Audio for Newbs

[SnypeUXD]

Hey guys people around here seem to be having problems with suggestions and learning audio as a whole so I decided to write a basic starter guide for up and come audiophiles.

First off audio starts like this: Source>DAC>Hedphones/Speakers I've noticed A LOT of people only focusing on headphones and/or a good sound card/DAC. Its rather basic. Music comes from an audio file, if that file is crappy, it doesn't matter how good your headphones are. Most music today is in MP3 @ 256 Kb/s. Basically, the higher the bit rate, the larger the song is and the more detail there is. With sub <100$ headphones you really notice a difference using a higher bit rate source, but it becomes easily noticeable the high end you go.

The usual music files are MP3 (varies from 128-320 Kb/s), FLAC (Lossless, tries to keep all data of song), ALAC (basically the same as FLAC, just apples version of it) and WAV files (standard for CDs). Please make sure you have quality songs to listen too as even 30000$ headphones can't make a 128 Kb/s MP3 file sound good.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MP3

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FLAC

Next are DACs or sound cards. These are Digital to Analog converters. These take the electronic signal and turn it into analog sound. This is pretty easy, good high end DACs are quite expensive but there are a few entry level products that are great for people just starting up. Check out companies like Fiio and ASUS. P.S. Sound cards are prone to picking up electrical interference produced by computers and as such I recommend USB DACs over sound cards pretty much 99% of the time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital-to-analog_converter

Finally la piece de resistance: the cans. Now there are three types of headphones: Closed, Semi-Closed, and Open.

The difference is in the name, closed cans have the side cups sealed from the outside. These have the advantage of being more sound isolating, but the sound can resonate inside the cup itself and create unsavoury frequency responses.

Open cans have the side of the headphones completely open letting air flow through the drivers. The generally gives you a more natural sound and wider soundstage. The problem with this is that they WILL leak sound to the outside and let everyone know what you're listening too and the won't be sound isolating at ALL (Unless you consider maxing your volume to ignore things is sound isolation).

Finally we have semi-closed, obviously as the name suggests it has a semi closed back to the drivers. This gives the best of both worlds while sharing some of the faults. You get the slightly more natural soundstage and resonance while keeping people from hearing your music. Because they are semi closed they won't have the isolation of a closed back but they get the more natural sound by having air flow through the drivers.

This is a really basic guide on sound for those newbies out there, there is actually a lot more to do with sound such as amping and impedance, but this is meant to be basic. I will be posting links to related products later.

Please leave some feedback on this guide and message me if you want me to make a more advanced guide.

[Florimer]

Well, for starters, you kinda left amplifiers over the board. And they matter more the higher you go with your setup.

Secondly the USB DAC's over internal soundcards, thats kinda stretching. I'm not saying you are wrong 100% but the interference you mentioned is not actually that critical of a factor. And internal cards are mostly EAX compatible while external are mostly not. So gamers would find buying PCI(-E) sound card more of an option than you think. But thats my 99% :)

[SnypeUXD]

Well, for starters, you kinda left amplifiers over the board. And they matter more the higher you go with your setup.

Secondly the USB DAC's over internal soundcards, thats kinda stretching. I'm not saying you are wrong 100% but the interference you mentioned is not actually that critical of a factor. And internal cards are mostly EAX compatible while external are mostly not. So gamers would find buying PCI(-E) sound card more of an option than you think. But thats my 99% :)

Well I made this specifically for those people just looking for a pair of good headphones. I did put REALLY basic at the bottom and amps aren't necessary for most things most people are buying (deciding on buying) in this forum. And I'll take your point about gamers, but I'm an audiophile gamer so I like have the flexibility of having a USB DAC.

[Blade of Grass]

It really doesn't matter if you have lossless sound, because no one has a DAC that can play that, most max out at 192KB/s.

Also, WAV is a lossless un-compressed format, while FLAC is a lossless compressed format.

[SnypeUXD]

Umm well you clearly can't read, and are ignorant and that is why I posted this. Most (high end) DACs max out at 192 Kilo HERTZ/second which is amount of calculations per second, like a CPU. The bit rate is the amount of data going through a second. Most CDs are encoded at 44.1 KILO HERTZ, most music files are encoded much the same. The only real place you find anything higher are Audiophile CDs and people who post their stuff online at those speeds.

[Blade of Grass]

Umm well you clearly can't read, and are ignorant and that is why I posted this. Most (high end) DACs max out at 192 Kilo HERTZ/second which is amount of calculations per second, like a CPU. The bit rate is the amount of data going through a second. Most CDs are encoded at 44.1 KILO HERTZ, most music files are encoded much the same. The only real place you find anything higher are Audiophile CDs and people who post their stuff online at those speeds.

Ok, now I understand.

[SnypeUXD]

Umm well you clearly can't read, and are ignorant and that is why I posted this. Most (high end) DACs max out at 192 Kilo HERTZ/second which is amount of calculations per second, like a CPU. The bit rate is the amount of data going through a second. Most CDs are encoded at 44.1 KILO HERTZ, most music files are encoded much the same. The only real place you find anything higher are Audiophile CDs and people who post their stuff online at those speeds.

Your welcome this is the entire reason I made this thread. Please refer anyone you think might benefit from reading this.