[]|[ GorE]

I want to convey to you something that has been disturbing me greatly for a few months now......
A good friend of mine listens to ALL of his audio through his PC,which is :

a 800 Mhz PIII in an 815 Intel Chipset :

WITH INTEGRATED cHeap Sh!t AC 97 Sound.

Connected to a pair of CHEAP plasticky 3W RMS (300W PMPO

) Mercury Single Driver speakers enclosed in a plastic monkey box with no stuffing or anything.
It Resonates like anything when you knucke rap on it.

He proudly uses Winamp 3 ! (HAHAHA!) with NO Dsps or Resamplers.


Yet for some holy reason the music still sounds good ! (To his ears anyway).
(and OK to my ears).
He says he can hear details in songs that i thought could only be heard on an
atleast average rig.

/end of rant 1.

Rant 2:
Ok,so he comes over to my home.Listens to music on my Computer RIG as well as on my main Panasonic System with Morel Bookshelves and he doesnt seem to be amazed !

He listens to the music eating his lunch as if he were deaf !

DOH! What kind of system synergy is this.His setup really does sound OK !
Well better than the average vendor supplied speaker anyway......

 

[Asmo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ]|[ GorE I want to convey to you something that has been disturbing me greatly for a few months now...... A good friend of mine listens to ALL of his audio through his PC,which is : a 800 Mhz PIII in an 815 Intel Chipset : WITH INTEGRATED cHeap Sh!t AC 97 Sound. Connected to a pair of CHEAP plasticky 3W RMS (300W PMPO ) Mercury Single Driver speakers enclosed in a plastic monkey box with no stuffing or anything. It Resonates like anything when you knucke rap on it. He proudly uses Winamp 3 ! (HAHAHA!) with NO Dsps or Resamplers. Yet for some holy reason the music still sounds good ! (To his ears anyway). (and OK to my ears). He says he can hear details in songs that i thought could only be heard on an atleast average rig. /end of rant 1. Rant 2: Ok,so he comes over to my home.Listens to music on my Computer RIG as well as on my main Panasonic System with Morel Bookshelves and he doesnt seem to be amazed ! He listens to the music eating his lunch as if he were deaf ! DOH! What kind of system synergy is this.His setup really does sound OK ! Well better than the average vendor supplied speaker anyway......

Rant1 : Sounds like he only likes his music loud, probably what hes used too, maybe if he heard the right headphone setup for his type of music, he would really enjoy it.

Rant2: Your PC speaker setup isn't that impressive, and he may not like the bookshelf sound, not enough bass sometimes. I know what you mean though, a lot of ppl don't know what good sound is when they hear it.

 

[Artie]

A lot of people listen to the music, rather than system too. Musicians are notorious for having the most "crap" sound systems.

 

[Kram Sacul]

The onboard sound on my Asus P4C800-E Deluxe doesn't sound that bad either. It uses the AD1985 chip.

 

[Nandro]

Some people are just naturally more sensative or critical if you will of certain things. I had a friend at work who played games on my rig and as soon as I changes the anti aliasing setting he freaked out like the quality was crap where just about anyone including myself would never notice. To be sure I tested him several times without him knowing.
On that note, my wife does A+B testing for me. She has no idea what a compression method is or bit rate or even what an amp does. She can however tell between them and let me know when something sounds better or worse.
Congrats to your friend, he's like a cheap date. He just enjoys the music however it sounds. Unfortunatly for most of us it has become a quest of sorts involving lots of trial and error and pleant of cash.

 

[MegaMeee]

i'm not surprised it doesn't sound that bad...

I have an old pair of plastic speakers using a 4 inch fullranger and they sound ok. I cant imagine theres much treble beyond 10k, but at least using a 4 inches I think they're bass response probably reaches down into the double digits, and to be honest in my tiny 6' by 8' with 8.5' ceiling room too much below that gets really messed up. I dont these speakers have too many really bad peaks in response either, so when you add it up the sound is actually listenable. Your friends speakers are probably similar, they are bad becaue of what they are missing, not because of any gross peaks or anything. So unless you directly compare the speakers to something that does have decent bass and treble and some midrange detail, its hard to tell how bad they sound.

ive heard a lot worse, to be honest I would rather listen to those crappy plastic fullrangers than my hp890's, because the sibilance of those hurts my ears, and the little speakers don't

And in my experience speakers at that level wont really show many deficiencies in the source. My onboard sound has very poor bass and I think its missing the top half octave as well, but little speakers won't show up either of those flaws.

