The HiFi thread

[link1896]

I always recommend Krix, being one of the best local manufacturers who competes with anything imported. Be a top Aussie and buy Australian made.

 

[link1896]

I always recommend Krix, being one of the best local manufacturers who competes with anything imported. Be a top Aussie and buy Australian made.

Only thing to check is the Onkyo can downmix 5.1/7.1 audio back to 2 channel, Consumer AVR's are a train wreck at best spec/operational wise

 

[Dales Cannon]

Only thing to check is the Onkyo can downmix 5.1/7.1 audio back to 2 channel, Consumer AVR's are a train wreck at best spec/operational wise

This is usually a problem.

 

[droenn]

Krix are on my radar too. I'm only interested in a 2 channel setup as well.

Without listening to too many options as yet, the NAD options w/bluetooth look pretty good. Think they've been mentioned earlier in this thread. Paired with some Krix bookshelves thats a nice little setup for around $2K.


edit: had things confused...

 

[scblack]

Cheapest option is an old secondhand laptop from ebay. You can attach fancy dacs from Soundblaster and Asus via usb.

A secondhand ps3 will also play music over ethernet or wifi.

Otherwise overpriced solutions from Sonos etc.

OK, as I said, I'll try to pick some brains now.

My lounge room is pretty much set now and I attach a pic:

• TV: Panasonic 60" plasma
• Amp: Yamaha RX-V683, has wifi, Bluetooth, music-cast and lots of other features
• Fronts: Yamaha NS-777
• Centre: Yamaha NS-C444
• Rears: Yamaha NS-333
• Subwoofer: Yamaha YST-SW305
• Player: PS4 1TB
• Foxtel: IQ3 1TB

Other secondary questions, which could be hooked up too:
Bedroom. Have a 42" plasma upstairs in bedroom with a DVD recorder.
Garage. Have PS3, Denon amp and 32" LCD TV with some decent speakers.
Maybe I could hook them up to the Yamaha amp system and link to Yamaha Music-cast somehow to have the whole house linked. Probably need to link them up somehow so that is a secondary thought for the future.

I had been thinking of a NAS to run things, but at least music-wise a Spotify account is what I will go with.

 

[redbruce]

OK, as I said, I'll try to pick some brains now.

My lounge room is pretty much set now and I attach a pic:

• TV: Panasonic 60" plasma
• Amp: Yamaha RX-V683, has wifi, Bluetooth, music-cast and lots of other features
• Fronts: Yamaha NS-777
• Centre: Yamaha NS-C444
• Rears: Yamaha NS-333
• Subwoofer: Yamaha YST-SW305
• Player: PS4 1TB
• Foxtel: IQ3 1TB

Other secondary questions, which could be hooked up too:
Bedroom. Have a 42" plasma upstairs in bedroom with a DVD recorder.
Garage. Have PS3, Denon amp and 32" LCD TV with some decent speakers.
Maybe I could hook them up to the Yamaha amp system and link to Yamaha Music-cast somehow to have the whole house linked. Probably need to link them up somehow so that is a secondary thought for the future.

I had been thinking of a NAS to run things, but at least music-wise a Spotify account is what I will go with.

Is that a ported speaker enclosure on the left?

 

[scblack]

Is that a ported speaker enclosure on the left?

No, not sure what you are looking at?

I did take the cover off the left front to kinda show the cones in the fronts.

 

[shmity]

OK, as I said, I'll try to pick some brains now.

My lounge room is pretty much set now and I attach a pic:

• TV: Panasonic 60" plasma
• Amp: Yamaha RX-V683, has wifi, Bluetooth, music-cast and lots of other features
• Fronts: Yamaha NS-777
• Centre: Yamaha NS-C444
• Rears: Yamaha NS-333
• Subwoofer: Yamaha YST-SW305
• Player: PS4 1TB
• Foxtel: IQ3 1TB

Other secondary questions, which could be hooked up too:
Bedroom. Have a 42" plasma upstairs in bedroom with a DVD recorder.
Garage. Have PS3, Denon amp and 32" LCD TV with some decent speakers.
Maybe I could hook them up to the Yamaha amp system and link to Yamaha Music-cast somehow to have the whole house linked. Probably need to link them up somehow so that is a secondary thought for the future.

I had been thinking of a NAS to run things, but at least music-wise a Spotify account is what I will go with.

Chromecast audios can be grouped to play all at once, or just singled out to play whatever you throw at it, unfortunately you cant group normal chromecasts and chromecast audios . What sort of media do you want to share from the NAS?

 

[scblack]

Chromecast audios can be grouped to play all at once, or just singled out to play whatever you throw at it, unfortunately you cant group normal chromecasts and chromecast audios . What sort of media do you want to share from the NAS?

