What is important for sound quality?

[TommyTwommy]

So I think there are 3 factors in play here.

 

The quality of the sound file itself. Bitrate and bit depth. Right?

The amplifier

The speaker

 

So lets say the sound file quality is high.

Case 1: Now we have the amp and the speaker. Lets say we have good speakers as well. If we connect them to a shitty amp vs good amp will it matter?

Case 2: And the other way around. If I have shitty speakers and connect them to a shitty amp vs good amp, will it matter?

 

In which case would the difference be more notable, why? Pls explain 

 

I'm asking this because when I connect my earphones to my smartphone THEY SOUND AMAZING. When I connect them to pc frontpanel they are fkn shit. But also because I'm interested how all that audio stuff works.

[Enderman]

PC front panel audio has a lot of EMI due to the way the front panel wiring crosses over power cables

 

this is not a problem with your PC audio amp

 

try plugging your earphones into the back panel audio output instead, or use an extension cable going to the back

[vong]

5 minutes ago, berny22 said:

-snip-

I don't think amps matter that much in terms of sound quality. To me they just power speakers/earphones/headphones. What matters most imo is the processor.

[TommyTwommy]

1 minute ago, vong said:

I don't think amps matter that much in terms of sound quality. To me they just power speakers/earphones/headphones. What matters most imo is the processor.

Isn't the processor in the amp? Sry, but I reallly don't know how audio works. 

[Dackzy]

Okay let me break this down as simply as I can.

The speakers matters the most, when it comes to audio quality, the amp is a bit more weird beast, you see if the amp is okay and can power the speakers fine then you are fine, since it is only ampliflying the signal the dac is sending out. Okay now the file, that is when we get to the really weird stuff, because you see a mp3 with a good master can sound 100% the same to the human ear as a 24bit FLAC file with a good master. So a good quality mp3 can sound just as good as a higher quality file..

[TommyTwommy]

1 minute ago, Dackzy said:

Okay let me break this down as simply as I can.

The speakers matters the most, when it comes to audio quality, the amp is a bit more weird beast, you see if the amp is okay and can power the speakers fine then you are fine, since it is only ampliflying the signal the dac is sending out. Okay now the file, that is when we get to the really weird stuff, because you see a mp3 with a good master can sound 100% the same to the human ear as a 24bit FLAC file with a good master. So a good quality mp3 can sound just as good as a higher quality file..

WAIT WAIT, Looks like I got the question wrong. I thought the DAC and the AMP is the same thing. Whats the difference. And answer my question as if I the amp was DAC in my case.

[Dackzy]

1 minute ago, berny22 said:

WAIT WAIT, Looks like I got the question wrong. I thought the DAC and the AMP is the same thing. Whats the difference. And answer my question as if I the amp was DAC in my case.

DAC= Digital to analog convertor

AMP= Amplifier

[vong]

2 minutes ago, berny22 said:

Isn't the processor in the amp? Sry, but I reallly don't know how audio works. 

They are seperate. But most things that come with built in audio nowadays will have both. You'll often see people mention DACs, those are processors.

[TommyTwommy]

Soo, let me remake the question.

 

Case 1: Now we have the amp dac and the speaker. Lets say we have good speakers as well. If we connect them to a shitty amp dac vs good amp dac will it matter?

Case 2: And the other way around. If I have shitty speakers and connect them to a shitty amp dac vs good amp dac, will it matter?

 

Now I know

1. Speakers -> MOST IMPORTANT, although I'm rly doubtful about that cuz I expreinced something else in reallife as I said above

[Dackzy]

2 minutes ago, berny22 said:

WAIT WAIT, Looks like I got the question wrong. I thought the DAC and the AMP is the same thing. Whats the difference. And answer my question as if I the amp was DAC in my case.

I also have this nice post about amps and dacs and the same principles also goes for speakers.

You will need a amp for the speakers unless they are powered speakers (build in amp) and you also need a dac to make the digital file to analog, but the one your pc has build in is fine.

[Dackzy]

2 minutes ago, berny22 said:

Soo, let me remake the question.

 

Case 1: Now we have the amp dac and the speaker. Lets say we have good speakers as well. If we connect them to a shitty amp dac vs good amp dac will it matter?

Case 2: And the other way around. If I have shitty speakers and connect them to a shitty amp dac vs good amp dac, will it matter?

 

Now I know

1. Speakers -> MOST IMPORTANT

You will need a amp, so you can power the speakers, unless they are active speakers, the DAC that is build into your mobo in your pc is fine, unless you have problems with onboard.

[TommyTwommy]

2 minutes ago, Dackzy said:

I also have this nice post about amps and dacs and the same principles also goes for speakers.

You will need a amp for the speakers unless they are powered speakers (build in amp) and you also need a dac to make the digital file to analog, but the one your pc has build in is fine.

So what makes my earphones sound shitty when i plug them to my front panel pc. And make them sound like a 1000€ earphones when they are plugged to my smartphone

 

Isn't the pc suppoused to have a better ... THING THAT MAKES SOUND BETTER .... inside that my smartphone

[vong]

3 minutes ago, berny22 said:

So what makes my earphones sound shitty when i plug them to my front panel pc. And make them sound like a 1000€ earphones when they are plugged to my smartphone

Describe 'shitty'. What motherboard do you have?

