When SQ is somewhat of a lower priority, is there anything under $50 that excel in these areas?   I have smaller ear canals so I have a hard time finding iem's that I can get a decent fit and seal on.  

I've looked all over for win7x64 drivers on my motherboard card without any luck.   I'm not too concerned with the analog portion of the soundcard, as long as it works without noticeable problems, supports at least 5.1 channels, and has a half-decent a/d conversion.  Sometimes, I'll want to...

I'm at my parent's house for about 2 more weeks, and they wanted to know if I could build an amp for their in-wall speakers. This is my first venture into a speaker amp, I have limited tools with me now, and I have limited information on the speaker requirements, so I'd really appreciate...

I've used heat shrink for insulating exposed component leads and for strain relief, but all the ones I've used were very stiff when shrunk(like hard rubber). I also think the colors could have been more deeper. The black's I've gotten were hazy, and looked like dark gray. The red's i've gotten...

The problem with using aluminum plates/sheets for diy casing is that it scratches really really easily, and attracts oil/dirt like a magnet. I like the look of brushed and polished aluminum, and sheet metal+wood makes for cheap diy cases, but I can't justify using it when it'll look dull and...

I'm looking for something affordable that meets the following criteria. Criteria - has basic playback functions plays songs from a harddrive outputs a digital signal(any form) Alternatively, does anyone know how to bypass the DAC/Amp on a mp3 player? If there's still nothing...

I just saw this on woot.. (aug. 27), and apparently, for $55.. it takes a analog signal from your headphone out, converts it to digital, sends it to the receiver wirelessly, and then converts it back to analog to use with your speaker/headphones.. This takes the already pretty bad signal from...

I need something for long plane and subway trips and I need something fairly cheap with priorities as such. 1. fit & comfort 2. Isolation 3. Cable length/material & SQ are tied for third. I don't have a specific price point, but I would like it to be as cheap as possible, while meeting...

There's the sr60, ksc75, jvc marshmallows, etcetera for headphones.. Is there a nice budget sweet-spot for cameras as well? I want to spend as little as possible, without ending up with something really crappy. I'm not looking to start another hobby, I just need something that can take...

Basically, I need cheap comfortable earplugs I can wear on the train or on the plane, that just happen to play music.. preferably something that's not too bassy; something I can just leave playing at low volumes, if I fall asleep on the airplane, and not get a headache when i wake up. These are...

I remember listening to some songs yonder at the Bose headphone booths, and I realized I liked a lot of the music for just kind of relaxing.. I'm sure everyone's went over to the bose booth before to take a listen Where should I start looking?

I'm looking for something airy and detailed, smooth, with tight bass that hits reasonably hard/fast.. I find my current setup to feel too heavy and sluggish especially in the upper-bass/lower-mids, and almost feels like everything is resonating as if in a small chamber. My music collection is...

Does anybody know of any cheap wireless remotes that'll let me skip, play, and pause without software/drivers of any kind? Volume up/down would be nice too. I've found a couple, but they're all overpriced full-featured remotes for media center and such... I just want to listen from the...

When I started here at head-fi.. I thought all these upgrades were going to be minute and subtle.. I was dead wrong. I got my ah-d1000's ... everything was completely muddled up on my ipod.. it sounded horrible. So when I used it on my PC, it sounded so much clearer.. 5x better.. but it...

Now, would it make much difference if I bought a cheap dedicated DAC such as a Alien DAC or Monica USB? I'm getting my auzentech prelude in a couple days(hopefully), and I'm not sure if i made the right choice.. To be 100% honest, I can't tell the difference from 192kbps encoded mp3's against...

I've only really owned a first-gen nano before, so I'm not too familiar with this stuff.. First off, my first-gen nano sounds.. absolutely.. horribly terrible(which is why I hardly use it)... My onboard sound quality on my PC on the other hand sounds magnitudes better in comparison. Is my...

I've noticed a good portion of home-amps have RCA outputs in the rear.. What is that used for usually? Is that signal just looped out, or does it get amped? In other words, can it be used to run either an active 2.1 PC speaker setup(using a 3.5 -> rca adapter) or small passive bookshelf...

Quote: With Creative releasing less than one new driver a year, things seemed bleak. Fortunately, a talented user, Daniel_K, was recently able to 'fix' many of the drivers, enabling the incompatible features and also fixing many bugs. Just today Creative has decided to put a stop to this...

Well, i purchased the Denon AH-D1000's.. my first entry headphones since I've joined Head-Fi, and I'm really impressed.. I was listening to Rostropovich this morning and ... golden... incredibly smooth, yet textured.. like homemade vanilla icecream... mmm... Anyways... I picked the Denons...

256 mp3's vs 320 kbps mp3s vs lossless. I download my music from Amazon's service, which are all ripped at 256 kbps. Considering I playback on Swans M10's and Denon d1000's, is it a significant enough a difference to consider purchasing the CD's and rip them myself? I will be upgrading my...

I'm actually looking for a good budget setup that consists of either the k601, dt770/80, or k472hd. I think I'll appreciate the dt770's, but I'm not sure they'll be suitable for classical. I really do want to spend more, but I know a whole bunch of people who will see my spendings somehow and...

Well, this is more of a general question... How do mid/high impedance(250'ish) headphones sound unamplified(run off of a pc)? I'm upgrading from px100's, so these would be my first nice set of headphones. Obviously, I don't own a headphone amp, and I'm already queasy thinking about spending...

So I'm a newbie in this field, and although I'm not a true audiophile, I appreciate good sound, enough to pay for a decent soundcard. I really don't think I'm picky enough to degrade sound on the basis of EMI noise inside a pc case, so I decided I want an internal solution, just to keep my desk...

Does it matter what optical drive I use when I rip music to my hard drive? Does it matter if I have a good ADC, and will the quality differ depending on what speeds I use to rip it? Thanks

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