BudgetAudiophile

I'm looking for a recommendation for an amplifier to use on my desk. And I just don't know enough about what's out there to make a good, informed decision. My current one produces an audible buzz at any volume*. I want something that sounds good of course but I don't need anything exceptionally high end. I'm probably not going to notice any difference between a good and a great amp. I'm honestly more interested in quality construction. I want something that'll last. And as budget friendly as is possible within those constraints.

Edit: I live in America. Which matters more now because tariffs. I'd still source internationally if still somewhat competitively priced after tariffs. But something that ships from within the states is probably the most realistic option.

Here's stuff I need it to do. Which is pretty basic.

• Smallish footprint. Current amp is 10" W x 3.5" H x 9" D. (20cm W x 9cm H x 23cm D). And that's fine, but even smaller is better.
• Drive a set of bookshelf style speakers. My current ones are 120w capacity and 6Ω. I don't need anything that can max those out though.
• Have an RCA audio input.
• Not "smart". Which is a bit ambiguous. It shouldn't have a screen (I can tolerate a basic character display but honestly I'd prefer not even that). It shouldn't utilize an app. That kind of thing. Hopefully that gives you an idea.

Ok/nice to have, but not needed.

• Additional inputs. S/PDIF would be nice.
• I would prefer it not support Bluetooth, but not a deal-breaker.
• Surround sound support via DisplayPort/HDMI. Though TBH probably would never get around to utilizing it.
• Something that uses vacuum tubes as part of the amplification circuit (as opposed to just as decorative lights) would be... mostly a novelty to me I admit, but a novelty I'm interested in if affordable.
• Balance/bass/treble adjustments.

* More info related to the current buzzing, in case anyone is curious. It's pretty audible at any volume. There is kind of a sweet spot at around about 40% volume where it's less noticeable. But that's too loud. I could adjust the source audio but I prefer using volume on the amp. I think it's just this cheap amp. My outlets are grounded, but I also tried grounding the chassis of the amp. I tried using S/PDIF input instead of analog, no difference. I have short runs of wire (about 24"/60cm) to each speaker. It's not noticeable on any other audio equipment in the house either so I don't think it's anything in the environment.

I'm currently eyeing either an iPod classic 5th gen or a Surfans F20, but definitely want input and suggestions on getting a decent portable music player.

Basically, I'm trying to find something that has good audio quality, is not touch screen, reasonably durable, repairable, upgradable, etc. Big storage capacity is a plus. I don't wanna stream from it or have Bluetooth, mainly just wanna play audio files I load onto there and listen with my ear monitors. Totally fine altering hardware and software in order to get it to the point that meets what I'm looking for.

Any recommendations for this? Many thanks.

The Oppo Enco Air4 Pro looks very good for the price at about $20 USD in my region…I also see the JLabs Go Air Pop for about the same price. I also see the Moondrop Space Travel for a bit more, and it people seem to like its sound quality, but I don’t particularly like the design. I want earbuds with decent ANC and don’t sound like complete garbage

(for reference, I find that the wired Nokia buds that came with my old phone sound better than the Beats Studio Buds+, so either I’m not a good judge on sound quality or those Nokia buds are made of some kind of dark magic)

Hey all, very new to audio but I have been wanting to try and put together a decent system for enjoying music.

Previously my setup was an old Sony Blu-ray player I use as a CD player, two small Sony SS-SRP700 speakers I took from my Dad's old home theater setup, and a Lepy LP-2020A amp. I set this up on my PC desk in my small-ish bedroom.

Recently I got a Yamaha R-201 receiver for $30 off eBay and I am looking to upgrade my speakers now. I've been trying to do research for which speakers but it's been very overwhelming with the amount of options out there.

I want a pair of bookshelf speakers to go on my PC desk, so I will be pretty close to the speakers while listening. I won't be playing at very loud volumes since it's just for my bedroom and I live with other people I do not want to disturb. I listen to mostly extreme metal and progressive rock if that makes a difference in what speakers I should consider. But I listen to all sorts of other music too. My budget is $300 max. I was looking at the KEF Q150, Kilpsch RP150M, and Micca MB42X G2. Any thoughts on these for my use case or do you guys have suggestions for something that would better?

Or alternative ideas. If not, then RCA box with grounding screws. They exist on Amazon, but I see reviews about bad signal noise/poorly made :(

Figured I'd ask to find someone who already knows of a good enough product.

The idea is to have two record players set up going to my single Receiver input.

I would like recommendations for a set of wireless headphones. I already have a set of headphones which are of the overhead style, but those cannot be used in all situations, so I would like to get a backup set of in ear headphones. I have a budget around $150-$200, though that isn't hard and fast.

