the Interceptor's general AUDIO thread

I ended up buying a Sony SRS-X2 bluetooth speaker, and it sounds unexpectedly good, way better than any laptop speakers I ever heard.
 
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Enjoying these Spirit Pro very much!
 
Any decent bluetooth headphones under 50? ?
I'd avoid Bluetooth/wireless for music listening. There's a lot of compression needed to get audio over a bluetooth connection and it kills music dead. Good wired headphones driven by a device with a good clean DAC output (and possibly boosted by a portable amp) are the way to go.
 
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You don't need an external headphone amp just to listen to music on the go....
 
You don't need an external headphone amp just to listen to music on the go....
Usually, no, but with some power-hungry headphones, it can help. Some smartphones don't really put out enough power to drive anything larger or less effcient than a pair of earbuds or IEMs at a reasonable volume. To get around that, you need either a portable amp or to use a media player with better output.
 
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:dunno: My iPhone 5s and iPod 5th generation seem to drive my Shure SRH440's pretty well. What type of headphones are power hungry?
 
:dunno: My iPhone 5s and iPod 5th generation seem to drive my Shure SRH440's pretty well. What type of headphones are power hungry?

I have a pair of 250ohm Beyerdynamic DT770 premiums. To put that into perspective, your Shures are only 44ohms.

That said, I just plugged the DT770s into my iPhone 6 and it drives them fine at max volume. The bass response is a bit lacking compared to when I have them plugged into an amp but the volume is plenty loud.
 
I am looking to update/upgrade my sound system at my apartment...since I rent, and there are other people in the building I don't need anything too powerful, especially in terms of the subwoofer.

At the moment I am still rocking my pair of JBL Creature 2 from 2006 (2x5W rms, sub is 15w rms, I believe). I would like somehting where the speakers are more powerful and possibly THX certified. The subwoofer doesn't need to be more than a 5 inch one. I'm looking more at sound clarity, clear mid-range (important!), and crisp highs.

Bluetooth/AirPlay would be excellent to have.

The biggest challenge - I would like to spend less than $150.

Does something like this exist, or should I stick with my JBLs?
 
THX certification? Get the Klipsch ProMedia speakers. I bought a set for my dad because he wanted something more than TV speakers but not a surround sound system. They're enough for a decent sized family room subwoofer included. Having good sound with Bluetooth and AirPlay support might be difficult. But I'm not up to date on what's hip...
 
Will a set of Beyerdynamic DT990's (250 ohm) run fine from a motherboard soundcard? Looking at getting them to replace my ancient Sennheiser HD590's.
 
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I'd say even if they were to run fine just go with a little DAC/Amp combo for headphones of that quality... no matter how good the motherboard soundcard supposedly is, you'll most likely experience a massive improvement over that by going even with cheap stuff. either that or those beyerdynamic's are a waste anyway :D
 
Will a set of Beyerdynamic DT990's (250 ohm) run fine from a motherboard soundcard? Looking at getting them to replace my ancient Sennheiser HD590's.

It will be half as loud as HD590 (120 ohm). But why would you buy headphones of that quality to run from motherboard? Agh..
 
But why would you buy headphones of that quality to run from motherboard? Agh..

That is what I meant... but I didn't want to be quite so blunt :|
Anyway... my suggestion would be something like a fiio e10k or similar, there's some good and cheap chinese stuff around ebay all the time (smsl sd-793 for example, although that's nearly as expensive as the fiio). anything will be better than the mobo-audio, really :)
 
Currently, with the 580's connected to the front audio jack, I need to put the volume down to about 30% without having blow-my-brains-out-loudness. Unfortunately I don't have a money factory, so an external amp would be a long term thing. That is, unless I can get one for relatively cheap.
 
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Currently, with the 580's connected to the front audio jack, I need to put the volume down to about 30% without having blow-my-brains-out-loudness. Unfortunately I don't have a money factory, so an external amp would be a long term thing. That is, unless I can get one for relatively cheap.

200eur headphones + 100eur external soundcard/amp will be measurably better than a 300eur headphones with built-in sound card. You're not improving the weakest link.
 
200eur headphones + 100eur external soundcard/amp will be measurably better than a 300eur headphones with built-in sound card. You're not improving the weakest link.

Do you have any amp recommendations?
 
Anyone have any thoughts on just a "dumb" powered speaker?

Actually, Bluetooth is OK, but it can't go to sleep...needs to be on and ready to receive audio as long as it's plugged in, without powering down (want to use it with Chromecast Audio, but with the speaker up high on a shelf where it's not easily accessible. Ideally no more than $100. Doesn't have to be great, but something that you'd rate 3.5-4 stars when factoring in it's price. I know I'm not going to get something magical at this price. PC speakers seem to always come in pairs, and that's not ideal.
 
Mainboard audio has been improving and has gotten some attention over the past 3 years. You will find that most manufacturers now have mainboards in their lineups with isolated audio sections, high SNR, 600ohhm amp, caps and whatnot, overall there are some good implementations of the ALC1150.

In the past I have used cards from Creative and was happy with them.

Currently using a gigabyte mobo where the front L/R on the REAR panel is amped. The front audio on the case however is not! And you can definitely hear the difference not only in loudness.

I think the loudness of the headphones will also depend on their sensitivity as well as the mentioned impedance ohm.
 
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