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Topic: Help me to choose the source of the sound, please (Read 6124 times) previous topic - next topic
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Help me to choose the source of the sound, please

I'm thinking about buying computer active speakers Miscrolab PRO 3, which cost about $120, or to buy some usual amp and some acoustic systems to switch to it... However, if to choose usual amp and acoustic system, I can spend up to $300 and also buy something used, the question is: what brand/model to choose.
I'm also doubting, I want either to buy a soundcard ESI Juli, or Creative E-MU 1212m.

Help me to choose the source of the sound, please

Reply #1 –
i've got an emu 1212m and absolutely love it!

the esi juli@ is also a very nice card but it's in fact a chaintech 710 with better converters.

many people say that the emu patchmix interface is horrible... i also thought so as i saw it the first time. now i absolutely love it, because you can do everything with it, it's amazing. but beware, if you don't get along so good with computers you may have your problems with the interface... that is what i think why many people don't like it.

i definitely don't recommend the emu for games. it's very likely to encounter stuttering. therefore i use my nforce as primary audio interface and connected its spdif-out to the spdif-in of the emu as workaround. every "normal" program plays through the nforce, only foobar and recording programs use the emu directly. now i have absolutely no problems
member of the "i have a cat-avatar"-group ;)

Help me to choose the source of the sound, please

Reply #2 –
As far as the soundcards go, i bought the E-MU 1212m recently and have been very pleased with it. As far as the speakers go, I don't have any experience with Microlab's products, but I would personally proabably get a regular receiver and speakers as they will be more versatile. One thing to consider though is whether, instead of putting $200 into a sound card, you might get better sound getting a $50 or $100 card and putting the extra $100-150 into better amp/speakers. (If you are doing sound editing though then you probably need a good sound card.)

Help me to choose the source of the sound, please

Reply #3 –
Box Cutter
No, I actually don't do any sound editing. The only thing I do with music is listening to losslesly encoded one. I was thinking about some sound recording, about extraction from vinyl discs to a HDD, but I don't think I'll have an opportunity to do it in the near future. So, the only thing I need is to listen to music. What soundcard would you recommend then for about $100? Would it be much worse in terms of sound quality comparing to E-MU 1212m?

Help me to choose the source of the sound, please

Reply #5 –
As poisondan said, the emu 0404 is a great card for the price. The only downside to it is it can't do surround sound (unless of course you are using digital outs). If you want to save even more on the sound card, the chaintech AV-710 is a very respectable card for a mere $25-30. As everyone has pointed out, it has very good wolfson DACs on some of its channels. As for comparing to the 1212m, I think there is no question that you will hear a difference compared to the cheaper cards. The question is whether you will hear more of a difference with a cheaper card and better speakers, which I think you will.

EDIT: for speakers, my personal favorite brand in that price range is the B&W 600 series. The 600 s3 and 601 s3 are both around your price range and are in my opinion very good speakers. The speakers, though, more than anything else are a matter of personal preference.

Help me to choose the source of the sound, please

Reply #6 –
If you're only interested in playback I think you should go for a soundcard that does not have much bells and whistles (usually for games) but has a good stereo DAC. I'd recommend you look into usb soundcards since they work independent of the OS (you can run them on Linux, Solaris, BSD, ...) because no driver is necessary. Another additional benefit of such a sound device is that because they're not connected to PCI, they can't suffer from any interference within the case. I have a stereo-link myself and am quite happy with it. It can play any sampling rate up to 55k natively (no resampling) and it's in the price range you specify.

For an amp, I strongly recommend AudioSource brand. They're quite good and reasonably priced. For your budget I'd recommend AudioSource Amp One. Don't get a receiver because then you'll be paying for other unnecessary circuitry (like FM tuner etc). All you need is a device that does amplification and does it good.

For speakers, well I think this is the item that has the highest cost. Don't get computer speakers at any cost, get real speakers which are driven by an amp. I think you can get a nice pair of Infinity Beta 10's or Beta 20's with your budget. See this link. Infinity Primus series also looks good.
The object of mankind lies in its highest individuals.
One must have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.

Help me to choose the source of the sound, please

Reply #7 –
Atici, thank you very much for your very wise advices! I completely agree with your choice of components. Thank you all you, guys, but Atici's advices were sooo helpful!
The only thing left for me - is to find were to buy AudioSource Amp One, Infinity Beta and Stereo link 1200 in Germany...
I'll try ebay.de... really, this variant looks so nice! I can't wait till I'll get it all to listen to my favorite operas and songs with it!