My criteria are as follows:

• Comfortable, inconspicuous
• Good passive noise isolation. Active noise cancellation is a potential asset, especially if it can distinguish speech from other sounds, but passive properties must hold up.
• Wireless, preferably with an open standard (e.g. Bluetooth)

Audio quality is not the highest concern, as I already have a set of wired headphones. I'm just looking for something to play music when I am working.

I already have a transmitter for bluetooth, if the wireless protocol is anything different I would have to buy that. Additionally, I might in the future buy an MP3 player, and some of those come with bluetooth support. If you have any specific suggestions for small MP3 players, put them also in the comments. That's definitely a more long term idea though.

Recommendations?

I'm going to be checking out a pair of 2nd hand Focal Chora 806 tomorrow. There's a good chance I'll buy them, but I need an amp and DAC (preferably integrated) to go with them. Any budget friendly recommendations?

TLDR: The Corsair Virtuoso Pro is good and becomes pretty impressive with a bit of EQ. If you need a microphone, I think this is pretty ideal, especially for the price. And even without the need for a (btw. detachable) mic it's still pretty good. Somehow.

About two months ago, I stumbled across a post on a German blog about Corsair Gaming, Inc's Virtuoso Pro. A gamer headset from a gamer company for gamers. Please excuse my snark, but that raises just about every red flag I can think of.

But somehow, it did pretty good in Igors measurements. Rtings also measured it and it still did well, but other than those two, there's just not a lot of good information on the thing.

About three weeks later it got a bit cheaper (130,-€, instead of the usual ~160,-€. It was 110,-€ last year too). Not exactly cheap, but fine for the assumed performance, and the included microphone solved a problem with my current setup.

By now, I've been running it for a month… and it's good. Not only is it good out of the box, it takes well to EQing. Which, for me, is the absolute kicker and opened the doors to combining it with pretty a cheap Fiio JA11 / JCally JM12 with flashed firmware as they come with built-in PEQ via Web-USB interface (the app is a burning pile of trash btw.) and microphone pass-through, just a lack in power. But the Virtuoso Pros are pretty sensitive anyway making it a pretty perfect match.

I'm currently running them with this EQ:

Preamp: -5.7 db
Filter 1: ON PK Fc 20 Hz Gain 4.8 dB Q 0.6
Filter 2: ON PK Fc 150 Hz Gain -4 dB Q 0.8
Filter 3: ON PK Fc 1500 Hz Gain 2.9 dB Q 2.3
Filter 4: ON PK Fc 2700 Hz Gain -2.5 dB Q 2.8
Filter 5: ON PK Fc 3900 Hz Gain 6 dB Q 1.8

Here's my reasoning for this, if you are interested.

Imo, there are just two problems, both having to do with microphonics:

Corsair somehow thought a nylon sleeved cable was a good idea. Visually, I agree. Microphonically, it's terrible. I don't have a huge problem with it, but both the mic and the ear cups easily pick up any noise that comes with any movement of the cable on pretty much any surface. This is stupid. Secondly, unless you're a horse, the microphone has to be bent into an L shape. The arm is just too long and the microphone is prone to plosives. Not a good combination - even if the L-bend makes it easy to fix.

Other than that; I'd say they are pretty good headphones… with a microphone! Which is rather perfect for my use-case, where I switch from PC-gaming plus voice chat to my phone plus music and mix and match tasks as they come.

Edit: words & phrasing

I had some memory foam earbud tips from Comply for my IEMs but I found that they would become too squishy or fall off the casing too easily. Which was a shame because brand new they feel amazing.

What are some of your favorite tips for IEMs? Looking to purchase some higher quality cushions.

Hi there!

I'm looking to replace my Edifier R1800BT with some higher end alternative.

What would you recommend?

Hi all! I've made a website called "bestof", which has been a little project I've been working on for over a year now. I would like your opinion on specifically the audio category. (specifically the "dac/amp", "headphones", "home theater", "microphones", and "speakers" section)

If you have any questions or thing anything needs to be added, changed, or removed, please lmk!

https://swarbler.github.io/bestof/audio/audio

also btw is the Fosi Audio V3 any good? I've seen lots of conflicting reviews, some say it's a very good amp, others say it's not.

edit: I have migrated to codeberg and the github pages link is now dead. Here's the new link: https://sperchingbird.codeberg.page/bestof/audio/audio

Slowly but surely, one piece at a time. I can finally play my 50+ LP collection without damaging the crap out of it, feels good

So, I came into a couple of inoperable amplifiers/receivers recently as I was putting together a budget audio solution, thought they might provide a good opportunity to learn how to actually test circuits and diagnose issues with these types of devices. I'm struggling to find substantive resources on line that can help me start this journey, though. The Internet's now flooded with IT Help Desk style "turn it off and on again" type articles that just end with "if that doesn't work, send it in to be repaired".

