Finally upping my sound quality.. I guess lol

Scougar · 27 Dec 2022 at 15:18

After around a ten year hiatus, I have now bought a second set of Creative Labs Gigaworks T40's. Whilst certainly not the 'pinacle' of audio quality, they are a great set of speakers for desktop usage.

I had a set of the originals I believe I bought used from the members market, and sold them before I moved to the USA. I do actually have a 2.1 setup, but it's in storage, and cheap.

Also, I've just bought from Creative directly a refurbished Sound Blaster G6 to replace the onboard sound. I have a mini-ITX case so can't get an external card as that slot is taken by the 2070 GTX.

I got the speakers primarily because I've been watching a lot of you tube car videos lately and been getting back into listening to music again.

Hopefully they work well together.

TL;DR: Bought Gigaworks T40 Series II speakers and Sound Blaster G6 external sound card.

hornetstinger · 27 Dec 2022 at 18:50

These weren't an option?

Perlisten Audio S-Series Home Cinema Speaker Review

Review of Perlisten Audio's S-Series home cinema speaker system here consisting of two S7t towers, an S7c centre, two S4s surrounds and an D215s subwoofer

www.avforums.com

Scougar · 28 Dec 2022 at 23:04

hornetstinger said:
These weren't an option?

Perlisten Audio S-Series Home Cinema Speaker Review

Review of Perlisten Audio's S-Series home cinema speaker system here consisting of two S7t towers, an S7c centre, two S4s surrounds and an D215s subwoofer

www.avforums.com

Lol...I love the only Con listed on that as "You may have to sell an organ". I'm rather attached to mine at present

T40 Series II arrived today. Not that impressed with the T40's with onboard sound so far. Got another week till the G6 amp/soundcard arrives though.

hornetstinger · 28 Dec 2022 at 23:12

Scougar said:
Lol...I love the only Con listed on that as "You may have to sell an organ". I'm rather attached to mine at present

T40 Series II arrived today. Not that impressed with the T40's with onboard sound so far. Got another week till the G6 amp/soundcard arrives though.

Try plugging the T40 to a good dedicated CD Player. If it doesn't sound good with that, a soundcard won't make it better, so return the T40's in that case.

JasonM · 29 Dec 2022 at 06:58

You don't have to spend £1000's to get good audio, you do have to be smart and avoid poor quality.

1) Prodipe Pro V5's £230. Proper entry level studio monitor, class A/B bi-amps normally only used on more expensive monitors, there not tiring so can be used to listen to music / films for long periods.

Prodipe Pro 5 V3 Isopad Bundle

Bundle offer comprising 2x Prodipe Pro 5 V3 Active Studiomonitor Active studio monitor Power: 75 W Bi-amp Dynamic Power, Equipment: 1 "tweeter (25 W) and 5" woofer (50 W), Input: XLR / 6.3 mm jack / RCA, Frequency range: 55 - 22000 Hz +/- 2.0 dB,...

www.thomann.de

2) Gear 4 Music desk stands £29.00. These are essential if your listening in near field to lift & position speakers to ear height.

Desktop Monitor Speaker Stands by Gear4music, Pair at Gear4music

www.gear4music.com

3) Asus Essence STX (second hand from ebay) £75. Still one of the best consumer sound cards ever made, they have a natural / organic sound to them often only found on better quality DAC's. The Windows 10 drivers work fine on Windows 11.

Asus Xonar Essence STX Audiophile Sound Card | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Asus Xonar Essence STX Audiophile Sound Card at the best online prices at eBay! Free delivery for many products.

www.ebay.co.uk

4) Some Van Damme XKE RCA cables, pair of 3 meters is £22, the Lo-Cap 55's are better but there over twice the money and if your on a budget XKE's are still better then similar priced consumer cables.

(PAIR) Van Damme XKE OFC Phono Interconnect RCA cable - GOLD plug 0.2.5M -3m | eBay

Capacitance Core to shield pF/m <90. Cable colour options - BLACK/WHITE/BLUE/RED/ORANGE/. Cable Specifications. Material - Bare silver plated ultra pure oxygen free copper wire. Type - 80 x 0.10mm close lapped oxygen free copper wire.

www.ebay.co.uk

Under £360 for all the above. If your only use to Creative speakers and motherboard audio, you'll have a huge jump in quality.

hornetstinger · 29 Dec 2022 at 09:40

JasonM said:
You don't have to spend £1000's to get good audio, you do have to be smart and avoid poor quality.

1) Prodipe Pro V5's £230. Proper entry level studio monitor, class A/B bi-amps normally only used on more expensive monitors, there not tiring so can be used to listen to music / films for long periods.

Prodipe Pro 5 V3 Isopad Bundle

Bundle offer comprising 2x Prodipe Pro 5 V3 Active Studiomonitor Active studio monitor Power: 75 W Bi-amp Dynamic Power, Equipment: 1 "tweeter (25 W) and 5" woofer (50 W), Input: XLR / 6.3 mm jack / RCA, Frequency range: 55 - 22000 Hz +/- 2.0 dB,...

www.thomann.de

2) Gear 4 Music desk stands £29.00. These are essential if your listening in near field to lift & position speakers to ear height.

