Hollis Nolan

Speakers!

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Aug 162014

Ok, headphones are cute. But how do I listen to LOUD music?

Well first things first. I need a source. Historically I’ve had mixing boards on my desk with loads of sources (computer, cdplayer, ipod, guitar, guest ipod). I got rid of all that when I switched to a more audiophile approach. Right now I have only one source, my desktop. It’s clean, it’s simple, it sounds good. Laptops are fine, but if you really want control over your own computer you have to build your own. Thats what I did. A custom built desktop in an Antec Sonota II silent case. Everything is streamlined for low power, therefore low heat, therefore low fan settings. All the fans are 120mm. Larger fans circulate more air at lower RPM. You’ll notice there is a giant aftermarket CPU cooler (the brown fans). Total overkill for my use, but very very quiet. The loudest thing in there right now are the hard drives. If I want to get quieter I need to think about moving to a networked storage solution or a SSD.

I used to always run my source through an EQ in the analog domain. Every speaker + room combination has a few problems that can benefit from a little EQ. However I realized most EQs in my price range are either not precise enough, or convert the signal to digital to do the equalization, then back to analog. I really want to avoid an extra A-D conversion. So I kept looking.

The answer I found was a free windows plug-in called Equalizer APO
http://sourceforge.net/p/equalizerapo/wiki/Documentation/
I use it with Room EQ Wizard to analyze my sound, calculate filters, and EQ everything coming out of windows. This has the advantage of affecting absolutely everything I do. Itunes, movies, games, my DAW. The eq is set just for my speakers and my room. No need to adjust or play with it after its set. I may write a post on EQ later.

You may have noticed there is no sound card. I didn’t see a use for one so I pulled it out. My motherboard has Toslink optical out so I use optical to get out of my machine into my D-A. Optical has the additional advantage of being electronically isolated. There is no metal between my computer and my sound equipment. Makes a lot of audio problems like ground loops impossible, and has no coloration at all on the sound.

The optical cable goes into a Schiit Bifrost Uber digital to analog converter (bottom in the picture below). This a crucial piece of gear that takes the stream of bits from the computer, and converts that to an electrical signal that sound equipment can use. This was one of the last pieces of audio equipment I bought, its extremely hard to tell the difference between different models of these until you have high end speakers.

Next I need to control the volume. A D-A simply puts out a line level signal, no volume control. Which means if I directly attached it to speakers it would be extremely loud. I have a Schiit Asgard 2 (Top in the above picture) headphone amp pulling double duty for this. It is overkill for this purpose, but very necessary when using headphones. I’m paying more for flexibility since I sometimes use headphones, and I dont like connecting and reconnecting gear. It has the added benefit of muting my speakers when headphones are plugged into the front.

Of course the D-A needs to be connected to the volume knob. For this I use unbalanced RCA cables.

But aren’t balanced cables better? Yes, kinda, sometimes. Balanced cables are great for long runs, 25′ or more. For a 6′ run it would be very hard to tell the difference, for 6″ its nigh impossible. While balanced cables cost only slightly more, balanced connectors on audiophile equipment are more expensive to implement. Even my runs out to my speakers at 10′ are unbalanced, and the speakers even have a balanced input. In addition the the speakers I need to get signal to my sub. I do this through a $.50 RCA Y cable on the Asgard outputs. That way whenever I move the volume knob the sub’s volume is adjusted as well.

And finally we get to speakers!

I use Dynaudio BM5A MKIIs. Before you make fun of the “mark 2” let me tell you that yes I orginally had the mark 1s and yes I just had to upgrade. The difference between the two was slight though (and now they are on mk III). I chose these after long and careful consideration. I wanted a speaker with a flat frequency response and detail. I really like reverb tails and sense of space. I got the 5A rather than the 6A because I have no need of extreme volume. Even the 5As at 4′ go louder than I can stand (and I work in live audio). Wait, speakers, loud? I forgot to mention that these are powered speakers. Each are identical and have amps built right into the back so I can run signal from my volume knob straight into them. Self powered speakers have several advantages, no passive crossovers, and manufacturer designed driver amplifier pairings. It keeps things simple and sounds great.

Originally I had the BM5As on my desk. But I could never get them in quite the right spot. I ended up buying stands, and yes, they sound better. There was a not-unsubstantial improvement when I moved the speakers over to a dedicated stand.

Ontoward the subwoofer! Oh wait, whats this in-line with the sub? A ditial EQ!