I know there are, like, college courses for this kind of stuff, and that's probably going a step too far. I'm not actually looking to do repairs myself (not yet at least), just learn how to use the tools and where to poke them so that I can go "ah, so that's what's wrong!"

Are there reasonable resources for dipping my toes into this? Good intro textbooks? MOOC lectures? Video tutorial series? Or even just specific terms I should be using while searching for such things that will help clear up my queries' signal:noise ratio?

So I have some "built in" Bluetooth speakers in a piece of furniture. No other inputs are available, just Bluetooth. I'm trying to find an AC or USB powered MP3/audio player that can transmit via Bluetooth to these speakers. I don't care if it has built in memory or if I need to plug in a flash drive out SD card. I don't want it to have a battery because it will always be in one spot and always on. I only need to be able to pause/play from the speaker remote. I've been using a garbage flip phone that I CAN mod and power from USB, but I'd like a cleaner solution. I don't want to use a phone. I don't want to hack something together. I'm having a hell of a time finding something. Probably 10 hours over 2 weeks. I'm drained. Does anyone have an idea?

WARNING: In this post I talk about working on HIGH POWER electrical circuits. DO NOT DO THIS UNLESS YOU HAVE BEEN TRAINED... PERIOD! The capacitor in the final photo is quite easily capable of KILLING YOU if you discharge it through yourself. The amp uses TWO of those in its power supply.

As a hobby, I pick up distressed amplifiers, receivers, and other audio equipment and attempt to bring them back to life. This has netted me some spectacularly great pieces for pennies on the dollar, to outright free.

This photo is a receiver I picked up locally for free. Both main channels were "out". It wasn't the internal amplifier that was the problem though, rather the input board had some dry solder joints. About 3 hours of soldering netted me a perfectly working receiver, which has been in my living room for the past two years working perfectly. If you want photos of when I took it apart, just let me know.

Below is an 8 channel McIntosh MC7108 that I bought off of eBay listed "for parts". While what I paid for it probably doesn't fit the definition for "budget", it was less than a quarter what the amp is worth... So maybe budgetish? It's works great, but I ended up not really fixing it. It actually worked for about a week after I bought it. I thought I had really scored, until it started up with a horrendous buzzing noise that came from inside the cabinet. The protection circuits also kicked in and the amplifier would not power up. Some investigation, again photos are available if you want to see them, revealed that buzzing came from a bad capacitor and relay in the on/off switch circuit. As I didn't care about the on/off switch, I simply bypassed it. Now, if the amp is plugged in, it turns on. I control it using a Zwave outlet (look at the power outlet and you'll see it) and that is what I use to turn on and off the entire stack you see.

Below the McIntosh is a Carver TFM-15B that needed the input pots cleaned and new meter lights. It's not a well built amp, but I've always loved Bob Carver's work and it sounds very warm. Bob was known for is ability to copy the sound of much more expensive amplifiers in his design, which he called "Transfer Function." In the case of the TFM-15B is copies the sound of a Classe amp, although I don't remember which one.

Below that is my wife's old Soundcraftsman amplifier that I put new power supply capacitors in. The caps in that thing are the size of coke cans.. Don't believe me? See the last photo...

At the very bottom is an old HTPC I built many years ago. It is retired as an HTPC and is currently serving as a low power server for my house.

Big honking Capacitor:

I want to have it always plugged to the power and to an external speaker so I dont care about its battery life

some must haves:

• aluminum
• not more than 80£
• reliable (ideally buy for life as muxh possible for tech)

good to have:

• easily repairable
• I can remove the battery

does this thing exist?

Hey folks, I recently found a 1980s Yamaha PX-55 turntable for $20 and figured I would give it a go. Only issue with it is that its missing the entire headshell. I figured this would be an easy fix as they're (mostly) plug and play.

Now I'm looking at universal headshell and realising I may be SOL. The tonearm connector is as pictured

Seems there's no space for the captive pin on this tonearm. Now, I don't have a spare headshell to check... Is that pin removable?

Do I need a different type of headshell/will a universal connector even work with this tonearm?

OR

Will I have to replace the tonearm connector to a universal type in order to get it all working nicely?

Any help is appreciated. Happy to discuss as required. I'm somewhat familiar with electronic repairs but new to turntable repairs, parts and terminology.