Desktop Monitor Speaker Stands by Gear4music, Pair at Gear4music

Desktop Monitor Speaker Stands by Gear4music, Pair at Gear4music

www.gear4music.com

3) Asus Essence STX (second hand from ebay) £75. Still one of the best consumer sound cards ever made, they have a natural / organic sound to them often only found on better quality DAC's. The Windows 10 drivers work fine on Windows 11.

Asus Xonar Essence STX Audiophile Sound Card | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Asus Xonar Essence STX Audiophile Sound Card at the best online prices at eBay! Free delivery for many products.

www.ebay.co.uk

4) Some Van Damme XKE RCA cables, pair of 3 meters is £22, the Lo-Cap 55's are better but there over twice the money and if your on a budget XKE's are still better then similar priced consumer cables.

(PAIR) Van Damme XKE OFC Phono Interconnect RCA cable - GOLD plug 0.2.5M -3m | eBay

Capacitance Core to shield pF/m <90. Cable colour options - BLACK/WHITE/BLUE/RED/ORANGE/. Cable Specifications. Material - Bare silver plated ultra pure oxygen free copper wire. Type - 80 x 0.10mm close lapped oxygen free copper wire.

www.ebay.co.uk

Under £360 for all the above. If your only use to Creative speakers and motherboard audio, you'll have a huge jump in quality.

The problem with monitors is lack of inputs, although that could be sorted with a input switcher however since many items lack RCA out (BD player, console) that's a problem as you literally need a AV pre amp, RCA and coaxial/optical and hdmi inputs, for hdmi in/out routing for video and audio, room correction, time alignment, bass management, to add a sub or two, have a physical volume dial etc

Also worthwhile to have a sub also, divert low bass from those monitors to a speaker that can handle 60hz and below much better than those standmounts

JasonM · 29 Dec 2022 at 10:58

hornetstinger said:
The problem with monitors is lack of inputs, although that could be sorted with a input switcher however since many items lack RCA out (BD player, console) that's a problem as you literally need a AV pre amp, RCA and coaxial/optical and hdmi inputs, for hdmi in/out routing for video and audio, room correction, time alignment, bass management, to add a sub or two, have a physical volume dial etc

Also worthwhile to have a sub also, divert low bass from those monitors to a speaker that can handle 60hz and below much better than those standmounts

If it's computer audio there is normally only the computer as source.

Those monitors I don't need a sub, I use them in near field anyway - there around 3 feet from my ears, and I have them direct at ear level. In the manual it states 55Hz, but they appear to go lower. I use to run Yamaha bookshelf speakers + sub (that I still have boxed up), however choose to use these Prodipes in 2.0 over that previous 2.1 setup.

The things with the Prodipes are there are very little reviews on them, and what reviews there are tend not to be in English. Speakers like Edifiers, Adam many of the you tube review are paid reviews so these speakers get pushed! The Prodipes no one is pushing as such, they are however very good speakers for the price category they are in.

hornetstinger · 29 Dec 2022 at 11:52

JasonM said:
If it's computer audio there is normally only the computer as source.

Those monitors I don't need a sub, I use them in near field anyway - there around 3 feet from my ears, and I have them direct at ear level. In the manual it states 55Hz, but they appear to go lower. I use to run Yamaha bookshelf speakers + sub (that I still have boxed up), however choose to use these Prodipes in 2.0 over that previous 2.1 setup.

The things with the Prodipes are there are very little reviews on them, and what reviews there are tend not to be in English. Speakers like Edifiers, Adam many of the you tube review are paid reviews so these speakers get pushed! The Prodipes no one is pushing as such, they are however very good speakers for the price category they are in.

I use two pcs, two consoles, a dvd player, a audio streamer, and Bluetooth mobile, and a laptop for my audio source in the desk setup.

JasonM · 29 Dec 2022 at 16:02

hornetstinger said:
I use two pcs, two consoles, a dvd player, a audio streamer, and Bluetooth mobile, and a laptop for my audio source in the desk setup.

What audio do you have for your desk setup then? What is the full break down, amps, speakers, subs, cables, any mains conditioning? Just honestly curious.

hornetstinger · 29 Dec 2022 at 16:13

JasonM said:
What audio do you have for your desk setup then? What is the full break down, amps, speakers, subs, cables, any mains conditioning? Just honestly curious.

Avr
Dvd player
Left, center, right, surrounds
Subwoofer

It's pretty stand 5.1 system, a mix or speakers .

Just means I can plug RCA, optical, coaxial , buetooth, HDMI sources.

If op only has need for a single input sure pc speakers/active monitors are ok, but have flexibility of inputs, change speakers and sub as needed.

There's plenty of options if you're interested on Peter Tyson etc

JasonM · 29 Dec 2022 at 16:23

For my home office / main computer, if I was to improve audio it would be room conditioning.

I have a slight issue in that I run triple computer screens (I'm a software dev), so my monitors (speakers) there pushed out a little more then I would like, to compensate I have them tilted in a little more.

