I second this. I have my A5s connected directly to my iMac's headphone jack and they sound fantastic. In fact, the A5s were designed to be driven by an iPod's headphone output, so adding additional hardware to the mix is only likely to complicate matters while yielding little to no sonic benefit.
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Imic or creativeXmod improves sound quality of the IMac?
- Thread starter macsander
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I second this. I have my A5s connected directly to my iMac's headphone jack and they sound fantastic. In fact, the A5s were designed to be driven by an iPod's headphone output, so adding additional hardware to the mix is only likely to complicate matters while yielding little to no sonic benefit.
wow the 701's are some darn good headphones I listened to them they're the best I know of, once the budget fits I will get them as well.
What do you mean with me worrying about the dynamics of the A5's what were you referring to?
Well it's not that I want to stick but I haven't found a better option for my budget, so unless you know one, I will get them I think. (Maybe you wouldn't say so but I'm only 17 so that's the reason of my budget😉)
Yes, they are great headphones...
Ok..one last idea...
ALP5's
http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/page/shop/reviews/product_id/8123#1751
and one of these
http://www.dv247.com/invt/31558/
Connect the headphone out on iMac to standard 1/4 jacks L & R on the mixer - set the sensitivity correctly ( about mid way is right) and jack the ALP5's to the output - the results will be spectacular...
I jack my airport to my living room TR8's through this and that's a headphone output and they sound great...
Shouldn't blow the budget...plus you also gained a good headphone amp socket as well for your AKG's...
dynamics -just meant that the input signal of the headphone socket on the A5's won't compromise the sound, the punchiness or the music....
P.S - We all have a budget - nothing wrong with that....
Exactly! Unfortunately, macsander was scared into believing the headphone output of the iMac was "trash" by another poster in another thread. I contend that guy was wrong, and to back me up are the iMac's output specs straight from Apple:
As you can see, the iMac's headphone output supports the full resolution of the internal DACs at 20-20kHz with 0.007% distortion. That's more than adequate for any kind of desktop speaker setup.
Anything below 50Hz is exactly like the noise a large passing truck makes through your pillow when you stay in a cheap motorway hotel (which I don't recommend)...it's basically an inaudible rumble...
A 30hz rumble played loud enough will make you soil your underwear uncontrollably - you likely won't hear the noise but you'll know a 30hz sine wave hit you from the queasy feeling in your stomach, and the release pressure of suddenly touching cloth in a big way...
Dogs hear noise above 16Khz...humans don't....a sharp 'psschht' noise is about 14-15Khz...
For the record - that's griffin thing is a total waste of money and very much likely to be worse than your imac output jack.
Yes I do. I use a Harman/Kardon AV receiver that has 4 or 5 optical inputs. If you are getting speakers with digital input or a receiver and speakers like I use (my setup looks somewhat like a rig), I recommend the digital optical cable way because it is much cheaper than the xmod or imic and is less problematic
20-20kHz is generally accepted as the absolute limit of human hearing. In other words, the iMac can output every frequency your ears can hear. The A5s can reproduce sounds in the 50-22kHz range, which is very good for a set of 5" drivers. All you'll be missing are the very low (nearly subsonic) bass frequencies.
Anyway, try not to stress over the numbers too much. Some people take specs way too seriously and subsequently lose their ability to enjoy the music they once loved.
@surferfromuk my question was about the suggestion you made: 'Would this sound better than the A5's for a person like me for pleasure listening coming from crappy Altec Lansing speakers?'
p.s. Some just told me to buy the M-audio av-40's (4'' driver)what do you guys think of that, the A5's and your suggestion are much better than these speakers or not
p.s. Some just told me to buy the M-audio av-40's (4'' driver)what do you guys think of that, the A5's and your suggestion are much better than these speakers or not
well, I've never heard the A5's so it'd be wrong for me to state a definitive absolute about it.
I know Event stuff is very musical and perhaps you've been given some impression that they're harsh and uncomfortable or brutal somehow - they are not - they are sonically pristine and pure, full range perfect sound - they are like a drink of mountain spring water after a lifetime of silty river water....but it seems like a lot of people seem happy to settle for silty river water these days...Once upon a time people thought tape sounded good too...
What I know for sure is either the ALP5's and the A5's will kick the living crap out of the Altec Lansing junk...the Altec isn't even silty river water - they are a mud thickshake with a turd floating in it..
You certainly will not regret the A5's - of that I'm fairly certain - I just wonder if there is part of your character that yearns for the ultimate clarity of a pro studio monitor - there must be - otherwise you'd have just bought the A5's already...your obviously after something more than just some 'good speakers'...