I wanted to "just quickly record a vinyl" with my Wiim ultra, but sunk over one hour into troubleshooting the USB audio out. If that would work it would be so immensly convinient to digitize my records, but the option to output audio over USB just didn't appear in the app... I am running the latest firmware and even did a factory reset

Has anyone an idea what it could be? I tried multiple cables, but I do not own a USB A 2.0 to USB A 2.0. I tried a A to A 3.0 cable and 2 A to C 2.0 cables. I tried my tuxedo laptop (linux) and also my HP (windows) and my Tablet (Android). Nothing worked

Hi guys,

Currently I'm running a 15 year old Sony TV with two Behringer Truth 2031's over RCA. I've added a Denon DCD-810 to that mix with a simple RCA switch to either listen to CD's over the speakers or my TV. The setup is somewhat clunky, I have to power on each speaker manually and walk over to the RCA switch to choose between TV or CD's. Since I've already had the speakers and the TV this was a very cheap way to go and I don't mind the extra steps. I am bound by CD players with variable outputs because of this, hence the 35 year old CD player which has it's disadvantages.

Now being realistic my TV is getting old, it's only 40 inches and I want it replaced in the coming years. Looking at modern TV's they don't seem to have RCA out for audio, just optical and HDMI as options. My plan was to get a nice second hand receiver and a nice pair of second-hand stereo speakers.

Doing a bit of reading HDMI for audio seems to be the superior option. My big question is, in what way is an older receiver future proof for all the different technologies? I would probably need a receiver that is 4k capable and whatever protocols I might need. Will optical out really give me a big disadvantage over HDMI? And if I would use HDMI on the receiver what technologies would it have to support?

Sorry for the long story!

I have an older Sony amplifier I want to use for my computer, paired with some sort of speakers. While planning, I'm thinking: should I just use my motherboard's line out to the amp, or would I be better utilising the S/PDIF header on my mobo to get the audio digitally to the amp?

Hi everyone, I recently bought a Wiim Ultra because it was the perfect device for my usecase. However I noticed that basically all BluRay players only have coax out and the Wiim doesn't have a coax input. Is it lossy to buy a cheap coax to toslink converter? In theory it should just convert the data 1 to 1 since both connections are digital ones, but I am not sure.

The reason I want this is because I am most certainly not paying hundreds of dollars to listen to CDs. I wanted to buy a "cheap" BluRay player for ~80€ and just use it to listen to CDs as well. As long as I bypass their DAC that should be fine imo. But I don't want my TV to be on for listening to CDs so thats why I want to use the digital output of it.

I have a pair of Audio Technica M40x and while I like the sound decently enough, I find the pads very uncomfortable. They hurt after a while and my ears get quite warm. So I'd like to replace the pads. I've seen Brainwavz and Dekoni recommended before, but the former is not available in the EU (for a reasonable price that I can find anyway) and the latter is quite pricy. Are there any other recommendations?

I'm going to get the 7Hz x Crinacle Salnotes Dioko IEMs but I want to make them wireless. In the video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMTs5bvAsGA) they feature the KZ Apt-X HDs from linsoul, however they're sold out right now. Which other adapters would you recommend instead of these. (Must be 2 pin 0.78 plug.)

I was just wondering at what point to set up an equalizer for a turntable setup. I’m moving into a bigger place soon and will be taking my grandfather’s old equalizer and speakers from the 80s (not audiophile quality I’m sure but it’s free and I can upgrade in the future when I have more disposable income). I know typically you’d have the turntable plugged into a pre-amp, that plugged into an amp/receiver and that plugged into speakers. I tried looking it up online but all I found was either explanations on how to use an equalizer, or people talking about whether a specific equalizer was good or bad. Where in the “chain” of components would the equalizer go? I’m quite new to home theatre setup obviously. The only turntable setup I’ve ever used had an equalizer built into the receiver so that was simpler to put together.

This is my first post here so hopefully this is the right community to ask the question to

Looking at a couple receivers. I'm not a huge audiophile or anything, but have some functional things I'm looking for (Zone 2, phono, network control, Bluetooth transmission would be nice). I tend to hang on to this stuff for a while, so 8K would be nice so I don't need to buy a receiver if/when the day comes that I get a new TV (Sharp 1080p sorta-smart TV still going strong 12 years in!)

Anyway, I'm down to two receivers:

• Denon AVR-X1700H (new at Costco)
• Marantz NR1711 (used on Facebook, includes some nice speakers I could probably resell if needed)

On paper, the Denon has a little more power and a few more 8k HDMI ports but otherwise similar. Since they're both run by the same company behind the scenes, I suspect most components inside are identical.

In practice, I know the Marantz is supposed to be the better brand... but it seems conceivable that a lower-end slimline, slightly older Marantz could probably be beaten by a midrange Denon, yeah?

For what it's worth, this is replacing an Onkyo TX-NR709 I've had for about 14 years. It's been a workhorse but I really want proper Zone 2 functionality and it's been giving me troubles there (no HDMI sources work, even with the "source" mode)