Mr. B's Domain – The Log - Archive

June 15, 2009

New Sound

As I mentioned in the last entry, I’ve been spending time lately on the audio components for my computer. When I haven’t been fooling with new toys I’ve been reading about them online. This past Thursday, my new Audioengine speakers arrived in the mail. I set them up on my desk and the sounded great out of the box. They are light years ahead of my old Logitech set. The clarity and soundstage of these speakers is awesome. Supposedly they will sound even better after they’ve been broken in a bit. The only shortcoming is the lack of a subwoofer. The speakers handle lows quite well considering their size but they don’t really cut it for video games where things are exploding all around you. Most of my usage is music though so I suspect it will be a while before I feel compelled to add a subwoofer to the mix.On Saturday, I received the E-MU 0404 USB I won on eBay. It’s an external audio/MIDI interface to replace my current sound card. Removing the audio circuitry from the computer case eliminates electrical noise issues and in general should serve as a far better source for my new speakers. This particular unit offers a very good DAC for the money and a headphone amp that drives my Sennheiser HD-595 headphones satisfactorily. Generally speaking I’m pretty happy with it although I have some mild functionality issues I haven’t figures out yet. This afternoon I cleaned, photographed and packed my old Logitech speakers and listed then on Craigslist. I’ve never sold anything through the site but as the whole set and packaging weights 43 pounds, putting it up on eBay was an unappealing prospect.Saturday evening, I met Andrey, Patrick and David at d.b.a. Apparently there was supposed to be a larger contingent but only the usual suspects showed. One of them brought a deck of cards and we played a few rounds of Tien Len, which was commonly played when Andrey and I attended Edna Karr. I had to relearn the game but it’s not difficult. I didn’t win any rounds although I was nearly always first loser. We remained there until nearly 11, almost an hour after the Zydepunks were scheduled to start their set. We elected not to wait any longer and venture elsewhere. We walked down the street a bit to Cafe Negril where a band was playing. They were good although I have no idea who they were. After a few numbers we departed. Patrick had driven the other and we went in his car. We stopped at Rally’s per “tradition” although none of us had nearly enough to drink to make it “necessary.” Fries in hand we went to Andrey’s house. Automobiles dominated the conversation as they often do when Andrey is present. I got a cab home after one.I slept in on Sunday. I only had a couple bites for my old speakers and I contacted the person who made the best offer. He picked them up after five this afternoon. Not long after that I noticed the memory card reader on my computer was not working. As I was planning on removing my old sound card eventually anyway I used the issue as an excuse to pull out the case and clean inside while affecting necessary adjustments. It occurred to me when I removed my X-Fi card that I would be losing the ability to output HDMI with audio, although I had not really used the feature anyway. Later this evening I worked on a design for some speaker stands that would fit my new speakers alongside my monitors.

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