Firesorce

Hi! I often listen to music, and partake in discord banter with some gaming buddies. There was a time where I could plug in my headset in the front 3.5mm jack in my pc and enjoy my music in my headset, while my stereo speakers had my friends' voices coming out. (Open-back headphones are great.) Seperation like that always worked great for me, because I could listen to music while not disturbing my discord friends all that much. Right now both voices and music is coming out of the stereo speakers and my headset, which is not only inconveniencing me, because it was only due to prior volume mixing that I could find a decent balance between discord voice chat and the music I was listening to, but also inconveniencing my buddies who now hear my music over my microphone as well. My question to you is: Do you know how I can once again configure my windows or software settings to output music to my headphones and discord voices to my stereo, minus the music Im playing from a streaming service? Note: I don't have seperate software with my HD6XX headphones, and I am streaming on Tidal Hifi. My windows is Windows 10, latest update (or so my default windows updater says) and I am running the latest version of discord. Thanks for your help! -F

*Gasp* did I almost incite a civil war? My apologies. I did not mean to t r i g g e r anyone. Changing the question, my friend also wishes to somehow magically "link" his headphones to his TV, which is a regular TV, not a smart TV, via bluetooth perhaps? Is such a thing possible? Don't worry, this we'll leave out the amps and dacs for this request. We looked into chromecast dongles and bluetooth but didn't find what we were looking for. If you've got any suggestions, please do hit me up with a reply. Regards, -F

Hi! A friend of mine loves streaming Spotify music from his laptop and phone, but thinks his speakers on either device are just not doing the music justice. Would he benefit from buying either a wireless dac, amp or combo unit? He insists on wireless gear. Wired units are out of the question. Edit: he just told me he also has a pair of (cheap, non-audiophile) Sony headphones, with bluetooth function, hence why he insists on wireless gear if upgrading at all. Regards, -F

To start off, the components selected are older than today's standard (the AMD FX line is from 2013), and you should get better performance for the same money. Besides watching videos from channels such as LinusTechTips, you could google the parts yourself, looking at their release dates on for instance Wikipedia. Assuming that site sells or trades used parts, and AMD FX cpus are notorious for running hot (especially if older), I'd say you're better off spending that $500 CAD on new parts. The only things worth your money may be the two monitors. While it may be a decent deal, I personally dislike buying used goods. I don't know the quality of the parts I'm buying, it comes with no insurance. You won't know how long those parts will last, whether there's something wrong with them or not, and if you save up a little more, or opt for less, you could get new parts that aren't going to cause you a headache. If this is going to be a fun and whatever setup, you could take the risk and purchase it. For your main setup and daily use computer, I'd strongly suggest buying new parts. https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/fHRrkT *BIOS update can be acquired and put on a USB drive to flash the stock bios. I've made a suggested parts list. It can be cheaper if you ditch the monitor, but I don't know whether you have a 1080p monitor yet, so I put it in there to be safe.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/QjHP4C no monitor

Thank you, It's all clear to me now. I'll go with a modi 2, but probably stick to the O2 because returning it to massdrop would be a hassle. (EU-> US) I'll be sure to post my experience with my new audio gear in a new topic once it's all there.

Hi, Do you guys of the audiophile community buy prebuilt parts, finished Amps/dacs, or solder your own with DIY kits? Also, what's the difference between the OL DAC and the Standalone ODAC Rev B.(JDS Labs)? I'm interested in joining in on the fun, but I am not sure what habits the community has. Regards, - F

Could you go in-depth as to why the SMSL Magic Hifi would be worse than the Schiit Modi 2? These are the only two models that stand out in their price-range I'd say, and thus the only two DACs that I am considering to buy at the moment. My goal is to assemble audio gear, headphones not stereo, to enjoy music on sites like Tidal which hosts FLAC-files. I thought higher bitrate and sample rates would impact that experience the most. While I wish to get the greatest experience I can get, I also want to stay somewhat budget-oriented, aiming for a sweetspot. Price/performance wise I chose the HD6XX with an O2-amplifier exactly for that reason, I'm a bit reluctant to purchase an expensive DAC, without knowing why I'm buying something in that price-class. Edit: I have not tried any of the aforementioned DACs before, in real life, so I cannot judge whether something's got a larger soundstage, or anything regarding the audio experience with them. That's why I'm resorting to numbers and potential.

I actually don't know how to judge a dac or even an amp. I genuinely thought a wider range of bitrate and sample rate support would be better. How do you judge what is good and what is not?

I bought the HD6XXs and a Massdrop O2 amp. I don't have a DAC, and use a $30 MATX trash motherboard, with free noise and warm sounds. Do I buy the Schiit Magni 2 dac or the SMSL magic hifi 32bit 384khz?

I think the projector's really cool for gamers that want to try something new. It's also easier to carry than your casual 33inch monitor.