Audio Setup - Talk to me

Dempsey22 · 18 Oct 2017 at 15:33

Need some help guys. I've sorted pretty much every part of my system recently except for audio.

I had a pair of DT990s before and loved them so just picked up a new set as I had to sell the old ones. I didn't rush into buying a dac/amp.

I'm looking to run monitor speakers for music and then the headphones for when others are in the room.

What's the best way to achieve this? I'm not clued up on studio monitors, passive or active etc etc.

If anyone can chime in with suggestions I'd appreciate it.

Budget around 400.

Marsman · 18 Oct 2017 at 16:52

Could grab a SMSL M6 DAC/headphone for a bit over £100 then 2 JBL LSR305 monitors for a bit over £200.

Dempsey22 · 18 Oct 2017 at 21:55

Marsman said:
Could grab a SMSL M6 DAC/headphone for a bit over £100 then 2 JBL LSR305 monitors for a bit over £200.

Looks good to me. Im not too clued into audio so how would all these connect together?

I'm currently using 2 cheap speakers and a sub that just connect to the audio jack on the mobo, get interference when no audio is playing.

Marsman · 20 Oct 2017 at 21:40

Optical or USB to the DAC and RCA to 6.35mm mono cables; or you could use 6.35mm to RCA adaptors and connect RCA to RCA cables.

mistersprinkles · 27 Oct 2017 at 21:14

I second the LSR 305s they are hard to beat in their price range.
Not sure you want to go with such a junky HP amp/DAC though, but its up to you.
I'd rather see you pick up the modi/magni uber bundle from Schiit which would allow you to hook up your headphones and speakers at the same time while providing truly quality audio from a bunch of hifi industry veterans who decided to form their own small company that only makes good Schiit. No bad Schiit.

rids57 · 27 Oct 2017 at 21:51

the stack is now the Schiit Modi 2 Uber and Magni 3, which has replaced the Magni 2 Uber - it is £50 cheaper, has the same functionality and sounds better

Dempsey22 · 29 Oct 2017 at 14:48

rids57 said:
the stack is now the Schiit Modi 2 Uber and Magni 3, which has replaced the Magni 2 Uber - it is £50 cheaper, has the same functionality and sounds better

Bought those already and arrived a few days ago

rids57 · 29 Oct 2017 at 15:45

sorted then

bfar · 29 Oct 2017 at 17:03

rids57 said:
the stack is now the Schiit Modi 2 Uber and Magni 3, which has replaced the Magni 2 Uber - it is £50 cheaper, has the same functionality and sounds better

Are these a good solution for driving speakers?

Dempsey22 · 29 Oct 2017 at 17:55

bfar said:
Are these a good solution for driving speakers?

I'm going using them to drive LSR305s anyway so hopefully they will be.

Marsman · 29 Oct 2017 at 18:08

bfar said:
Are these a good solution for driving speakers?

Depends on what speakers and what you mean by 'driving'.

rids57 · 29 Oct 2017 at 18:11

If they are active speakers then yes, there are many happy users posting about using the Magni 3 and speakers over on Head-Fi - if they are passive speakers then no, you would need a power amp.

mistersprinkles · 3 Nov 2017 at 00:09

bfar said:
Are these a good solution for driving speakers?

The amp puts out like 1 watt so no . It's a headphone setup. The DAC (the uber version of it at least) has RCA outs (2 sets) one of which is meant for the HP amp and the other of which can go to powered speakers or a speaker amp or whatever.

rids57 · 4 Nov 2017 at 00:28

mistersprinkles said:
The amp puts out like 1 watt so no . It's a headphone setup. The DAC (the uber version of it at least) has RCA outs (2 sets) one of which is meant for the HP amp and the other of which can go to powered speakers or a speaker amp or whatever.

The Modi 2 Uber has ONE set of RCA outputs and these are connected to the Magni 2 Uber or Magni 3, which has it's own RCA outputs and is configured as a pre-amp, so the control affects the volume of the speakers / speaker amp.

mistersprinkles · 4 Nov 2017 at 01:39

rids57 said:
The Modi 2 Uber has ONE set of RCA outputs and these are connected to the Magni 2 Uber or Magni 3, which has it's own RCA outputs and is configured as a pre-amp, so the control affects the volume of the speakers / speaker amp.

My bad. I knew one of them had two sets of RCA. End result is the same.

rids57 · 4 Nov 2017 at 02:59

Nope, one set of outputs each

I guess you could say it has four if you count the RCA inputs though if you want an out

mistersprinkles · 5 Nov 2017 at 04:07

rids57 said:
Nope, one set of outputs each

I guess you could say it has four if you count the RCA inputs though if you want an out

I'm so confusing when I give audio advice that I've gone and confused myself now ... ...

madindehead · 9 Nov 2017 at 09:02

@Dempsey22 Did you end up buying the JBL LSR305 speakers too? I'm looking at this exact setup, was just wondering how you were getting on with it.

Dempsey22 · 9 Nov 2017 at 09:23

madindehead said:
@Dempsey22 Did you end up buying the JBL LSR305 speakers too? I'm looking at this exact setup, was just wondering how you were getting on with it.

I actually haven't got around to purchasing them yet mate, I bought 4TB HDD and 512GB Nvme drive instead, hoping to order them soon.

mistersprinkles · 11 Nov 2017 at 02:37

bfar said:
Are these a good solution for driving speakers?

They're not driving anything except your headphones. The 305's have their own built in class D amplification. The RCA outs on the DAC come in 2 sets. One goes to the headphone amp the other goes to the LSR305's. get yourself a dual RCA to dual mono TRS 6.3mm cable for cheap from the rainforest. Sorted.

You won't beat the 305's in their price range. Horn loaded tweeter too. Awesome speakers.