Newbie looking for his first pair of monitor

[Ziltoe]

Well it's not like Neumann or better Yamaha ones just average in that regard.

Yep, average in this respect, however, Kali speakers hiss is reasaonable, to me, as many other monitors.
Once a signal... that hiss, is not a KO criteria speaking about budget speakers.

 

[Triliza]

@Triliza Is it worth spending extra money on a dac rather then using those money for the monitors if the difference is not audible? I have a 2022 motherboard payed about 200€

Going fully balanced is recommended by lot of people around here, one of the reasons being to avoid possible ground loops, which can be audible enough.

I'd buy the best speaker I could afford first, you can make adjustments and additions as you go. If you latter decide to add a dac (standalone or integrated on some device), try to get a balanced one, the price difference is not that much anymore.

 

[sweetchaos]

I bought my Genelec's 2nd hand (for half off) and it's the best decision I've made.

Rock solid performance.

 

[PaoloM]

Going fully balanced is recommended by lot of people around here, one of the reasons being to avoid possible ground loops, which can be audible enough.

I'd buy the best speaker I could afford first, you can make adjustments and additions as you go. If you latter decide to add a dac (standalone or integrated on some device), try to get a balanced one, the price difference is not that much anymore.

Do you have any advice for how i should connect them to my pc now?
Let's say a get a pair of Kalis which most of you advised.

I'm thinking of connecting those with a xlr to mini jack y splitter cable, but I have seen there is also a xlr to usb y splitter alternative.
Is there any difference? If yes, which one is better?

 

[PaoloM]

@pablolie

Another consideration is to look into the used market. Many fantastic speakers out there at radically reduced prices.

I bought my Genelec's 2nd hand (for half off) and it's the best decision I've made.

Rock solid performance.

Would you guys recommend looking for used monitors even if i'm a newbie?

I wouldn't mind getting a used pair of monitors, but I feel quite insecure since I'm worried I wouldn't be able to recognise any problem if the one I'll buy happen to have one.
Sadly I don't even know anyone around me who could help me in this

 

[sweetchaos]

Buying used is the same like anything else...
can you test it before making a purchase?
was it kept in a humidity controlled environment?
etc

If you don't feel secure, don't buy it. It's an option that exists for people who care about it.

Otherwise, my 'active speaker' recommendation thread is here for you.

 

[ZolaIII]

Do you have any advice for how i should connect them to my pc now?
Let's say a get a pair of Kalis which most of you advised.

I'm thinking of connecting those with a xlr to mini jack y splitter cable, but I have seen there is also a xlr to usb y splitter alternative.
Is there any difference? If yes, which one is better?

You go either - either and to the end. Don't use splitters and converters. You will be fine with normal unbalanced cables on short to medium distance. Ground loop isn't something you won't hear and modern self stand DAC's, interfaces and cetera with their own power supply won't have problem with isolating EMI from power source.
So going balanced in the end pretty much adds to the cost (ADC - DSP - DAC, sub's and so on).

 

[pablolie]

@pablolie


Would you guys recommend looking for used monitors even if i'm a newbie?

I wouldn't mind getting a used pair of monitors, but I feel quite insecure since I'm worried I wouldn't be able to recognise any problem if the one I'll buy happen to have one.
Sadly I don't even know anyone around me who could help me in this

I'd recommend to read up and start small if you are new. Any halfway informed choice will be immensely enjoyable and help you establish preferences.

I own pristine Audioengine A5 I will be glad to send to you if you cover the shipping costs from the Bay Area. I would rather give them away to a fellow budding audiophile than any alternative.

 

[Triliza]

Do you have any advice for how i should connect them to my pc now?
Let's say a get a pair of Kalis which most of you advised.

I'm thinking of connecting those with a xlr to mini jack y splitter cable, but I have seen there is also a xlr to usb y splitter alternative.
Is there any difference? If yes, which one is better?

I can't be of much help to you in such matters, I am sure someone else more experienced will elaborate. I really hope you enjoy whatever you decide to buy in the end

 

[PaoloM]

I'd recommend to read up and start small if you are new. Any halfway informed choice will be immensely enjoyable and help you establish preferences.

I own pristine Audioengine A5 I will be glad to send to you if you cover the shipping costs from the Bay Area. I would rather give them away to a fellow budding audiophile than any alternative.

