sonica-pimeta

[commando]

First, apologies for all the empty threads, i'm having trouble with the connection to the head-fi server.

My new m-audio sonica theatre and PIMETA arrived today, finally, yay! I've been looking forward to this!

Anyway, I plugged everything in, got it all working (3 reboots later), and it's all going. To my suprise, the output doesn't sound much different to using the headphone out of my PC. The highs are maybe slightly sharper, and the bass is maybe slightly lower, but that could just be wishful thinking.

I expected a decent jump in sound quality, given how much this setup cost! Am I expecting too much, or did I just have a really good quality headphone out on my IBM Netvista P4?

Current setup:

PC -> M-Audio Sonica Theatre -> Decent Interconnect -> PIMETA -> AKG 271s.

271s have 50-100 hours burn in, and the rest is brand new. Any thoughts or suggestions? It doesn't sound bad, just not as good as I was expecting

I guess i'll just go play with the other toy that arrived today, my new iPaq 4350

 

[usc goose]

i don't know what kind of onboard sound you've got but my sonica theater -> meta42 absolutely destroys my soundmax onboard audio from my intel mobo.

strange...

hopefully things come forward when your pimeta burns in but i would have expected a very noticable jump in sound quality right off the bat too.

 

[commando]

Does anyone else have a sonia theatre? What sort of settings do you use?

 

[usc goose]

i use the headphones setting with the crossover turned off.

did you get the 1.0.1.7 updated driver?

 

[commando]

I'll look for the updated driver tomorrow, thanks. I don't know how to turn off crossover - i'll take a look tomorrow (it's at work, and i'm not). Thanks

 

[raif]

Quote:

Originally posted by commando I'll look for the updated driver tomorrow, thanks. I don't know how to turn off crossover - i'll take a look tomorrow (it's at work, and i'm not). Thanks

I think that is your first problem. The only time I can hear subtle differences in music is when I am in a quiet room concentrating mostly on the sound.

Audio is like drugs, nothing ever really compares to the first time. There are few upgrades that compare to the change from stock sony buds to decent headphones.

I am in the same position myself, I can barely tell the difference between my Benchmark Dac1 and the lineout of my transit(which isn't even supposed to be able to drive headphones) when I am at work.

 

[JeffL]

Not sure, but on the Sonica (not theatre) there is a control panel in the system tray, and by default after installing new drivers the "TrueSound XT" option is enabled by default, and makes things sound like crap.

 

[commando]

I suspect the transit would have been better for me, with only 2 channels (maybe???), but I was offered the theatre cheap so I took it. Probably not the wisest thing to do.

I'll try that tomorrow too, thanks Jeff.

 

[fiddler]

Indeed, the TruSurround and TruBass stuff they put on by default is terrible, disable it immediately. What's more annoying, every time my Sonica gets unplugged the default settings come back.