Taz777 Posted October 2, 2018 Share Posted October 2, 2018 Over the last few weeks I've spent a lot of money on trying to get good sound from my iMac. Prior to this pursuit, I was reasonably happy with the sound coming out of the computer as I didn't know any better. I then embarked upon a journey of investing in external equipment to better the iMac's sound quality. Since then I've gone through a pair of studio monitors, two DACs, countless USB and analogue interconnects and days of frustration. I thought I had got to the sound I wanted until a couple of days ago when I was listening in the dead of night with almost no ambient noise around. My studio monitors produce a crackling/static sound. I got to the point of thinking about investing in gadgets to 'clean up' the USB interface through galvanic isolation. Last night I plugged my Beyerdynamic T51i headphones straight into the 3.5mm headphones jack of my iMac, bypassing the external DAC and studio monitors, and I was rewarded with beautiful, warm sound. All I want is for that same sound to appear through my speakers.. So now I'm at a crossroads. I can continue to pay more and more for cables and gadgets to seek that sound quality that I'd be happy with, or start from scratch again and just buy a pair of 'HiFi' active speakers that will take the 3.5mm headphones out from my iMac and play the sound that I know is clean and unruffled. Has anyone else gone down this avenue where you continue to plug more devices into the chain in that eternal, wallet-emptying, pursuit of audio nirvana or just settled for a more basic setup that sounds 'good' to you? Link to comment
AnotherSpin Posted October 2, 2018 Share Posted October 2, 2018 What you described relates not only to audio but to more or less everything in this earthly existence. Link to comment
danadam Posted October 3, 2018 Share Posted October 3, 2018 On 10/2/2018 at 11:33 AM, Taz777 said: in the dead of night with almost no ambient noise around. My studio monitors produce a crackling/static sound. May it be their internal amp hiss? Link to comment
Taz777 Posted October 3, 2018 Author Share Posted October 3, 2018 13 minutes ago, danadam said: May it be their internal amp hiss? No, it's well over and above the amp hiss - it's a loud scratching and crackling noise. Rokits are, sadly, notorious for it. The shop I bought them from is sending me a ground loop isolator to see if improves things. Link to comment
4est Posted October 3, 2018 Share Posted October 3, 2018 Don't your Rokits have RCA in jacks? Just use a 3.5mm> RCA cable or adapter. It could simply be that you prefer your headphones to your speakers. There's nothing odd about that. Forrest: Win10 i9 9900KS/GTX1060 HQPlayer4>Win10 NAA DSD>Pavel's DSC2.6>Bent Audio TAP> Parasound JC1>"Naked" Quad ESL63/Tannoy PS350B subs<100Hz Link to comment
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