Wow, you have a tight space there. A square is the worst shape for a listening room, and a small one is even tougher. I have to guess you have a large standing wave that is giving you fits. My have to throw in the towel and go with phones. Also looks like a shelf right above the speakers that...

Anyone have any listening impressions to share?

Quote: Originally Posted by Hatmann Try Audioengine's stands for their A2s -- they really work. I started by using door stops, Audioengine wants $30 for fancy ones, and they really did help. Maybe these on top of a true stand would create the correct angle. I think the...

Quote: Originally Posted by ElephantTLK They will not be angled anymore and i really dont know what would be right height. Anyway i was thinking to create stands that would look like this: 1 2 3 What do you think? I think you are on the right track. A 4x4...

Anyone?

"What should my signal path be?" As simple as possible if quality is your goal. "in parallel CDP>viaSPDIF coax > to DACMagic" Not sure what the statement 'in parallel' means here. As El_Doug said, simplify the system to only the essentials, then listen. No extra splitters, amps or sound...

You say you do not want to buy another active speaker but you are considering the M-Audio AV 40's? What is the quality of the music files? A2's sound pretty good straight out of a sound card, maybe start here and see what you think or the M-Audio's. May want to add the Musicstreamer to...

Quote: Originally Posted by davidc2 I thought USB gave less satisfactory sound quality than a proper digital Spdif coax or Toslink connection. Try USB and listen for your self. Trust your ears.

Hard to find a lot on it but the Musicstreamer+ looks like a contender.

How can it sound better? Bits are bits. Cables all sound the same. I glad you tried something and you heard a difference.

I think USB would make the most sense as it is so prevalent. Not trying to avoid USB, trying to eliminate the USB wire. Less there to create issues. No computer, no USB cable and no spinning disc. This was brought up to see if such a product exists or to create a discussion as to an ideal...

I have read conflicting info on the Wadia as to whether it bypasses the internal DAC and the analogue sections. Seems like this unit should be a DAC itself though. The iRiver units seem interesting but has more features than needed and has an actual HDD instead of using flash storage. I think...

Just trying to think of ways to get a quality flow of 1's and 0's to a DAC. As the computer seems to be the storage for music, how do we cleanly get the digital signal to a DAC. The computer to USB to DAC seems to be convenient but flawed. Why are there no reasonably priced iPod type devices...

Quote: Originally Posted by jamiefhr AFAIK the A2 are an active set of speakers that doesn't need an amp so does it mean that the DAC doesn't have to be powered as well? I'm just a noob at this. Really learning as I go along. How the DAC is powered does not effect if or how...

Anything more on these 2 units?

Quote: Originally Posted by audioengr Two things: 1) dont expect much from this USB interface. Use the S/PDIF input instead. 2) It requires probably 2 weeks of continuous break-in. Steve N. I sure have read a lot of things saying not to use S/PDIF but it is better on...

It sounds like you are hearing the results of poor placement. Use anything to get the speakers off the desk 6-8 inches and move them away from the wall behind them at least 6 inches. The A2's are waiting for your rca's from the DAC. May want to read this thread too...

As I have been tweaking the placement of my A2's, I thought it would be good to bring this thread back up. Placement will affect all speakers but I do not think it is as much preference as it is finding the correct spot. Tough to do though. I have moved my A2's to this position: 10 1/4" from...

All brands will fail. Only plan that works is to have at least 2 drives with the same data. The drive could be under warranty but the manufacturer would probably want the old drive first and would not recover your data. Once you pop the case the warranty ends of course, although your music is...

Quote: Originally Posted by Kobra I also have the A2's and I'm happy with them. I haven't tried them with a dedicated DAC yet ( current setup is either desktop PC with Asus Xonar DX or headphone out of my MacBook Pro). But what I have done over the past year is perfecting their...

Quote: Originally Posted by skitlets Even my cheap AV-710 is worlds better than the SoundMAX on my P5B Deluxe. I am using Foobar and am bypassing the Kernel with ASIO. WAV rips with EAC. Some great info! You say that the card is better than the built in SoundMAX, I am just...

Quote: Originally Posted by episiarch I don't feel a separate DAC is a worthwhile investment with those speakers. I have those speakers, and a MacBook Pro (late-2008 17" non-unibody). I started out with the speakers plugged in to a HeadAmp Pico USB DAC/amp, and later switched to...

Anyone? I have read people saying that the built in 'dac' is not very good but no specifics. Suppose someone would have to use a good, neutral dac then return to the internal to get an idea of its flaws. The thin 1/8" plugged cable must be impacting the sound as well.

This is my current system and I am interested in impressions from people that have moved on from this internal sound card to a DAC and can say what the limitations are as they effect music. My guess would be rolled off bass, light on impact down there, a bit rolled in the highs as well as...