Help me to choose the source of the sound, please

Reply #8 –
this setup looks very nice

wouldn't it be better to use studio-monitors instead of bookshelf speaker? i don't know how much good monitors cost but it would interest me.

how is the bass-impact and bass-extension of the infinitys? i'm a headphone listener and I like the nice neutral sound of my DT531s. i also have a 5.1 home cinema system with 5 speakers of the infinity mark2 series and only the two big speakers front left and right deliver a good bass.
member of the "i have a cat-avatar"-group ;)

Help me to choose the source of the sound, please

Reply #9 –
Quote
Atici, thank you very much for your very wise advices! I completely agree with your choice of components. Thank you all you, guys, but Atici's advices were sooo helpful!
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=317304"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Hey I'm glad you like my recommendation  The funny thing is it is so cheap to buy audio hardware in USA. Amp One can be found for <$100 and the speakers can be found for about half the price (still with warranty). I have an AudioSource Amp Two and a pair of Infinity Alpha 40 (older version of Beta). Another very important concern is noise level in the room for playback and plays almost as important a role as the quality of these instruments. Unfortunately my computer and air conditioner makes a lot of noise which annoys me big time. Good luck and keep us informed about your purchase on this thread.
The object of mankind lies in its highest individuals.
One must have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.

Help me to choose the source of the sound, please

Reply #10 –
Absolutely right! Unfortunately, I'm not in the US...
I tried ebay.de - not very good results  Infinities are here: http://search.ebay.de/Infinity-Beta_W0QQso...QfsopZ1QQfsooZ1 (the prices for Beta 10 and 20) are about 200 and 270 Euros for a pair.
Nothing on Stereo link 1200 and AudioSource Amp... I'll see what I can do... Maybe I'll try to find European or Japan (whatever) analogs?.. We'll see, I'm, actually, not in a great hurry - it's not the case of vital urgency...

Help me to choose the source of the sound, please

Reply #11 –
By the way, my recommendations were just a starting point. I'd suggest you do some reading from review sites like AudioReview. My hardware choices are several years old. For instance I am confident you can find USB soundcards from other reputable brands (like Terratec, M-Audio) for comparable prices (such as M-Audio Audiophile 2496 USB). Price is always an important concern so you can't usually buy something that does everything very well. But make sure it has a good stereo DAC. 5.1 speaker support and recording capabilities are not important, even unnecessary if you only care for playback -- instead of buying 6 mediocre speakers, buy 2 good speakers for the price.

However about the amp, I don't think there're as many good options at the price range than AudioSource. But here's a thread whose concern was also finding a good economic amp.

About the speakers, I did some reading a while ago. I have to admit I also care that the speaker be good looking, there're a lot of very high quality speakers out there that look like crap. That should not mean you would be shelling out a lot of money for the design and compromise on quality (like Bang & Olufsen products). Because there're good quality, reasonably priced and good looking speakers out there (like the ones by Infinity) you can have it all.

Also I've heard that room correction is important and gives rise to big improvements. There're free software such as DRC for this purpose. I am curious about this myself, since I have not invested much time into it (my room has noise problems at the moment which are higher on the list). I'd be happy to know if there's a guide about how to achieve this.

Good luck with your choices and let us know your experiences and what you buy. Also I am listing some other similar threads in case it helps: thread 1, thread 2, thread 3.
The object of mankind lies in its highest individuals.
One must have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.

Help me to choose the source of the sound, please

Reply #12 –
Thanks for the link to AudioReview! I needed something like this.

How do I make sure, that the card has a good DAC?

I agree about the looks of speakers with you: product must look nice and accurate (BTW, I don't always like the way B&O looks like, although design is their credo). To me, the most important thing is not to have a speaker that doesn't looks like a speaker, but one, that looks like an accurately made and solid one - nothing else.

By the way, about the general idea of setup: what if to use a digital out of an inexpensive soundcard and to switch it to a usual standalone DAC? I'm not sure, there are a lot on the market, although... (Maybe, there are amps (receivers) that have a DAC - that will be all-in-one decision - good in terms of space in a room and portability, which is important). Not sure I'll be able to find a good amp with a good built-in DAC without unnecessary functions (it mustn't be very expensive, of course and very powerful, also)...
The thing with room correction is very interesting, although I'm not sure that it would be my primary aim in the near future... But, of course, it is a must to put one's speakers "advantageously" to reach good sound quality. There are different rules... A lot is described in the book I'm looking for (see me signature).

Thanks for help, be sure I'll inform people in this thread about the system I'll build, although it won't be quick, unfortunately.

I will clarify what I actually need: a decent and cheap system to play music from a computer as a temporary and (desirable) easily transportable (I don't have a constant place of residence, I'm always moving) decision. Unfortunately, headphones won't do.