Please help me upgrade my audio solution

Roverno

Roverno

Roverno

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West Sussex
I have a few questions for the sound gurus out there.

1) If im listing to mp3 music through itunes would it be massively overkill to go for the pc350 and xense combo from ocuk?

2) I currently have only mp3's in my itunes, is there any way to 'exchange' or upgrade my mp3 quality music to something that sounds clearer and better? Buying the CD and re ripping?

3) The xense and pc350 combo is looking very tempting to me at the moment, is there anything bad about this set that should put me off? other than the high price?
 
Do you have to have headphones?? Nothing beats a good speaker set-up.

As to the MP3, if you buy a CD it will be better quality as long as you listen to it off the CD! Even if you use the best settings on itunes (16bit/48kHz I think is the maximum) it's not going to beat CD quality. I don't know what the "Apple lossless" settings are because it doesn't tell you but lossless usually means that even though the file is compressed, no information is lost from the audio which would make this your best bet in itunes.

Edit: Also, always tick the "Use Error Correction when Reading Audio CDs" box in the preferences!!
 
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I would rather have headphones really because I can't have my speakers on loud given my living arrangements. I don't think I'm going to be changing CDs in and out my disc drive every time I want to listen... Would you say there is a really significant difference between mp3 and cd if I were to go for xonar xense and pc350? Do I have any other alternatives for high quality music?
 
That's understandable. It doesn't matter what you listen to music through, a trained ear will always hear the difference between CD and MP3 quality! Saying that, I don't know how much you know about it but my guess is as you've asked for help your not an expert (don't mean it disrespectfully) so I don't know if you would hear any difference at all unless you heard the same track one after each other on different quality.

Can I ask what are you currently using? If you have "cheap" headphones then buying more expensive ones will definitely make a difference as would buying a pre-amp for your headphones, or a new soundcard.
 
Yep, not an expert but i do have a keen ear. Currently have a cheap about £15 creative sound card and vengeance 1300 headset (currently on rma though). Plus I have a set of dell 2.1 speakers that are model a525 I think.
 
Those vengeance 1300 look adequate enough for listening to music. To be honest my knowledge on Headphones are limited as I am more of a speaker man! One thing I did notice though, the drivers on the pc350 are smaller than what you've currently got which means you couldn't push them as hard and they might produce less bass + the impeadence on the p350 is a lot higher (150ohm compared to the 32ohm of your current ones) which means they will be quieter. The easy way around this is to buy a headphone preamp!

I'm not sure if you would see much difference between the two headphones but I think you would hear an improvement if you bought a pre-amp, but sound is quite a personal thing, what sounds good to me might sound rubbish to you!!
 
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my Vengeance 1300 are actually not on RMA, i remembered i sent them back for full refund instead. I Have been looking at the Xonar D2x and Xense sound card which i think work contain amplifiers, the xense certainly does. The Xence pc 350 combo is just expensive but could be SO worth it... I JUST DONT KNOW! Argghhh lol :D
 
I'm not sure how the sound cards work. They say they are capable of 96khz/24bit (which is studio quality sound) but if your music is compressed to 48khz/16bit then it can only play what's on the file!! Maybe those figures are intended for recording purposes. Considering the prices of both soundcards, both should sound better than what you currently have.

What exactly are you looking for? Is your current set-up lacking bass, mid, treble?? Is it clarity?

So do you have a pair of headphones at the moment?
 
Currently no headphones correct. Currently my sound card actually produces horrible clicking and humming sound so i am certain about getting one.

What im looking for is overall clarity really, problem was with the music really i think. Playing off itunes, i had no sound around me apart from in the headphones and i could hear that the sound just wasn't that defined, it didn't give me a tingly feeling that one gets (might just be me) when listing to really good audio.

Playing battlefield i felt the sound was much better but maybe lacking a little bass punch.

EDIT: Really appreciate you help on this btw, thanks so much
 
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I reckon the cheapest soundcard (Xonar D2x) would make you a happy man and a decent pair of headphones. I am yet to find a pair of headphones that give me that feeling, speakers on the other hand........

I suggest going for an open-back set not closed-back unless you really need to cut out background noise.
 
Ok, so i can confirm that my speakers are Dell A525 that i bought a millennia ago with my first pc. sadly it was a dell too...

I am limited by desk space to 2.1 setups really and i dont want to blow a huge budget either, so what would you recommend for speakers?
 
Ok, so i can confirm that my speakers are Dell A525 that i bought a millennia ago with my first pc. sadly it was a dell too...

I am limited by desk space to 2.1 setups really and i dont want to blow a huge budget either, so what would you recommend for speakers?
 
Rock mostly, some classical, and some jazz plus a bit of err "alternative pop" not the charts pop/boybands rubbish :p
 
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