some n00b questions

[gamefreak977]

I'm in fact a n00b, dn't nw mutch about audio hardware, that's why I registered here.

I'm from Belgium, I know English but try to keep it simple as posible.

I was wondering what kind of things I should need.

I have a computer that I like to put an amplifier on, so I can play my MP3's.

I like bass, I would to have a bit sound quality 4 ohm is good enough for me.

It would be handy if I had a remote for the amplifer.

And I love to make my own speakers but I don't know mutch about audio hardware, so making speakers is something I need a howto for or something.

Help me out PLZ.

[Matt]

seeing as you are from belgium, and dont understand very technical belgium, I assume you are just after a standard system to play your mp3s from.

 

In this case I can be of use, seeing as I work in a shop which deals with home cinema and hifi.

 

the first thing you must consider when buying things like this is the size of the actual room, as this will effect the type of speakers you will need.

 

the next thing you should consider is your budget, as this will severly limit what you can purchase.

 

I shall do this all in £ sterling, but I am sure you could find a decent currency converter to suit your currency. (http://forium.money.msn.co.uk/currency/uk/currency_converter.html )

 

say, you wanted a decent system that didnt break the bank, I would go for a NAD 320 Amplifier which costs artound £200-£300 depending on where you buy it. with this you would couple some Mordaunt Short 302 which could cost around £100-£150 qalso depending on where you buy them.

 

anyway, its late so I gotta go, I'll post more info later.

 

Matt.

 

(parents moaning about me getting to bed... grrrrrrrrrr

[Bryson]

We're not a hi-fi site, (more a specialised end of pro-audio) and you may get some better answers in one, but, I'm guessing we all have a niceish stereo at home, so we have an opinion, if not a professional one...

 

I'd second the NAD amps. Great value for money - I've had a 3020i for 7 years and I love it.

[Matt]

the 3020 series is very respected. its a lovely amp.

 

you could go for the new teac reference 600 all-in-one system, which has a good recommendation in this months what hifi magazine.

 

if you want to spend a little more money, I'd recommened going for an marantz, arcam or rotel system. I would personally recommend either the arcam or rotel, not just because of the marantz's horrid breakdown ratio, but also because of the clarity of its sound, they can sometime sound a bit mufled.

 

 

unfortunately your in a bit of a state at the moment, the hifi market is being flooded by the likes of home cinema equipment... not true 2 channel amp and cd player setups.

 

Although some of the home cinema amps are very good at reproducing the stereo, 2 channel signal from your computer, wether you want it, all depends on if you want a home cinema setup.

 

as I said in my last post, if you get a rough measurement of the size of your room, and the budget (amount of money you are willing to spend), sent to me in a pm, I will be glad to point you in the right direction :D

[James]

gamefreak977

 

OK, You want to hear MP3's from your computer.

 

Now Please ignore anything you hear from magazines like What HIFI. Anyone who justifies spending that much money on cable which does nothing is only out to rip you off for the benefit of their advertisers and themselves.

 

The same is almost true of most high street hifi retailers, anyone selling or buying cable at £200 for 50m which they say is makes it sound lush obviously knows nothing about electronics or audio and only about separating you from your hard earned cash.

 

I would recommend to you

 

1: look at what you are trying to do - highly compressed MP3's are going to sound badly compressed wether they are played through a £15 pair of crappy PC speakers of a £15K pair of studio monitors. - the distortion will in fact be clearer on the studio monitors.

 

2: get a decent sound card for your PC - A lot of PC's have cheep D-A's on their built in audio - a nice Pro balanced pair of outputs or a card with SPDIF, ADAT or AES outs to an external D-A

 

3: decide on if you want active or passive speakers. If you go for passive then it is much easier to go for one way amplification. You can go for two or three way but with external crossovers and multiple amplifiers needed then it gets messy quickly.

 

4: Active speakers can be much neater and you get the benefit of active crossovers an bi/tri-amping without the mess.

 

you need to get out and try to listen to what you like - take some music - if your budget is high enough then your retailer should be more than willing to let you have a set to try out at home.

[gamefreak977]

I've heard from a friend that 2 way sounds not as good as 3 way, is this true ??

And what's the diffrence between them.

I like bass (heavy bass, big boom) but the other still may not sound crappy, so good music with big boom :D

My dad was a sony amplifier with some sort of disco speakers (cheap ones).

Sounds not bad but I still would like it if there where some more bass.

A question that I love to now the answer for is what is the difrence between hig end (proffesional) amplifiers and between the regular (for home use) amplifiers ??

I now it it's another sort of connection for the speakers but never heard it play so don't now if you can hear any diffrence.

