Computer audio setup

[BeastlySin]

I'm sorry if this question comes off as stupid or naïve, but I am completely new to the audiophile world and am completely overwhelmed. 

 

This is basically my first time every buying speakers for anything, I've basically only every listened to anything out of the apple headphones, but since I was gifted with some bose QC25s I've wanted to explore better sound. 

 

I will probably be acquiring some Sennheiser HD650s soon (or the Massdrop version if they relaunch that) and I wanted to set up my workspace in my apartment with an Amp/DAC (either separate units or a combined unit) that can both power the HD650s and some bookshelf speakers and a subwoofer. I understand there are powered speaker and subwoofer options etc. So what do people recommend I get? Should I get a DAC/amp just for my headphone and invest in an active 2.1 setup or some other combination?

 

I'm basically looking for a recommendation for the whole setup, DAC, amp, speakers, and subwoofer. I basically want the speakers to watch movies and play music during a small house party, while I'll be using the headphones mainly for gaming and video editing. 

 

Money isn't much of an issue, but I am not really sure of even the price points I would be looking at as I don't even really know what I will be able to tell the difference between, so preferably something around the 300-400 dollar range for everything would be nice, but if people with more experience think I could get significant worthwhile dollar for performance advantages below or above that price for what I want I would also like to here those options. 

 

Thanks in advance! 

 

Edit: Clarification, the budget would be for everything, but I really have no kind of experience with this stuff so I sent an arbitrary budget.

[Guest Kloaked]

I am a bit confused so I'll ask directly: is the budget that you mentioned including everything that you need (amp, dac, speakers, sub, headphone)?

[BeastlySin]

 

5 minutes ago, Kloaked said:

I am a bit confused so I'll ask directly: is the budget that you mentioned including everything that you need (amp, dac, speakers, sub, headphone)?

1

Yes, the budget would be for everything, but it is arbitrary since I don't really know what kind of quality I can get at certain price points.

[Guest Kloaked]

1 minute ago, BeastlySin said:

 

Yes, the budget would be for everything, but it is arbitrary since I don't really know what kind of quality I can get at certain price points.

From what I understand (not from experience yet as my most expensive headphone currently is the HD650), you'll start hitting diminishing returns for your investment with headphones after $300-$400, or around that much anyways which also depends on the headphone. It'll also depend on what kind of sound you like, which would be my next question.

 

What kind of sound do you like? Heavy bass? Neutral/uncolored?

 

I haven't used too many home theater speakers, as my experience is more just with pro audio stuff like loudspeakers and whatnot.

[BeastlySin]

1 minute ago, Kloaked said:

What kind of sound do you like? Heavy bass? Neutral/uncolored?

 

So due to the lack of experience with this kind of stuff, I don't really know "what kind of sound I like" I don't even really know the terms associated with the sounds to adequately describe them I think, but I would be listening to lots of classic, alt, punk rock on my own, EDM, deep house, trance for parties and then classical music typically when studying. Does that help? 

[Guest Kloaked]

1 minute ago, BeastlySin said:

So due to the lack of experience with this kind of stuff, I don't really know "what kind of sound I like" I don't even really know the terms associated with the sounds to adequately describe them I think, but I would be listening to lots of classic, alt, punk rock on my own, EDM, deep house, trance for parties and then classical music typically when studying. Does that help? 

Typically people who listen to electronic music like a good amount of bass, or low-end.

 

Best way I can describe what I mean by neutral/uncolored would be "boring" to most people as it isn't too biased to any particular frequency (at least on paper). The good thing about that since there isn't a bias to bass or treble, you can better make out everything in the mix - that does depend on the music though.

 

Sounds to me though like you'd want something like the HD600/650 since you listen to more than just electronic music. Ideally you could have more than one headphone so that you can have a "fun" headphone for your electronic music and a "boring" headphone for everything else, for example.

 

Are you able to go to any local electronics stores, like BestBuy or something so that you could try out some headphones? Not sure where you live.

[BeastlySin]

Yah I can definitely go out and try some headphones, though really for me personally I would mainly listen to electronic music out of the speaker system and the other stuff through the headphones, and from what I've heard the sennheiser HD650s would be great for all that so do you think I would need something on top of those as well? The 300-400 dollar budget I set would be for additional things besides the HD650s, since I already plan on purchasing those. Things such as the DAC and amp to power the HD650s and a speaker + subwoofer setup for my computer that I can also use to entertain for things like pre games etc. I am a recent college grad working in New York City.

