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  • Computer Audio - How bad is it?

    OK, I got a quartet of Altec Lansing ACS 54 speakers. Are they as bad as I think they are? My old AL ACS 45.1's sounded better. Every review I saw on the new 54's said they were reasonably good, but I was unimpressed when I got them home. Voices are hard to understand and they boom too much.

    Is this the best we can do for $100 four channel speakers?

    RAB

    P.S. this is meant to start a discussion on the sound quality of computer audio equipment, so don't limit it to just speakers. Sound cards are just as important. I would particularly like to see some real data, as well as subjective impressions.


    [This message has been edited by RAB (edited 24 December 1999).]
    AMD K6III-450; Epox EP-MVP3G5; G400DH32; Maxtor 10gig UDMA66; 128meg PC100; Aureal SQ2500 sound; PCI Modem Blaster; Linksys 10/100 NIC; Mag 800V 19"; AL ACS54 4 speaker sound; Logitech wireless mouse; Logitech Wingman Extreme (great for lefties)

  • #2
    Well I play back through my hi fi. To be honest having another set of speakers sitting around the room would look messy. Also I would say my Hi Fi would sound better anyway.
    Chief Lemon Buyer no more Linux sucks but not as much
    Weather nut and sad git.

    My Weather Page

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    • #3
      I got a pair of Trust speakers (80 Watt) and they sound alot less than my 40 Watt Bose speakers, when I run all sound through my Sony stereo-tower.

      Notch up the bass a bit on the Trust speakers and you won't hear any difference, notch up the stereo-tower bass a bit and you'll hear alot of difference!!

      And I'm not even running it through my equalizer!!

      Jorden.
      Jordâ„¢

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      • #4
        I got the ACS 54 setup too, and I actually find it OK. This could be because I paid 20 USD, and for that price they do a decent job. ($20 instant discount, $50 mail-in rebate when bought with a MX300 through Best Buy. Add Best Buy confusion, along wiht a long story, and I got the rebate without the sound card :P ). Any computer speaker will fall short though, when it comes to music playback, compared to a decent audio system. Why, because Mfg's can get away with producing lackluster speakers - people will buy the "400W" (whoopee, 5 channels combined, 25% THD, in a 1/8 ohm), because most don't know, and even if they do have a little audio knowledge, they don't expect their PC to reproduce music correctly.

        Specs: Project 6.2 (yes, a turntable), replacement composite platter, Tekni-fi p77 p/u; Acurus A250 amp; very old and very mod. NAD 1300 preamp, NAD 5000 cd (adequate for me), pair of JBL XPL 160's on stands and spikes. Fletcher silver line cabling, and AudioQuest Midnight biwiring for Spk's. (until I got the midnights, I thought cabling to be superstitious bonk, but oh did I change my mind).

        Specs 2: P3-450 (600/1.9V), BE6, WD Expert 9.1/7200/66, G400Max (175/232), Aureal superQuad, generic crap modem, Toshiba sd-m 1212 6xdvd, Memorex 2x2x24 CDRW, Landmark Ks-299 case 300W/3 80 mm fans, AOC 19" monitor, AL ACS54 spk's.
        [damn typos]
        ------------------
        "In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move." -"The Guide"by D. Adams)

        [This message has been edited by MentalVacuum (edited 25 December 1999).]
        "In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move." -"The Guide"by D. Adams)

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        • #5
          Well Rab, Have you hooked up your DQ 10's yet? My guess is that you'll probably be sadly disappointed in what you hear if you are used playing clean sources (cassette tapes and VCR don't count.) I had never really bothered to compare what I call 'real' audio with the junk that comes with comps. It's particularly sad to see such venerable names as Altec Lansing, JBL, and others on the cheesy little plastic boxes that we call computer speakers.

