New 2.1 Speaker Recommendations for PC

[Shapeshifter]

Originally Posted by AllexxisF1

Z Reviews is by far the best speaker reviewer on Youtube, and he's freaking hilarious.

If you're looking for a nice set of monitors for your PC, check out his channel. He's reviewed pretty much all of them. If you want to learn about real acoustics and have a thing for hardware, he's your guy.

I ended up getting the Edifier 1700BT's but I find I end up using my headphones still more then anything. Decent speakers however.

[Meteor_of_War]

So I think my wife ordered these for me for Father's Day:

https://www.amazon.com/Edifier-R1280... 2C179&sr=8-4

I'm like 99% sure, because I had them on my Amazon list and they are now gone from list, and she received a suspicious package matching the approximate size.

Happy camper if she did, but now I need to wait 2 weeks to know, or order anything myself.

[Silent-Runner]

Originally Posted by Meteor_of_War

So I think my wife ordered these for me for Father's Day:

https://www.amazon.com/Edifier-R1280... 2C179&sr=8-4

I'm like 99% sure, because I had them on my Amazon list and they are now gone from list, and she received a suspicious package matching the approximate size.

Happy camper if she did, but now I need to wait 2 weeks to know, or order anything myself.

you get presents on father's day? wtf....

[Exposed]

Yeah what's up with that. All I get is usually a steak and lobster dinner. I wouldn't mind some new speakers also.

[Meteor_of_War]

Originally Posted by Silent-Runner

you get presents on father's day? wtf....

Of course, why wouldn't I?

Its customary for as long as I can remember to give gifts to fathers and mothers on Father's and Mother's Day.

[Meteor_of_War]

Got my Schitt in today. No doubt a definite improvement over my Sound Blaster Audigy Fx. When I hooked them up to my Logitech Z-2300's and turned it up it was like a punch in the face how much better it sounded.

Honestly I was a bit concerned it would not be much difference and a waste of money but my concerns were unwarranted. This Modi DAC is awesome. Much smoother sounding with nice bass that I was able to turn up higher than before with the SB which started sounding too muddy with the sub knob cranked up. But it also has a bright clear high end too. I am getting better separation of the instruments and can definitely pick up some detail that I did not hear before!

The Magni is also a noticeable improvement even when using my cheap PC 373D headphones. The SB Audigy FX headphone amp was not driving them well enough even though only 50 ohms. Overall very happy and haven't even upgraded my speakers yet. Honestly though I'm kind of glad I am able to try out the Schitt Modi on my current speakers before getting new ones since I'm so used to how they sound and can really evaluate the difference.

Yay Hi-fi.

[Silent-Runner]

Originally Posted by Meteor_of_War

Of course, why wouldn't I?

Its customary for as long as I can remember to give gifts to fathers and mothers on Father's and Mother's Day.

hey, don't get me wrong i'm fine with it, it's just not common over here, that's why i was surprised.

[Meteor_of_War]

Originally Posted by Silent-Runner

hey, don't get me wrong i'm fine with it, it's just not common over here, that's why i was surprised.

You guys need to treat your parents better.

[Silent-Runner]

Originally Posted by Meteor_of_War

You guys need to treat your parents better.

we do, just without pricey gifts

[eNforcer]

Not too long ago I switched from a cumbersome Z5500 setup to a pair of Micca MB42X's with an SMSL AD18. Decent monitor speakers have a surprisingly good amount of bass, no reason to add a subwoofer for me.

Actually, that said, I've pretty well grown old of needing face punching bass and loud volume audio in general

[Meteor_of_War]

Originally Posted by eNforcer

Not too long ago I switched from a cumbersome Z5500 setup to a pair of Micca MB42X's with an SMSL AD18. Decent monitor speakers have a surprisingly good amount of bass, no reason to add a subwoofer for me.



Actually, that said, I've pretty well grown old of needing face punching bass and loud volume audio in general

Don't think that will ever happen for me. I'm in my mid 40's and still love to crank it loud.

Something about loud ass hard rock and metal just sooth's my nerves and kills my anxiety dead in its tracks.

[kboye]

That feeling of surprising physical pressure changes is gold Got some very old Jamo D830 bookshelf speakers that still do this, incredibly fast, though amp is dead and with HDMI 2.1 drama the Logitechs are back

[Meteor_of_War]

Yeah its great. I've been listening to lots of music past few days.

This DAC has breathed new life into my favorite albums.

[NIGELG]

Originally Posted by Meteor_of_War

Yeah its great. I've been listening to lots of music past few days.

This DAC has breathed new life into my favorite albums.

Do you think it's a big improvement over the Sound Blaster Titanium HD?

[Meteor_of_War]

Originally Posted by NIGELG

Do you think it's a big improvement over the Sound Blaster Titanium HD?

I dont know, I don't have a SB Titanium HD.

