/ag/: audio general

This here thread is for the discussion of technology related to audio and hi-fidelity reproduction. Post your gear or get comments and recommendations on gear to get. Try to post OC, and keep that shitty HomePod topic in a separate thread so the AIDS don't spread.

Other urls found in this thread:

schiit.com/products/wyrd
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linkwitz–Riley_filter
forum.rme-audio.de/viewtopic.php?id=26092
twitter.com/AnonBabble

New binding posts for my dad's hafler dh220 power amp, huge project I'm working on, replacing all the caps, wires, and most of the resistors inside it

Here is what the board looks like, my dad put it together in the mid 80's

Need to build some speaker stands

is this the place to ask about audio interfaces?
looking to record some guitar and bass.
have my eyes on the steinberg UR22mkII, was considreing scarlett 2i4 & solo but after reading reviews, people really criticized the drivers and preamps compared to steinberg equivalent.

how to get into /ag/?
some comprehensive guide?

I have this weird low level buzz coming from my coming from the speakers with nothing connected to the amp, just the speakers it can only be heard with my ear right on the speaker. If I move back like 30-50cm it becomes completely inaudible. Should I be concerned? I removed the pre main jumpers and it was silent meaning it's coming from the preamp stage not the Poweramp.

So from a previous thread, I have a lot of noise coming from my PC to my DAC on my new HS8 speakers. No issues when hooked up to my laptop. I have not tried another desktop PC.

I either have bad grounds, or the PC is causing this alone. Will pic related solve my issue?
schiit.com/products/wyrd

Lx minis are almost done.


Any USB powered hub will do the exact same job as the wyrd for much, much cheaper. My best advice is to avoid school in general.

Avoid schiit*

Post your complete setup.

IE

What kind of cables are plugged where
What kind of DAC are you using
What kind of inputs and outputs are you using
Where is are the HS8s plugged in, same power strip as your PC? Same socket?

Any big transformers or sources of power in the same room?
Check with other HS8s owners to see if they had a similar issue? You might have a lemon. Maybe you bought it second hand and the previous owner sold it for the same reason?

Etc

>How do I become interested in audio?
>Is there a guide?

My setup is as follow:

8 year old PC running dual GTX 680, i7. 650 watt Corsair PSU. This PC always had coil whine. I suspected the PSU might have gone bad early, but 6 years later with 90% uptime everything still works.

Audio hookup is as follows:

-2x HS8 speakers hooked up to HS8 woofer via brand new XLR cables

-DAC is a Schiit Modi 2 that goes to a Sys which sends it to my Vali 2 amp, or the HS8 woofer via RCA to XLR cables. 16gauge. All cables are Monoprice RCA cables.

-The noise goes away when I unplug the USB cable from the DAC. I have no noise when I plug the DAC into my laptop running on battery, or charging. I tried different USB ports. When I plugged it into a USB 3.0 the noise went away, but appeared about 5 seconds later when the device drivers were loaded.

-I live in America, and I assume my outlets are grounded as I have not experienced other issues related to bad grounds. The PC is hooked up to a UPS. I tried other outlets, no change.

-The speaker are hooked up to the same UPS, and one was hooked up to another outlet for power. All speakers make the same noise which increases when I turn up the volume on the Sys.

-The Schiit gear was all bought brand new, and all cables are brand new.

-HS8 speakers came from a good friend, they are virtually brand new.

-My original speakers are the Bose Companion 2.1, and it has some very faint noise at high volume, but it’s more of a crackling. I do have some bad connectors in the sub because occasionally it starts to whine unless I kick the woofer in a particular spot. I tried repairing it, but its all sealed in some acoustic hot glue.

1/2

Second issue I have is nor matter which way I hook up the Sys its volume buttons works like shit. PC volume at 10%, and Sys volume knob increases the volume very little in its entire range, so I cant really make the speakers loud. If I increase PC volume to 30% then at the first turn of the knob everything is too loud. If I ran the DAC straight from the PC to the speakers its just very loud from the beginning unless I set the volume to like 5%. I tried the simple mode on the DAC unit too, no change.