          And then the Sound Cards! What an afterthought those are. I can't imagine one with a s/n ratio that would come close to acceptable levels for really clean sound. The kind your DQ10's would love to transduce.
          Let me know how it comes out. Does anyone even publish s/n specs on their sound cards?
          Greebe's juiced up Athlon @750 on an MSI Irongate Based M/B Marvel G200 TV with HW/DVD Daughtercard,
          CDBurner, Creative DVD, two big WD Hdds, Outboard 56K modem
          Parallel Port Scanner, Creative S/B AWE 64 (ISA), and a new Logitech WebCam (My first USB device)

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          • #6
            I've probably gone way overkill with my setup, but it sounds absolutely fabulous. I'm routing it though my stereo.

            sound card: soundblaster Live value
            amplifier: Denon PMA-320
            speakers: Klipsch KG1.5
            subwoofer: Klipsch 300W 10" sub

            I've got my speakers set back a couple of feet, and I have the sweet spot locked in very nicely. The sub is right in front of my chair, so every time I get an explosion in a game, it really, really kicks!

            OK, this ended up costing several hundred $. I must say that it makes a trememdous difference to have it going through a stereo. The most important part is to have the sweet spot balanced and setup just right. I used "The Sheffield/XLO Test & Burn-in CD" to help me get the sweet spot balanced correctly. I think that this CD is now out of print, but I dunno for sure. The real 3D sound APIs such as EAX and A3D don't show their stuff if your speakers are not arranged properly.

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            • #7
              Regardless of your stereo equipment, everyone must buy a soundblaster live!, i don't care which one, its just the most kick ass thing ever to make noise. I went ahead and stuck my jewels in a vice and bought the platinum, cause i want the front-accesible midi ports and 1/4 inch phonos, and i musta spent 6 hours just playing with the on-board effects. (not to mention 6 hours installing the bundled s/w ), I've only been testing it at work on crappy speakers, (don't have my new computer fully assembled yet) but I can't wait to run it through my stereo at home. (Kenwood 5.1 reciever, Polk R2s, 200watt 15" sub). Aside from spending 2 grand on roland hardware and a rack, I simply don't see more kick-butt sound rig than this card, 600 dollar stereo or not.

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              • #8
                I must agree with elemental on this one... I think i finally found a card worthy of replacing my AWE 32, the Live!. HEHEH

                BTW i cant wait to here the Platnium on your system either Elemental..

                Greg


                ------------------
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                G400 MAX : )
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                Maxtor 13 gig UDMA 66
                Creative 36x CD-ROM
                HP 2x2x6x CD-RW
                64 megs PC100 RAM
                Intel 10/100
                Soundblaster 32 AWE
                DiamondMAX 56k
                Logitech Wireless Desktop (best $50 ive ever spent)
                1 92mm Sunon Fan
                4 80mm Sunon Fan's

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                • #9
                  I must say that it makes a trememdous difference to have it going through a stereo. The most important part is to have the sweet spot balanced and setup just right.
                  'nuff said. Now, how much noise from the comp do you hear? Do you notice it? How ACCURATE is it? I wonder whether any of this matters when we're overwhelmed with digital information...never forget that audio is at it's core ANALOG. Digital is translation. Is it better???

                  Honest question.
                  Greebe's juiced up Athlon @750 on an MSI Irongate Based M/B Marvel G200 TV with HW/DVD Daughtercard,
                  CDBurner, Creative DVD, two big WD Hdds, Outboard 56K modem
                  Parallel Port Scanner, Creative S/B AWE 64 (ISA), and a new Logitech WebCam (My first USB device)

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                  • #10
                    The sound is only as good as the speakers.

                    I've got 4 Boston Acoustics A40's hanging
                    all around me.

                    Running those are 2 crap amps from give-away speakers. Awesome sound.

