[vinay]

This is my first post but i am not new to the forum have been reading for atleast 3 to 4 months.

Was never into electonic stuff esp which is connteced with musical equipments, which is y i dont understand many things told in the forum.
There looks to be too many parameters before buying a headphones,amps etc.

I am confused about many terms like preamps,opamps, DAC,soundcards ,when there is a DAC in soundcards y use a seperate one??
lots of questions are there about the basic use of all the equipments used from a PC to speakers/headphones.

Questions:
1>When to use sound card , DAC ,amp , preamp, opamp , reciever?
Sound card with DAC feature and having a DAC would be redundant feature right??
2>any more euipments present that i should be aware of??
3>preamp and opamps exact use??

Sorry for the newbish question. And yes i did google it.
Found it very hard to put it partical use esp with my reqirement.
4>why foobar?? why not winamp?? is there any diff??


I am not too much into music just that i like to listen to music alot at the most afforable cost. I listen music of various kind- Classical/Country/Jazz/Techno/Fusion/Metal.<basically anything that sounds good to me.>
Let me just tell that the only game i play is CS. otherwise i just watch movies and listen to music.
I do plan to buy AD700/A700. and curently have 2.1 speakers(nothing special-altec lansing VS2421).
My current aim is just to get the best surround sound effect, using both speakers and headphones.
Not very interesed in spending a lot. but would like to get A5 speaker. I once heard music from those speakers and i liked it but no idea hw it was setup.

If i need to get a surround sound out of speakers i will need a 5.1 or 7.1 right?? I ask this since i read that receviers are connected to stereo speakers and get a surround sound (I believe thats not possible to get surround sound) ... or have i got wrong.

Apart from just setting up above mentioned setup i would really like to learn more about music systems u guys setup.So need help in knowing the use of each equipment used.
If you guys could provide links to neccessay pages would be very helpfull.

Sorry about the long post and also newbe questions.
Thanks in advance for the help.

 

[Hybrys]

Sound Cards: The swiss army knife. Gives you the ins and digital + analog outs you need. Some sound cards give a slight performance increase in some computer games, by offloading work cycles to a sound card processor. Recently, a lot of motherboard companies have been including decent ones onboard, with digital outs. These are OKAY. On a budget, they serve well.

DACs: Digital to Analogue converters. Takes a digital signal (Coax, Optical, USB, etc.) and converts it into analogue outs (1/8", 1/4", RCA, XLR, etc.). External dedicated components are almost always much better, in almost any situation.

Amp: Amplifier. Amplifies a line-level signal to any level you might want. Again, external dedicated components are almost always better. Tube amps and solid state amps preform the same thing differently.

Opamp: Voltage amplification circuit. Different chips offer different ways, in slight variations, of amplifying things. Change the sound, and are often replaceable with a bit of work to vary the sound. Operational amplifier - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pre-amp: An amplifier that prepares a signal to be amplified again. Could have buffers or different circuitry to prepare the signal. Commonly used to bring a low-level signal up to line-level.

Receiver: A jack of all trades. A receiver can be many things. Commonly used to send proper surround sound signals to speakers not necessarily designed for computer use.

Foobar seems to be the choice around here because it works a little easier with ASIO and Kernel Streaming, and things like that that offer a bit-perfect playback method, untouched by Windows, and unmixed with any other sources. Winamp will work too, but, seems to take a bit more 'convincing'.

I don't know much about surround sound.

I'm planning on going from my laptop's optical out, to a DAC (Little Dot DAC_I), to an amp (Handbuilt PPA portable amp made by FallenAngel), to my headphones (SRH440s). Just for music.

I'm fairly new here aswell, so, if I've gotten anything wrong, others will hopefully step in and reply to correct me.

 

[zelak]

Quote:

Originally Posted by vinay /img/forum/go_quote.gif Sound card with DAC feature and having a DAC would be redundant feature right??

Every sound card has a DAC. The problem is that the on-board sound card that ships with your computer is probably crappy. An external sound card can be used to improve the sound your computer produces.

Re: Winamp vs. foobar -- IIRC, Winamp won't do gapless playback correctly, whereas foobar will.

 

[Hybrys]

Winamp seems to do gapless fine for me... Just tested it out with some FLAC files.

 

[vinay]

@Hybrys|zelak:Thanx for replying..

