trying to build a solid beginner speaker setup

[killerfrenzi]

With all the headphone gears I've accumulated over the past years, I've always ended up just using my little JBL Spyros and neglecting my headphones. Now I'm gonna get some more desk space soon (moving soon).

I currently have a Maverick D1 DAC/Amp that I'm gonna sell to help fund speakers. I figure I have a budget of about $200 for speakers and $100 for a DAC (schiit modi?). I'm wondering if I should siphon DAC budget to the speaker budget? I don't know if $200 speakers is a reasonable baseline for a $100 DAC, if not, about when would it be?

As for speakers, I've been hearing conflicting things about getting active and passive speakers. I heard passives are going to be the best bang for my buck? If it's any help to narrowing choices, I love my treble and that's why the only headphones I'm planning to keep are my grados.

I'm leaning towards just saving money, getting a HiFiMeDIY $50 DAC, lepai and dayton combo and save some money, or otherwise I can get a needlessly sick setup. I'm mostly going this for music and light gaming (LoL) so I'll eventually bring a subwoofer into the equation.
And can I also get a recommendation for around Dayton level parts?

The helps appreciated since speakers will be on my mind for the next weeks.

on the side note, will this work the same as the LP2020+?
http://www.rakuten.com/pr/SellerListings.aspx?sku=230207864

EDIT: How about the Audioengine a5+ compared to something like the Airmotiv4 for $330? There's currently a preorder for group buy of the A5+ and I'm thinking about joining in

 

[RandemTox]

While I tend to favor a source-first approach (since subsequent items in the audio chain can, at best, “not make things worse”), it’s not such a big factor at this level, so your apportioning of budget is fine.

I’m not, personally, a big fan of the “T-amps” though they’re actually quite impressive for their price. One thing to pay attention to, however, is the power supply. I’ve seen lots of these sold as “20 wpc RMS”, only to see them coupled with a PSU that is physically incapable of delivering half that much power.

This isn’t a huge deal in and of itself, and you can easily swap out the PSU for something that can deliver enough power for the amplifier to operate to capacity, but the Dayton (assuming the B652) aren’t very efficient and as such will benefit from more power.

Passive vs. active is a minefield.

You’ll get more “speaker” for $200 going passive than active, but then you’ll need to increase your budget to cover your amplification needs. Good active speakers put the cross-over on the input side of the amplifier, otherwise you lose most of the audible benefits of active drive.

If it were me, I’d stretch my budget/wait until I could afford a Schiit Modi (I think this sounds FAR better than the HiFimeDIY DAC) with an Emotiva Airmotiv 4. Alternatively I’d opt for the HiFiMAN HD-101 (despite a lower spec, I still think it sounds better than the HiFimeDAC … and it’s cheaper to boot) and still go for the Airmotiv 4.

 

[B00nie]

It's much cheaper and easyer to build an active crossover, that's why active monitors are in most cases superior choices for near field monitoring where most of them are intended for. An added extra is that active speakers usually include protection circuits which stop you from overdriving them and blowing your speakers (and money).

For your price range forget any external dac and just plug the active speakers directly in the integrated audio - you won't hear the difference on entry level speakers anyway.

The jump from $200 to $300 in speakers is going to give you a lot more options to work with. For that price something like Behringer 2030a would be a great choice.

 

[matteos]

With all the headphone gears I've accumulated over the past years, I've always ended up just using my little JBL Spyros and neglecting my headphones. Now I'm gonna get some more desk space soon (moving soon).

I currently have a Maverick D1 DAC/Amp that I'm gonna sell to help fund speakers. I figure I have a budget of about $200 for speakers and $100 for a DAC (schiit modi?). I'm wondering if I should siphon DAC budget to the speaker budget? I don't know if $200 speakers is a reasonable baseline for a $100 DAC, if not, about when would it be?

As for speakers, I've been hearing conflicting things about getting active and passive speakers. I heard passives are going to be the best bang for my buck? If it's any help to narrowing choices, I love my treble and that's why the only headphones I'm planning to keep are my grados.

I'm leaning towards just saving money, getting a HiFiMeDIY $50 DAC, lepai and dayton combo and save some money, or otherwise I can get a needlessly sick setup. I'm mostly going this for music and light gaming (LoL) so I'll eventually bring a subwoofer into the equation.
And can I also get a recommendation for around Dayton level parts?