I had been toying with loading all my CDs onto a NAS, but its not really for music, really for movies and general backups, so that's gone for this idea. Spotify family premium account is a better option for music. Its $17.99/month for 5 users.

Chromecast audio I might look into more.

 

[Calvin27]

Can anyone tell me how I can get best possible audio quality out of a HTPC?

I started with motherboard sound, that sucked majorly and then moved to a pci card and even tried a USB dac. It just sounds rubbish and really echo-ey. I've tried all sorts of media files and youtube direct feed, spotify etc. All sound rubbish. Tried configuring the settings and no good. The same stuff through a phone is miles better. I know my phone has high res audio but same thing on wifes phone too and I'm sure that one is junk. This is the same regardless if its from a earphone jack, bluetooth, or bluetooth to audioengine DAC.

Any ideas folks?

 

[redbruce]

No, not sure what you are looking at?

I did take the cover off the left front to kinda show the cones in the fronts.

Was alluding to barrel on top of

 

[droenn]

Can anyone tell me how I can get best possible audio quality out of a HTPC?

I started with motherboard sound, that sucked majorly and then moved to a pci card and even tried a USB dac. It just sounds rubbish and really echo-ey. I've tried all sorts of media files and youtube direct feed, spotify etc. All sound rubbish. Tried configuring the settings and no good. The same stuff through a phone is miles better. I know my phone has high res audio but same thing on wifes phone too and I'm sure that one is junk. This is the same regardless if its from a earphone jack, bluetooth, or bluetooth to audioengine DAC.

Any ideas folks?

Best would be optical out or USB from HTPC to the Audioengine DAC - which you have tried. Its weird hows its crap for both your 3.5mm analogue and over USB too. Is there a setting for which the digital signal is getting streamed out at from your PC? (i.e. the only thing I can think of is that you have the bit rate lowered somewhere).

I take it the DAC works well from other sources?

 

[scblack]

Was alluding to barrel on top of

Haha, well done.

 

[Calvin27]

I take it the DAC works well from other sources?

sorry to clarify:
- PC has tried; dragonfly USB DAC and composite
- Phone has done; Bluetooth straight to amp, bluetooth through Audioengine DAC, 3.5mm to Audioengine DAC, 3.5mm to amp.
- Laptop has tried all of the above and sounds same as phone albeit very soft.

I suspect the PC motherboard is not doing a true pass through to either the USB DAC or the PCI card. Unfortunately I bought a motherboard with no optical out so I suspect it's going to have to be a software related fix.

 

[droenn]

You probably already have, but try the Audioengine DAC on the PC (via USB?) and see if that makes any difference. If not, like you said, the PC might be doing something to the digital signal pre-DAC. Most of these DACs should be plug and play, but perhaps theres an additional audio driver you can grab for the HTPC?

 

[Calvin27]

You probably already have, but try the Audioengine DAC on the PC (via USB?) and see if that makes any difference. If not, like you said, the PC might be doing something to the digital signal pre-DAC. Most of these DACs should be plug and play, but perhaps theres an additional audio driver you can grab for the HTPC?

I'm thinking bluetooth dongle (yuk I know) at this stage because I know for sure the encoding is definitely pre-motherboard. At the very least it will confirm or deny my suspicions about the bypass.

 

[hifiandmtb]

Finally got the stereo working:

Once the speaker locations are finalised, the cabling will be integrated.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Haakon]

Got the MiniDSP running in the car. It’s just a basic 4 channel unit, so I split the signal from the RCA line level converter to feed the sub amp first and use the DSP to EQ the 2 mids and 2 tweeters all with their own channel on the main amp.

Sounds massively better than it used to with the HU feeding the amps and passive crossovers, and I haven’t even started properly tuning it yet.

 

[Haakon]

Can anyone tell me how I can get best possible audio quality out of a HTPC?

I started with motherboard sound, that sucked majorly and then moved to a pci card and even tried a USB dac. It just sounds rubbish and really echo-ey. I've tried all sorts of media files and youtube direct feed, spotify etc. All sound rubbish. Tried configuring the settings and no good. The same stuff through a phone is miles better. I know my phone has high res audio but same thing on wifes phone too and I'm sure that one is junk. This is the same regardless if its from a earphone jack, bluetooth, or bluetooth to audioengine DAC.

Any ideas folks?

You need an optical out.

 

[scblack]

Finally got the stereo working:

Once the speaker locations are finalised, the cabling will be integrated.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Looking good hifi. One thing that will improve your listening is some heavy curtains on the glass doors. The glass will reflect and muddle plenty of sound. Or so people who know anything about sound tell me...