Audio-Technica

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Part 5: Speakers This is the most important component in your system. This is where a majority of your budget should go. The best source material, DAC, preamp, and amp won’t turn bad speakers into good speakers. From u/Uncle_erik Put most of your money towards really good speakers. Aside from the recording, that's where about 90% of the sound quality is. I have a crappy old receiver with drips of paint, broken knobs and it wasn't anything nice to begin with. I got it for free; someone left it out on the curb as trash. I grabbed it since it might have a good transformer or something else good inside. But it still worked and we've put it to use in the workshop. To get to the point, that battered old receiver makes my speakers sound great. I even hooked up my iPod to the receiver and played some lossy AAC files. It sounded good. Good enough to piss off a lot of people at an audio show if they didn't know they were listening to something left in the trash. On the other hand, I've put superb SACD recordings into a player with top-notch measurements, into a high-end headphone amp, then plugged in my $20 test Sony headphones. (They're the ones that get plugged into new builds for testing; I don't care if I accidentally fry them.) The headphones still sound lousy, even when fed with some terrific gear. From u/Avre Go for well-established brands here as well - Bowers and Wilkins is a brand you can't really go wrong with, but also look at brands like Dali, Mirage, PSB or Paradigm. If you want more loudness than stand/bookshelf speakers gives you, the next step up, both in terms of spending and quality is two-way speakers (A two-way speaker is one woofer and one tweeter) - it will give you deeper bass, sometimes more loudness, but is still relatively simple in terms of component count. Until you are prepared to spend serious money on speakers (1500 USD or more), stick with two-way speakers. Listen to the speakers before you buy them, and consider buying used. There is a lot of technical data on speakers that make them look good on paper, but it is important that they sound good to you. When shopping for speakers, you need to consider: How much room do you have for them, what type of music you like to listen to, and what type of receiver or amp do you have or plan on getting. Floor standing speakers take up more room, but also have a larger cabinet and produce more bass. If you have the room, these would be a good consideration. If you’re lacking in room and/or budget, consider “bookshelf” speaker. These are smaller speakers that typically have a woofer and a tweeter. They are not to be mounted on a bookshelf. The best setup is to buy or make speaker stands for the bookshelf speakers. What are some recommended speakers? r/Zeos is an excellent place to start for price guides and recommendations on speaker, DAC, and amp combinations. Speaker Stands DIY Speaker Stands Another DIY Speaker Stand Sanus Systems BF-24B Wood Speaker Stands - 24” Sanus Systems BF-31B Wood Speaker Stands - 31” Speaker Wire From u/DrGrinch Monoprice cable or Blue Jeans cable. Buy the raw stuff and add your own spades or banana plugs. Go for 14 or 12 gauge. From u/Uncle_Erik Use whatever you can find inexpensively. Home Depot and Radio Shack will sell you a spool reasonably. Add spades, banana plugs yourself. It's cheap and easy. Do not buy the hyped or expensive stuff. Cables have been "controversial" for 30 years. Thing is, there's never been a shred of evidence to demonstrate a difference. Cables are on the same level as ghosts, UFOs, bigfoot, and palm reading. Speaker Wire Length From u/Arve As long as the wire is beefy enough that it doesn't contribute significant resistance, having two cables of unequal length isn't going to change the sound much - meaning that if you need 4 ft of cable for the left speaker, and 10 for the right, it doesn't really matter as long as you choose something like 16 or 14 AWG wire. Wiring your speakers to your amp/receiver From Stereophile's speaker placement guide Next, you need to make sure that the speakers are wired correctly to your amplifier or receiver, with the left speaker receiving the left signal and the right speaker the right signal. In addition, the red (positive) terminal of your amplifier needs to be connected to the red (positive) terminal of the speaker; likewise for the black (negative) terminals. (It's easy to make a mistake.) When the wires are connected correctly, the speakers are "in phase," which means that the drive-unit diaphragms move in the same direction when fed the same signal. When one speaker is incorrectly wired—red to black instead of red to red—they are "out of phase"; ie, one is pushing while the other pulls System Design: 2.0, 2.1, 5.1, or 7.1 The traditional setup is a 2.0 system. The .1 in 2.1 stand for adding a subwoofer. When music is recorded and produced in the studio, it is designed to be listened to on a 2.0 system. 5.1 and 7.1 are meant for home theater use. How to set up your speakers at home Check out this diagram from /r/Zeos The WASP method. GCAudio Speaker Placement Guide Cnet Article A Guide from /r/vinyl An Interactive Guide from Dolby Getting the Best from your Loudspeakers Very Quick Guide The speakers should be at least six feet apart. The speakers should be about 20” away from the back wall. The speaker should sit flat (not tilted back or forward). Create an equilateral triangle between the two speakers and the listener. The speakers can be “toed-in” slightly to start. Experiment by “toeing in” and moving the speakers away from or closer to the back wall. Ideally there would be nothing, or very little, between the speakers or around them. These items interfere with the soundstage (the projection of sounds around the room) Part 6: Music If you have Spotify, there is a link in the sidebar to an Audiophile playlist of around 200 tracks. You can also search for “Stereophile” in spotify for some playlists from Stereophile.com Recommended Amazing Tracks Audiophile Test Tracks Test Out a New System Tracks Music for Audiophiles Part 7: Sample Setups Digital Media>PC/Mac>Lineout/Stream>DAC>Receiver/Amplifier>Speakers Digital Media>PC/Mac>Monitors (with built-in DAC) Digital Media>PC/Mac>DAC>Headphone Amp>Headphones CD Player>Preamp>Amplifier>Speakers Turntable>Amplifier (with built-in Phonostage)>speakers More on reddit.com

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