Best component for speaker clarity?

[Mayh3M]

I'm using a Maximus Hero IX for my sound connected to a Orbitsound M10LX soundbar. I'm looking for a superior sound experience with a focus on audio clarity.

 

I mostly game and listen to some music. As I said I prefer clarity above all else, but not completely at the expense of 'fun' sound.

 

I would like to avoid buying a sound card because I don't want to clutter my case / reduce GPU airflow. Is there an external component I could buy to improve my onboard audio?

 

I'm also open to buying new speakers but I don't have too much space on my desk, especially in the way of height, so I don't think there's much in the way of an upgrade there.

[DannyRyu]

I read somewhere that most of the time the source of the music is more important.

[MrMarriarty]

well yeah the source is important but lets assume your using decent bit rate files, speakers make the most difference to sound quality, get some studio monitors or something

 

http://www.musicradar.com/news/tech/21-of-the-best-affordable-monitor-speakers-570959

[loculus]

The speakers themselves. Positioning and room acoustics can make a pretty significant difference too. The rest is relatively less important by a good degree unless something is broken or way underspec'd.

 

Could you perhaps find room around your desk? You could mount new speakers on stands or on the wall or something like that, if necessary.

 

If you're running a typical soundbar then there's not much you can expect (these make the tradeoff of sound quality to fit the form factor, all else equal, and unless you're looking at a high-end model you need to keep expectations reasonable), but you may be able to do a little better by adjusting the positioning, maybe tilting it up, elevating it a little off the surface of the desk if you're doing that (ideally also mechanically decoupling it from the surface too).

[Mayh3M]

I can fit speakers up to 20cm in height. Are there any good ones you can recommend that fit this dimension? I'm willing to spend  £300+ on speakers and/or DAC for a quality setup.

[loculus]

Check out the IK Multimedia iLoud Micro Montior (£229). Here is a review, for example.

 

Before anybody mentions the Audioengine A2+, a popular option for mini speakers that would fit under your 20 cm requirement, do note that these are tuned in a way that is not really conducive for clarity in the mids or in the bass, and you said you wanted clarity. They made the decision here to artificially boost the upper bass to low mids above other frequencies to try to mask the fact that there's not much extension into the mid bass (i.e. it doesn't play that low, with steep dropoff below 100 Hz, but tries to pretend it does). It kind of works on some music and sounds but you don't have to make this compromise. Without a sub or some huge bookshelves or towers you can't reasonably expect deep bass, but it doesn't have to be like this. In a lot of music (not just talking movie explosions or some organ music) there's legit actual bass lines lower than 100 Hz.

[Mayh3M]

Thanks for the info. Much appreciated.

 

I'm considering buying a larger desk. If desk space was no longer an issue, what speakers would you now recommend? Also I should clarify that I'm looking for speakers that sound clear - I really hate it when audio sounds muffled. I don't mind 'fun' sound at all as long as it doesn't sound muffled. I'm not sure if this means the same thing necessarily as being high in clarity. I often find in games I can't hear character voices over background noises. This is also why I said I'm looking for clarity.

[loculus]

It should be a decent option regardless, unless you want to crank the volume (pesky physics, you know). Without the size constraints there are a lot more options, mostly, and you can get a little better. For example there's the JBL LSR305 that was mentioned, which is pretty popular in a number of circles including budget pro audio. Though that may be more expensive across the pond. It's been frequently like 220 USD or less for two around here, less than competitors' 5" studio monitors that it overall beats. There are good passive speakers too of course, though some of these are maybe not tuned and intended for nearfield use (desktop setup) and may be a little worse for those purposes, with respect to off-angle performance and so on.

 

Note that there will be some loss of clarity regardless based on the way the speakers interact with the desk and room, unless your setup is optimized acoustically (which I'm going to assume is highly unlikely here). Of course with better speakers you can get a clearer sound than what you have now, especially nearfield, so it's far from a lost cause. Just want to make sure expectations are reasonable. There are ways to mitigate this physically/acoustically and also some processing that can be done but this generally costs further money and may not be worth it for you. In any case, better to just see and hear what you're working with for starters.

[Mayh3M]

Found this on eBay: JBL LSR305 White Monitors (Pair) with Isolation Pads & Cables

 

Happy to pay £250 for that. Are those pads useful? What other cables do I need? Also, would a DAC notably enhance my audio experience?