So what should I try? Schiit sells that USB thing for $99. I wouldn’t mind having more matching hardware as other USB cleaners are around $40-50.

Now a USB hub might do the same thing, but a powered hub is like $20, and I prefer the Schiit aesthetics rather than some Anker USB strip with blue lights. But I’m willing to try different methods.

2/2

Hello /ag/!

I have this very simple setup:

1) AudioTrak Prodigy Sound Blaster X-Fi
2 ) mini jack -> RCA)
3) Topping TP21 (50 watt)
4) speaker wire
5) Orsowe' E430

Today I noticed that my Sound Blaster has SPDIF, but the Topping doesn't.
I was wondering if a DAC like Topping D30 to get the optical from the card in and send sound to the amp with RCA would make sense?

I wonder if it's worth the bother, since it's gonna go through RCA anyway.

Thoughts?

Requesting purchase advice, /ag/.
>subwoofer
>~20m2 room
>stricly used for music
>regular speakers go down to ~40Hz kind of OK
>under 250€ used
What brands do I look at?
I am located in Gerrmany.

What is this Sys you are talking about?
Why are you using an amp with active monitors? You need more volume?

RCA is an unbalanced connector, it makes no sense to use it in this setup with professional monitors.

PC volume and monitor volume should be set close to 100% and managed in the dac, imo.

Tried getting a power conditioner and an usb hub?

Sys is a passive switch with a volume knob.
The amp is only for my headphones.
The DAC/sys uses RCA out, and I bought a pair of unbalanced RCA male to XLR male.

The DAC has no volume control, that's what the Sys is for.

I'm gonna try this hub I found at work.

What's that?

Bump

4th order crossover is the same thing as linkwitz, correct?

Didn't you say you were using the Uber version of the modi? It should have it's own power so there shouldn't be USB power interference magic.
Don't buy the fucking wyrd or whatever it is. You and I have already both been scammed into buying schiit stuff anyways.
I forgot if you contacted schiit or not. I've heard they're helpful, so give that a shot. Try switching USB ports. Maybe it is interference from your PC. Not sure how or why.

Your picture had three things in the stack, I do have a SYS and the Modi 2 Uber. They seem fine to me. The speakers I have you can hear some quiet hissing if you're close but they are powered, so... Works on my machine. :)

Nope.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linkwitz–Riley_filter

Leaning rack of Pisa?

I have the basic DAC that's draws power from USB. Their higher end gear all have build in filtering. So they can sell the filter alone for $99.

Schiit isn't picking up on their number, I did talk to someone there a while ago.

The 3rd stack is a Vali 2.


I'm gonna run it through a powered USB dock and see how that goes.

oh damn. so what is a 4th order crossover design anyway?
its not leaning, its bowing on the bottom half slightly. i need to get a beefier rack asap...

Seems like a good idea. Any particular that you have considered? I'm going to get one when I order a new amp and I'm leaning towards the SolidTech radius. Mostly because it's made in Sweden, the legs can be filled with sand and it's flexible if I want to add new shelves to it. The Quadraspire SVT is also quite interesting due the ventilated shelves.
Pic is a borrowed class-A amp that I was afraid of frying with my current rack.

Yeah give that a shot. Just don't buy the wyrd. It's the regular Modi 2 so it probably has something to do with USB power, but I still don't get why your SYS is weird. Mine just werks. I have no clue on what's wrong, see if the new hub works and try contacting schiit again. Good luck.

Fuck off iris

>so what is a 4th order crossover design anyway?
A crossover that attenuates by 24dB every time you double (low pass) or half (high pass) the frequency beyond the crossover point.
It's usually a fine slope for speaker crossovers.

Why do you want him to fuck off? He's like one of four guys on Sup Forums with a nice system.

>spending thousands on snake oil

more like carpentery related question, actually

nope, that's completely normal. you have it even on the best equipment - if you can get your ear close, and your surroundings silent enough

most probably your sound card is damaged or really really bad. try another one

i thought linkwitz(-riley) was the filter type, order is the slope (dB/oct). backcheck on wikipedia to be sure

I agree that there's a lot of snake oil out there. But there are also expensive things that are good.
A good $1K speaker is not as good as a good $10K speaker. But a $1K speaker can be better than a niche $10K speaker.

