Hifi Audio for my PC

[admin_exported]

Ok here we go.

I am totaly new to Hifi, but i have always loved music and now it is time to step up from my Logitech Z4's.

I have a lot of Flac format musik, and i would love to get a system with my PC as the source with good sound quality way beyond what logitech or other computerspeaker brands can deliver.

I have looked alot but its hard to get an overview over the whole market and what to look for and what not.

The first things i stumbled upon where:

Cambridge Azur 540A V2 (what can i say.. i know its an amp )

Cambridge DacMagic (seems like a good choise)

And a pair of Audioengine 2's (i realy like the looks of these and what i have read about them)

But again im not sure about anything.

Can anybody enlighten me abit?

EDIT: Do i even need an AMP for the Audioengine 2's? Would a DacMagic and AE2's be a good start?

 

[Anonymous]

Hi momomo, and welcome.

I am afraid that you will not get a lot of response if you do not tell what you have, want and want to spend...

Given that you are interested in these AE2's I imagine you are looking at a compact system, with a fairly low budget. Nothing wrong with that. You indeed do not need an amp for the dacmagic with active (i.e. with their own amplifiers) speakers like the AE2's, but you have to adjust the volume digitally on your pc, before it enters the Dacmagic; this is not good for the quality and you do not use the full potential of the dacmagic. It is a waste of money IMHO. With the 540 amp added you do not need active speakers like the AE2's. You might as well start with hooking up the AE2 speakers directly, using the analog signal of your pc, if you really want these speakers. Or use a cheap USB DAC like Creative XMOD with an adjustible output signal, that is a better match for the speakers.

If you want better quality, you could start with selecting a set of speakers you like, and opt for an amplifier that accepts USB input from a computer (from cheap as the Ross Andrews RAVE 1 usb, to more expensive like the Musical Fidelity A1, and there are a few more options - not many yet though). This is of course functionally equivalent to buying separate dacmagic + amp, + passive speakers.

Good luck,

Pete

 

[Anonymous]

You can also check out the ASUS Xonar Essence STX sound card. It's a very nice sound card with analogue stereo output (RCA) and built-in headphone amp too. Retails around 170 pounds in the UK and has lot of (if not mostly) positive reviews. It's headed towards the music enthusiast.