My soundcard was the Audigy FX which is a cheap $40 card. Not sure how much was the Titanium HD but i know it was much more expensive so i expect the sound quality to be better. Hard to say without being able to test myself if the Schitt DAC would be an improvement.

[Nunz]

The DAC on the Titanium HD is still very good. The Schiit DAC is higher quality, but it depends what you're looking for. Are you listening to loss-less quality music with mid-range or higher quality cans/speakers? If so, then you would notice a difference. If not, then I'd say stick with the Titanium, especially if it's just for gaming.

[NIGELG]

Originally Posted by Meteor_of_War

I dont know, I don't have a SB Titanium HD.

My soundcard was the Audigy FX which is a cheap $40 card. Not sure how much was the Titanium HD but i know it was much more expensive so i expect the sound quality to be better. Hard to say without being able to test myself if the Schitt DAC would be an improvement.

The Titanium cost 200 bucks in 2012 and is no longer supported but the sound quality is excellent. It was touted as an 'Audiophile Card' and I agree.

I don't go higher than CD/FLAC for music though.

Originally Posted by Nunz

The DAC on the Titanium HD is still very good. The Schiit DAC is higher quality, but it depends what you're looking for. Are you listening to loss-less quality music with mid-range or higher quality cans/speakers? If so, then you would notice a difference. If not, then I'd say stick with the Titanium, especially if it's just for gaming.

Yes, I use it mostly for gaming and some Movies/TV and Computer audio.

I have a Beyerdynamic DT 990 600 Ohm headphone but I use that for Vinyl and CD never for PC audio. My every day headhone is the Sony MDR 7506 and that sounds great with the Titanium.

That Titanium is 9 years and doesn't want to fail. It is the Oldest hardware in my Rig.

[Nunz]

Wouldn't touch it. If you have any issues with driver support, you could look for some 3rd party drivers. I have no idea if that's a thing, but I'm sure some googling could find an answer.

[metroidfox]

Btw, do any of these sound cards have physical volume adjustments, or are you adjusting your volume in Windows?


Because if you're using software, you're technically losing more bitdepth by turning the volume down than anything mp3 would do to a file.


This is assuming you could even tell the difference between software clamping, and a physical adjustment though.

[Trunks0]

Originally Posted by metroidfox

Btw, do any of these sound cards have physical volume adjustments, or are you adjusting your volume in Windows?


Because if you're using software, you're technically losing more bitdepth by turning the volume down than anything mp3 would do to a file.


This is assuming you could even tell the difference between software clamping, and a physical adjustment though.

I wonder if you can minimize that by simply running at higher bitrate to compensate for any potential loss vs your source and your volume level.

*late edit*. It does make me wonder though if the headphone outputs and speaker outputs on soundcard handle it differently.

[Meteor_of_War]

Well turns out my wife did gift me the Edifier R1280Ts. So now I need a new sub woofer. These Edifiers definitely are an improvement over the Z-2300 but I am used to that added low-end punch from the sub.

Didn't feel like going through all the researching so just ordered the Edifier T5. Should have it in a few days.

[Meteor_of_War]

So I've been enjoying these new Edifier speakers and sub since the summer when I got them. But recently I have been starting to get random audio drop outs from the left speaker. It would cut out for about 10 seconds, then just come back on by itself.

Thinking it was a possible bad connection with one of the cables I fiddled around with the RCAs for a bit, twisting them and rearranging which channel the red/white cables were in, but found I could not reliably reproduce it. I realized the RCAs I was using were good quality but quite old (probably over 20 years and swapped around to many different audio systems) so I ended up just ordering a new pair. Got these:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DI89IQS...roduct_details

Not only did it fix the problem of the audio cutting out, but I can hear a noticeable improvement in the quality. I honestly did not think RCA cables would make much of a difference to my ears, but its definitely a much cleaner sound. Happy.

[Meteor_of_War]

After a few weeks with no more audio drop out issues since replacing the RCA cables it happened again this morning.

I started thinking its maybe interference related. Realized I had my Schiit Modi DAC sitting within inches of my Xfinity wifi router, so decided to move it to the other side of my desk. It now sits about a meter away. Also reading on the Schiit website troubleshooting page gave me the idea that its possibly related to the USB port on my PC I have it plugged into, somehow getting intermittent interference that way? Decided to plug it to my keyboard's USB hub instead.

So far its been about 2 hours and no audio drop outs. But it also went weeks without a drop out before today. Otherwise when its working fine everything sounds loud and clear and awesome. Its just maddening not knowing where the problem is coming from, or how to reproduce it to narrow things down.

Anyone ever experience DAC interference issues from being too close to another device like a wifi router? Or due to it being plugged into a certain USB port?

[Mangler]

It's probably an x570 issue, usb dropouts are a thing with those.

You could try to use the latest bios/chipset software to see if that improves your situation.

[Meteor_of_War]

Originally Posted by Mangler

It's probably an x570 issue, usb dropouts are a thing with those.

You could try to use the latest bios/chipset software to see if that improves your situation.