I’m cheating here. If I dont like how the sub sounds I should move it in the room, then treat the room with sound absorbing products, then EQ the sub. Since I can’t do the first two (rental property) I had to compromise. The global EQ out of my desktop affects everything. This EQ only affects the sub. You can see I pulled down some of the upper bass, and put a big boost at 40hz. I love sub-bass frequencies. Its the first thing I listen for in a system. I’m also cheating with a digital EQ since the sub cannot produce any highs frequencies where artifacts are more audible. The EQ is a discontinued model by Phonic.

And finally, the subwoofer. A HSU Research STF-2.

Much more power than I need in a room this size, but I really want the bass to feel effortless. Subs pushed to their upper limits in volume start sounding different, like they are cutting corners trying to produce frequencies that low and that loud. The STF-2 is like having a sports car on residential streets, I can’t use all that max power, but I still have the acceleration and the fun. While researching this I really fell in love with HSU Research. They are a great company with extremely high value products for the price. The other sub I was considering was three times the price at a very similar sound quality.

And that all gives me this:

Happy listening!

Audio Formats

Standing Still 1 Response »

May 192014

Here’s how I play music:

On my windows desktop I use iTunes with the iTunes equalizer bypassed. I run optical out of my motherboard (no soundcard) straight into my Schiit Bifrost. I use Equalizer APO to eq windows a bit. I bypass the eq when using headphones.

On my Macbook pro its iTunes as well. I optical out into an Ibasso D10, or I firewire out into my Motu Traveller. I never use the headphone jack.

In my living room I have an apple tv. I use airplay (apple codec with 16 bit 44.1 kHz CD quality lossless audio) over wired Ethernet (soundguys hate wireless). Audio goes to the apple tv HDMI out, then to my receiver, then to a 31 band graphic eq, then a pro audio amp, then some large PA speakers.

In my parents living room its apple tv as well, but theirs goes to a minidsp device for eq and xover, then to the speakers.

iTunes was my choice because it plays the best with others. I can get the music to multiple devices. I can use my phone as a remote control in any zone I happen to be in.

I also use iTunes match. For $25 a year they scan your library then give you access to that library in the cloud from any device you’re signed in on. So my desktop is my hub, with 150gb of music, and my laptop is bare. Match just streams from the cloud, or I download a few albums to it before I disconnect.

I have a hierarchy for where I get my source files from:
#1 Bandcamp.com : lossless files + pay what you want + band gets more profits than anywhere else = win
#2 Vetted vinyl ripps : Why do I say vetted? Not all vinyl is better than digital. More below.
#3 Physical CDs ripped as apple lossless : I’m ok buying into the apple ecosystem, wav and aiff waste space
#4 Itunes store : 256kbps AAC files are fine, not very futureproof, but ok
#4 320kbps mp3s straight from band websites : Two #4s, not a typo, the formats are equal
#5 B&W Society of Sound : I sign up for the free trial every year or so and download everything I can

So the first thing you’re wondering is wav/aiff vs FLAC/ALAC. Really it depends on which ecosystem you’re in and how you consume music. If you’re not committed yet it’s good to stay neutral. Hard drive space is cheap. All these formats are bit for bit the same acoustically.

Next is lossless vs 256kbps AAC vs 320kbps mp3. Guess what? With that mountain of sound gear I just described I cannot differentiate between lossless and 320 kBps mp3. With $100k of speakers flown in the air for a concert I cannot tell the difference between these formats. Now if I was in an acoustically treated studio… that’s a different story. I need to invest $1000-2000 in acoustic treatment for my room before I can tell you which is better. In the meantime just default to lossless. Hard drive space is cheap. When the physical cd costs $20 though, I just buy the $10 iTunes version. Lossless is only worth a few dollars more to me overall.

How you rip a CD matters. iTunes has error correction that you can turn on, I always leave it on. One step better would be using dedicated software for ripping such as Exact Audio Copy. Basically consumer CD drives are lazy and skip bits every now and then. This is especially prominent on scratched/damaged CDs.

24 bit, 96 khz, 192khz. These are recording formats. They only matter when you’re combining 20 or 30 tracks of audio and mixing them down. They are not a delivery format. CD quality 16 bit 44.1 kHz is totally pristine. When I get high bit rate files like these I downsample and dither to CD quality.

