amounts.
The job of the D-A converter is to reconstruct a band-limited signal with minimal error.
Lincoln Edwards
quality topic
Im looking for a set of speakers to add to my desktop. Had a pair of little nothings for a while, but Im trying to turn my desk into more of a media station.
Is powered speakers better for a beginner? What's the cost/quality benefit of powered vs not?
Juan Bell
i built this system around a 2496 digital crossover and room eq 10 years ago
every channel is amped (amps built by me) and filtered seperately... its an old photo but it showed the concept
It was amazing futureproofed. when i built it had only 16bit cd player driving it... now i have a computer with 2tb of 24bit flac and DSD i resample to 24/96 on the fly with jriver media centre... its like a friggen hologram
AMA
Charles Martin
Depends, powered speakers can be nice depeding on what they feature. Buying stereo components gives you the opportunity to upgrade and add.
Whats your budget?
Samuel Perry
oh shit user, quality listening center.
Whats the sub in the middle? and how has your set held up over the years? You consider swapping anything out?
No, absolutely not. I'm a minority so I can't be racist.
Mason Price
>Is powered speakers better for a beginner? It saves you the trouble of looking for a amplifier to deliver current to the speaker. When looking for passive speakers, you have to consider the minimum impedance of the speaker. The speaker with the lowest minimum impedance will in general represent more challenges for an amplifier, as it has to supply more current per unit voltage. Some of the details are alluded to in the link in the OP.
One of things headphone folks usually don't appreciate, or perhaps are not made to comprehend, is that lower impedance loads are challenging. An audio amplifier supplies a constant voltage from 20-20kHz, but is not necessarily able to supply current required. The voltage then sags, leaving distortion and what not.
So, you need a more powerful amplifier if you are dealing with a speaker in the 4 ohm range or lower.
>What's the cost/quality benefit of powered vs not? On the surface, all powered means is that it comes with an amplifier. That can mean all sorts of things, good and bad. Nothing inherent to it though, other than making the cabinet that much heavier.
The serious disparity in performance is in comparing active (analog or digital) crossovers compared to passive crossovers. The *capability* with active filtering goes far beyond passive. There are a few other benefits as well with regard to load, thermal compression, and efficiency. Speaker built around active x-overs are almost always powered, but the converse does not hold so often.
At the bargain bin level? Just get whatever speaker sound best. Or just mindlessly go with the last few popular speakers, which all happen to be powered.
Christian Collins
Is this little guy too good to be true?
I was originally drawn to the Creative X7 for its usb/bluetooth/headphone capabilities, but this looks like a solid contender, especially given the mixed reviews of the X7.
I'm gonna by this because I can return it if it's shit, but I'm just curious if anyone's got any experience here
Joshua Phillips
follow up question. I want some speakers to attach to this. It's rated to be 4ohm, but I'm not looking to push it to that due to size. I'm looking at the ELAC B6, Yamaha NS 6490, and polk Tsi200.
ELAC seem to be highly rated at the highest cost
Yamaha are cheap and LOOK like they'd perform well
And Polk have two woofers per speaker.
I'm not so much an audiophile, but I like to have bass on hand without a subwoofer. Any thoughts?
Nathan White
I build 4-6 figure loudspeakers for a living. AMA.
Luis Johnson
I have had mine for a bit now, really enjoying it. The remote has some flaws but nothing deal breaking.
Leo Nelson
Would you recommend someone build their own speaker/subwoofer, granted there is no deadline for when it must be finsished, as a cost effective way to get better speakers? Also how did you like your job?
Daniel Walker
are you a faggot?
Brandon Robinson
>The tube is used presumably as part of the output amplifier stage.
Preamp stage. Output tubes on a DAC would be full retard.
Sebastian Collins
What is that, just an amp? My sherwood thing is 15x that size if it is
Isaiah Perez
yes, plenty of competent kits exist on parts express, meniscus audio, and madisound. Price/performance wise it's borderline unbeatable within certain price brackets. A good example of the c-note kit for $100 on parts express All you need are binding posts and polyfill and you have a really solid pair of bookshelf speakers. The cabinets are cnc cut as well so almost no woodworking is involved outside of finishing.