Somebody knows good hifi forums for n00b's as people with bit more know how (would love it in Dutch)

[Brian]

Somebody knows good hifi forums for n00b's as people with bit more know how (would love it in Dutch)

 

Deze lijst is bedoeld als een elektronische vraagbaak van de HCC Muziek-gebruikersgroep. Leden helpen elkaar met problemen op het gebied van midi, hard disk recording, sampling, notenschrift editors, het branden van CD's, audio, enz. De Muziek-gg heeft circa 3000 leden en is aangesloten van de Nederlandse Hobby Computer Club met meer dan 140.000 leden.

 

Join here

[gamefreak977]

sound cool thx, going to have a look

[James]

Sounds not bad but I still would like it if there where some more bass.

A question that I love to now the answer for is what is the difrence between hig end (proffesional) amplifiers and between the regular (for home use) amplifiers ??

 

Well I wouldn't recomend using a PA amplifier if you want quality - Arguably the best quality uses class A circuitry, which is incredibly ineficiant as the power transistors are basically perminantly biased - this gives superior sound but as they have a biasing current they get verry hot and so are only effective for domestic use.

 

James

[Matt]

just a single way speaker is actually best, but you wont get a true "full range speaker", the more speakers you have in a cabinet is actually harder to get it to sound right, as you have lots of things to work out mathmatically, for example, the speakers all have a certain frequency range, and you have got to mix and match speakers so these rangers cross over equally. in the case ur friend was wrong about saying 3 way was better. in some respects bass is heaveir and tighter, but thats only a matter of personal opinion

[James]

Matt said

 

but thats only a matter of personal opinion

 

At the end of a short post containing a lot of inacurate information

 

 

 

 

In my experience every high end audio instalation I've been involved with has used three way speakers either bi or tri amped.

 

Just an example I instaled a pair of ATC SCM150's in a suite before I left London - these are three way active 50w h/f 100w mid and 200w l/f each

 

In TVC these get used for anyone and everything including shows like,

 

Jools Holland,

Top of the Pops

Parkinson

Jonathan Ross

 

and all of the bands that feature on these programes and more.

 

Oh and if you want bass heavy distortion these won't help, But listening to efervessence - bring me back to life through them while 'testing them out' after instalation was very very nice.

[Brian]

James said...

Matt said

 

 

but thats only a matter of personal opinion

 

At the end of a short post containing a lot of inacurate information

 

Sorry James but from a theoretical standpoint, everything Matt said is absolutely spot-on.

 

The best speaker you could get is a single drive unit giving you a single point source (but as Matt said you can't get a true full range speaker). Once you get more than a single drive unit you have all sorts of problems to try to design out.

 

1. Time Alignment between drivers in the same cabinet so that the sound 'starts' at the same vertical plane, explains why some cabinets have a 'stepped' front. Once you get drivers in different cabinets it gets a lot worse, for instance in your typical concert flown arrays.

 

2. Phase problems as you move around the soundfield. At 1kHz the wavelength is only 30cm so a 15cm difference in path length to two drivers delivering the same signal will cause cancellation. On a music signal it cause all sorts of frequency anomalies.

 

3. Cross-over time and phase alignment. Any filter introduces frequency dependent phase errors and frequency dependent time-delays. In the overlap region between drivers things get very messy.

 

Some of the above phenonema are used to positive effect in things like 'line arrays' which have been popular in public address for a number of years and are now being developed for the concert PA market. By mucking around with speaker spacing and using electronics you create a soundfield which is not your normal spherical wavefront but which is a beam of precise width and height.

 

Also the comment about 3-way not being better - there are some people who believe that 2-way speakers offer the best compromise.

 

TTFN

 

Brian

(who has built a number of top end audio dubbing suites and video editing suites)

[James]

Yes Brian you are right

 

I didn't mean to say that the information Matt posted was incorect in itself just that It was unapropiate for the thread and confuses the information given to gamefreak977 who just wants big bass on his speakers,

 

I admit I probably I should have used Inapropriate rather than inacurate.

[Matt]

thank you for saying that Brian, in the terms of the purist approach a single speaker is best, but we arent talking on the line of professional installation in his room...anyway...

 

and I dont think just saying that the the way the speakers intergrate with each other was inaccurate, just extremely generalised and made easier to understand from a novice point of view...

 

if you want a shed load of bass, get some smaller "bookshelf" speakers, and get a huge subwoofer, but as I also said it might seem a bit too boomy for the bass lovers liking in the room that he could be using. Plus the placement may be difficult with the subwoofer anyway.

 

Matt.