The All Purpose Advice Thread

As a temporary fix, or simply as a supplement, what about picking up a Bluetooth, noise cancelling set? Either the Airpod Pros or the Sony WF1000xm3? The move to active noise cancelling definitely was appreciated, back in the "before" times when I still traveled.

 

Agreed!

B&W bookshelf speakers have an innate dip in the mids, which make the bass and treble stand out, not too bad for music but for TV, not so much. I ran in to a similar problem with a more neutral bookshelf speaker and found that toe in directly at the listening position helps a lot with voice intelligibility on tv. Still on some program material you just have to turn up the volume.

My hypothesis is that bookshelf makers tune them to work well at upper midrange vocal intelligibility at the expense of a neutral response. Look at most graphs of bookshelf speakers made in the last 20+ years (multi-channel HT use) and you will see a rising response from 1k all the way up in many cases. They do work well for that use case if not done to an extreme, but not so much for music.

EDIT: You could always go the KEF route with a pair of Q100s which I used on my TV for some time, but then you get the glarey problem of the KEF uniQ driver. Flame suit on! Actually pretty nice speaker if you can get them for what I sold them for used at about $229 a pair.

 

This is why I was thinking of something smaller and more vintagy like the Minimus 7's. Used prices on these have risen as people realize the power of these. They used to be a good thrift store find, now I see some are fetching close to $99 for the pair. Also too bad Yamaha NS-10's are also super damn expensive. Or maybe some EV Sentry's. Those are both huge though and I have space to think about. But I think you are onto something with the voicing curve of modern speakers.

I have a pair of C75's and used to have a pair of Q300's before I botched bi-amping them and fried one of the woofers. I found them also super deep, but they did have cleaner mids, but yes, they were glary in the top end. The Q100's might have been a bit brighter, I don't know.

 

Are you using a sub? If so the new version of the small NHT monitors might be good, have not heard but occasionally priced very nicely on the used market. Yamahas are super midrangey and wonky as hell, but might work. Q100s were supposedly one of their more neutral ones, still rising response.

I will be picking up a pair of Dayton Mk-402x if they ever come back in stock. Plan to use on the desk for casual listening but will try them on the tv as well. Super cheap at $70.

 

Odd question, but, when you listen to music, what else do you guys do in the meantime? I know some people out there like to read books + listen. Me myself, I liked to play videogames + listen to music. These days I just straight up listen and do nothing else. Just curious what others do? Might as well pick something new up

 

Read SBAF!

 

Close my eyes

 

If you need something to do with your hands, you could take up knitting.

I like to read SBAF while I listen. Sometimes play Switch. Lately it's Yoshi's Crafted World.

 

Anybody have any experience with 34" ultrawide monitors? Was using dual 24" Dell professional series monitors at the office, but only a single at home. Thinking an ultrawide could fit the bill now that I'll be working from home for the foreseeable future.

I'm not currently a gamer, but may in the future. Most use is for office/productivity, with occasional multimedia like streaming on YouTube or Skype/Zoom calls with family/church. Most concerned about accurate colors, contrast ratio, being easy on the eyes (bluelight filter and anti-flicker?), as I'll be looking at it for thousands of hours over the coming years.

Other specs:

• curved seems to be nicer given the width, to avoid image distortion at the edges.
• no need for 4K/5K resolution. 3440 x 1440 is fine.
• VESA 100x100 mount.
• USB-C input would be nice so I can hook up my wife's Macbook Air when I'm not using for work.

I've read reviews from the main sites like RTings, etc. but finding many of the models they suggest are no longer easily available or are only available from shady sellers on Amazon.

How important is having a higher refresh rate for productivity use? Seems like my 24" Dell Ultrasharp and the Dell 34" Ultrasharp ultrawide are fixed at 60Hz. Know gamers like a higher refresh rate to avoid tearing at higher FPS, but have also seen some comments from photo editors, etc. saying that higher refresh rates are nicer.

 

I use a Dell 34" ultrawide for work. It's at the office right now so i don't have the exact model number. I think it's 3 years old. I never used it for gaming but for productivity it's a very good monitor, but the wide and short ratio takes some getting used to.