There is an audio format issue that is more important than any of these. In fact it is the absolute most important audio quality feature. It’s simply the recording quality. I have heard tons of 256kbps AACs from iTunes that sound better than certain artist’s 24bit 96khz files on audiophile download sites. Dynamic range is crucial crucial crucial. Here is where vinyl comes in. Some artists create different versions of an album, one mixed for CD, one mixed for vinyl. Since the CD is targeted at consumers it’s usually louder. The Vinyl then, gets mixed with more emphasis on audio quality. These vinyl recordings are the ones I search out, but even then, you’re not just hearing the vinyl, you’re hearing the record player, needle, preamp, AD converter, and whatever processing a ripper chooses to use. This could give higher quality than the CD or lower quality than the CD. You have to listen.

A positive example is Red Hot Chili Peppers – Stadium Arcadium. The CD version of this is very dynamically compressed. I find it unlistenable, and I had bought the physical CD. I ended up deleting it since the sound was so fatiguing. My ears were literally sore from listening at any volume. I found a vinyl rip of this album though and it was like I was finally actually hearing it, the sound mix was totally different, the snare drum sounded like a snare drum, the vocals were effortlessly floating over the band. I put the whole double album on and listened to the whole two hours straight the first time I acquired it.

A negative example is Beach House – Bloom, the vinyl is exactly the same mix as the CD mix. So all I hear when I listen to the vinyl rip is errors in the vinyl recording set up. You can’t gain quality by recording the vinyl record, you can only capture a version that was never printed to CD.

I very rarely keep the vinyl version and the cd version in my collection at the same time. I usually listen to both, pick one, and delete the other.

What Headphones Do I Use?

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May 152014

What headphones do I use eh? Lets go low to high

Grado 60i – $50 on eBay
Plugged straight into my phone while lying in bed. Great for Netflix, Youtube videos, then tossing them on the floor before I go to sleep.
http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/GradoSR60i.pdf

Byerdynamic DT 770 80ohm – $150
Used to be my main pair, now I just use them for front of house sound mixing duties. Very good isolation from the outside world. Very tough construction. Lots of bass. A bit too much mid bass for me. Tends to get out of control without a good amp, low end gets muddy. Large size, a little hard to carry. If they broke I’d buy another pair in a heartbeat, best headphones for working concerts I’ve found.
http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/BeyerdynamicDT770.pdf

Hifiman HE-500 45ohm – $600 on massdrop.com
I only use these at home, at my desk, plugged into my Schiit stack. They are in a whole nother world. No frequency rage is exaggerated, no range is repressed. Just total sound, total flat. They are also faster, meaning sound is more detailed, note decays are more real, reverb and ambiance more nuanced. Reviewers keep comparing them to $2000 headphones. Downsidewise they are heavy, have absolutely no isolation from the outside world, and are hard to transport.
http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/HiFiMANHE500.pdf

Westone ES-2 22ohm – $775 custom molded IEM from an audiologist.
Inserts all the way into my ears. I use them while travelling and while mixing monitors for a band. Extreme isolation from the outside world. I mean you can be listening to solo piano music on a plane next to a crying baby and not notice anything but the music. One of the best sound purchases I have ever made. Loud music destroys your ears. Turning your music up loud to hear it over background noise destroys your ears even faster. Listening to quiet music in loud environments is invaluable to me. Sound is very very good, just a little lacking in the extreme highs and sub-bass. Responds well to eq to get those ranges back. Very detailed. Very sensitive to what’s driving them. Iphone is fine, headphone amps are good, but straight into a computer soundcard or ipod will give me hiss, not a lot, just annoying. Also they get very loud very fast, 20% on an ipod/iphone volume knob is as loud as I can stand.

I cheaped out here and I’ve always regretted it. One step higher would have been $900, and I’d gladly pay the difference now. I bought these a long time ago and I’ve learned a lot since. If I could do it again I would buy from Sensaphonics or JH audio instead, Westone has lost my future business.

The downside to these are if you’re walking around you are acoustically blind. People have been hit by cars, bikes, trains because they didn’t hear them coming. The fit requires an air tight seal, so they cant be worn while sudden changes of pressure occur (such as a plane taking off). The fitting process requires an audiologist who squirts goo in your ears, not comfortable (however I’ve had this done to me 4-5 times, you’ll survive). They take 5-7 seconds to insert per ear, so I cant use them at front of house to cue things mid show.

If I lost all my sound gear a new set of custom IEMs are what I would buy first. This class of gear blows the socks off any of the universal fit IEMs, even the $400 Shures. It’s not even close.

Ok! That’s all for headphones. File formats come next!