@zelak: When u say external do u mean soundcards like STX or usb based ones??
If every soundcard has A DAC y use a seperate one? I mean y do ppl connect a STX->DAC->amp in the combination?? cant be done like STX->amp??

why is USB headphones considered a gimmick while usb soundcards are not??

From OP:If i need to get a surround sound out of speakers i will need a 5.1 or 7.1 speakers right?? I ask this since i read that receviers are connected to stereo speakers and get a surround sound (I believe thats not possible to get surround sound) ... or have i got wrong.??
would really appreciate if someone could help me out with the surround sound doubts... need to setup a simple but effective surround sound ..

 

[Joelby]

5.1 = Five speakers and a subwoofer.
7.1 = seven speakers and a subwoofer.

There's 6.1 also.

 

[Joelby]

5.1

7.1

 

[vinay]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joelby /img/forum/go_quote.gif 5.1 = Five speakers and a subwoofer. 7.1 = seven speakers and a subwoofer. There's 6.1 also.

Thanx but i do know wat 5.1 and 7.1 are... my question is using a 2.1 or stereo speakers like A5's is possible to create a surround sound effect, something that is possibe in headphones...

 

[Prog Rock Man]

You need a surround sound system to get surround sound. There are sound bars from the likes of Yamaha which try to replicate surround sound, but they are a compromise. A 2.1 or stereo is not going to be able to do surround sound.

 

[LUCIDD]

A5 can do surround sound if your computer soundcard has the capability. I've seen some soundcards have analog(RCA) output for front speakers+rear speakers. So u would need 2 sets of a5 speakers for this.

Your computer sound card may not have this. What computer do you have? And what audio outputs does it have? If it is a higher end computer or soundcard, it'll have coax or optical(toslink) output. If it does, I'd suggest you consider getting a reciever.

My setupis this... Works well, I think it sounds great and gives perfect 7.1 surround sound. So I have my computer (onboard soundcard)- output via coax ->pioneer 7.1 reciever($300 on sale)-->connected to 7 passive speakers + 10"sub.

You may have a bit of missunderstanding re speakers. There are 2 types of speakers: passive and active. The a5 are active because it has an internal amp... The logitech z5500 (5.1 surround speaker set) is also an active speaker set. Passive: speakers without an internal amp: most speakers in HomeTheater: ie: klipsch, paradigm, Polk, etc -bookshelf and tower speakers.

If you need 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound, then the logitech z5500 system will work. The whole system includes the dac,amp,receiver controls, and speakers all in 1 package. They are ok- sound ok... But let's say you want to improve the sound and upgrade 1 or more of the components... It'll be very difficult or impossible to do so without replacng the whole thing. So upgrading is not easy. If you go with a reciever +passive speaker set, then you can upgrade :reciever, speaker or speakers, subwoofer, wires... individually 1 at a time easily.

My buddy just got a reciever + speakers recently. He has it hooked up to his dell studio laptop +hooked up to HDTV via hdmi 1.3-which carries both sound and 1080p video signal in 1 cable.
He was going to get the z5500 but I talked him out of it so- he got a yamaha 5.1 reciever capable of new dts-hd and Dolby-hd for about $300+ a 5.1 speaker set made by Jamo ($250). He's very happy with the sound and performance! He doesn't game- he only uses system for 1080p or 720p movies.

If you watch movies... In high def + 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound, u will need the necessary codecs etc- but we'll get to that if you decide to go this route.

-____L

Ps. Because you are interested in the Audioengine A5 active speakers... If you go passive, check out the new Audioengine AP4 -which is their passive speakers. I'd recommend the AP4 to anyone!

 

[vinay]

my computer has a inbuilt soundcard(5.1) with a optical out and a coaxial out and audio jacks (Center/Subwoofer Speaker Out/Rear Speaker Out/Side Speaker Out/Line In/Line Out/Microphone) .

yeah i like the idea of reciever+passive speakers with a sub(for bass effect) since i tend to upgrade often when i dont get satisfed.... also even the z5500 is not affoarable at the moment ,so would like to upgrade slowly.. would prefer a 5.1 as i believe 7.1 will be an overkill IMO ...
but y not active instead of passive ?? having a internal amp would be better??

the reason i lean towards A5 is that i heard from it and i was blown off...music was more clear from stereo speakers(I am new to audio eqipments

) than anything i have heard from even some Sony Hi-fi systems..
such speakers are hard to find out here...
Will look into Audioengine AP4..

so i dont need to look for soundcard or do i need one?? since i will be using a pair of headphone for gaming..

