How to get the most out of my equipment?

[NvidiaDan]

Hey all,

I got a Asus Xonar DS card for christmas, but i'm a total noob when it comes to sound.

At the moment i'm using a 3.5mm jack to RCA cable to connect it to this Aiwa Hi-Fi.

And using 2 old Acoustic Solutions monitors.

I know this is extremely old and budget stuff so im not expecting great quality but is there anything i can do to improve the sound? Would and optical cable be worth it? Or should i look at new equipment?.

Thanks.

 

[Eddie]

I think there's a few options you can do here depending on funding and what you can be bothered to do. From experience those little Aiwa systems always seem to have a half decent amp in them, for what they are anyway, so maybe look to upgrade your speakers first. You can get some pretty good speakers for <£200, even for <£100, or even second hand which would be a major improvement to your current speakers. There's a few speakers available which do very well at improving those little mini systems and at the same time provide you with access to the first run of the hi-fi ladder , if that's the way you fancy going.

Better speakers would give you a better sound straight away and then allow you to maybe upgrade the amp at a later stage when funds permit.

You could splash out and replace both your speakers and amp - you'd be surprised what quality you can get these days for not much money at all. There's plenty people round here that would help you buy the best you can for your money.

Another option would be to do away with both the speakers and the Aiwa system and get yourself a more traditional PC sort of system. As well as others, Creative do some good speakers for around the £50-£60 mark which are perfect for gaming and general music listening, we're not talking hi-fi quality here though, definitely not the type of sound you'd expect from a dedicated amp and speakers of course but definitely good enough for the general sort of PC usage it looks like you do. The more you pay with regards to PC speakers the more you get but there's a good set of speakers to match whatever budget you have.

As a little free tip for the time being though, get yourself some Blutac and put a dollop under each corner of your speakers. It'll isolate the speakers from your desk, reducing vibration, and help to give a better sound in general. Also, I don't know those speakers but do they have a rear sound port in them? If so they look like they're too close to the wall and will benefit from a gap of a few inches.

I'm sure someone else more knowledgeable will post with better ideas but hopefully that's given you something to think about, and maybe somewhere to start.

Good luck

 

[cornyfeet]

move you pc under your desk may also help.
depending on how loud your pc is, ie the fans - you want it as far away from your ears as posible. although it may not be an option if your pc needs to be up there.

edit - also you want the speakers to face you at a slight angle so that they in line with your head.

 

[hughythomas]

If you want to improve your sound quality - buy some budget speaker stands or Auralex MoPads if you don't have the space for the former.

People ALWAYS underestimate acoustics when talking about good quality sound. Companies like Acoustic Solutions, Apollo Audio, Atacama and Mission all make fantastic speaker stands for less than £150. Trust me, you will notice a huge difference decoupling your speakers from everything.

Looking at your pictures, your audio is NEVER going to be good with your speakers on the desk as sound will propagate through the table and turn your bass frequencies into moosh.

Also, it looks like you are running Win7 have a look here for a thread which I posted on regarding syncing sample rates in Vista/7. This will give you a 'quick' fix to your audio but acoustics will be your biggest issue on that setup of yours.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?p=15679108#post15679108

EDIT: Yup cornyfeets right, you really want a equilateral triangle so that your speakers are the base and you are the top.

 

[NvidiaDan]

Thanks for the detailed replies, i appreciate it

Will try some of the suggestions, but it looks like im going to have to spend some money soon

 

[hughythomas]

Cheapest thing you could do would be Auralex MoPads - check em out. The idea is they are these foam pads on which you place your speakers to decouple them from any surface (if you cant have speaker stands). Although, I would always recommend speaker stands over mopads. But, it looks like speaker stands are not an option for you in your setup so these are still good and only £30.