A $2000 DAC (which measures worse than $200 DACs kek) is not one of those things.

Agreed
I can't understand the hype for Schiit.

Do open headphones get hot in the summer?
Should I get speakers then? My neighbors are assholes so I might aswell do the same who gives a fuck...
Whats the best fun, all arounder, sound setup for my desktop pc at a smallish room? Price 300 to max 1k euros if worth it(shouldnt cost a lot more than the us or else Ill feel off about it).
I've seen recommended lists on /r/zeos and canpicker for headphones, but I need more.

Wrong general, this one is for snake oil autism and magic rocks.
>/r/zeos
Nevermind, you'll fit right in.

Why shouldn't I get the Wyrd?

I thought another user pointed out some other product that does the same thing at a lower cost. To me it also just feels scammy, schiit seems like the audioengine of hardware. I don't know. Pretty convenient they also sell something to fix a problem with a product of theirs.

>get the Modi 2! It's good and cheap!
>oh boy okay
>uh is there volume control?
>no but we sell it for another 50 dollars :-)
>oh okay, but it sounds noisy for some reason
>thats because you didn't buy our UBER version, goy. but we do sell the part you need, for another 100 dollars

If you want though its your money. Would it work? I don't know. It definitely would fit in with your setup.

>snake oil autism and magic rocks.
explain.
Are those just overpriced shit audioretards buy along with expensive dacs and cables?

Yep.

any audio-pro can tell me if this is good or bad?

Yeah, they split their product like that. Everyone does this honestly.

It's too late for me to buy the Uber.

And yes, they pretty much flat out say that they sell a product to fix an issue their low end product has. They also straight up say to use a powered USB hub for the same solution.

I have no problem shelling out another $100 for the Wyrd. Maybe I'll buy the Uber 2 and sell my current.

I just want to get rid of the noise. And then figure out why the damn Sys isn't working right.

The uber definitely doesn't have this problem, and it has some kind of different analog filtering or something. Mine is hooked up using USB right now.

The SYS though, maybe it's defective.

So-so. The transition between speakers is far from perfect and it should sound a bit too bright.
Also they went cheap with absorbing material judging from the notch around 170Hz, but you could fix this easily by stuffing wool at the bottom.

Don't give (((stein))berg a dime.

Good entry level audio interface that does not have driver issues, flexibility, and good recording and playback capabilities is Motu Audio Express.

>RCA to XLR
LMAO'ing at your life. Should've got an audio interface rather than all that literal shit.

Either that or RCA to 1/4 inch

it's not an anechoic measurement, it says 'in room' next to all the graphs, so take anything below 500ish Hz with a grain of salt

Protip: If you connect a ground to the chassis of your power amplifer and use 4 gauge wire connected to a bucket of salt water with a copper coil in it, your mids and highs will be the sweetest you have ever heard

That's usually true. But in that case, the frequency response notch + slight impedance bump combo at the same frequency is typical of a poorly damped floorstanding speaker.

Well, I'm not saying that you using an unbalanced cable is 100% the cause of your issues, but it surely is a big liability.

You should have gotten a good audio interface, that would pretty much do everything you're doing with like 2 devices you got there (the dac and the headphones amp).

Then you wouldn't need to use RCA cables at all.

But anyway, what kind of DAC doesn't have volume control. Wtf DAC is that?

Your whole setup seems to be made of lots of pieces and none of them is optimal to use with a pair of professional studio monitors like the HS8s.

If you still have some money, just get a decent audio interface, a decent power strip or power conditioner (with filtered sockets) and a decent USB hub, if the issue persists.

Then again, this might still not solve the issue, which might be caused by dried out/faulty condensers somewhere which are leaking voltages in the system.

That's why you don't introduce too much complexity in your setup, or you risk wasting a lot of time and money searching for whatever is introducing interferences in your setup.

that's still unbalanced to balanced retard. get an audio interface next time and stop the snake oil.

