Newbie question

[mblight]

Hello, all,
Any help would be much appreciated... and I apologize in advance for what my seem like stupid questions. I am just getting into the hobby.

I recently purchased a pair of NVX audio XPT00's, and I'm trying to make them sound as best as they possibly can.
When I first plugged them into my Ipad, the music sounded weak and ineffectual. The mids and highs were clear and crisp, but the bass seemed nonexistent. Increasing the volume on the tablet simply made everything but the bass louder, so the end result was way too shrill.
Next, I tried them with audio files and CDs on my Macbook Pro. The result was better, with more satisfying bass, but for some reason, the mids and highs were still disproportionately loud.
Finally, I plugged them into the headphone jack of a Pioneer receiver, and played CDs from a Marantz CD player that was connected to the receiver. Wow! Total ear candy. Everything seemed balanced. But for some reason, I'm guessing due to the crappy Pioneer receiver, the resulting sound was a lot less clear, even on the muddy side. So I felt like I was trading clarity for some some sort of balance. At the end of the day, I thought the resultant muddiness was still a steep improvement over the things I had tried before.
So, in an attempt to get the same performance out of my laptop, I connected the laptop to the crappy receiver, and listened to the audio files that way, and the result was weird. Way muddier, but somehow more satisfying because everything was so much more balanced.

Long story short: do I need a headphone amp? I am looking to retain the clarity that I get from listening to files on the laptop, but without the shrill, tinny sound I also get out of said laptop.
Thanks for any help you are able to provide.

 

[Mr Rick]

I suggest a DAC / Amp pair. Something like the Schiit Audio Modi 2 / Magni 2 stack.  About $200.00 for the pair.

 

[cel4145]

Could be the Pioneer's impedance output is not low enough, which could cause the bass to sound a bit muddy or boomy.

Did you connect your laptop via optical or HDMI to your receiver? How is your CD player connected to your receiver? Optical or analog? Just trying to understand how you have things hooked up to better understand the differences you are hearing.

 

[mblight]

Thanks for your replies. Okay, like I said, I'm new to this, so here goes:
I connected the laptop to the Pioneer receiver with a Dynex cable, 1 male ending (to the laptop) and 2 RCA type endings (which plug into the receiver). I connected the receiver to the cd player with Tara Labs Prism 55 Interconnects. I apologize for not knowing whether these cables are optical or analog, but I'm guessing they are analog because they have RCA endings?
Thanks so much...

 

[cel4145]

Right. They are analog. If your receiver has it, try connecting your laptop with HDMI or optical to your receiver, assuming your receiver has those inputs. Probably get much better sound. CD players have much better line output than the headphone jack on a laptop

 

[mblight]

Thanks very much!
My receiver doesn't have an HDMI input, but it has an optical one. So I might give that a try. Interestingly (and I may have this completely wrong) my 13" Macbook Pro seems to use the headphone jack for that, which means I'd need an adapter. That has me a bit worried, since you mentioned that the headphone jack on a laptop isn't all that great. Do you feel that the optical cable will still be an improvement even with an adapter for the headphone jack?

 

[cel4145]

This is probably what you want: http://www.amazon.com/C2G-27016-Velocity-Toslink-Optical/dp/B0002JFN1A/. See how it has one end that looks kinda like a headphone jack? I'm not an Apple person, but I'd assume that's what they are using.

The optical able will complete bypass the digital to analog conversion that your laptop does and let your receiver do it. Will it guaranteed be better? I don't know. Depends on the quality of the DAC in your receiver. Pretty cheap to find out, though

 

[mblight]

Awesome! I'll get one and check it out.