The All Purpose Advice Thread

Oh, just re-read your question, my bad. I think you want a music server that pushes audio to the speakers wirelessly? Question, why not just use a phone?

 

How important is weight for you? If it's not a consideration my recommendation would be exactly what I'm using, the Audeze LCD2C Closed. They have slam and the speed for metal and take well to all gear I've hooked them up to beyond what most planars will tolerate.(70ohms & high sensitivity.)

One quirk is that they both have an upper mid dip & an impedance spike in that same upper mid range. On a low OI SS amp it'll sound depressed, on my OTL it's forward sounding.. your transformer coupled tubes may be the Goldilocks solution getting it just right.

 

I think so? When I go into Moode settings, it has several renderers for Airplay, UPnP, Bluetooth, etc. which it references as players. I don't have any devices to test with, but it should at least in theory be possible.

 

I think those settings are to configure MoOde as an Airplay/UPnP/Bluetooth audio receiver, not sender. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

I'd like to ask @songmic what is your music source (local files, streaming service, etc). Wireless speakers that have a built-in streamer (such as LS50 Wireless) can probably access your source directly without needing a Raspberry Pi in the path.

 

I think you are right. From the wording in the settings, it made it seem like it could go either way, but I don't play around with this stuff beyond getting it to work for my setup.

 

I found the Atticus to be borderline at approx. 500 grams. The LCD-2C closed appear to weigh in at 110 grams more, and I think that'd be pushing it for my scrawny neck. I appreciate the suggestion, and I'll read up on the LCD-2!

 

@boredpanda , the new Focal Celeste maybe? With its low impedance you would have to check out how its impedance curve would interact with the highest OI of your Amp.

 

ESX 900

 

I should have mentioned that I demo'd Focal Elegia in a shop a good while back. I don't remember the details, but I believe my conclusion then was that they sounded a bit aenemic, and the clamp force was extreme. I'll see about testing the Celestee though, thanks for your suggestion!

The heavily modified TH900? Appreciate the suggestion, but that would probably be beyond me.

 

I'm looking to replace my pads for the Drop THX00 (Mahogany). Does anyone know what is the best replacement pads for it?

 

I used to have the purple heart variation and liked the Dekoni velour pads, found them quite comfortable. If you want to retain the bass, get the attenuation rings.

 

Do do not know what are the best by ZMF Eikon pads with Dekoni attenuation rings https://www.amazon.com/Dekoni-Audio-Attenuation-Massdrop-Headphones/dp/B071CZPYFL sound way better than stock pads and are more comfortable.

 

Thanks for the help. I remembered I have some Ori pads gathering dust and ordered the attenuation rings.

 

Hello Friends,

I'm trying to figure out what I need to do Twitch streaming with my partner. We would just be sharing one pc, streaming on one twitch account (and probably using Streanlabs). I have a basic setup now that works for one person (headphones + a crappy-ish usb mic).

I don't want to spend a ton of money on this in case she's not into it. I can buy new or used.

My assumptions:

1) I could do it "properly" with a usb interface and buy two xlr microphones (and a second pair of headphones). I'm assuming this is the best way but I think it's overkill cost-wise for my use case.

2) Do it more cheaply with a USB interface, two headphones, and share the crappy microphone. This seems cheaper than option 1 but not ideal.

3) buy two headsets (something decent from Sennheiser, perhaps) . But won't this need the usb interface as well, since I'm still using two headsets?

4) Is there another approach I'm missing? I have an amp, a dac, and a Sound Blaster g6, which can function as a USB interface, but only has one mic input and one headphone output.

I know this is a bit of an odd post but I know the community has broad knowledge on audio gear.

Thanks in advance!

 

@shuto
Zero cost and easiest is share the crappy usb mic and use your computer speakers instead of headphones. Try that first and see if she's even interested. Cheapest upgrade from that is a headphone splitter, assuming you have a second headphone of roughly equal sensitivity.

There *might* be usb issues if you're trying to use two usb-headsets. This depends on the computer. Also you won't have the ability to route your inputs/outputs and that's leads to a whole host of other issues.

Analog headsets... really comes down to how the mic portion is wired up. A typical 4-pole TRRS that plugs into the headphone jack of a laptop is fine for a single person, but not two, and no you can't run those into an interface without extra effort.

 

Thanks, @Armaegis.

The headphone splitter sounds like a nice low-cost option, but I'm a little concerned since I only have two headphones in the house and neither are super cheap. A Sennheiser HD58X might be a fun choice for this use case if I go down this route.

Just using the speaker audio was my initial thought, but I was concerned it was going to sound bad since the speakers will then pick up the game audio and our talking.

If I understand correctly, this could be mitigated slightly by doing two things:
1) Turn off the audio from the desktop and just let the mic pick up both the game audio and us talking. This sounds less than ideal, and will definitely not sound great.
2) Fiddle with the mic settings so that it *mostly* picks up us talking. While I can raise the noise gate, I'm not sure how much this will help.

I can always try both and solicit feedback.

One more question: If I do decide to go halfway (and not replace the mics), would a 2X2 (two audio output, two mic input) USB interface be the right piece of gear for both streaming and podcasting? If I'm going to spend the money I want to be sure it could be used for any possible use case.

 

@shuto

Alternatively, some headphones also can be daisy-chained if they have cord jacks on each side. The only one that comes to mind right now is the Urbanears Plattan, but I'm sure there are others.

Depending on the model, usually a mic's rear pickup is weaker than the front. Placement is also important, keep it closer to you than the speakers, and don't blast the audio from your speakers. A boom arm to hang the mic from above also works well (pointed towards you, not downwards); keep your speakers lower in that case.

Are you strictly live or are you doing recording and post/production as well? Do you ever see yourself needing more mics? (extra guests? additional music or instrument input?)

What mics do you have?

 

Thank you for your kind inputs. I'm currently using a Raspberry Pi installed into an acrylic casing with a PI2AES (per instructions in this guide https://www.superbestaudiofriends.o...-to-pi2aes-throw-away-your-pc-or-laptop.8878/). I have 2TB of music stored into an external USB drive which is connected to the RPi, and that digital music is sent to the DAC via PI2AES from its digital outputs. I'm controlling music playback from my smartphone with Volumio.

I recently purchased LS50 Wireless II, which are wireless speakers. Yes, I've tried streaming music from my phone and it works. However, my phone is only 64GB and I have 2TB of music in my USB drive. I don't use monthly subscription-based streaming services like Tidal, so right now I picked a very small percentage of my music collection that I have downloaded into my phone.

I want to know how I could wirelessly stream this 2TB of music to my wireless speakers using RPi. I understand that the PI2AES is a HAT and is out of the equation in this scenario. Using the same Volumio (or another app), is there a way to configure the RPi so that it can do wireless streaming? Other than what I read in the dummies' guide, I have zero knowledge on how to use a RPi.

If the RPi is not a viable option, then should I buy a separate wireless music streamer that can read my 2TB music drive and send it to the wireless speakers? In that case, any recommendations? Again, I have zero experience with streamers.

 

And in the light of my above post, I was wondering if there is a streamer that meets the following criteria:

1. Has a USB input that could connect to an external USB drive and read/play the music files in the drive
2. Can be controlled with a phone app
3. No built-in DAC, only digital outputs for me to connect to an external DAC
(since I'll be using a dedicated DAC anyway since the built-in DAC usually sucks and simply add to the cost)
4. Has an AES/EBU output
5. Can stream music wirelessly to wireless devices/speakers

 

PI2AES?