I have a pair of DT880 headphones and I like their sound but I'd like to move to speakers (soundstage and clarity are my top priorities) and I don't know anything about them.

I currently have a cheap Pioneer shelf home system, it came with two 8" shelf speakers and while they get loud they are quite V-shaped and not very clear. My room is small (3.2m x 2.7m, height 2.3m/10' x 8', height 8') so I need help to take my first step into decent speakers.

I already have a preamp but I'm kind of leaning towards the passive route so I'd need an amp/receiver as well. Any recommendations for me? My budget is around $300~500, maybe extending to $600 if needed.

I have to set the volume to 0 on my left ear bud through the windows playback settings for vocals to play in any audio. How fucked am I? Please help.

Those are not bad choices. Consider a Presonus in the same price range too, they make some of the best audio interfaces.

Don't buy these niche, edgy interfaces made by some small shops, because you'll get burned when it comes to support.

For example, Focusrite support has been nice to me. So did Yamaha support. Big professional firms have much better support than some snake oil salesmen like Schiit or whatever.

So my recommendations in the 150-200-ish price range are:
- Presonus Studio 26
- Roland Rubix22 or 24
- Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 mk2 or Scarlett 2i4 mk2
- Behringer UMC204HD
- Steinberg UR242 or Steinberg UR 22 mk2

These are entry-level interfaces for those looking for something affordable that can still deliver professional-level quality of sound with decent features.

I got the speakers at a good discount, and I'm trying to hook it up to existing equipment.
The model of DAC I bought doesn't have a column know because I didn't need one when I choose it.
I asked in one of these threads if I should get RCA to XLR or RCA to 1/4 for hookup, I was told there is no difference. XLR cables are better quality so I choose them.

My DAC only has RCA out. I'm using what I have. If I have to buy a new hardware to make it work right, fine. But first I need to figure out the cause of the noise.

Maybe put your monitors and PC in the car and ask a friend with good audio interface and clean power lines to help you test your Yamahas and PC with his interface and cables.

Then you can see if the issue is truly caused only by a faulty PC component.

Best tweeter replacement for kef 104/2?
From what I've heard is that the morel MDT29-4 is the most common one used, there is a couple of other options, such as the Audax TW025A2

Get of the modi2, avoid all schiit dacs, get a JDS OL Dec or Topping D30

i don't understand why people think one DAC is better than another. it reads the voltage from usb or whatever, converts that to 1's and 0's, which represent volume samples taken at a very fast rate, and then output voltage to your headphones or speakers as the 1's and 0's indicate to. what the FUCK do you think an expensive one is going to do that a regular interface isn't? we're not talking pro tools interfaces with MADI here, we're talking zero-input-channel-stereo-pair-output-channel soundcards here. and why do the audiphools call them DAC's when everyone else calls them audio interfaces or sound cards?

Goddamn you retard toss the whole shit stack and get an audio interface. Even $100 ones have balanced out. Don't listen to dumbass audiophools next time you dumbass audiophool.

my rig, d&b mains with an m32 at foh

An audio interface includes more than a DAC, usually it has headphones amps, XLR/line inputs for mics and instruments, and other pads and knobs for toggling phantom power or controlling gain/volume in different circuits.

I dunno why people buy DACs which only offer a part of what an interface does and then they buy extra shit, like another box to amp their heapdhones, when they could have simply gotten an interface and called it a day.

I have yet to see a published well controlled level matched DBT of modern DACs, with sound shaping filters defeated, that have shown audible differences between them.

this. i kinda suspect since most of the people talking about this stuff on here are not musicians they've never even looked at the market of audio interfaces available that cater to little musicians who just want to plug their speakers, headphones, and guitar into a USB box.

>I kinda suspect most of the people talking about this stuff are not musicians
Fantastic work detective

thank you

Sup Forums is inundated with poorfags that think their 120 dollar surround speaker bundle is bomb, and that their internal sound card isnt shit. i dont think most of them know what what a discrete amplifier is

I'm not a musician either, but after I bought a mic I just read about a lot of stuff to understand what I needed to use the mic.