The other thing that improved audio, my speakers are sideways (horizontal), so the tweeter and main driver are all at ear level. The tweeters are on the outside. Regardless of how much money speakers cost, everyone should experiment with speaker position, all the people that run speakers directly on a desk are totally missing out.

I'm honestly quite happy with stereo speakers, I would like to try Adam Audio X series one day, but there around £1000 and I can't justify that cost, plus I feel they would be wasted without room conditioning first.

One day I would like a dedicated audio room with sound conditioning in it.

The other thing I would like is to move to balanced outputs, however I would need a very good DAC to keep me happy, until I can justify spending so many £100's on a DAC, I just keep running the Asus Essence cards.

And this last bit is serious and honestly not a joke. I put these things called focus rings around my speaker tweeters, what they do is reduce off axis sound, it's subtle but they improved my audio, remember I'm running in near field, these would not work if speakers a distance away.

Focus Rings

A simple way to hear better sound from your speakersThe metal face plate on your speaker’s dome tweeter can cause higher frequency reflection. Fit our oval Focus Rings to your speakers to help reduce this reflection to give a clearer and more focussed sound!Made from felt for effective...

www.russandrews.com

hornetstinger · 29 Dec 2022 at 20:53

JasonM said:
For my home office / main computer, if I was to improve audio it would be room conditioning.

I have a slight issue in that I run triple computer screens (I'm a software dev), so my monitors (speakers) there pushed out a little more then I would like, to compensate I have them tilted in a little more.

The other thing that improved audio, my speakers are sideways (horizontal), so the tweeter and main driver are all at ear level. The tweeters are on the outside. Regardless of how much money speakers cost, everyone should experiment with speaker position, all the people that run speakers directly on a desk are totally missing out.

I'm honestly quite happy with stereo speakers, I would like to try Adam Audio X series one day, but there around £1000 and I can't justify that cost, plus I feel they would be wasted without room conditioning first.

One day I would like a dedicated audio room with sound conditioning in it.

The other thing I would like is to move to balanced outputs, however I would need a very good DAC to keep me happy, until I can justify spending so many £100's on a DAC, I just keep running the Asus Essence cards.

And this last bit is serious and honestly not a joke. I put these things called focus rings around my speaker tweeters, what they do is reduce off axis sound, it's subtle but they improved my audio, remember I'm running in near field, these would not work if speakers a distance away.

Focus Rings

A simple way to hear better sound from your speakersThe metal face plate on your speaker’s dome tweeter can cause higher frequency reflection. Fit our oval Focus Rings to your speakers to help reduce this reflection to give a clearer and more focussed sound!Made from felt for effective...

www.russandrews.com

You could go for a passive LCR soundbar below or above your monitors, driven by a AVR

Monoprice ships new THX Certified Compact speakers

The passive soundbar and satellite speakers are designed for wall mounting in smaller home theaters.

www.techhive.com

Haggisman · 30 Dec 2022 at 11:17

I love this forum.

Someone posts about buying £90 speakers and £90 sound card, usual suspects hijack the thread to recommend setups several times the price :cry:

Scougar · 31 Dec 2022 at 20:04

hornetstinger said:
Try plugging the T40 to a good dedicated CD Player. If it doesn't sound good with that, a soundcard won't make it better, so return the T40's in that case.

I have an extremely good amp, but it is in storage at present. Will just patiently wait for the G6 to arrive.

P.s. I already have polk speakers (surround and massive floor units with an old but very good amp. I don't need more expensive speakers. I also have a 2.1 cheaper set in storage, I am just too lazy to go get it. Also, nostalgia purchase on the T40s purchase as well as I regret selling them when I moved country)

Scougar · 4 Jan 2023 at 00:31

Well... received my G6. Volume knob is immediately a pain in the butt. Keeps flicking between increasing and decreasing. If I go too fast, it pretty much only decreases the volume.

Need to get a 3 prong to splitter for my headphones so I can split out the Hyper X headphones to separate plugs for output and mic input. (EDIT: Ordered)

hornetstinger · 4 Jan 2023 at 13:05

Scougar said:
Well... received my G6. Volume knob is immediately a pain in the butt. Keeps flicking between increasing and decreasing. If I go too fast, it pretty much only decreases the volume.

Need to get a 3 prong to splitter for my headphones so I can split out the Hyper X headphones to separate plugs for output and mic input. (EDIT: Ordered)

If you bought a AVR they would have dedicated headphone amplifier and able to drive speakers also. You wouldn't need to faff around with three way splitters which'll degrade sound quality

Scougar · 4 Jan 2023 at 13:17

hornetstinger said:
If you bought a AVR they would have dedicated headphone amplifier and able to drive speakers also. You wouldn't need to faff around with three way splitters which'll degrade sound quality

Perhaps you misunderstood?

The 3.5mm plug on the headphones is for headphones and microphone. This normally plugs into a Hyperx USB adapter that goes to the PC. I won't be using this anymore. I need to split the headphones and mic to different outputs on the G6 now. HyperX make a cable specially for this purpose.

Note: the G6 has output for speakers and headphones, but that is not what I am referring to here.