[Guest Kloaked]

1 minute ago, BeastlySin said:

Yah I can definitely go out and try some headphones, though really for me personally I would mainly listen to electronic music out of the speaker system and the other stuff through the headphones, and from what I've heard the sennheiser HD650s would be great for all that so do you think I would need something on top of those as well? The 300-400 dollar budget I set would be for additional things besides the HD650s, since I already plan on purchasing those. Things such as the DAC and amp to power the HD650s and a speaker + subwoofer setup for my computer that I can also use to entertain for things like pre games etc. I am a recent college grad working in New York City.

I can't help you with the speaker and subwoofer stuff since I don't personally own anything "home theater" oriented aside from the Samsung soundbar and sub in my living room which I wouldn't really recommend for you, and my Mackie reference speakers which I also wouldn't recommend for you. Maybe someone else here could help you with that and recommend something.

 

If you're wanting to plug the speakers into the same audio setup however, I could recommend an amp/dac setup so that you can plug everything into the same sound device. I'm assuming you'll be running all of your sound from a PC?

[BeastlySin]

1 minute ago, Kloaked said:

I can't help you with the speaker and subwoofer stuff since I don't personally own anything "home theater" oriented aside from the Samsung soundbar and sub in my living room which I wouldn't really recommend for you, and my Mackie reference speakers which I also wouldn't recommend for you. Maybe someone else here could help you with that and recommend something.

 

If you're wanting to plug the speakers into the same audio setup however, I could recommend an amp/dac setup so that you can plug everything into the same sound device. I'm assuming you'll be running all of your sound from a PC?

 

Yah an amp/dac recommendation would great. I will be running it off my PC, with an Asus ROG STRIX Z270E motherboard (they claim to have some new audio technology so I figured I would mention that in case it affects the choice.)

[KaminKevCrew]

11 minutes ago, BeastlySin said:

I am a recent college grad working in New York City.

Sounds like you should be saving every penny, just so you can afford to stay in your home.

/s

 

Edit: I decided that the following content is not really relevant.

Spoiler

 

Anyway, how much room do you have for speakers? I personally generally prefer starting with dual floorstanding tower speakers (no replacement for displacement) and if I need more bass then I'll grab a sub (hasn't actually happened yet). 

 

I picked up a pair of Sony SS MF500H speakers the other day, and I've been loving them so far. Plenty of low end for anything you might want to do, and they have a relatively small footprint.

 

Kanto Audio has a small amp that could do some high sensitivity speakers. I personally think that you should get something that can output 100 watts per channel or more (if class A/AB, 200+ watts per channel if class D) for any halfway large speakers.

 

 

If you want something small and simple, grab the Kanto Yumi, the Kanto Sub (yaro, I think), and then get something like the Schiit Fulla 2 (or something nicer, if you feel like it - Magni 2 Uber/Modi 2 (regular, uber, or multibit for the modi) would be better matches for the HD650, also, you could grab the Jotunheim with the DAC module if you wanted instead of that stuff. That would be about the cheapest/simplest setup that I would ever actually suggest anyone should run.

[Guest Kloaked]

24 minutes ago, BeastlySin said:

Yah an amp/dac recommendation would great. I will be running it off my PC, with an Asus ROG STRIX Z270E motherboard (they claim to have some new audio technology so I figured I would mention that in case it affects the choice.)

You should be able to power the headphones with that motherboard just fine. Asus tends to put higher end audio chipsets in their mid-range and high-end motherboards. Switching between speakers and your headphones is something I'm not 100% sure on, but you should be able to use Asus' GUI (I forget what it's called) that is specifically for that motherboard to control the sound and whatnot really easily.

 

If you do want to spend more to "get more out of your headphones" (you really don't need to unless you wanna try out a tube amp), you could get a Schiit Vali 2. I have one myself and I'm gonna be changing the tube out to see if it'll change the tone at all since that's what they're supposed to do - just to see what I like. It even has an RCA out, so you could control the volume of both your headphones and speakers with just that one volume knob if you wanted to do that.

 

EDIT: I would get the headphones and speakers first before you get the amp though, just to see if it does what you want.