Hello everybody, recently I decided that I would like a new sound system but as I do not get a lot of money (being fourteen) I had to look into it. I am just going to show you what I did, and trust me the results are shockingly powerful. Lets start of with a sound/audio card, this particular area of the pc component market is awesome as very few people decide to invest, this means you can get very high quality sound (compared to onboard) at very cheap prices. So that is what I did, I chose an Asus xonar DG sound card at £25, and straight away even with my basic speakers I noticed a difference. Next, is very important: the speakers. I ended up buying from richer sounds, as recommended by my brother (part time DJ), now this is where the quality comes from, as an example. you can spend £20 on normal pc speakers but you are also paying for integrated power and an integrated amp, but if you pay £20 on stereo speakers you are spending £20 on only high quality speakers. So I bought stereo bookshelf speakers in the form of a pair of gale 3010s for £50, obviously the more you pay the more you get! Now I am sure you are wondering how to plug stereo speakers in to a pc, and sadly it isn't as simple as buying a £2.50 adapter on amazon. Just like on a stereo you need an amp to power it, with this you need to buy from a well-known company eg. cambridge audio. Most amps powerful enough to give you the quality you are looking for are from £80-£200. Most of you would quit right here for that set back after doing the basic maths, luckily however there is such a price drop when buying an amp online of ebay or gumtree, that now you are thinking. Because for spending less than £100 you can get the quality equal to headphones or pc speakers reaching the price of well over £500. Next is physically setting it up, the vast majority of you know how to make custom pc's, so this should be relatively simple: The speakers will have to be connected to the amp via bog-standard speaker wire, then the amp will simply be plugged into the io of the sound card via a simply 3.5mm to 2 x Phono Plugs. Thankyou, as I say I am only 14 so don't hate. Any questions you may have, just ask. by the way if you want to see my pc, here is the link (keep in mind it is a bit old!) http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=226215&highlight=ajangusjames
Nice one dude . About the amp, you can buy cheap amp kit built around the Tripath TA2020 audio chip. It sounds very nice for not much money . http://translate.google.com/transla...h-ta2020-minikit-diy-stereo-2x20w-p-4763.html All you have to do is building or buying a case and some very simple wiring. You do not even have to solder anything
Thats a good shout guille! The TDA2020 is a monster of an amp, impressive power and sound quality from such a small IC, used it a few times in custom builds for friends.
I am also into audio on a budget. I built my speakers using Fostex full range drivers and morel tweeters. They are in oak cabinets (which are too damn big, but this size is what the woofers specs called for for best bass response. I love em though, they sound great. I actually wrote an article on it at macmod.com which got swallowed up by another Apple site. I bought an older two channel Yamaha receiver at an estate sale for cheap. I also have a old Onkyo tuner and Gerrard turntable. All older stuff I got on the for less. I bought an Asus Xonar DG for the sound card for only 15 bucks US on Newegg. I started modding the card with new caps and its not going that well as I am not good with soldering....
Any details in changing caps on the xonar dg? I have one but would love a bit more punch. I'm running a Yamaha ic chipped amp and Roth oli10s ok so not amazing but much better than most of the stuff hifis come with now!