[Dackzy]

3 hours ago, Mayh3M said:

Found this on eBay: JBL LSR305 White Monitors (Pair) with Isolation Pads & Cables

 

Happy to pay £250 for that. Are those pads useful? What other cables do I need? Also, would a DAC notably enhance my audio experience?

those speakers are GREAT and I mean GREAT. The isolation pads reduce the vibrations so you don't end up having a table that vibrates a bit and anything that vibrates will produce sound. If the pads are angled then they will also angle the speaker, which you can use to make them point directly towards your ears which will make the sound clearer.

can you link the kit you found? Just so I can see what cables they give you.

[Mayh3M]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/JBL-LSR305-White-Monitors-Pair-with-Isolation-Pads-Cables/232415991294

[spwath]

1 hour ago, Mayh3M said:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/JBL-LSR305-White-Monitors-Pair-with-Isolation-Pads-Cables/232415991294

The cable they give you wont help you for your use case.

The Isolation pads could be nice to angle speakers right.

You need this cable http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3m-3-5mm-Male-TRS-to-Dual-6-35mm-Male-TS-Connector-Stereo-Audio-Cable-Wire-/201853920815?hash=item2eff6e662f:g:fzQAAOSwXYtYyOwj

 

[Mayh3M]

Thanks. Is that the only cable I need? Do I need a DAC?

[loculus]

1 hour ago, Mayh3M said:

Thanks. Is that the only cable I need? Do I need a DAC?

It's usually better, though how much depends on whatever you're running now. May not be better enough to warrant the budget.

 

Actually, these speakers expect balanced inputs and have their own power supplies and connections to ground, so outputting unbalanced audio through a regular 3.5 mm jack (or RCAs) from another device with its own ground connection—especially if this is a potentially noisy source like a computer—is somewhat prone to ground loop issues like maybe mains hum, buzzing, etc.

 

You could get an audio interface capable of balanced output, or perhaps an optical S/PDIF DAC that would be electrically isolated from the noisy computer. At the low and cheap end, the FiiO D03K (£22) is acceptable with the only real flaw being an antialiasing filter that cuts perhaps too much into the passband so you lose a fraction of a dB by 10kHz and a couple dB by 20 kHz (which is not very audible generally and not a big deal regardless, but just saying, it's not reference quality). You'd need the optical cable of course.

 

Other than the potential noise/grounding issues, this is all less important in the big picture compared to speaker quality and so on. Just keeping things in perspective.

 

btw it could just be that you plug it into the 3.5 mm jack and there are no issues, so you could just try that first if you want

[Mayh3M]

I guess I'll see how things are using my onboard audio first.

 

Many thanks for being so helpful.

[Mayh3M]

I am buying everything on gears4music.com, including an audio interface. I have some questions:

 

Does it matter if I buy the monitors individually or should I buy them as a pair? They're cheaper individually.

 

What do audio interfaces do exactly? The most attractive feature to me is the Scarlett 2i2's large volume knob... but I prefer the black of the Roland Duo Capture EX. Which is better?

 

What cables do I need exactly on gears4music.com? They have so many. What does TRA/RCA/balanced/unbalanced etc, mean?

[spwath]

12 minutes ago, Mayh3M said:

I am buying everything on gears4music.com, including an audio interface. I have some questions:

 

Does it matter if I buy the monitors individually or should I buy them as a pair? They're cheaper individually.

 

What do audio interfaces do exactly? The most attractive feature to me is the Scarlett 2i2's large volume knob... but I prefer the black of the Roland Duo Capture EX. Which is better?

 

What cables do I need exactly on gears4music.com? They have so many. What does TRA/RCA/balanced/unbalanced etc, mean?

Either should be fine. You don't need any other cables if you get the thing on ebay, that would include the cables you need for audio interface. Otherwise something like this:

http://www.gear4music.com/G4M/Roland-Dual-1-4-1-4-Interconnect-Cable-10ft-3m/1HX9

or this:

http://www.gear4music.com/G4M/XLR-M-Jack-Amp-Mixer-Cable-Dual-Mono-3m/DN6

 

Should suffice

[anothertom]

1 hour ago, Mayh3M said:

What do audio interfaces do exactly? The most attractive feature to me is the Scarlett 2i2's large volume knob... but I prefer the black of the Roland Duo Capture EX. Which is better?

