[Melik]

i'm listening to music from my pc all the time, but i've got a 5 years old no-name soundcard...

i would like to buy a new soundcard, but i'm a noob - what would you recommend for a student with a small budget ?


thanks...

 

[sgrossklass]

Small budget - I guess that means 50€ tops or so?

Creative SB Live! 24-Bit (~25€)
Hercules Fortissimo 4 (~40..45€)
and since you said you've got some connections to ol' Germany...
used Terratec Aureon 5.1 Sky (typically 25..30€)

The Aureon isn't as good for driving cans directly though, gets too bright with lower-impedance ones. (Either this is high-freq distortion or the freq response starts to look funny due to rail decoupling not working too well with higher loads.) Very nice for feeding an amp though, wide soundstage (vs. somewhat compressed in Live! 24-Bit, which does have the better tonal balance if you plug in cans).

 

[Melik]

hi again

yes, my budget is ~50$...

btw, and i don't use an amp, but it'd be cool if u'd recommend one to use at home with my K26 or K27's (wich i'll probably buy)...

oh and one more question, can i use a headphone amp with speakers ?

thanks for your help again

 

[jboehle]

Chaintech AV710

 

[vagarach]

If you will be using an amp, definitely get the av-710. Right now I'm using the
sb live! 24-bit external soundcard with my laptop, which sounds very good compared to the av-710 (which I had in my old desktop pc).

Good headphone amp for cheap: the classic cmoy.

As far as using speakers with a headphone amp, I would say that if you are talking about proper mid-fi / hi-fi speakers, then no, I doubt they'd work, but I've never tried something like this before.

 

[Melik]

ok, i'll buy the av-710 then...

what do i need now ?

let's say i got the Soundcard, the headphones, my music...
do i need any special cables or something ?

and wich amp should i buy ? wich is the best for a small budget ?

and how can i find out wich motherboard i have...

 

[Zorander]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Melik ok, i'll buy the av-710 then... what do i need now ? let's say i got the Soundcard, the headphones, my music... do i need any special cables or something ? and how can i find out wich motherboard i have...

If your phones come in the standard 1/8" mini-plug, simply connect them to the soundcard and enjoy the tunes. If they come in the larger 1/4" plug, you will need to use a 1/4"-to-1/8" (or is it written the other way?) adapter.

To find out what motherboard you have, simply restart your computer and watch the POST screen for any indications of its name. Alternatively, you can use CPU-Z.

Regards.

 

[sgrossklass]

If you want to buy a cheap yet decent amp here in ol' Europe and are not handy with a soldering iron, you're essentially screwed. Even the BTech BT928 requires quite some modding, and even then the concept still is very simple. (Dunno whether I'll try to mod mine any further, the trusty Onkyo receiver's headphone out is pretty good as-is.) The best option would be some relatively simple but decent DIY amp - cmoy, apheared-47 or whatnot.

BTW, I wouldn't use the AV-710 unamped. The alt out does not feature any opamps and the DAC was never intended to drive low-impedance loads. The normal front output which does feature an opamp for headphone driving is little better than onboard sound in quality. I'd rather stick with a Live! 24-Bit then. (BTW, have you already checked whether you could obtain the AV-710 at all? Here in .de you can't.)

IDing a mamaboard should be easy with the likes of Lavalys Everest (the former AIDA32), with a pinch of Wim's BIOS thrown in when needed.

 

[Sparky191]

Quote:

Originally Posted by vagarach ... sb live! 24-bit external soundcard with my laptop, which sounds very good compared to the av-710 (which I had in my old desktop pc).

I'm assuming that would be much better than the creative MP3+ I'm using?