I really appreciate your generosity, but sadly I live in italy and shipping costs with UPS would be over 140€ which doesn't sound too good.
I'm sure a fellow US audiophile would appreciate more your kind gift
By the way I'm really astonished by the amount of support I'm getting from this community, I hope I'll become an audiophile like you guys so I'll be able to give it back in future!

 

[PaoloM]

You go either - either and to the end. Don't use splitters and converters. You will be fine with normal unbalanced cables on short to medium distance. Ground loop isn't something you won't hear and modern self stand DAC's, interfaces and cetera with their own power supply won't have problem with isolating EMI from power source.
So going balanced in the end pretty much adds to the cost (ADC - DSP - DAC, sub's and so on).

Sorry, I'm not 100% sure I got what you're saying.

You go either - either and to the end

I understood i should connect 2 separate cables (1 from left and 1 from right monitor) into the pc

Don't use splitters and converters. You will be fine with normal unbalanced cables on short to medium distance

I have 4 outputs (green, black, orange and S/PDIF).
I'm almost sure one should go to the green, what about the other one?

I don't want to look lazy, but i tried looking both on google/youtube and chatGPT but i couldn't figure out what you meant.
Only solutions i keep finding are using a splitter or an audio interface

 

[pablolie]

I really appreciate your generosity, but sadly I live in italy and shipping costs with UPS would be over 140€ which doesn't sound too good.
I'm sure a fellow US audiophile would appreciate more your kind gift
By the way I'm really astonished by the amount of support I'm getting from this community, I hope I'll become an audiophile like you guys so I'll be able to give it back in future!

Overall this is a great audio community. There is no one I have had a spirited discussion in here I wouldnt talk with over a cup of coffee. I'd even draw the espresso.

" I dont waste time arguing with idiots, but I may invest time in disagreeing with peers."

This is a very good community despite our spats, and the trolls get bored hanging around here.

 

[YSC]

I am in similar config to your's but in an even smaller room, I ended up getting the 8030C coz I can stretch that budget and pushing them almost to the wall behind the monitor (~5cm distance from port to wall),sure there will be massive bass gain on that but it's easy enough to use the UMIK 1 and REW to do measurement and EQ APO to dial in what tame the bass boost.

In such config I think what you want to consider is
1) depth of speaker - you would want some extra space from the drivers to your ears to let them sum up properly
2) consider a budget for the UMIK-1 to tame the various room modes

 

[Count Arthur]

Sorry, I'm not 100% sure I got what you're saying.

I understood i should connect 2 separate cables (1 from left and 1 from right monitor) into the pc

I have 4 outputs (green, black, orange and S/PDIF).
I'm almost sure one should go to the green, what about the other one?

I don't want to look lazy, but i tried looking both on google/youtube and chatGPT but i couldn't figure out what you meant.
Only solutions i keep finding are using a splitter or an audio interface

With pro/studio monitors, you'd typically connect via a balanced, XLR connection:

To start you could use the audio out on your PC, typically the green socket. You'll need an adapter, like this: https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/jack...o-to-rca-female-adapter-cord-15cm-p-2728.html

And a couple of RCA cables long enough to reach each speaker: https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/cabl...-modulation-cable-gold-plated-2m-p-17760.html

This will get you started, but you will need to use your PC as the volume control. A better solution would be to use a USB DAC with balanced outputs, something like this: https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/dac-...etooth-32bit-768khz-dsd512-black-p-17415.html

This gives a physical volume control, which I prefer, as there's less chance of accidentally going full volume, and it will likely sound better than that the analogue audio output of the PC.