An interface allows you to have multiple audio streams as both input and output simultaneously. This is most useful with a DAW, where you can assign the different channels to a different track and record them individually. You can get much better pre-amps than you'll find in onboard solutions as well as using balanced connections and also moving the signal processing to an external unit, away from the EMI typically inside a PC case.

 

If you only need the balanced outputs then, as far as I know, the Scarlett 2i2 is the cheapest option, as well as being well regarded and having some pretty nice pre-amps if you ever do get into recording.

 

1 hour ago, Mayh3M said:

What cables do I need exactly on gears4music.com? They have so many. What does TRA [you mean TRS] /RCA/balanced/unbalanced etc, mean?

You want 6.35mm TRS jack cables, one per side. Any from this filtered list, just find the length you need.

 

TRS - a jack connector with a Tip, Ring, Sleeve arrangement. A variant of the Phone connector, as used on telephone switchboards, available in 2.5, 3.5, 6.35 mm sizes most commonly and with anywhere from two to four conductors.

 

RCA - Also known as a phono connector, is a coaxial cable usually with two conductors. Is also used in video applications (composite and component signals)

 

Balanced vs Unbalanced

An unbalanced signal sends an absolute signal with a ground for reference, the end device simply takes the voltage difference to the ground signal and takes that forward. This requires a two conductor cable and has no noise/interference rejection capabilities.

 

A balanced signal sends a positive signal, an inverted negative signal and a ground reference. The receiving device measures the difference between the positive and negative signals and takes that forward. Because the signal is no longer referenced to ground, and it can be assumed that any interference will equally affect the positive and negative signals, this has a theoretically perfect noise/interference rejection. (for more info look at differential signalling). This requires a three conductor cable to send properly while keeping a properly grounded system, but can be sent over a two core cable.

 

Unbalanced signals generally use: RCA, TS Jack connectors.

Balanced signals generally use: XLR, TRS jack, TRRS Jack (when sending two balanced signals with no ground).

 

 

[loculus]

1 hour ago, anothertom said:

If you only need the balanced outputs then, as far as I know, the Scarlett 2i2 is the cheapest option, as well as being well regarded and having some pretty nice pre-amps if you ever do get into recording.

For a while now there's been a Focusrite Scarlett Solo that's under the 2i2. Behringer (go figure) has a number of products cheaper than that too, that have balanced output. I'm pretty sure PreSonus, Lexicon, and some others, and then even more obscure stuff have products with balanced output that are cheaper than the 2I2 too. And apparently Roland. They were mentioned.

 

Well, at least with pro audio stuff you generally get what you pay for, and I mean that in a good way—rather than products here and there being rip-offs.

[Mayh3M]

So all I need is the balanced audio functionality since I have no interest in music production, as it's not like there's improved sound quality with higher end models for listening only.

 

How do I tell which audio interfaces have it this function. What's they keyword? The descriptions don't seem to refer to balanced/unbalanced. I'm looking for the cheapest one on gears4music.com.

[anothertom]

2 hours ago, Mayh3M said:

How do I tell which audio interfaces have it this function. What's they keyword?

If they don't list it on the product page look at the manufacturers website. Look for the output being on jack or XLR, it's unlikely they'd havve an unbalanced output on either of those connectors. The cheapest interface on gear4music with balanced outputs is the UMC22.

[Mayh3M]

I'll go with the 2i2, since that what everyone seems to be pairing the LSR305s with everywhere I look. Should be all set now, thanks.

[Mayh3M]

Just noticed the new M-Audio BX5 D3 is out. No reviews yet but anything specs/designwise to indicate it might be worth going for above the LSR305s?

[loculus]

1 hour ago, Mayh3M said:

Just noticed the new M-Audio BX5 D3 is out. No reviews yet but anything specs/designwise to indicate it might be worth going for above the LSR305s?

Looks like maybe they paid more attention to off-axis dispersion compared to BX5 D2, based on what they're advertising.

 

But no, you can't really say without some good reviews. Also, you know how new products can sometimes have teething issues. I would go for the sure thing. Credible brands put out new products all the time. Well, 5" entry-level studio monitors every several years or so, I guess, before a refresh. But there are plenty of brands selling these.

[Mayh3M]

So I've finally set everything up but I'm not getting any sound. The LEDs are turned on for both speakers and the 2i2, and playback device is set to Scarlett 2i2 USB.

 

I tried manually installed the latest drivers to no avail. I'm using balanced TRS cables.