I also use a Dell 32" for home office. It's actually a gaming monitor but again, never used for gaming. It's 16x9 (2560x1440 I believe) and I find it a little more natural to work on. The curve is a little more aggressive too. I prefer the 32 but YMMV.

Picture quality wise the two are similar. The 34" allows PIP if you need, which I have occasionally used to watch hockey or golf whilst working. If you like the PQ on your current Ultrasharp, these should be similar. The 32" is a different panel type (I want to say VA vs IPS but I might have that backward), which is somewhat noticeable but not bad.

 

I switched to the wide\short concept years ago. I get monitors with Vesa mounts and put them on arms. Allows me to have two panels open on the same screen most of the time, then rotate vertically when I'm working on documents. You can see multiple pages that way. I do still have a side monitor.

Higher refresh rates are nicer generally (and Im susceptible to eye strain) but with 4K resolution monitors I have no problems at 59 or 60 Hz refresh.

I usually buy last-year's model to get current tech with a warranty at a better price. I'm using a Philips 328E1CA 32" Curved Monitor now which is great, recently purchased another for the wife who is also working at home now.

 

I ran with dual 24" Dell Ultrasharps for years. I swapped to an Alienware (Dell) 34" Ultrawide almost 2 years ago now and haven't looked back. Even though I gave up a bunch of real estate, not having a bezel breaking up the center of the work space, and having a simplified desk has been worth it for me. My monitor is a 120hz, which I do appreciate for games, but I'm not sure if benefits manifest while working.

 

So my 32" monitor is up to 165hz while the 34" is only 60hz. To be honest I would not have known the difference had I not looked it up.

 

I asked this over the weekend but no joy. Maybe if there was a “stupid question” forum my question would work there, but my understanding of “the rules’, such as they are, is that here’s the place. If not, can someone guide me to where I should ask this?

My question is about gain and which preamp/amp combo from Schiit would work with my 95db sensitive speakers.....single drivers from Omega.

I have an order in at Schiit for a Freya+ and an Aegir. However, I’ve been waiting 3 months for it to ship and now that I’ve read around more, I wonder if I actually need the gain of the Freya paired with the Aegir with my speakers or if a Saga would do just as well. Hell, I’d even go the Saga/Vidar route if that would work well for my use case. I don’t generally listen all that loud—mostly at moderate volumes—and my room is 10x15x10.

So is 0 gain from the Saga paired with an Aegir enough for me? Or would I be better of with Saga paired with Vidar? Or some other combo from the Schiit ecosystem?

Again, if this is too remedial of a question for this thread, please guide me to where I should ask it.

Thanks!!!

 

Not a stupid question at all. With those speakers at moderate volume in that size room you can probably get by without the gain from Freya. Freya+ does have a very nice sounding tube mode however.

You could try going with a Schiit Sys to start with if you can do without a remote, and then go from there. By the way, what’s your source?

 

Thanks for your reply.

I have a few sources: an old Nakamichi CDP-2A, a Rega RP1 through a Schiit Mani, and I just got a Bluesound Node2i which makes me want to get an external DAC. Streaming is new to me but the CD player and Rega get tons of use.

 

Ok you’ll just want to make sure your CDP will output around 2v or higher to make sure you’ll get enough gain from the Aegir relative to your other sources. The Sys does only have 2 inputs however, so that’s a factor.

A Vidar would definitely not require any additional gain, but it’s fairly well accepted here that Aegir sounds better, other than perhaps in bass power, as long as you can get enough gain from the Aegir. With sensitive speakers like yours, most would recommend Aegir.

 

Has anyone of you ever compared a Modi Multibit V2 to an AKM 4490 module that comes with the Asgard 3?

I am thinking about selling my Modi Multibit and the poor little FiiO K5 I use as an amp, to get an Asgard 3 with Dac module, but not sure if that's gonna be any better? My main headphone is an HD650 KISS.

 

Oh another thing, does anybody know of a DAC/AMP combo that has forward mids and at the same time laid back treble?

 

It took me some days to figure it out but my CDP has 2.5V output and everything else is 2V. I guess this puts me in the Sys/Aegir or Saga/Aegir realm with my speakers?

I like that Saga has many singled ended inputs but an input selector box and a Sys could be fun too.