That mixer I pointed out and these cables...
http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/page/shop/flypage/product_id/34968
http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/page/shop/flypage/product_id/2166
Depends what you mean by good bass ? - if you mean a great punchy bass the kind you hear if you've ever been to Amnesia in Ibiza with a clear tight powerful kick a true thud thud, great bass guitar sound - full, round, plucky, deep and powerful whilst controlled and balanced and not over running the entire track then yes - if you mean room filling fluffy muffled boom, mushy and vague like you might hear if you got to a cheap run down sleazy nightclub in a backstreet of some rough part of town then no...
That said I couldn't tell you if the A5's have been artificially boosted at the low end - but the ALP's having discrete amps in each speaker and bi-amped will doubtless, in my mind, have more capability for good bass out of speakers of the same cone size unless of course the A5's have artificially boosted the bottom end with an EQ in which case your getting an untrue bass output anyway and that's on the road to the infamous hi-fi sound again...let's face it if you want to play silly buggers with EQ you can do that with the 12 point EQ in itunes!!.
Im interested in the Xmod too. I have an original X-Fi in my PC and it sounds great, it just destroys the sound quality on the mac. Before that I had an Audigy 2, which also was way better than apple onboard sound, and the X-Fi is a lot better than the Audigy because of the Crystalizer thing it does. Its really in a different league with Crystalizer enabled, it does make things sound clearer and less muffled but not in a gimmicky way like 3d sound. It spoils you a little since no other consumer device can really compare with the sound quality you get using the X-Fi.
If you can get X-Fi sound on a mac with the Xmod then that would be well worth it. But I fear it might be a gimmick like most of Creatives stuff aimed at games. It has Crystalizer but its not a real X-Fi, its like an X-Fi emulator. And Im not sure you can turn off the horrible 3d sound crap.
If you can get X-Fi sound on a mac with the Xmod then that would be well worth it. But I fear it might be a gimmick like most of Creatives stuff aimed at games. It has Crystalizer but its not a real X-Fi, its like an X-Fi emulator. And Im not sure you can turn off the horrible 3d sound crap.
Hey macsander,
I am using the A5s and XMod with my imac. They sound great. In fact I really didn't want to use the XMod to avoid the clutter on my desktop, but after listening a bit I just couldn't unplug it. I don't have any experience with the Imic, but the A5s and XMod make a helluva combo.
I am using the A5s and XMod with my imac. They sound great. In fact I really didn't want to use the XMod to avoid the clutter on my desktop, but after listening a bit I just couldn't unplug it. I don't have any experience with the Imic, but the A5s and XMod make a helluva combo.
I don't believe the A5s have an artificial low-end boost. I know the sound of which you speak since almost all consumer-oriented systems seem to have it these days. I like to call it "fake bass" or "da boom." From Audioengine's site:
That being said, there's no doubt better setups can be had. Where the A5s excel is in their simplicity. They provide excellent sound from common sources without introducing additional complexity. I also think they're tough to beat unless you're doing critical listening of lossless audio.
My thoughts exactly. Also, the volume control does absolutely nothing for you, since the A5 has its own amp and pot. It's just another component in the signal path that will mess with the sound.
Btw, whenever you read things like "Make your MP3s sound better than CDs", run away! This type of statement simply means the device messes with the sound, usually by boosting the bass and highs. It's very prevalent in consumer audio, such that a lot of people wouldn't know quality sound if they heard it. In fact, your average consumer usually thinks a truly neutral representation of music doesn't have enough bass, because they're used to the bloated, boomy bass that the low-quality, mass-market audio products give you.
It's also why a lot of people think the Klipsch 2.1 sounds so good, but I digress...
That's was my initial thought too, but placebo effect is pretty powerful. If he thinks he'll get a better sound with the iMic, that's what he may hear.
This is probably the best advice so far.
It's always better to make one change at a time. Live with it for a while, then make another change.
Thanks a lot guys I already decided not to put a device in between. The only choice I still have to make(which is hard), will I get the AudioEngine A5's (Alloye) or the Event ALP5's (surferfromuk). (Btw isn't there a smarter/smaller device for the ALP5's without all the buttons etc?)
So yeah that's basically what I am thinking about, with worrying a bit about the studio monitors can sound better or less comfortable because surferfromuk you initially said:
''In this case I would say you may find studio monitors will not produce a warm friendly sound - I can only imagine budget monitors to have this same sonic character as well as being of poorer sonic quality. ''
and
''I had a look at the audioEngine website and imo those speakers look like a very nicely put together package. I think they have some good technical foundations like 50W RMS power per channel and a torrodial transformer, fully shielded and the ability to drop an ipod into them, and also stream to a piggybacked airport express is a hoot! I doubt they'll have the high volume headroom of a nice NAD amp with a pair of good speakers or the sweet distortion of an expensive (but cheap) chinese Valve amp, but I could easily be very wrong about that - not having heard them.