As far as subs, Dayton has a subwoofer kit line using the ultimax woofers. If you want top tier performance, go rythmik servo series.
I don't know, does fucking your mom make me a faggot?
Robert Morgan
didn't notice the second part. I really like my job. I've always had a thing for hifi/electronics and woodworking since I was a teenager. It's very satisfying and it pays well enough to put food on the table and then some.
Jason Collins
I'll definitely give those a look. Ive out grown my MB42X's and figure a sub is necessary as well. Glad to hear you enjoy your job, keep on rockin' user
Easton Lopez
> built different kinds of sealed and ported cabinets, mostly 2 ways > first full range project
Joseph Lopez
BLH and transmission line is the hardest to do, imho. Good luck
Christopher Bailey
Yes on recurring thread
Adam Cooper
Explain how you tune a speaker and crossover. What kind of setting, microphone, and possibly software do you use. This seems to be the most challenging and prohibitive obstacle to home builders. Construction seems trivial to this.
Landon Jenkins
do you build chassis in-house? or do you outsource or even build your designs around existing drivers? if in-house, how the fuck do you into klippel? do you have to deal with this shit or do you have a specialist for it or a similar analyzing system
Logan Adams
I bought the polk tsi200's last night because newegg had them 60% off. I don't have an amp yet, but these looked like the right move.
Luis Thompson
Shit forgot to write the question.
I've read things about speakers disrupting HDD if they're too close to the computer. Is that true, or just a selling point for speaker risers? Im gonna be setting up the polks on the ends of the desk with a laptop in the middle. Would I be putting anything at risk?
Luis Sullivan
> this Without testing equipment, the best I've been able to do is use a crossover based on either the manufacturers recommendations or the woofer/tweeter specifications and add an attenuator to balance the efficiency difference. This whole reason is why I'm wanting to build a full range
Hunter Robinson
Generally, speaker magnets are not strong enough to scramble an HDD. They might however cut down the transfer of vibration between the speaker cab and the desk.
Caleb Turner
Cabinets are completely custom, the drivers we use are Raven ribbon tweeters with custom magnet structures for our specific application. The rest of our drivers are either seas or scanspeak, custom order.
We have a klippel analyzer 2 and a qc5 software license for prototype measurements and final tuning. Klippel supplies us with some custom parameters due to the dipole radiation pattern of our high end models. We use open back enclosures for the midrange.
So I can't talk about our specific crossover topology because it's patented and specific to the type of speaker we build. That being said, LEAP is an incredibly powerful design tool for enclosure and crossovers. If you know how to use the software you can basically do whatever you want. Madisound offers a service where they will build a crossover optimized for your choice of cabinet size and drivers.
As far as designing crossovers by hand, the best thing to do is choose well behaved drivers. You want to cross your woofer over cone break-up point obviously, and your tweeter should not be crossed over too low or you risk damage. This is where synergy comes in, woofers with higher breakup points and tweeters that can go fairly low usually blend well together and it makes the optimal crossover simple. you can use a low slope typically.
If you want something not as prohibitive, seriously consider active designs. Minidsp offers an active crossover filter, dsp, and icepower modules in a plate amp designed to make 2 way loudspeakers. you also Dodge most of the inherent issues with passive crossovers as a whole.
Chase Martinez
Look into onyko a-9010 or Yamaha for amps. They both offer incredible value, especially the onyko imho.
Benjamin Taylor
typo: cross your woofer under the breakup point. You want to not play that driver anywhere near the breakup.
Also, consider sensitivity of the drivers. Drivers with similar sensitivity ratings blend well with simple crossovers
Leo Sullivan
If a brown guy says nigger is it not offensive?
Daniel Thompson
it's just a slow board. >if you post it, they will come.
Levi Rogers
I'm actually the guy that posted the smsl ad18 question. I really like that it has usb and Bluetooth connection while being compact and pretty damn cheap. It's all gonna be a desk setup, so I'm trying to conserve space. I just wanted to know if it'd be a mistake to put those on a desk next to the pc, and if I should invest in stands too
Ayden Mitchell
should be okay, I believe the Polk's are magnetically shielded and even if not the magnets aren't strong enough.