I was thinking that but I already updated my motherboard's BIOS to the version that supposedly fixes it. Actually don't think that is the case because the audio never completely drops out, it always just drops out on one speaker channel. It would be more likely if it completely dropped out. Since its digital I don't think it would just drop one speaker channel. Then again I really don't understand enough about it.

It could also be the speakers themselves - some loose wiring inside or something. I could try hooking them up to my home theater amp and see if it happens there, but again its completely random when it happens so not easily reproducible. Don't have the time to mess around with that.

For now I'm just hoping its somehow got fixed by just moving the DAC to the other side of my desk, and/or moving the USB cable to my keyboard hub.

[ugly]

Originally Posted by Mangler

It's probably an x570 issue, usb dropouts are a thing with those.

You could try to use the latest bios/chipset software to see if that improves your situation.

I have a B450 and have issues with my USB DAC. I think the most recent BIOS update improved things a lot. It happens once every couple of weeks now. But at one time, it was happening on nearly every cold boot.

Usually if I turn off the DAC, unplug the USB cable from the back of the DAC and plug it back in, then turn on the DAC it starts working again.

I was also having a lot of problems with my wireless mouse. Not sure if that was related, or if I was just having coincidental dead battery issues, or a bad port.

[Nunz]

The AGESA update tried to correct it completely but some users are still experiencing USB issues. Welcome to AMD.

I don't think wireless frequency interference would affect your wired setup much, if at all. I would expect the keyboard USB to exacerbate the issue as It's still ultimately running through the PC USB, you're just adding a middle-man (the keyboard).

I would try different USB ports if possible. For those still suffering from the USB Dropouts, there is no answer. AMD has pretty much said "we fixed it, so it's not possible" while there are still numerous users experiencing the same behavior prior to the AGESA update.

I think it's more likely to be the dropout than it is wireless interference, but moving to the other side of the desk should help with that, if the interference is the case.

[Trunks0]

Might a PCI-E based USB expansion/adapter card resolve the issue then? As the PCI-E card's USB ports would be a completely separate USB system no? Plus as a side benefit you also get to have more, and potentially higher speed, USB ports on your system.

[Meteor_of_War]

Thanks for the input guys. Really does help hearing other's thoughts on the issue. Luckily since last posting I listened to hours of music during work yesterday then played a couple hours of gaming last night and the problem never came back. Maybe its fixed. *Fingers crossed.*

For all I know it could certainly be related to the AMD USB dropouts issue, but I'm not totally convinced. Firstly, I always thought the symptom of that problem was it acts like I physically unplugged the USB device, except does it randomly on its own. For example when you get that message that a USB device has been disconnected, and hear the sound. But that never happens with this problem, and has never happened with any USB devices on my system, thankfully.

What actually happens here is I'll be listening to music or playing a video or game, and the audio from only one speaker channel will suddenly crackle a bit then just cut out, then a few seconds later it magically comes back. Its very similar sounding to if someone suddenly pulls out the RCA cable from one speaker, then plugs it back in. My thinking is if it were indeed the AMD USB drop out problem, it would completely cut off all audio, and I would have to reconnect my DAC. But I don't have to do that.

Aside from my theories of interference, or from using a particular USB port, its possibly an issue with the speakers or DAC themselves. I would like to at some point at least swap the speakers out for a different set and see if the problem persists. That way I could at least rule out it being a problem with the speakers, and narrow it to either my PC or the Schiit DAC.

Originally Posted by Nunz

I don't think wireless frequency interference would affect your wired setup much, if at all. I would expect the keyboard USB to exacerbate the issue as It's still ultimately running through the PC USB, you're just adding a middle-man (the keyboard).

Yeah, the interference from the wifi router seemed weird to me as well. But it was suggested as a possible issue on Schiit's troubleshooting page:

1. Cellphone or WiFi router interference. You probably have a cellphone or wifi router too close to your headphone amp or DAC. Move these devices away. No high-res audio device was designed to sit next to a device that can put out watts of gigahertz noise.

https://www.schiit.com/guides/amp-problems

As for plugging it to the keyboard's USB hub, well I figured since I never had any issues with the keyboard dropping maybe I was getting a more stable connection there.

Anyways thanks guys, I guess the plot thickened on this and I'll just have to keep watching it. Maybe a solution will eventually present itself.

[Meteor_of_War]

Originally Posted by ugly

I have a B450 and have issues with my USB DAC. I think the most recent BIOS update improved things a lot. It happens once every couple of weeks now. But at one time, it was happening on nearly every cold boot.

Usually if I turn off the DAC, unplug the USB cable from the back of the DAC and plug it back in, then turn on the DAC it starts working again.

I was also having a lot of problems with my wireless mouse. Not sure if that was related, or if I was just having coincidental dead battery issues, or a bad port.

What is specifically the symptom of the issue you were having? Did your DAC completely stop working, like it was unplugged? Or did it cut out and back in like what I'm describing happens with mine?