What's your audio setup?

Communities Audio Hardware & Music
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I’m curious of what other people have for mics and headphones. I kinda operate on the best of what I can afford, os I try to look at EVERYTHING available and make a choice from there to see what matches.

Atm here’s my setup, and if you know how to improve it, by all means I invite you to say something.

Amp:. ART TUBE STUDIO+

I can get these for 20 bucks refurbed at the local guitar center. Idk why they have a billion of them tho.

Mic: Sterling Audio ST151

What is with these weblinks man

I got this for 100 bucks because it sounded pretty much the same as a 450 dollar mic. So like fuck it.

Headphones: Pioneer HDJ-X7’s

I go between phones, laptops, mixing decks, and didn’t want to deal with a shit wavetable or anything. So I found the best sounding headphones for my uses covering most of the board.

I don’t have any great stand or anything. Literally a stage stand from when my dad was in rock bands in the 70’s. Idk the first thing about cardioid mic stands vs other ones aside from some have springs some don’t.

No pop filter. Generally don’t have the mic that close to my face.

Have both knobs on amp turned to center, +20db applied, set pc mic in to 55-65 or it’ll peak or drop out. Sounds great actually.

I’m more than likely going to kill something tho because it’s just going into my pc, or at least it seems like I will eventually. Idk. Probably need to adjust levels more efficiently since I have a tiny window to tune the mic to settings wise physically, then I just have to govern it thru software.

What do ya’ll do?

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Due to space contraint I can’t go crazy on it (yet) so I’m rocking a FiiO K3 into pair of Moondrop Starfield with a Linsoul Tripowin balanced cable.
I think it sounds very well for around 215$ all in.

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Sources:

  • Realtek ALC1220 (onboard), good enough for voice chat

  • ESI Maya 44eX, because options

  • Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 (2nd Gen)

(Headphone-) Amps

  • ART Headamp4, basic workhorse

  • Emotiva BasX A-100, speaker driver (and part time headphone amp)

  • LakePeople G103-S, used 80% of the time

Headphones

  • AudioTechnica ATH-AD500x, entry drug

  • AudioTechnica ATH-M40x, monitoring cans

  • AKG K-712 Pro, “Just one more headphone”, main listening device

  • Fostex T50RP (Mk III), baby planar

  • Koss Porta Pro, smol

  • Panasonic RP-HD10, nothing to write home about

  • Magnat LZR-980, flawed construction (don’t impulse buy!)

Mics

  • Samson Meteor, USB mic, “good-enough-ish”-tier

  • MXL 770, used exactly once (don’t do large diaphragm condensers in front of monitors, or untreated rooms in general!)

  • Superlux S241, small diaphragm condenser, perfect for desk use

Speakers

  • Emotiva Airmotiv B1+, my first decent speakers

Mixer

  • Mackie Mix12FX, connecting and distributing it all

Misc

  • 92mm Arctic Fan, for some airflow in the DIY-rack

  • crappy mic arm

Diagram:

Audio-Setup
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Edit: Just realised the Mic is missing from the diagram. I have the S241 hooked to the Maya 44eX since it plays nicer with Discord than the Scarlett (Focusrite drivers used to be better…).

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Schiit stack + DT1990s
It just works

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Mayflower electronics objective 2 ODAC/amp with their Fostex T50RP V1 headphones with the V3 pads, Sony mdr-xb500 bass boosted headphones for on the go with my drum and bass tunes, and some basic Logitech computer speakers that were $12 in 2013.

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Oh god

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Ah the good ol days

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I Really like my Audioengine A2+ Plus Wireless, Schiit Hel, and Audio-Technica ATH-M50X headphones. Very good bang for buck in my opinion.

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What?
Leave me my hobby!

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I have two.
Desk:
Speakers: J. Yazbek’s AAT BSF-100 Rakt (my favorite Brazilian brand)
AMP: Topping PA3 (temporary, while my Onkyo A-817XD waits for the parts to be restored)
DAC/Headphone amp: xDuoo XD05 Basic
Headphone/IEM: Blon B8, Blon BL03 (+JCally 8 core cable on both)
Mike: Alctron CS35U (the voice chat champ, really tight range, doesn’t even pick the sound of the keyboard and picks up my voice remarkably well)

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20210326_1219374032×3024 1.89 MB

This setup always enjoyed a steady evolution with upgrades whenever i can afford and deem them necessary, but never breaking the bank, it had worse speakers until late last year, when i got these awesome BSF-100s, which to my ears sound way better than Monitor’s Bronze 2s for the same price.

Living room:
Speakers: DALI Zensor 7
Subwoofer: J. Yazbek’s AAT Cube Rakt 12"
Amp: Denon AVR-X2400H
Sources: TV (Q7FN), PS4 Pro, PS3 SS, Pioneer DVL-909 LD/DVD/CD player
Power: UPSAI ACF-2100T step down transformer/conditioner, GR Savage CDR-2200EX 220v conditioner

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This one used to be a 5.1 Setup with Monitor Audio Bronze series speakers, but space constraints meant that the 5.1 surround was not satisfying enough, so i downgraded to a 2.1 setup with better main speakers and kept the oversized subwoofer.
I do want to upgrade the amplifier, while it does amplify the Zensors correctly, i would prefer an integrated amp instead of the receiver, the only way i use the HDMI ins and outs on it are for the TV ARC audio, this TV is newer which means that passing HDMI signals through the receiver before the TV can cause some handshake issues, so i just avoid using it anyway.
HEOS, however, is a decent streaming system and i use it all the time, it worked specially well with Apple Airplay when i had an iPhone.

If you’re eagle eyed, you’ve noticed that both setups reside on opposite sides of the same room.

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Schiit stack (Modi Multibit + Magni 3) + Valhalla 2 (tube amp)

  • Grado RS1e (open-back)
  • Sennheiser HD 820 (yup, I went all the way!)
  • Bose Quiet comfort - for Skype/meetings etc. this is directly over bluetooth though.
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Hehe, that setup is a bit crazy, but then again I guess it’s just hardcore.