a bunch of rookie questions

[admin_exported]

Hi everyone, I've been browsing this site w/o registering for probably a year now. I've never bought expensive hi-fi before, the most expensive hi-fi related thing was the Yamaha PDX-50, courtesy of the whathifi awards. Anyway, I'm moving to a slightly bigger place now and I'm also hoping to add a fairly decent hi-fi system for my laptop.

First off, my laptop's sound card sounds awful and I just saw the term external sound card in the forums. Do they work the way I think it does? i.e. improving/bypassing the current sound card's sound

Any recommendations?

Secondly, I am very interested in the following two products reviewed here:

Lars & Ivan BK-21

Fatman iTube Valve Dock

The problem is, I've never owned an amp before, so my question is can I connect the fatman amp and the Lars & Ivan speakers together then to the laptop? Or do I need to purchase extra connections? If yes, how much would I be looking at (roughly)?

sorry if it sounds so amateurish

 

[matengawhat]

I'm confused as the Lars & Ivan BK-21 is advertised as a dock with speakers - guessing you can now just pick up the speakers?

The fatman docks are great - have a look at the carbon V2 - this has two extra inputs for connecting cd players or other kit

If you are using a computer I would look to buy a dac to get the best from your tunes which would then plug directly into the fatman Carbon v2 you will need to check that the other fatman devices have extra inputs

You could also use your computers headphone out to a pair of rca but the sound would be a lot better using a usb cable with a dac

 

[Clare Newsome]

silverfoxy:
Hi everyone, I've been browsing this site w/o registering for probably a year now. I've never bought expensive hi-fi before, the most expensive hi-fi related thing was the Yamaha PDX-50, courtesy of the whathifi awards. Anyway, I'm moving to a slightly bigger place now and I'm also hoping to add a fairly decent hi-fi system for my laptop.

First off, my laptop's sound card sounds awful and I just saw the term external sound card in the forums. Do they work the way I think it does? i.e. improving/bypassing the current sound card's sound

Any recommendations?

Secondly, I am very interested in the following two products reviewed here:

Lars & Ivan BK-21

Fatman iTube Valve Dock

The problem is, I've never owned an amp before, so my question is can I connect the fatman amp and the Lars & Ivan speakers together then to the laptop? Or do I need to purchase extra connections? If yes, how much would I be looking at (roughly)?

sorry if it sounds so amateurish

Hi Silverfoxy, and welcome fully to the Forum

Can you tell us a little more about your budget? Also the size of room you're hoping to fill - or do you want the system to be able to be used anywhere your laptop would? And any preference re size of speakers etc?

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for replying.

I looked at the Lars and Ivan site and I'm assuming this is the right product?

http://www.lars-ivan.co.uk/product.php?xProd=22&xSec=3

>The fatman docks are great - have a look at the carbon V2 - this has two extra inputs for connecting cd players or other kit

yeah, the reviews sound awesome, but the one I chose seems to be the most affordable , but I'm not buying the ipod dock bit, but does that mean it does not have the inputs to connect to a computer?

Also, what's DAC and RCA?

 

[Andrew Everard]

The Bobo-BK21 includes both the speakers and the amplifier. The speakers are just the Bobo.

RCAs are the sockets on an amplifier into which source components can be connected; a DAC is a digital to analogue converter, which converts digital data into an analogue sound amplifiers can handle.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Clare & Andrew, thanks for the quick replies. I feel very welcomed indeed ^ ^ My budget is fairly limited as you can see from my choices as I'm just a student who's just been earning a bit more than expected and want some upgrades. Both systems which I singles out are sub £150 (but both having exciting reviews here so I can't wait to get my hands on them lol). I intended to get both, so adding them together would be around £200 if the online retailer's quotes can be trusted. My room would be 5.16m X 3.81m and the system would just be for the room. For portable purposes I'm hoping to purchase the Beyerdynamic DTX-100. I listen to a lot of metal, but the sub genres span from symphonic to sludge and black etc. I also listen to pop. >And any preference re size of speakers etc? sorry, did not get the resize bit >The Bobo-BK21 includes both the speakers and the amplifier. The speakers are just the BoboI think I can get the Bobo separately (http://www.limitedgoods.com/itemView.php?ProdID=708291&source=FroogleUK&medium=free&campaign=FroogleUK_InStock" target="_blank" title="http://www.limitedgoods.com/itemView.php?ProdID=708291&source=FroogleUK&medium=free&campaign=FroogleUK_InStock">from here), but would they not sound as good with the fatman iTube amp? Regarding the DAC RCA problem, I think what you guys are saying is that a DAC (with USB connection) can connect my computer to the amp bypassing the computer's own soundcard? And then I will need seperate cables to connect the amp to the Bobo speakers?

 

[Anonymous]

sorry for bumping, my own response, just need a confirmation ^ ^"