Computer Speakers on Steroids – Slight Overkill Maybe?

[imcarthur]

I am sure that I am not alone. I have always had a decent stereo. In fact they have ranged from modest to sick audiophile range over the years. Since I am in the business, it was a natural. But lifestyle & the need for a home theater has gradually eroded my need for a good 2-channel hi-fi. I just don’t sit listening to music the way I used to in the past.

So I decided to step up to a real computer-based system since that’s where I seem to do all of my listening now.

Computer speakers are usually cheapo plastic boxes with a single driver. And they sound like crap. There are exceptions that sound decent if you spend a bit more – B&W’s Zeppelin & our (Focal’s) XS 2.1 – but the vast majority are crap. Or the other option many use is to plug into an existing hi-fi, but that often puts your speakers in a strange position relative to the screen.

Well, I dipped into our Pro catalogue & got a pair of Focal Solo 6BE to try. These are an amplified studio monitor used in mixing & mastering labs. A built-in 100W AB amp on the tweeter & a 150W Bash amp on the woofer. Balanced XLR input only with level controls. (As an aside, Dave Kutch used a pair of these to master Alicia Keys’ ‘No One’ which earned him a Grammy nomination. His pair are mounted on motorized stands in front of his console).

I drive it spdif out from my PC to an outboard DAC (Cambridge Audio DacMagic – and yes, I sell it too) & then balanced XLR to the monitors. I use the wave control as a volume since the normal volume control is disabled in spdif. The iTunes volume now works as a fine tune so to speak.

I rigidly mounted the speakers at ear level on metal stands that are planted in the floor & bolted to the desk.

Wow. That’s all I can say. The system is near field listening only. That’s what monitors are for. But wow. I have heard hi-fi systems (some I sell) that retail for 5 times the price that don’t sound as good.

Just thought I would share my experience. I don’t mean this to be a sale’s spiel but I am completely floored by the sound . . .

Ian

PS: Please excuse my messy home office with the funky paint color . . . but if you look closely you can see Porsche content & even Pelican content.

[RWebb]

are those 50 bucks each?

[imcarthur]

No. A wee bit more. Have you priced pure Beryllium lately?

Ian

[masraum]

Originally Posted by imcarthur

No. A wee bit more. Have you priced pure Beryllium lately?

Ian

Sure, picked up a coupla pounds at Walmart the other day. Regular price $19.99, on sale for $18.49!

[Schrup]

Damn, and I thought Bose were spendy. Too rich for my blood. I bet they sound great, enjoy.

[Super_Dave_D]

I think you have inspired me........naaaaaaa

[serge944]

I like my setup.

M-Audio Revolution 7.1 sound card -> coax digital out -> M-Audio C02 coax/optical converter ->optical input to Sharp NX-10 1 bit amp -> Energy Connoisseur C3 speakers (which I want to upgrade to Axiom M3s and possibly add a sub)

[imcarthur]

Originally Posted by serge944

M-Audio Revolution 7.1 sound card -> coax digital out -> M-Audio C02 coax/optical converter

That's one of the keys to good sound using a computer as a source. Get the DAC out of the computer & all of the noise it produces. Sound card DACs are very mediocre.

We have a new product this month that acts like an audiophile AirPort Express. You can stream from your iTunes & use this as a source in your hi-fi. It has a great DAC, real clocking & a real power supply. Very trick.

Ian

[Schumi]

I bought a small USB-audio adapter off Newegg for about 7$.. It's a little headphone amp thing, but I bought it because it has a certain audio chip in it that I found a spec sheet with pinouts for. I got it, cracked it open, and found the two pins on the chipset that were for the SPDIF digital out and ground...

wired up a coax cable to them, ran it out the little casing, glued it back together...

Then I run the coax out to my stereo amp. Digital all the way there. The raw output gets sent there unamplified, unprocessed- there's no noise that way. I use this with my laptop, and stream my subscription Pandora over it.

I used to use the internal sound card but there was too much noise and loss. Laptops are horrible environments for audio, too many components too close together. And running a long analog signal was resulting in probably around 10db of level loss.

I currently have two JBL LX500's and a Yamaha powered sub that comprises my budget system.

I have two giant Sansui speakers in storage awaiting a larger apartment to be busted out.

[imcarthur]

fwiw - Here is some REAL overkill. In Paul Stubblebine's mastering studio in SF:



Bob Hodas, Paul Stubblebine, Michael Romanowski pictured with our $180K Grande Utopia EM speakers

Ian

[RWebb]

Originally Posted by imcarthur

...
We have a new product this month that acts like an audiophile AirPort Express. You can stream from your iTunes & use this as a source in your hi-fi. It has a great DAC, real clocking & a real power supply. Very trick.

Ian

more info?

approx. price?

model #?

[imcarthur]

It will be called the WM-10 AirStream from MicroMega. The AirStream name was cleared by their trademark lawyers - strangely. $1500 Retail. It uses a 24 bit/192 kHz DAC with clocking (to reduce jitter) & a power supply with an R-core transformer (acts like a mains filter). iTunes currently uses the 16-bit/44.1 kHz standard & their software dumbs down all content to this. They are working to upgrade it to over-sampling to keep pace with the curve.

On a related but separate note, we recently sold Apple a 9.2 Focal system for their Cupertino lab. Dolby Labs & DTS also bought systems in Sept - on the same day!

That's enough selling . . . sorry guys but this is exciting stuff for us . . .

Ian

[HardDrive]

I use monitors that are way better than my sound card. But the hissing from the card sounds great.

[austin552]

HP Pavillion
65" Hitachi HD
7.1 Denon
NHT towers x4 200 watt
NHT powered subs x2 100/200 watt
NHT center 200 watt
NHT rear backs 150 watt

[rattlsnak]

i have a Klipsch 5.1 surround system with a powered 12"sub on my PC and it ROCKS! playing video games is so real, it's unreal... lol..