                    ------------------
                    k6-3 450 @500 - tyan 1590s bios 1.16 - wdac310100 - g200 mill sgram w/8mb upgrade & bios 2.6-20 PD 5.41 (DISABLED) - AGP1x (NOT MY CHOICE) - 128MB 10ns sdram - sblive value 2.1 - 3com 3c905b-tx - cable access (28.8k for emergencies) - win98SE
                    dx7 - V3 steering wheel/pedals - MS sidewinder PRO


                    abit kt7-raid athlon 1ghz quantum 20.4gb - 7200 + wd 200bb - 7200 rpm UDMA100-
                    g400 max-
                    256MB pc133 sdram - sblive value 3.0 - 4 Boston Acoustics A40's - 3com 3c905b-tx - cable access - winME
                    dx7.?- V3 steering wheel/pedals - MS sidewinder PRO
                    Kensiko (Netpointe) scrolling mouse

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                    • #11
                      now i dont know if its my system that makes alot of whicked noise but both the diamond mx300 and sb live gave me background noise ( use sony mdr-cd570 headphones so its pretty easy to hear any kind of noise ). Although the live had very little noise, it had some and i just couldnt live with it. i tried numerous things suggested by the tech support by both companies. Nothing worked....
                      Only card that gives me noiseless audio is my good old Gravis PnP Pro.....gosh this card was ahead of time when released!

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                      • #12
                        I had no problem with the SB Live! Very quiet, as long as you mute sources not in use (those wires make very good mikes). Sounded great through the four point surrounds I used to have (incidentally I'm in front of them now at my brother's). I have Klipsch ProMedia v2.400 now at home and they sounded good with my PCI 64, but I had my uncle's machine which has a Live and they sound even better with it.
                        Jorden, what was the problem to set it up with your stereo?
                        [size=1]D3/\/7YCR4CK3R
                        Ryzen: Asrock B450M Pro4, Ryzen 5 2600, 16GB G-Skill Ripjaws V Series DDR4 PC4-25600 RAM, 1TB Seagate SATA HD, 256GB myDigital PCIEx4 M.2 SSD, Samsung LI24T350FHNXZA 24" HDMI LED monitor, Klipsch Promedia 4.2 400, Win11
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                        • #13
                          Denty: I tried a PCI64, PCI128 and the SB Live! and none of the above could handle my lead from my SB card to my stereo. I've plugged it in the green and the black outlet, no go on all cards !!

                          While my SB 32 PnP works right away when I plug it in the Speakers Out port...

                          Jord.
                          Jordâ„¢

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                          • #14
                            Jord, If you are running into a home stereo amp from the 'speaker out' connector on your sound card, that is not optimum. It may work but there will be a substantial impedance mismatch that introduces much distortion. Typical 'Speaker out' is looking for a circuit with 4-8 Ohm impedance, in other words the speaker's voice coil. 'Line out' on the other hand is running at very high impedance which provides for much better control, but then needs amplification to drive the speaker system. Some (I suspect most) computer speaker systems accept signal from speaker out and then reprocess back into a high Impedance signal, and re-amplify and send to the voice coils (back at 8 ohms) All of this is Layers and Layers of noise introducing poppycock. They do this to insure that they'll talk on any type of low end setup.

                            Any time you can send a pure, well shielded high impedance signal to an outboard 'made-to-drive-speakers' type amplifier, and then drive your speakers from there, you have a much shorter, purer signal path from end to end.

                            I'm not entirely sure how you are configed, so this all may be BS. If you are happy, and clean, with no hissing or clipping distortion, disregard. The advice above is a general recommendation
                            Greebe's juiced up Athlon @750 on an MSI Irongate Based M/B Marvel G200 TV with HW/DVD Daughtercard,
                            CDBurner, Creative DVD, two big WD Hdds, Outboard 56K modem
                            Parallel Port Scanner, Creative S/B AWE 64 (ISA), and a new Logitech WebCam (My first USB device)

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                            • #15
                              Just checked, Tim... it's the Line Out I got the stereo connected to... The Speaker out is for the Trust speakers
                              Jordâ„¢

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