Please help with Home Audio setup in my den

[Dozer 0]

Ok, I need some help planning out a sound system for my small den. The room is exactly 10

[JimJ 11]

First, we need a budget for this stuff.

Also, have you heard anything high-end you particularly liked? Just trying to get an idea of what kind of sound you're into...although where you're in Austin I'm sure there are hi-fi dealers around...

[Dozer 0]

First, we need a budget for this stuff.

Also, have you heard anything high-end you particularly liked? Just trying to get an idea of what kind of sound you're into...although where you're in Austin I'm sure there are hi-fi dealers around...

Oops, knew I forgot something. I would like to stay around $500 or under. If I can get much better quality by going a little higher though, I would like to hear it- it's not a strict budget . Also, if that budget is not even close to enough to do anything decent, please tell me and I'll take it in stages rather than end up with a crappy setup for $500...

To be honest, I can't really say I've heard anything high end. Home audio is just something I have never ever tried to get into. I can tell you that in trying out some car audio stuff, I'm instantly drawn to "bright", "sharper" sounding highs. More in your face, less "laid back" some might say. Some of the Focals and higher end Boston Acoustics. I don't have any experience with anything less "mainstream". Obviously nobody likes to hear bad hissing or that kind of thing, but I'm pretty sure my taste is toward bright sound- especially on the highs. Is that what you're looking for or am I rambling nonsense??

[JimJ 11]

Nah, you're not rambling nonsense. That helps

Instead of posting all those links in here, check out the links thread that's pinned up at the top of this forum. I'm a single driver guy when it comes to DIY and cheap...you could run a supertweet on the top to get more bright treble and run a capacitor on it to tweak the sound to taste...

You could put together a pretty decent 2-channel setup to start with for $500...I'm thinking a pair of Fostex 166E's (Sigmas would be out of your budget) in BIB's, with a Sonic T-amp or a used Adcom, a used preamp and a pretty decent outboard SC.

In particular, check out the BIB section on http://www.zillaspeak.com, and http://www.frugel-horn.com.

[Dozer 0]

Thanks Jim! I'll start in on some of the reading you referred me to for drivers!

Any advice on narrowing down my search for soundcard? I assume the key is to get a soundcard with a decent DAC, but don't really know where to start. I'm hoping to get a decent card for $100 or less. Should I be looking for certain brands, or certain specs, or...?

[JimJ 11]

I've heard very good things about M-Audio cards, check out Hydrogen Audio and the PC Audio section of Audio Asylum as well for recommendations...

I use an outboard Sound Blaster one, probably not the greatest from an "audiophile" standpoint but it does have 24/96 playback and a remote, which is kind of cool - and I had it laying around already

[Dozer 0]

I'll check those out too.

Can you help me figure out the best sequence to go about this? My plan was to get the soundcard first, then figure out drivers, then amps last. Or, should I switch that up so that I choose the amps that will be supplying power first, and then the drivers based on the amps?

[///M5 2,833]

Conveniently unlike car audio, order doesn't matter that much in home audio as things are interchangeable.

Personally I'd try to spend the least possible on the sound card, but get a good set of DAC's. I assume you have had no luck finding the Chaintech AV710 as it is out of "print".

Once there I'd look for a used amp/pre-amp combo and sort of decide how big the enclosures for your speakers can be. Then we can further help narrow things down. The 166's do seem to have quite the following for the single driver setup and the speaks I heard at Madisound with them were impressive. The nice part of a full range is that you don't have to blow a lot of dough in your crossovers (usually equal to your drivers in price although there can be more cost effective solutions).

[Dozer 0]

Thanks Sean.

I found one AV710 on eBay, but it was refurbished and about $100. For that price range I thought I should include some others in my search as well.

From reading a bunch on some other forums, it seems like there are a few ways to go about this- and no real consensus on a "preferred" method. To get good quality sound from computer to amp(s), I'm looking at either:

- internal soundcard with good DAC

- external soundcard (via USB) with good DAC

- USB DAC device

I would really appreciate some feedback from the people on this forum about why they might recommend one way over another. Some of the USB DAC devices include preamps I think, so maybe one option would be to get a USB DAC device to use as DAC and preamp and eliminate the need for another piece of equipment (like an Adcom preamp or something like that)?