 

[morphie]

Synergy is most important. Doesn't matter how much you blow away on your rig if you don't have synergy it won't sound like anything *special*

 

[nickchen]

When I recall my milksop equipment from the early 80s (2x 20W amp, cheapish tape 25 - 14000Hz, "selfbuilt" oneway-speakers), it gives me a cold shiver. But I really really enjoyed my stuff then, a friend once said that I'd listen to music like others reading poems.

Right now I'm at work, where I have 19 € oneway speakers connected to onboard sound. The quality of this is closer to telefone than to hifi, but -again- I really enjoy it.
Contence counts more than form. (Unless you work in marketing) Music thus counts more than equipment. A 5000€ equipment which is only used for Joe Cocker, Backstreet Boys or Scooter is ridiculus.

 

[jjcha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nickchen A 5000€ equipment which is only used for Joe Cocker, Backstreet Boys or Scooter is ridiculus.

Oh man, I wonder how'd you respond to the crappy Jpop I play through my high-end systems (which come to more than 5000 Euros). Compared to my usual musical listenings, Joe Cocker is practically a Mozart.

Best,

-Jason

 

[nickchen]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jjcha Oh man, I wonder how'd you respond to the crappy Jpop I play through my high-end systems (which come to more than 5000 Euros). Compared to my usual musical listenings, Joe Cocker is practically a Mozart.

You don't need to wonder

Here's my response:
I regard crap music as a sin. On the other hand, I regard self-irony as a vice. Now if we add the vice to the sin, the vice is --slightly-- dominant. Looks like you're awright, man.

But what about at least TRYING some Mozart or Underworld on your high end system ?!

Greetings from Europe,
N.

 

[aseltzer144]

As with many things in life, especially audio, one man's treasure is another man's trash. However, you really can't criticize anyone's tastes or preferences particularly when he enjoy what he hears.

If anything, the proliferation of portable consumer devices have lowered the expectations for audio. In fact, having begun my audio ventures in the vinyl era, I could argue that the CD created its own expectation of what audio should sound like, as compared to how it sounds live. Cost, I also learned long ago, does not always correlate to quality. If everyone was enlightened to what was possible at the state of the art, iPod wouldn't be icons and mass market audio stores would close. In reality, high end stores have a hard time staying in business these days.

This story reminds me of when I bought my first quality power amp. It was purchased at a snobby NYC boutiquey audio store. Relative to the amps that the store sold and one brand that the store was a main distributor of, it was at the lower end of their price spectrum, but it was a major stretch for me and far in excess of what anyone I knew spent on an entire rig. Nevertheless, even though I extended myself to patronize this store, on the way out, the owner told me that my purchase "was no [his exclusive $5000 amp]" but it would do. Before I could get in my car, he lowered my expectations for what I apparently had enjoyed while they auditioned it for me. I never forget this incident. In turn, I would never diminish anyone's appreciation for what they prefer.

Education and demonstration is great for those willing to be objective and receptive, but everyone's values and expectations are all relative. Enjoying what you have and appreciating the content apart from the playback vehicle are not such bad qualities.

 

[doobooloo]

Quote:

He proudly uses Winamp 3 ! (HAHAHA!) with NO Dsps or Resamplers.

Using no DSPs or Resamplers is a good thing, no?

Also, can you tell the SQ difference between Winamp 3 and other audio software?

 

[bangraman]

In my home office, I've rotated a lot of equipment but I've arrived at Cheap Plastic Sh!t Synergy. I use a 20-channel 4-bus mixer which I have attached to a pair of really cheap speakers and the Sony MDR-XD200 phones out of the headphone socket. I'm pretty happy with it. I've thought about upgrading, but for the distraction type of listening I do while working at home, (I'll have iTunes running on one of the PCs for example, while simultaneously having an internet broadcast and maybe a TV signal piped through all at once) it's fine.


Cheap plastic sh!t synergy can be perfectly acceptable.

 

[ssingh0]

"Sound Blaster 24 bit Live "

that's not a source that will blow anyone away

 

[]|[ GorE]

My computer system is heavily tweaked guys :

Koss KTX Pro1 : tweaked with add extra foam inside the driver cage that is over the part that covers the driver.
Volume Control of the headphones has been REMOVED.

Heatsink grounded.

RMAA TESTS:

Dynamic Range : 97db
Crosstalk : -97db
Noise level : -95db

THese are good figures for a cheap cards DAC,mind you .

Foobar : 24bit with Noise Shaping.
96Khz Ultra mode resampling.

DSP STACK:
Convolver with 18KHz lowpass 30db
Equalizer : -3db from 80 to 350 Hz to remove the Koss bass hump.14Khz +2db and -2db at 10Khz.
Crossfeed
Resampler
Advanced Limiter.

This isnt a bad setup !