 

[ZolaIII]

@PaoloM you couldn't figure out I whose talking about that you either go with unbalanced connection or balanced connections and you don't mix them? From PC you go with 3.5 mm jack to 2x RCA and of course you defaultly use green as L & R out from back panel. As long as you use normal good quality cables (nothing fancy, whatever is available from normal manufacturers with specifications that you can find where you are) that are not longer than cuple of m you will be fine tho you need one's you can split wide on the RCA end (not Y one's that you can't).
You don't use; splitters, converters and such as on every connection you lose cuple dB of SINAD so you make sure you only have one connection. You should avoid using embedded output DAC from PC for many reasons and it's performance isn't a top one. Top one is EMI radiation from switching power supply in PC that can affect signal (ground loop that you can not brake) and that they give from 750 mV to 1200 mV max output (depending on used codec) and not a full 2V unbalanced line out. It doesn't mean it will be a problem just that it could (and in many cases is) for start you can use it. Balanced connections don't exhibit ground loops, have better SNR but not much compared with really good unbalanced one's and have higher output 4V or more. But when you go balanced for speakers then later on you will need balanced multichannel interface, sub's with balanced inputs and so on and it all adds to the price and limits the choice of components. So for starters you would need to go with some interface with 4 chenels out like Focusrite Scarlet
4th gen or Motu 4x4 that cost less or close to suggested Tooping two chenel DAC in case of balanced. And 4 chenels as at some point you will want to add sub's. On the other hand if you tend to continue to use PC you can pass with something like Creative AE-5 Plus or AE-7 (for comparative performance to mentioned interfaces) if you don't have very noisy PSU in PC and that already costs a lot less and so do the consumer sub's with only unbalanced inputs.
I live in a same time zone as you so I went to sleep in two in the morning last night.

 

[PaoloM]

@ZolaIII @Count Arthur Thanks both for the clear explanation, it helped me a lot in understanding what I should do.

if you don't have very noisy PSU in PC and that already costs a lot less and so do the consumer sub's with only unbalanced inputs.

My PSU is pretty good since I invested a lot when building my pc but I think i will wait 1 year for a possible audio card/external DAC. Since I will finish university at that time I suppose my habits will change and I might not spend that much time in front of my pc anymore.

Right now according to your advices and poll results I'm torn between Kali LP 6v2 ( overall better and more tested ) and Swissonic a306 (better price/performance), but I'm pretty sure either of those two will be a good choice.

Yesterday I was unsure to make this post because I kinda had my mind made up on Adam T5v.
I'm very happy that I changed my mind in the end and learned a lot of new things!!

Thanks everyone for your time and knowledge, I will 100% recommend this community to anyone asking me about audio.

 

[PaoloM]

I am in similar config to your's but in an even smaller room, I ended up getting the 8030C coz I can stretch that budget and pushing them almost to the wall behind the monitor (~5cm distance from port to wall),sure there will be massive bass gain on that but it's easy enough to use the UMIK 1 and REW to do measurement and EQ APO to dial in what tame the bass boost.

In such config I think what you want to consider is
1) depth of speaker - you would want some extra space from the drivers to your ears to let them sum up properly
2) consider a budget for the UMIK-1 to tame the various room modes

Thanks for both advices!
I'll be sure to check monitor's manual to find out what is the best configuration I can achieve.

I've already tried (just for fun and experience) the REW+APO using a blue yeti microphone and i had a lot of fun understanding how the whole process works even if the result were inaccurate due to the inappropriate microphone.

I will look forward investing those extra 100€ into the UMIK-1

 

[YSC]

Thanks for both advices!
I'll be sure to check monitor's manual to find out what is the best configuration I can achieve.

I've already tried (just for fun and experience) the REW+APO using a blue yeti microphone and i had a lot of fun understanding how the whole process works even if the result were inaccurate due to the inappropriate microphone.

I will look forward investing those extra 100€ into the UMIK-1

Remember you will need a speaker with good directivity to make EQ most effective, and normally just correct what’s below Schroeder frequency

 

[PaoloM]

@ZolaIII As you anticipated, I'm having problems with groundloops and I'm trying to solve them.

Quick recap of the situation:
In the end I bought kali lp 6, i connected them to my pc and i hear a buzzing sound which become even more annoying when moving mouse or doing anything with my pc.

I tried to connect them to my macbook and there is no buzzing sound/noise at all.

I understood that the problem was coming from my pc and i quickly purchased a DAC (S.M.S.L SU-1) which i thought would solve the problem...well it didn't.

Everything is connected to the same power outlet (i don't have the possibility to connect to different outlets).

What should I do to solve the problem??

I'm reading online about several methods, but i can't figure out which one would be the most suitable for my condition

 

[PaoloM]

I was thinking to purchase an optical audio cable to link it with the DAC, so I could power it directly from the outlet (right now it receives both power and signals with usb from pc)