[TommyTwommy]

1 minute ago, vong said:

Describe 'shitty'. What motherboard do you have?

Not as loud. Worse sound quality. ASUS M5A97 R2.0

[Dackzy]

1 minute ago, berny22 said:

So what makes my earphones sound shitty when i plug them to my front panel pc. And make them sound like a 1000€ earphones when they are plugged to my smartphone

 

Isn't the pc suppoused to have a better ... THING THAT MAKES SOUND BETTER .... inside that my smartphone

That can depend on a lot of things.

1. Do you have background noise?

2. You might like how the phone colors the sound

3. simply bad onboard/ old mobo

4. bad quality music 

[Dackzy]

Just give me a budget for the setup and I can see what I can find that will be good and please tell me the use case.

[vong]

2 minutes ago, berny22 said:

Not as loud. Worse sound quality. ASUS M5A97 R2.0

Okay, I'd probably put it down to the motherboard's onboard audio being crap. What phone are you using?

[TommyTwommy]

1 minute ago, vong said:

Okay, I'd probably put it down to the motherboard's onboard audio being crap. What phone are you using?

And there's the question my asking. 

 

You said 'motherboard's onboard audio' what is the thing inside that that makes shitty sound. Is it the amp , the dac or something else?

 

I'm using an HTC One Mini 2

[Dackzy]

1 minute ago, berny22 said:

You said 'motherboard's onboard audio' what is the thing inside that that makes shitty sound. Is it the amp , the dac or something else?

onboard is the build in amp and dac that is on the motherboard, so it is maybe a mix of a bad amp and a bad dac.

[vong]

3 minutes ago, berny22 said:

And there's the question my asking. 

 

You said 'motherboard's onboard audio' what is the thing inside that that makes shitty sound. Is it the amp , the dac or something else?

 

I'm using an HTC One Mini 2

As I said, anything that has built in audio nowadays has both an amp and dac just like your phone. DAC processes the files and amp drives whatever you plug into the jack.

 

I don't know much about the HTC One Mini 2 but I have used an M8 and the sound qualifty from that was pretty good.

[TommyTwommy]

11 minutes ago, Dackzy said:

Just give me a budget for the setup and I can see what I can find that will be good and please tell me the use case.

I don't need to buy anything. I just found out about the whole DAC/AMP thing. Before I did. Audio for me was PC or SMARTPHONE->CABLE->SPEAKERS = SOUND and not

 

AMP & DAC -> CABLE -> SPEAKERS -> SOUND

 

I found out about AMP - DAC when I was trying to connect my home theater to my pc. And when I tried to connect speakers directly to my pc that are suppoused to have an amp but I didn't know about it then and thought the speakers aren't working. (I connected the speaker (a 80W/6OHM speaker) directly to my pc with a 3.5mm jack)

[TommyTwommy]

2 minutes ago, vong said:

As I said, anything that has built in audio nowadays has both an amp and dac just like your phone. DAC processes the files and amp drives whatever you plug into the jack.

 

I don't know much about the HTC One Mini 2 but I have used an M8 and the sound qualifty from that was pretty good.

Other name for HTC One Mini 2 is HTC One M8 Mini .. So its the same phone with almost same components just smaller. It has the BoomSound thingy

[Dackzy]

5 minutes ago, berny22 said:

I don't need to buy anything. I just found out about the whole DAC/AMP thing. Before I did. Audio for me was PC or SMARTPHONE->CABLE->SPEAKERS = SOUND and not

 

AMP & DAC -> CABLE -> SPEAKERS -> SOUND

 

I found out about AMP - DAC when I was trying to connect my home theater to my pc. And when I tried to connect speakers directly to my pc that are suppoused to have an amp but I didn't know about it then and thought the speakers aren't working. (I connected the speaker directly to my pc with a 3.5mm jack)

Can I get a pick or a model of those speakers, because unless they are active speakers you can't just connect them with onboard and if they are more than 2.1 you will need a receiver.

[vong]

4 minutes ago, berny22 said:

I don't need to buy anything. I just found out about the whole DAC/AMP thing. Before I did. Audio for me was PC or SMARTPHONE->CABLE->SPEAKERS = SOUND and not

 

AMP & DAC -> CABLE -> SPEAKERS -> SOUND

 

I found out about AMP - DAC when I was trying to connect my home theater to my pc. And when I tried to connect speakers directly to my pc that are suppoused to have an amp but I didn't know about it then and thought the speakers aren't working. (I connected the speaker directly to my pc with a 3.5mm jack)

Lol, nah that little amp on the motherboard would not be powerful enough to drive speakers.

[TommyTwommy]

1 minute ago, Dackzy said:

Can I get a pick or a model of those speakers, because unless they are active speakers you canøt just connect them with onboard and if they are more than 2.1 you will need a receiver.

OH I already connected it all

 

Its an LG Home Theater, model: LH-T6340. The speaker setup is 5.1. 5x60W and a 120W subwoofer. The hometheater is connected to the pc over a 3.5mm to RCA cable.