I personally use an airport express and I think it adds a nice warmth to AAC files coming from my home hi-fi speakers - and that's through a jack plug - I don't think I 'lose' anything important in sound quality - if anything the coloration enhances them - just like the coloration of my very expensive Valve headphone amp deliberately 'adds' distortion to the sound of my headphones. Music is a very subjective thing!!.
So here's what studio monitors are really all about - For example ; on my event TR8's I can hear tape splices on Revolution by The Beatles - I can hear a number of jump cuts and when dubs have been dropped in - there is even a nasty vocal mistake I'd never heard until the first time I put them on the TR8's. Now that doesn't help me enjoy that song on them and the first time I played that track on them I was first amazed by the revealing sound but also equally I lost a tiny bit of magic by having the music laid so clinically bare. As a producer the detail in my own mixes is important but I don't like to spoil the music of others that I love and enjoy by scrutinising them on speakers with such a brutally honest delivery.
I think there are a LOT of really BAD hi-fi speakers out there but equally there are a lot of shockingly bad studio monitors....in the end you should go to a hi-fi shop and audition some or find a way to try the A5's at home and if you don't like them, send them back!''
Now that's what spooks in the back of my head a bit(btw I don't use airportexpress or the ipod connection thing)
So yeah that's basically what I am thinking about, with worrying a bit about the studio monitors can sound better or less comfortable because surferfromuk you initially said:
''In this case I would say you may find studio monitors will not produce a warm friendly sound - I can only imagine budget monitors to have this same sonic character as well as being of poorer sonic quality. ''
and
''I had a look at the audioEngine website and imo those speakers look like a very nicely put together package. I think they have some good technical foundations like 50W RMS power per channel and a torrodial transformer, fully shielded and the ability to drop an ipod into them, and also stream to a piggybacked airport express is a hoot! I doubt they'll have the high volume headroom of a nice NAD amp with a pair of good speakers or the sweet distortion of an expensive (but cheap) chinese Valve amp, but I could easily be very wrong about that - not having heard them.
I personally use an airport express and I think it adds a nice warmth to AAC files coming from my home hi-fi speakers - and that's through a jack plug - I don't think I 'lose' anything important in sound quality - if anything the coloration enhances them - just like the coloration of my very expensive Valve headphone amp deliberately 'adds' distortion to the sound of my headphones. Music is a very subjective thing!!.
So here's what studio monitors are really all about - For example ; on my event TR8's I can hear tape splices on Revolution by The Beatles - I can hear a number of jump cuts and when dubs have been dropped in - there is even a nasty vocal mistake I'd never heard until the first time I put them on the TR8's. Now that doesn't help me enjoy that song on them and the first time I played that track on them I was first amazed by the revealing sound but also equally I lost a tiny bit of magic by having the music laid so clinically bare. As a producer the detail in my own mixes is important but I don't like to spoil the music of others that I love and enjoy by scrutinising them on speakers with such a brutally honest delivery.
I think there are a LOT of really BAD hi-fi speakers out there but equally there are a lot of shockingly bad studio monitors....in the end you should go to a hi-fi shop and audition some or find a way to try the A5's at home and if you don't like them, send them back!''
Now that's what spooks in the back of my head a bit(btw I don't use airportexpress or the ipod connection thing)
Yes, I stand by all this...That warm friendly sound is known as consumer Hi-Fi - it is the audio equivalent of extreme amounts of sugar and salt in processed food but a LOT of people love that taste...
Can't help you on this one - My TR8's have two 8" woofers and give really nice BIG bass and so I don't feel the need for one.
I am looking at a similar setup as the OP with a pair of A5s, but I was thinking about putting a HeadRoom Micro DAC between the iMac and the A5s. Is this a setup you'd recommend, or will it actually degrade the sound because, as someone suggested, the A5s are matched to the iMac head phone out port?
In theory, the Micro DAC should be better than the DAC built into your computer. Whether or not you notice the difference is something only you can answer.
As for the A5 being "matched" for the headphone out... I think it's just a matter of it has an 1/8" input as opposed to RCA or something else. It'll work just as well with any other computer. The Micro DAC has an 1/8" output, so you just need a decent quality 1/8" to 1/8" cable. The Cardas one Headphone recommends is a good choice (unlike other Cardas stuff, this one is fairly well-priced and doesn't claim to do any audiophile voodoo), but just about anything will work.
Btw, I once did a shootout between my CI Audio VDA-1 and my friend's Benchmark DAC-1 (over 2X the cost). Admittedly, the setup wasn't ideal for a proper comparison, but we really didn't hear any differences between the two that we could nail down. I think it illustrates how for the most part, your speakers/headhpones are going to affect the sound to a much greater degree than anything else.
Interestingly enough, my friend was certain we wouldn't hear any differences between cables (we did to a small degree) and we would hear some difference between the DACs (we didn't). But that's a whole 'nuther topic.