My dad listens to a lot of records and likes a surround sound experience even if most of his records don’t take full advantage of it. He needs new rear speakers but isn’t looking to spend much money. He’s specifically looking for 8ohm passive speakers but doesn’t have specific needs beyond that. He tends to prefer floor speakers but is okay with bookshelf too if it’s a much better value for money (and ideally if they can easily be wall-mounted). He hasn’t given me a price point in mind. I’m thinking around $150-200 CAD or less but I don’t know for sure. I sent him a link to a $350 pair of bookshelf speakers and he said that’s more than he wants to spend, so definitely less than that.

He likes my Edifier P12’s but they’re only 6ohm. I tried looking if they have an 8ohm equivalent that doesn’t have Bluetooth/preamp/whatever but I didn’t have much luck.

and use cases ANDDDDD which cancels noise good, (usually listen to unstoppable loud audio)

i scared getting an chinese copy ......

how to make sure that they okay?

I recently picked up a mint Sansui au-4900 for a bargain price, so I’m looking for some speakers to pair with it. I’d rather them be of a similar vintage for the looks, and (as is always the case round here) not break the bank. I’m not after crystal sharpness, I like warmth, but I’d like some decent detail. I’ve been looking at a decent pair of Celestion Ditton 15s, but I don’t think they’ll play particularly nicely, as this amp is reputed to work best with speakers that were accused of being a little to sharp in the highs, if that makes sense. I’m in the UK for reference. Looking forward to reading your ideas!

I’m pretty sure I know the answer already and I can foresee the other comments incoming already. (Eg; “Why are you recording in the living room in the first place? 🤪)

But here we go. My partner is recording audio occasionally while on the couch in the living room; while I work from home in an adjacent office. They are using a Blue Yeti on a cheapo $40 mic arm, bolted to a side table next to the couch.

Since we have hardwood floors in an ancient house, there’s some creaking being picked up in the recordings. Which is probably me adjusting my weight in my chair in the other room every now and then.

Question is, do we:

1. Get a shock mount?
2. Put carpet (or something) under the side table?
3. Switch the mic stand to a sits on the desktop weighted one we also have and also put a pad o’ fabric or foam under that?
4. All of the above?
5. Additional crap?

Alright. Give us hell folks! Hehe.

On Rocknix's page, it is stated that the Eros Q, HiFi Walker H2, and Surfans F20 are all the same device produced by the same OEM, meaning they are all compatible with the same build of Rockbox. Are these devices any good quality? Has anybody used one of these before?

I wanted a device that supported Rocknix, so it was between the Eros Q (and friends) and used iPods for me, I like the clickwheel to scroll through music. I would prefer the Eros Q (and friends) since it comes with USB-C, microSD storage, etc. out of the box.

I'm looking to upgrade my Fiio K5 Pro with a Topping E50 paired with the Fosi Audio GR70. I've wanted to try a tube amp for a while now. Reception to the GR70 seems mixed. Some people love it while others report it sounds dull and is prone to interference. I'd love to hear about someone else's experience. Thank you!

I've just bought a Yamaha YP-D6 turntable. It's had a hard life, but seems to work ok. I'll replace the stylus before playing any of my collection. Problem is that it has a Shure RXT-4 cartridge which takes a N97HE stylus. A quick bit of research suggests I'll be paying well over $200 for even a cheap N97HE clone. This seems a bit risky when I don't even know if the cartridge is functionally "good".

I'm not looking for the best possible performance from a turntable - it's just to be able to play my collection for nostalgia etc.

I think I'm better off replacing the cartridge with something like and audio technica AT-VM95E.

Interested to hear any thoughts, including suggestions for other budget friendly cartridges.

Vintage Audio Addict is a great YT channel that I recommend for all Budget Audiophiles to subscribe to.

This video is a dissertation on the work of Peter Aczel. An engineer that lays it out in plain language how audio really works and why "Audiophiles" are wasting their money. I've known about Peter for quite some time and his perspective went a long way in shaping my own in regards to audio equipment.

Hello everyone.

I'm on a campaign to move my audio listening closer to nearly all offline. My current quest is to research which are the best options for offline music player on the PC.