 

[LUCIDD]

Well, since your soundcard has all the jacks you need, then it is your choice. The a5 are awesome speakers.. So you can't go wrong with them. But u would need to get two sets of them+ active center channel: which is quite rare.. But will work.

As far as which is better: active or passive: although they have pros and cons, both can have the same sound quality you are looking for. Without getting into too much detail, just consider that the a5 vs. ap4(properly amped) will have the same-very similar sound quality.

Personally, like the flexibility of separate pieces: on the a5, the amp is married to the boxes (that hold the woofers and tweeters).. So like I said b4, upgrading will mean replacing everything.

Dac? Well... Many members will tune in regarding this... But I'd say try it without dac first. The a5 will plug and play fine without one. If you are looking for perfect: then a good dac- capable of 5.1 or 7.1 can be expensive... And if budget is a concern, 2 x a5+ dac will cost more than the z5500 for example.
I guess another pro to getting a reciever is that all modern recievers have built in dac. They are relatively good quality units... And if you get the ones that handle dts-hd and Dolby-hd, they will do lossless, uncompressed streaming. Budget: you will really have to shop around... But luckily, there are always great sales around, and you can find deals on polk, klipsch bookshelf speakers which will have great sound quality similar to the a5--- but of course, auditioning, testing carefully is an important thing to say the least.

Headphones: all modern recievers have a rca out for them... And will act as both dac and amp to your headphones. Pretty convenient.

Hope this helps!

 

[Meliphcient]

These are some solid questions - and things that a lot of people probably take as "assumed knowledge". Perhaps someone knowledgeable and articulate could type up a "basics" thing and tack it onto the sticky that's here.

I would like to add a question - are all S/PDIF connections created equal? ie If I had 2 soundcards, one ****ty and one moderate to high end, and used the optical out to a seperate device it would be the same from both right? The soundcard doesn't do anything to the music, just sends it on its way to the external device which then converts it?

 

[vinay]

@LUCIDD:that cleared many of my doubts...
might go for a5 or ap4 (still researching) but would appreciate if u could refer a good pair of kilpsch speakers also(many keep recommending them)??
and those yamaha reciever and jamo 5.1 setup u suggested for u r frnd,if u could provide a link to them would give a baselise to look for.. and price kinda sweet for me..

i just bought a comp recently so wouldn't be able to buy a receiver+speakers right off nw but would like to research properly before buying..

One more thing: when buying a receiver what are the tech am i suppose to look for like in soundacards there is to be EAX,DTS etc.. too many of them still trying to fiqure out which is old and which is new.. eax is suppose to be outdated..
so provoding a reciever name as base that has the required tech will be very helpfull..

 

[LUCIDD]

Well, I can definitely look up the model numbers shortly. As far as klipsch- I have the reference series: Rsx4 & rcx4. The reference series are the ones that you should consider- although they can have an expensive msrp, I got my 7 speakers on sale (reference series are usually sold separately or in pairs)- for half price last year cuz they were being discontinued. So the ones that I have may not be sold anymore- look at klipsch.com, in products- and check out any of the reference series speakers. I'd only recommend those- the other lines (like synergy series or p-series) are probably either not good enuff or way too expensive. You will want to audition them* -most electronic stores have a 15-30day trial session. Where do you live? If you're in my area, I can tell you where to go

...
Anyways, with klipsch, I'd say- be careful with their speakers. I don't want to steer u in the wrong direction- so audition them first.... You may find them to be bright and harsh sounding. I personally like the way they sound. They are bright but clear and very efficient. + it depends on the amp that you have it hooked up to. Paradigm speakers is a good bet, and is worth a listen too.
But let's put it this way: if I knew what I know now- re speakers and sound, I'd go with the Audioengine AP4... I've never auditioned them before- but I do own a pair of a2, and auditioned the a5 also... And based on the AP4 tech specs: they will truly be the perfect starter, entry level, audiophile speakers with the best performance and bang for your dollar*- LOL I really had to try to choose the right words*.
Audioengine has a 30day refund policy within the continental USA. Europe & Asia, dunno.
Good luck!