Upgrading Sound System for Better Quality Music

SpriteAlpha · 15 Sep 2008 at 15:51

Hi,

About 11 months ago, I bought an Auzentech Prelude with some Aego M's. Now, that equipment spends a lot of its time playing music. I had no clue about amps and such, so after some reading, I figured to get a much better experience with music I should get an amp and some speakers, and connect them to my soundcard.
I've been looking at getting a second hand Arcam Delta 290 AMP, with some Monitor Audio BR2 speakers (this corresponds to my budget).

What information do I need to know? Could I just buy those two pieces of equipment, connect them to my soundcard, and experience higher quality music? I have a very limited knowledge of the audio-world.

Thanks

Hamster · 15 Sep 2008 at 16:24

First off, good choice of speakers. I use them with my PC also. They perform very well with Arcam equipment.
Factor in the cost of a decent cable to connect your soundcard to the amplifier and also speaker cables. Some here will say that you won't notice any difference between the cheapo patch leads that you can buy ten a penny and quality interconnects/speaker cable but i don't agree with that one bit.

NickM · 17 Sep 2008 at 02:44

I recently purchased an MAudio 2496 sound card to hook up my PC to my amp & monitor audio bronze B2s. I definitely noticed an improvement in quality over using them with my XFI card.

One thing to keep in mind however, no matter how good or expensive the equipment is, it won't sound any good if you have a poor quality audio source, ie low bit rate mp3s.

devilkazuya · 17 Sep 2008 at 04:00

firstly, remember that the most important stage of your music is the source, so if you are playing off your PC, be using music ripped into a lossless format. You CANNOT improve upon the quality of the source at any stage after. Hi-fi means high-fidelity and the main purpose is to preserve and relay the source material as accurately as possible.

Yes all you need to do is get a decent integrated amp (which means it combines a pre-amp and a power-amp into one box) and speakers. If you have no experience with hi-fi stuff, then there is no need to go buying expensive cables as the subtle improvements will not be appreciated without a trained ear. Do buy some moderately good speaker cables at least though.

You can just buy a 3.5mm mini to 2 x RCA cable which will connect the back of your sound card to the integrated amp and that's it. Simple as that.

Remember, every aspect of the chain varies in quality and character. So it is important to audition the equipment at a shop if you can and make up your mind as to what pleases you the most. Even the cable that connects your sound card to your amp can vary in quality too which again adds to the cost of things if you really want to preserve the source information.

Krisali · 17 Sep 2008 at 07:30

Im currently using a 3.5mm mini to 2 x RCA which came bundled with my xonar. Got it hooked up to an old arcam amp and some even older MS812s. I would prefer to use a higher quality connection what would you recommend? Got decent speaker cable and some reference interconnect which i would love to use but the xonar doesnt have R/L outputs.

Thanks

-Ad- · 17 Sep 2008 at 10:19

Erm I have a delta 290 and B2 speakers in my loft unused after I upgraded

Great choice and gel soooooo well together.

You can just buy a 3.5mm mini to 2 x RCA cable which will connect the back of your sound card to the integrated amp and that's it. Simple as that.

+1

jbloggs · 17 Sep 2008 at 10:47

Two good (budget) soundcards for the purpose of listening to music from PC/amp/speakers setup is the M-Audio Audiophile 24/96 and the EMU 0404, both around £50...

SpriteAlpha · 17 Sep 2008 at 14:42

Thanks to everyone for the replies.

NickM said:
One thing to keep in mind however, no matter how good or expensive the equipment is, it won't sound any good if you have a poor quality audio source, ie low bit rate mp3s.

devilkazuya said:
firstly, remember that the most important stage of your music is the source, so if you are playing off your PC, be using music ripped into a lossless format. You CANNOT improve upon the quality of the source at any stage after. Hi-fi means high-fidelity and the main purpose is to preserve and relay the source material as accurately as possible.

I'll be listening to all my music directly from the original CDs played in my DVD-RW. So I shouldn't have thought I should have a problem when it comes to the source material.