I have a mix of FLAC and MP3 files, and desire to add more high end music files from physical media in the future. But the main need right now, is to learn what are the best free music players out there.

My current knowledge of PC music players worth a try are, WINamp, foobar2000, and VLC.

What would you recommend I check out?

I have a love/ hate relationship with early 90's to early 2000's audio equipment.

This is an Adcom GTP-350, which a decent mid-range stereo pre-amp from 1993. I bought it off of Ebay for $80 and free shipping. It came to me with no left channel and scratchy to non-working pots. So several applications of Deoxit and working the pots they all came back to life. However, the left channel would just now work, EXCEPT for the radio. The radio played normally through both channels. That told me this unit has fallen to the curse of dry/cold solder joints. So I took about 30 minutes and resoldered all the joints in the signal path of both channels.

Then... I ran into my own stupidity... Sometimes I'm just and idiot and using an extremely flawed testing method and a defective external part (USB-C to 1/8" Stereo adapter) I thought I hadn't fixed it. After messing around with it for another 30 minutes, I discovered my mistake... Then discovered the adapter I was using to play music from my phone was defected (if you guess it would not play through the left channel, even on known good equipment you get a cookie.) So I figured all that out finally, as I said, I'm an idiot sometimes, and it's working great.

The plan is to run it for a week or so and make sure nothing else happens. I am contemplating recapping it, but we'll see. If it passes, then it will go up to my living room so I can get my main stereo back to working. Right now I'm running a Marantz receiver I fixed and while I really like it, I like my main stereo even more.

Here is a photo of the work I did today. I started at the inputs (top center of the photo) and just worked my way down. To the left in the photo is the radio section and it's working fine, so I didn't touch it. Also, we don't listen to the radio, so if something does happen to that section I'll just isolate it from the signal path and just leave it.

I’m the one who posted about the KZ’s and my unique needs with sound signature. The music that I love sounds like shit because it’s all poorly recorded/mastered and requires extremely responsive drivers and great clarity. For example:

https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxsWursW4kDS95RzsdWwz8-xofBPANx2ug

I’ve done a lot of research and it seems like the Kefine Delci’s might be a good match. I still have to hear them, obviously, but I have $100 to spend at Linsoul and was thinking about tacking on the 7hz Crinacle Red Zero to my order

Assuming I like the Delci, is there a significant enough gap in sound quality between the best <$30 IEM’s and the $45-60 options that there would be no reason to try any of the top <$30?

I own Quarks, Chu II, KZ Castor and Tripowin Kailua. I don’t like any of them for music. I understand that my preferred sound signature is what’s important but it’s kind of irrelevant if the IEM doesn’t sound good. Would I just be wasting money on the 7hz or do they crush the listed IEM’s?

Sorry, long post, but I just have a feeling that there’s a price point where you go from “great for the price” to genuinely good

I’m exploring budget IEM’s and got the Chu II and Castor Pro. I think the Chu’s are great for the money and the Castor Pro’s are almost great for the money but the bass is making my head swim. I feel like I’m experiencing a cabin pressure change on takeoff. I turned off the manual switches and EQ’d but good golly.

And it’s not even bad sounding bass. It’s just too much. Also, the instruments are hidden. Lots of bass and mid-bass, great vocals but the crack of a snare or complexity of a riff are just fine.

Anyway, I think I need to return them. Should I be looking for something that’s just considered balanced? I listen to bullshit that isn’t recorded particularly well and I have no idea what to buy. I was looking at the KZ PRX next.

And to be clear, I listen to bands like Thou, Mispyrming, Deathspell Omega, Marduk, Djevel, Alice In Chains, Immortal, Emma Ruth Rundle, Blut Aus Nord, mgła… if you’re familiar.

They were presumably made in West Germany, most likely some time in the 70s. The material is solid wood. The brand is NOT "Pöhler und Schilling" or "P+S" despite looking very similar. There are no other logos, text or stickers on these things.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

My cheaper headphones are all failing and I need to grab a few pair of whatever is the best value iem today, similar to how the quarks were when I bought them 3-4 years ago.