The helps appreciated since speakers will be on my mind for the next weeks.

on the side note, will this work the same as the LP2020+?
http://www.rakuten.com/pr/SellerListings.aspx?sku=230207864

EDIT: How about the Audioengine a5+ compared to something like the Airmotiv4 for $330? There's currently a preorder for group buy of the A5+ and I'm thinking about joining in

Absolutely siphon your entire DAC budget towards your speakers. DACs are only really worth the time of day if you have a decent enough set of speakers. You should just use onboard DAC. It's harder to sell speakers and then upgrade them later without losing money, it's easy to add a DAC down the line.

$300 will get you an ok set of speakers. If you like your treble, want this mainly for music and want a full sound I'd suggest the Infinity Primus P363. They are floorstanders and they are regularly on sale at Frys, if you are patient you can get a pair for $300-$400. This will give you best bang for buck by a long way. What receiver/amp are you running?

http://www.audioholics.com/reviews/speakers/floorstanding/primus-p363

 

[killerfrenzi]

Absolutely siphon your entire DAC budget towards your speakers. DACs are only really worth the time of day if you have a decent enough set of speakers. You should just use onboard DAC. It's harder to sell speakers and then upgrade them later without losing money, it's easy to add a DAC down the line.

$300 will get you an ok set of speakers. If you like your treble, want this mainly for music and want a full sound I'd suggest the Infinity Primus P363. They are floorstanders and they are regularly on sale at Frys, if you are patient you can get a pair for $300-$400. This will give you best bang for buck by a long way. What receiver/amp are you running?

http://www.audioholics.com/reviews/speakers/floorstanding/primus-p363

Yeah, but the thought of using an onboard DAC makes me feel uneasy, if anything I'll grab a cheapo amp like a Fiio D3 or something equivalent.

Floor standings are too large for me. I'm gonna get a desk that will fit two monitors and two bookshelves, but I dont think I'll have the square footage for the speakers. That being said, $300 into speakers and $100 into a DAC still seems fine to me.

Currently using Maverick D1 but that's a headphone amp. I'm going to try and sell that off. Other than that, I don't have any equipment for speakers.

 

[spaceman]

Audiogon will get you there. It is a great place to find used and new stereo gear. Sometimes craigslist too but it depends on where you live. My area sucks for example.

For $300, you can get some excellent bookshelf speakers. Heck for $200 you can do well. An amp can be had there for around $100-150 and the dac about the same price. So you can spend b/w $350-500 and get an amazing desktop stereo if you are ok with used.

 

[killerfrenzi]

Audiogon will get you there. It is a great place to find used and new stereo gear. Sometimes craigslist too but it depends on where you live. My area sucks for example.

For $300, you can get some excellent bookshelf speakers. Heck for $200 you can do well. An amp can be had there for around $100-150 and the dac about the same price. So you can spend b/w $350-500 and get an amazing desktop stereo if you are ok with used.

yeah I'm completely fine with used equipment. I pretty much prefer it to save costs.

 

[matteos]

Yeah, but the thought of using an onboard DAC makes me feel uneasy, if anything I'll grab a cheapo amp like a Fiio D3 or something equivalent.

Floor standings are too large for me. I'm gonna get a desk that will fit two monitors and two bookshelves, but I dont think I'll have the square footage for the speakers. That being said, $300 into speakers and $100 into a DAC still seems fine to me.

Currently using Maverick D1 but that's a headphone amp. I'm going to try and sell that off. Other than that, I don't have any equipment for speakers.

IMO Dac's are overrated and can be far far too expensive, especially compared to the other components in the chain. Until everything thing else is good, spending money on a DAC is pointless. I'd say that Fiio likely won't give you better sound than onboard it has SNR of 95db. What motherboard do you have? As an example check out the onboard realtek ALC889 it has SNR of 108db, does 24 bit 192khz... The days of crappy onboard sound are over, onboard is not that bad at all now, it's not as good as a dedicated soundcard, but likely better than a cheap DAC.

I'd spend all the money on a set of passive bookshelves and a T-amp if you don't have room for more. Then later add a sub and DAC.

 

[Sixthsense]

Well you mentioned you currently own JBL Spyros, but some are recommending floorstanders. Is a desk involved ? You could perhaps go with a usb audio interface, used genelec's , KRK's or Mackies for the monitors.For the interface you could start with a focusrite scarlett 2i2.

 

[killerfrenzi]

IMO Dac's are overrated and can be far far too expensive, especially compared to the other components in the chain. Until everything thing else is good, spending money on a DAC is pointless. I'd say that Fiio likely won't give you better sound than onboard it has SNR of 95db. What motherboard do you have? As an example check out the onboard realtek ALC889 it has SNR of 108db, does 24 bit 192khz... The days of crappy onboard sound are over, onboard is not that bad at all now, it's not as good as a dedicated soundcard, but likely better than a cheap DAC.

