On Mon, 30 Jul 2007, Uli wrote: > Bill Unruh <unruh <at> physics.ubc.ca> writes: > [snip] >> There is a real problem between price and quality and exactly what you want >> with the end result. As I said, if you are handy with tools, making your >> own speakers is probably the way to go, but that is useless if you are not. >> The cheap ( about $100) TransAudio T10.1 has gotten rave reviews as an >> amplifier-- but it is purely stereo and only 15 watts, so it is not going >> to blast low efficiency speaker-- which any small speaker system will be. > > I'm not very handy with tools so I wouldn't dare trying to build my own speakers Too bad. It is a good way of getting great speakers for much less than you would pay in the stores. But it does require some skill. > :) Maybe I'll just by a decent amp and a sound card first and use them with my > headphones. Then I can check out some speakers. At least some soundcards have enough power to drive headphones, esp high impedance ones. But that usually is not enough to permanantly deafen you after 5 min use. > > I can't find that transaudio amp anywhere. I did some more research on amps Just goes to show what happens when you rely on memory. That is Trends Audio TA10.1 However they cannot be used with headphones, since there is no common ground, and you will blow the unit if you try to make a common ground ( both sides are already biamped). The advantage is price, size and very low heat generation. ( About 4x2x3 in size plus one of those laptop computer type power bars, and with an efficiency of about 90% at all power levels) plus the reveiws give it very high marks for sound. > though and it seems that marantz do build quite good amps for reasonable prices > by concentrating on the important stuff - leaving out ipod,ethernet,usb > connectors and the like. Also, their amps do have this 'dolby headphone'[1] > technology which means one could use some high-end headphones with it and check > out the surround sound. I'm considering the SR7001[2] or maybe SR8001 if I can > find a good offer somewhere. No idea what the "dolby headphone" technology is. > >> Note that my testing program works most simply with oss, not alsa. It can >> be used with alsa with a bit more effort. Also if you are going to be using >> CD format output, do not get one of the Soundblaster type cars which ONLY >> work at 48000 Bps. output. They have to speed convert CD rate cards, and >> alsa speed conversion introduces a lot of noise and distortion ( AFAIK they >> still only use linear interpolation, which is pretty terrible) I do not >> however know what the output of computer games is. (ie what rate their >> output runs at). > > I believe my hda-intel nvidia is one of those running only at 48khz so I'm > probably suffering from that interpolation problem. So the m-audio and turtle > cards can do 44.1khz also? hda-intel usually can do 44.1 ( and 48 as well) hardware clocks. Ie, you can set the clock speed. The soundblaster only do 48 and thus the software interpolation. > >> I would go for a good soundcard and amp separately. Otherwise you may well >> get mediocre in both. 1.4K sounds pretty expensive for and amp plus >> soundcard. By this time making >> good amps is cheap. > > I hope so! :) > >> I just noticed on googling that Turtle beach makes a usb soundcard with the >> head transfer function for headphone built into the soundcard, and it's $39 >> or so. No idea if it is any good however. Turtle beach did make some >> pretty good soundcards but I do not know if this is one of them. The online reviews of this turtle beach card are really terrible. I would stay far away from it. Sorry for the false alarm. > > If I understand correctly this system adds surround effects to a stereo signal? > I think I'd prefer the dolby headphone solution which - apparently - uses a > surround input signal and converts it into stereo. Maybe that chopper will > actually appear to be coming from behind then :) > >> All I want to say is that if you expand your range of options to include >> headphones, your options are increased and your pricing drastically >> decreased. Of course if you want two or three people to all enjoy the sound >> together, headphones do not really cut it. You could buy two or three >> pairs of headphones, but that tends to isolate the people instead of >> bringing them together. >> (But then 5.1 makes little sense since you pretty well have to sit in the >> sweet spot to get the 5.1 effect) > > I agree with you. I do use headphones a lot and currently my room is also quite > small so that I probably couldn't fully enjoy a surround system. And if I can While I agree that headphones cannot give you complete "surround sound" (eg head movement as spatial localisation mechanism) most rooms and speaker systems do not either (your can localise the speakers easily if your head moves out of the sweet spot or you do not adjust it just right.) And good headphones are a lot cheaper than good speakers. > get some surround sound with headphones - even better. However, since a bigger a > room ain't too far in the future I want my equipment to be ready for bigger > challenges. > > Uli > > [1] http://www.dolby.com/consumer/technology/headphone.html > [2] http://us.marantz.com/Products/1881.asp > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- > This SF.net email is sponsored by: Splunk Inc. > Still grepping through log files to find problems? Stop. > Now Search log events and configuration files using AJAX and a browser. > Download your FREE copy of Splunk now >> http://get.splunk.com/ > _______________________________________________ > Alsa-user mailing list > Alsa-user@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/alsa-user > -- William G. Unruh | Canadian Institute for| Tel: +1(604)822-3273 Physics&Astronomy | Advanced Research | Fax: +1(604)822-5324 UBC, Vancouver,BC | Program in Cosmology | unruh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx Canada V6T 1Z1 | and Gravity | www.theory.physics.ubc.ca/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by: Splunk Inc. Still grepping through log files to find problems? Stop. Now Search log events and configuration files using AJAX and a browser. 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