Is it still the Quarks? I saw something from 7hz that was really popular at $30 but I think it has a detachable cable. I’ll have those pins snapped off in a week.

I recently dropped the right earbud of my QCY HT05 ANC into the kitchen sink, ending a year and a half of daily use. I bought them as a short-term replacement for my AirPods Pro, €250 worth of Apple-branded plastic that lasted barely past the warranty.

The QCY HT05 ANC cost me €16.55, including shipping from China. I bought them for the price, and for the surprisingly good ANC.

Were the QCY as good as my AirPods? No, of course not. They sound so-so, fine for podcasts, but music sounds lifeless and dull and is only really bearable with ANC enabled all the time. The QCY app is also complete horseshit. But none of that matters when I can buy 15 QCY for the price of one pair of AirPods. They’re insane value for the money, and they changed what I expect to get for my cash when it comes to earbuds.

In another thread, I asked for recommendations for new earphones and, after some investigation, ordered the EarFun Air Pro 4. I found them on sale for €52.79 including shipping, just over three times what I paid for the QCY HT05 ANC. So are they worth it?

Packaging

The EarFun Air Pro 4 arrived in a cardboard box wrapped in plastic. The box felt heavy and well-made.

Inside: a user manual, a quick-start guide, a junk slip of paper with the EarFun logo, a USB-A to USB-C charging cable, five sets of tips, a single plastic-wrapped Q-tip (for cleaning apparently, wtf?), and the plastic-wrapped case with the earbuds inside. That’s a fair bit of junk and unnecessary plastic, but not excessive considering how much waste other Chinese manufacturers ship with their products.

The case feels nice and heavy. The magnets that hold the earbuds in place are snappy, and the whole thing feels sturdy. Way sturdier than the QCY case, which feels a bit flimsy, especially the lid, which is too light.

Fit

I was worried about the fit because I struggled to find good eartips for my 7Hz Zero 2. My ear canals are on the larger side, and the right one is slightly larger than the left. The included tips are excellent: the largest ones fit perfectly and create a seal. They sit comfortably, and I can imagine wearing these for multiple hours without a problem.

ANC and transparency mode

EarFun's ANC isn’t better than the QCY's. They’re about equal. If you forced me to pick a winner, I'd say the QCY is a smidgen better. Both are fine, honestly. Walking alongside a three-lane inner-city street, they block traffic noise well enough. They also cut down nearby conversations, exactly what I want ANC to do.

Transparency mode on the EarFun is quite good, probably comparable to the AirPods Pro 2 I used to own. With it turned on low, I can hold a conversation while listening to music in the background. The QCY transparency mode, on the other hand, is a joke and indistinguishable from normal mode. Again, the QCY only makes sense to me if ANC runs all the time.

Sound

The EarFun sounds really good. They're bass-heavy, but they also work well for death metal without any EQ tweaks. The app is decent and lets you configure EQ settings.

As mentioned, the QCY sounds clearly worse: less bass, dull highs, and no real stereo space. With the EarFun, the soundstage is obvious. I can tell where the producer put each instrument. They make music fun to listen to.

My takeaway

Quality-wise, the EarFun Air Pro 4s are the winner for me. They sound better, transparency mode actually works, and the app is fine. They feel on par with the AirPods Pro 2 I owned a couple of years ago, for a fraction of the price. I would buy them again, they feel like a nice upgrade from the QCY.

And still: if you can get the QCY HT05 ANC for ~€20, that's the winner on value for money.

Alt link https://inv.nadeko.net/watch?__goaway_challenge=js-refresh&__goaway_id=ac87a91e926b2eca0e4b5e5be0511ac1&__goaway_referer=https%3A%2F%2Finv.nadeko.net%2F&v=31-5nmJvsV4

I see almost no mention of this device on Lemmy. I’m seriously considering getting one, mainly for the rotating artwork - but I’m not sure if the novelty will wear off. Does anyone have one of these?

I have the Snowsky Echo Mini (two of them) so I know what I’m getting from the brand: good hardware, beta software but frequent updates. The software improved significantly with the Mini over a year+. Still not perfect but for the price I’m very happy.