And when I got stuck, I asked some friends, some of whom were audio engineers working in studios or were making music.

They all recommended me interfaces like Presonus, Focusrite Scarlett, Roland, they never ever told me about these snake oil memes, that Sup Forums tends to hold in high regard. I suspect most of them follow that Z Reviews fatass who also uses lots of such non-professional snake-oil shiite and recommends them based on his non-existent credentials. Same for the Tek syndicate and other places that Sup Forumstards follow and recommend some pretty awful technology.

i'm hoping we start seeing less and less of the Sup Forumstards who just want to spend money on stuff to tell Sup Forums about it, and more people who have actual audio hardware and know how to use it.

Anti-audiophiles are starting to be as obnoxious as audiophiles.

So best 300-500 euro speakers for a small room?

What's your DAC/amp stack user?

lol

"both of them are obnoxious" people are getting pretty obnoxious too

so who's non obnoxious?

ur mum

god forbid someone save you some money and put the people producing nonsense have to get a real job

I just hooked up a Target USB 3.0 powered hub, and it has reduced the noise a little, but not enough.

other sources like my laptops, or phone do not have any noise at all through this setup.

What else can I do?

Sure thing earlet

Get a new dac

Audiophools use words like "attack", "digititus", and "plankton" to describe sound. Knowledgeable people don't.

Can someone explain the difference between gain and volume to a brainlet?

sure thing placeblet

nothing.

hey there was some guy here with a JV-1080. you around?

Gain is how much you're amplifying a signal, volume is how loud the sound is

btw, that USB hub supplies power from the PC tower. The AC plug for it does nothing, work with it, or without.

What DAC would you recommend than? Something that has an AMP for headphones, and XLR out for powered speakers.

Or I just get the Wyrt and see how that works. or the Uber.

It's not like you avoid consumerist tribal wank talk with studio gear, just more vetting by technically knowledged engineers or musicians who rely on the product for their income. There are still shills and snake oil in the pro studio stuff, but the bullshit filter is more well defined.

See how most hi-fi/audiophile companies will tell their customers to 'upgrade' their DAC if they want, but RME for example will plainly state that their is no audible difference between their nearly 10 year model and new refreshed model.

>forum.rme-audio.de/viewtopic.php?id=26092
>There is no reason to assume that you will be in any way dissatisfied with the ADI-8QS or DS MK III. Specs are better for the ADI-2 Pro, but there is no differerence in "sound quality" by design, i.e. the ADI-2 Pro is not meant to have a specific "character" of any kind (nor is any other RME device). You can not expect immediately audible differences between converters of this class, even if one of them is ten years old. Converter technologoy does not advance the way computer CPUs or digital camera sensors have done over the past decade.

well, sounds themselves can have 'attack'. the time it takes to go from it's beginning to the peak of it's volume. or how fast a compressor reaches it's peak attenuation once the threshold threshold has been crossed.

That's called decay brainlet. See: cumulative spectral decay.

no, it's called attack. decay is the opposite. decay is how long it takes the peak to move down to it's sustain/hold, or to move from it's sustain/hold to it's release. decay and release can be used in the same way, but sometimes a sound decays until it releases, going down to a specific point in a slope, and then releasing to nothingness in a curve. decay doesn't have to go down to zero, release does.

i don't know what cumulative spectral decay is. is that like a degenerative mental condition for ghosts?

Brainlet

here's more: depending on the amount of time we're discussing, this attack-decay thing can be called a transient, or dynamics. transients would be happening in the micro second range. dynamics would be the millisecond or more range.

instruments have attack, headphones/speakers don't. Brainlet just go.

Sell your snake oil and get a O2, or just use your onboard

who said they did, brainlet? i said sounds themselves, illiteratelet! and sounds that aren't instruments also have attack. all sounds, really! although some attacks are so fast as to not be discernable through ears or even instrumentation.

feel smart with someone else, egolet.

Brainlet audiophool, you're in a gear thread about headphones/speakers. We're not talking about the music, but the gear (sound reproduction). Again, fuck off.

You're not an original plebspotter

RW-12D