One For music Lovers!

[Solouko]

Hi all,
My friend is a music junky but he’s not very clued up on the PC front and he’s looking to get the best sound quality he can from his PC because he’s just started the switch to MP3s. he’s against the idea of upgrading his soundcard but he does need some decent speakers, what are the BEST 2.0 speakers you can get at the moment, and I don’t mean the loudest or the best for games I mean, gives the best music replication. Budget is unlimited btw. I was looking at the 2.0 Gigaworks speakers as I’ve herd good things about them and they’re a reasonable power (14 watt RMS) and reasonable price too.

Also, if he was going to upgrade his soundcard which brand tend to give out the best sounding music? In my opinion creative are not that good for music but awesome for games but I have had very little experience with soundcards (is a creative fanboy).

Thanks dudes, hope you can help.

 

[tom_nieto]

Don't get a PC orientated setup. If he's really into music then he should buy a stereo hi-fi amp and speakers and NOTHING ELSE. Especially if the budget is unlimited... which I don't think it is quite. No PC speaker setup will come close for music alone.

Get yourself to the hi-fi forum at the bottom of OcUK and ask about in there.

 

[Solouko]

Don't get a PC orientated setup. If he's really into music then he should buy a stereo hi-fi amp and speakers and NOTHING ELSE. Especially if the budget is unlimited... which I don't think it is quite. No PC speaker setup will come close for music alone.

Get yourself to the hi-fi forum at the bottom of OcUK and ask about in there.

Thanks dude!

That’s an absolutely brilliant idea, and I’m kicking myself for not thinking of it myself, but… my friend knows as much about PCs as I know about Hi-fi systems… so here I go with the noob question, how do you connect a computer to a hi-fi system?
Or rather… what is the BEST way to connect them? I don’t even know what sort of audio input jacks hi-fi systems use o_o’

 

[tom_nieto]

A 3.5mm headphone to 2x RCA calbes will do the job for most ordinary soundcards.

http://www.avland.co.uk/qed/qunexj2p/index.htm is an example, but is probably a bit expensive in reality.

I would definitely look into a soundcard too.

M-Audio are regarded as some of the best for music, the one I'm about to link to is probably overkill for playback only, but it does have RCA (proper hi-fi style) connectors on it. I'm not that clued up on soundcards atm, but I'm sure lots of others will be able to help you.

http://www.computermusic.co.uk/reviews/audiophile/audiophile.asp

 

[Codmate]

A 3.5mm headphone to 2x RCA calbes will do the job for most ordinary soundcards.

http://www.avland.co.uk/qed/qunexj2p/index.htm is an example, but is probably a bit expensive in reality.

I would definitely look into a soundcard too.

M-Audio are regarded as some of the best for music, the one I'm about to link to is probably overkill for playback only, but it does have RCA (proper hi-fi style) connectors on it. I'm not that clued up on soundcards atm, but I'm sure lots of others will be able to help you.

http://www.computermusic.co.uk/reviews/audiophile/audiophile.asp

That 2496 would be perfect for uncomplicated stereo playback.

A real music buff wouldn't rely on MP3's (or possibly even CDs) - although the convenience of having everything on hard drive is irresistible, and even hardened audiophiles are succumbing to the mp3 disease

I can definitely notice the difference between, even very high quality mp3s, and CDs/Vinyl/Tape. Listen to the decay of splash cymbals and you'll hear the level drop off in steps, rather than smoothly, as with an uncompressed source, or (even more so) an analogue source. Hi-hats are another killer - they just sound like white noise when compressed too far.
From high-quality tape or a decent vinyl pressing (or possibly even a CD), they will sound like hi-hats again.

This hasn't stopped me from digitising most of my music and playing it off hard disk though, as well as doing all my recordings digitally. It's just too cool to be able to put your entire record collection on random play

Damn the cheapness and convenience of the digital age!

 

[Solouko]

ok, i think £170 is actualy more then my friend wants to pay for his music...

so lets set the budget to £100 or less

he needs good music playback from his MP3s and he always encodes his MP3s at the highest sample rate he can... he also records his bass on computer too so he needs good playback and direct play from his bass too.

so... he's got a really good hi-fi system, now all he needs is a decent high quality PCI/USB soundcard to conect his computer to it that costs less than £100

any more advice?

 

[DRZ]

For under £100 there is the M-Audio 192 card.

The Audiophile 192 continues the legacy of M-Audios industry-standard Delta audio card line. Building on their Audiophile 2496 one of the worlds most popular audio cards the Audiophile 192 features high-definition 192kHz sampling rate, digital I/O, balanced analog I/O and an amazing signal-to-noise ratio. As with all Delta cards, you get rock-solid drivers and seamless integration with your favorite Mac and PC applications and even the ability to combine multiple Delta cards in one system*. Since M-Audio is always ahead of the pack, this world-class card is also compliant with PCI 2.2 and 64-bit audio drivers so youre ready to take advantage of next-generation platforms and software.

This product comes bundled with Ableton Live Lite 5

Features:

* up to 24-bit/192kHz audio
* 2 balanced analog inputs (1/4 TRS)
* 2 balanced analog outputs (1/4 TRS)
* S/PDIF digital I/O (coaxial RCA connectors) with 2-channel PCM
* SCMS copy protection control
* digital I/O supports surround-encoded AC-3 and DTS pass-through**
* direct hardware input monitoring via separate balanced 1/4 TRS monitor outputs
* software routing of inputs and outputs
* digital I/O can be routed to/from external effects
* 16-channel MIDI I/O
* ASIO, WDM, GSIF 2 and Core Audio driver support for compatibility with most applications
* 64-bit driver support for Windows
* PCI 2.2 compatibility
* works with other Delta cards*

Minimum System Requirements PC

* Pentium 3 - 700 MHz or higher, 256 MB RAM (192 and 96kHz operation)
* Pentium 3 - 500 MHz or higher, 128 MB RAM (48kHz operation)
* DirectX 9.0b or higher
* Windows XP (SP1) or Windows 2000 (SP4)
* Available PCI slot