New computer sound system almost complete

The Hope · September 11, 2022

On 8/24/2022 at 3:37 AM, cmndr said:

I haven't really done much research on tactile transducers, it's on my infinite to do list to get one for myself. From the look of things, 1 or 2 50ish W units and a budget amplifier are adequate if you build it into your couch.

Based on your subwoofer not really doing under 30Hz or so a transducer can be useful for movies. Low frequency bass is FELT more than it's heard so it could be good for filling in the gap.

Also be aware that bass (coming from a subwoofer) is going to HEAVILY depend on your room and calibration. Positioning matters. Time alignment/Phase matters. EQ matters. REW is awesome for dialing that all in.

Ultimately, the most important of all is software. Both the audio stack of your operating system has a strong impact, as well as its settings, as well as the exact audio app and the settings of this app.

While most Klipsch speakers are better than the F&D F550X from a purely technical point of view, my F&D F550X sounds much better in reality because I use FreeBSD + bit-perfect mode + vchans disabled + Audacious + 24-bit tracks.

This sounds of a completely different level than what can come out of windows wasapi.

Here is my sound demo of these speakers: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jRYGgpwM24xgAZFJhyaqw_NgRFBYMMo5/view

Fast_N_Curious · September 11, 2022

5 hours ago, The Hope said:

Ultimately, the most important of all is software. Both the audio stack of your operating system has a strong impact, as well as its settings, as well as the exact audio app and the settings of this app.

While most Klipsch speakers are better than the F&D F550X from a purely technical point of view, my F&D F550X sounds much better in reality because I use FreeBSD + bit-perfect mode + vchans disabled + Audacious + 24-bit tracks.

This sounds of a completely different level than what can come out of windows wasapi.

Here is my sound demo of these speakers: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jRYGgpwM24xgAZFJhyaqw_NgRFBYMMo5/view

I think yours does sound better but then again I'm dealing with a large room and cement floor. And proper tuning. I will look into what you are saying about the software end of things.

For reference, here is a sound sample from my setup:

The Hope · September 13, 2022

On 9/11/2022 at 6:25 PM, Fast_N_Curious said:

I think yours does sound better but then again I'm dealing with a large room and cement floor. And proper tuning. I will look into what you are saying about the software end of things.

For reference, here is a sound sample from my setup:

You can try installing FreeBSD on hardware that you don't use anymore or rarely, eg an old desktop or laptop. If you've never worked with BSD or Linux systems then FreeBSD might be too difficult and I'd recommend GhostBSD. You can probably even just try GhostBSD in a live session on your current system, without installing it, to see how good the sound is in Youtube via Firefox eg.

Audacious has perfect sound quality in FreeBSD in my opinion so the audio app also has an effect on sound quality in my experience. One advantage is that you can easily get bit-perfect sound in all audio apps via FreeBSD/GhostBSD.