I'd spend all the money on a set of passive bookshelves and a T-amp if you don't have room for more. Then later add a sub and DAC.

I'm going to upgrade my system as well for the summer with haswell, so I'll probably have a shiny new realtek ALC889 or whatever is newer in it. I'm under the impression that most well known cheap dedicated dacs will be better than onboard.


So I found out my dad, who's a bigger audiophile than I am, has a spare pair of monitors and a sub that he will gladly hand over to me. I'll probably take those over buying anything, and probably sell the headphone amp for a receiver or a dac and amp. I'll update the post when I find out what it is, even if I have to necro.

 

[matteos]

I'm going to upgrade my system as well for the summer with haswell, so I'll probably have a shiny new realtek ALC889 or whatever is newer in it. I'm under the impression that most well known cheap dedicated dacs will be better than onboard.


So I found out my dad, who's a bigger audiophile than I am, has a spare pair of monitors and a sub that he will gladly hand over to me. I'll probably take those over buying anything, and probably sell the headphone amp for a receiver or a dac and amp. I'll update the post when I find out what it is, even if I have to necro.

Well, that's awesome!

have a look on craigslist for a used receiver...

Something like a Denon 3805 is good, should be able to pick one up for about $200. 120wpc... Burr brown Dacs and this is when they still made their stuff in Japan.

 

[mannyman]

I'm going to upgrade my system as well for the summer with haswell, so I'll probably have a shiny new realtek ALC889 or whatever is newer in it. I'm under the impression that most well known cheap dedicated dacs will be better than onboard.


So I found out my dad, who's a bigger audiophile than I am, has a spare pair of monitors and a sub that he will gladly hand over to me. I'll probably take those over buying anything, and probably sell the headphone amp for a receiver or a dac and amp. I'll update the post when I find out what it is, even if I have to necro.

What brand or model number of monitors and sub?

 

[killerfrenzi]

Back of Speaker

http://i.imgur.com/kMvb6st.jpg

Amp

http://i.imgur.com/83O2zw0.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/KW1mR0u.jpg

Subs

http://i.imgur.com/s9uy5Lt.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/q5WZypC.jpg

hey guys, so I got home with high expectations, but I shouldn't have. I posted pictures as above. I had a mental lol when I found out the set is pretty much a karaoke set, but my dad did warn me the speakers were very 'ordinary' or 'plain' to him. The sub was for sure larger 10" and had "Clement" or something as the insignia in the front (too dark to take the pic). I guess I'll just take the set, or just the speakers and sub and use a t-amp.

It was cool to find out that my dad has a denon 3802 though

 

[Krispy Kritter]

The main point here, is that until you spend the money to get mid-range or better speakers, the DAC does not matter. This applies to all things audio (ie: car, home theater, PC). Speakers could account for roughly 2/3 of your budget. And until you spend the money to get quality speakers, (extra) money spent on the amp/receiver/DAC are wasted.

In any event, it sounds like you have already pretty much decided on a course of action, regardless of the recommendations made here.

 

[Skripka]

IMO Dac's are overrated and can be far far too expensive, especially compared to the other components in the chain. Until everything thing else is good, spending money on a DAC is pointless. I'd say that Fiio likely won't give you better sound than onboard it has SNR of 95db. What motherboard do you have? As an example check out the onboard realtek ALC889 it has SNR of 108db, does 24 bit 192khz... The days of crappy onboard sound are over, onboard is not that bad at all now, it's not as good as a dedicated soundcard, but likely better than a cheap DAC.

I'd spend all the money on a set of passive bookshelves and a T-amp if you don't have room for more. Then later add a sub and DAC.

There's far more to sound quality that over-the-top kHz sampling rates, SNR, and bitrate...and No, the days of poor sounding onboard are not over.

 

[killerfrenzi]

The main point here, is that until you spend the money to get mid-range or better speakers, the DAC does not matter. This applies to all things audio (ie: car, home theater, PC). Speakers could account for roughly 2/3 of your budget. And until you spend the money to get quality speakers, (extra) money spent on the amp/receiver/DAC are wasted.

In any event, it sounds like you have already pretty much decided on a course of action, regardless of the recommendations made here.

well yeah...that's the point everyone including you is trying to make and I've grasped that concept from the beginning.

I'll just save $500+ for just the speakers alone, especially since my dad recommended that, and then worry about the other things afterwards. I'm just looking for recommendations on speakers at this point, preferably passives.