Another new guy

[stelleg151]

Hey all, first off I would like to say this forum is great. If you were to categorize me as an enthusiast/hobbyist I guess you would say I am mostly a computer enthusiast. I have become increasingly interested in HTPC. I also am in dire need of non-tin-can speakers, which have seriously deterred me from listening to music I enjoy. I didnt realize that this was the case until my brother accused me of not using my crap logitech 5.1 speakers enough. I realized that I often would turn music on, and then slowly as time went on have to turn down the volume because it was irritating sounding: muddy bass and ugly tinny "highs" (not really highs, more like a sad attempt at mids to cover highs), and absolutely no midrange. Eventually I would just stop listening.

So I first came here in search of a good set of speakers to build. Before considering building speakers I was thinking I would buy the Fluance 5.1, but have decided that I would rather have some fun and make my own. I am now considering these: RZ5.2S.

Seem like nice cheap and pretty easy 2 ways to start with as a learning project.

I also was originally thinking I would buy a surround reciever, but after seeing how simple the GC's are and hearing so many testimonials on how good they sound I figure Ill have a little more fun. I have seen a bunch of designs, and I think Ill make my own and roughly follow BrainGT's simple ones from chipamp.com

As for sources, it becomes a bit more complicated. As I am originally a computer enthusiast, I plan to have all of my media come from my PC. From the sound of things, people here dont like this idea at all, and from what I gather the biggest gripe is that ATX PSU's give pretty "dirty" (have yet to understand exactly what that means, but have a decent idea) power, and that can ruin the output of any DAC powered from the PC. As for SPDIF, it also seems to be looked down upon for clock syncronization issues (creating jitter, which I also dont have a great grasp of). These two things seem to make people shun away PC's, but as an avid user, I am determined to fix up a system that sounds nice.

I am awed at the amount of knowledge that people on this forum have, but I feel like its hard to ease into the knowledge, as almost all of the posts I read are at a level a bit too high for me to learn anything significant. I have been lurking for months now, reading tons, but havent been able to pick up on the concepts very much.

Any advice for where I should be looking to learn more about basic audio theories? (ie: how exactly DACs function, how SPDIF is encoded, how complex and simple feedback loops work, etc). I'm the kind of guy who needs to understand something well before replicating it, so it would be great to find a source where I could learn about this stuff, rather than digging through the forums and trying to decypher how some guy's Class D amp is working without knowing even how exactly the feedback loop works and what it does.

Thanks a lot, and I hope I can learn enough to someday contribute something to this awesome forum.

[herm]

Welcome stelleg151.

The chip amps are a good way to start in DIY. There are many people
doing it, and there is a lot of informal documentation on it. I would
reccomend a kit your first time - this limits the number of things you
have to learn all at once.

I keep all of my media on my PC. I had a high end DVD player - but
it died and I havent bothered to replace it. I have a USB sound card
with an optical digital output, and feed this into my preamp/processor.

There is so much you can do to your system before the difference in
fidelity of your sources becomes an issue. Once you have excellent
speakers, excellent amps, excellent DACs, etc... THEN you can try a
better source and see if it makes a difference.

Until then (and while you are still on that student budget) enjoy that
HTPC!

herm

[stelleg151]

thanks for the reply herm!

How is does that USB DAC treat you? I was thinking about trying one of those as my first. Any problems with the noise from the power supply?

[herm]

No USB dac, just a USB sound card with optical out.

I had a $250 Toshiba DVD player, and I can't tell
the difference between them.

I did some A-B testing between a DVD and a copy
on my hard drive. Nothing scientific, but it was
enough to convince me to rip all my DVDs.

The broke DVD player will be thrown away as soon
as I get off my lazy rear end and disconnect it!

The Sound card is just some cheap Creative labs
outboard device.

Here's a picture:

http://www.theboyz.biz/images/p9359.JPG

Here's a better link...

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...284192&CatId=0

Search on HTPC here. There are some really bright people here
doing really good things with PCs.

E-mail me. I'll give you some more starter info on loudspeaker
sources and kits....

-herm

[Cal Weldon]

Hi and welcome to the forums. It says you live in Vancouver but I noticed an American flag. Are you now here but used to be there?

[stelleg151]

Hey Cal, thanks for the welcome.

I am actually American, my family lives in Seattle. I am studying at UBC, so I spend most of my days in Van, so I thought I would put that as my current home.

Its pretty nice really, I get to be in Beautiful British Columbia most of my days, but without the expensive shipping costs .