recreational listening?

bulevardi

New member
Hi all!

For recording, you all might have your headphones straight into an external audio device (like Focusrite/Tascam/...) to get your audio into your favourite DAW, and your output directly via this same interface?


Do you use the same interface/setup when you recreationally using the same computer for watching youtube or listening other music online?
Or do you use other cheap headphones directly to the output of your computer? (without external interface)

Just wondering!
 
My interface is on all the time on the computer [Mac Mini] it's connected to, so it's all I use for any audio output on that system.

I just use the headphone/combo output on my notebook. It's not bad at all through decent headphones, which is all I have with that system.
 
Hi all!

For recording, you all might have your headphones straight into an external audio device (like Focusrite/Tascam/...) to get your audio into your favourite DAW, and your output directly via this same interface?


Do you use the same interface/setup when you recreationally using the same computer for watching youtube or listening other music online?
Or do you use other cheap headphones directly to the output of your computer? (without external interface)

Just wondering!

Most of the time I just plug my AKG K92s into this i3 HP lappy to hear YT stuff or, as I did earlier today feed HDMI to a 42"smart TV and listen via 5.1 system. If I want to get the full SP of a music track I go into my "studio", small bedroom and listen via DT PC, NI KA6 and Tannoy 5As. But not often these days.

Note. the Behringer UCA202 has been auditioned by an "audiophile" and some measurements made. For the price the D/A performance is very good, better than most laptop soundcards. Only 16 bit but then almost everything on'tweb is 16 bits or worse anyway! The RECORD side of the 202 is not so clever but, if you keeps to sane levels, still better than "Realtek"!

Dave.
 
I'm on PC. Nine times out of ten I use the built in sound card for vids, etc. I have had windows switch Default sound devices on me so I made a short cut for the Sound control panel that I leave on my desktop so If I need critical listening to a particular vid or wav I can easily switch between interface and inboard. Of course I have to also do the labor of moving the headphone plug.:rolleyes: On my bigger system I can switch to my desk and output to amps/speakers as needed also.
 
My mix room is my living room. I actually have two computers - the "studio" machine never goes online and is only for recording and mixing and the "living room" machine is for watching Netflix and YouTube and listening to my music library and all that kind of thing. They both use the same keyboard, video monitor, and mouse and I go between them with a KVR switch. They each have their own interface which is connected to a headphone amp that lets me switch each output between them. One of those outputs feeds my studio monitors. So yes I listen to everything through the same speakers, but it's not the same interface. For a while the living room machine was just using its built in sound. It wasn't that bad, but it was subject to a lot of noise. That thing where you can hear your mouse and sometimes even hear the colors on the screen change. I installed a Tascam US2x2 and ran balanced to the headphone amp and that all went away. I happened to have that around. It is kind of wasted where it is because I never record through it, just use it for its DAC, but it makes a real difference.
 
Talk about waste Ash? My living room computer is really just a host for my printer/scanner but the interface is an ESI 1010e multitracker! The reasons are complex and some time ago.
The 1010e drives a pair of "SureSound" active speakers. Really rather better than average PC speakers. Wooden box and a 4" woofer and a decent looking tweeter (rip of the Celestion HF1300). For domestic levels they are not at all bad. The system needs revamping now though because I want to put all the sound through my newly aquired 5.1 setup.

That is! Until I can afford my Result 6s! Or the Neumann 3 way? Or.....????

Dave.
 
I listen to everything through the same monitors. Mackie Big Knob has input from separate computers for Youtube type stuff and the recording one.

I think it best to always monitor with the same speakers. It all about understanding what they tell you.

And BTW, Ash, I had a serious issue involving latency using one of those KVR switches years ago. Hope yours is working well. :)
 
And BTW, Ash, I had a serious issue involving latency using one of those KVR switches years ago. Hope yours is working well. :)
I've never had a problem, and have used several different ones in several different situations over the years. It does preclude me using the HDMI output on my living room machine (the studio machine doesn't have it), but I'm okay with that. I did, however, mean KVM. :)
 
I listen to everything through the same speakers. My home studio is a combination of two spaces that used to exist at my old house, but now my gaming/YouTube/browsing computer and my studio computer are in the same room.

I tried a KVM switch but it never worked very well for me. So now I'm using Remote Desktop, and I patch audio from my gaming rig into my audio setup. It's overly complicated for what it is, but it works and it sounds great.
 
See that's just weird to me. Not saying you're doing anything wrong, but it sounds backwards. I would expect some latency with Renote Desktop. I use VNC to control my live machine, and I've just learned to live with that little bit of visual lag.

KVM should just work, though. It's almost the same as unplugging the keyboard, monitor, and mouse from the one machine and plugging them into the other, except all you have to do is flip a switch or hit a key combination. Some machines get squirrelly I guess when input devices are connected and disconnected. There's often a little bit of lag right after the switch where it maybe hasn't figured everything out, and actually it seems to interrupt sound playback on my studio machine causing it to make a stupid noise sometimes, and every once in a while it won't find the mouse for some reason and I usually have to switch back and forth again to make it work. I've never had real trouble during normal use, though. Maybe I'm just lucky, or you've got some special circumstances. I've done it for years with no problems, and am surprised to hear about your troubles.
 
I've got a gigabit home network, so the video latency is negligible. My gaming machine is the host so no latency at all there. My recording/video editing machine is the client, and I haven't been bothered by the tiny amount of video lag that I see. There's a little but not enough to bother me in Reaper or Resolve. And the client is the one with the main audio interface and monitoring system, so no audio lag. The host is running it's own audio interface whose outputs are patched into the main interface.

The KVM switch I got didn't properly pass along the monitor's EDID so it wouldn't support 3440x1440 even though it advertised that it could. Plus it wouldn't pass through G-Sync, which was a deal breaker for my gaming rig. And it flat out didn't work with my mouse either. So KVM was a total fail for my setup.

Remote Desktop has been working beautifully for me though. The only time it's a pain is when the client needs any sort of administration in the BIOS. RD doesn't connect until windows is fully booted up, so digging out a monitor and connecting it is a giant pain.
 
Ok. I can see that. You have much higher demands than I and if the KVM just can't keep up for whatever reason...

For the most part the lag in my VNC system isn't a big issue. I prefer not to do any editing that way, but it's more because the devices I use to connect are awkward for that kind of thing and I'd rather just drag the project files to the mix machine. I could (have) easily patch that live machine into the mix system too if I want, but it usually drives the PA in the basement.
 
same here....the interface is the soundcard for everything. (pc internal soundcard is disabled)
 
I also listen though the same speakers to almost everything, a pair of neumann kh120a's, they are ridiculously accurate and neutral, if something sounds bad on them it really is bad.
 
I also listen though the same speakers to almost everything, a pair of neumann kh120a's, they are ridiculously accurate and neutral, if something sounds bad on them it really is bad.
Same here. Excellent speakers are Excellent speakers :>)
I always thought the whole 'speakers to aid or hide tracks flaws' a bit of an odd chase.
 
There has been a development since my post of 2 weeks ago. I have been given a rather good hi fi system. Rega Planar TT, Ortofon MM cartridge, Arcam Alpha6+ int' amp, Arcam CD player and (F.in.Ell!) two Mission 775 speakers.

Now. I have nowhere to set this up in my living room so it is in my "studio" bedroom. The system sounds glorious and I can see me spending more time in there duping vinyl and playing my son's vast CD collection! I also have sheds of cassettes and Mdiscs to check and possibly put on HDD.

Dave.
 
I hope you have better luck than I did. When I moved to this house 9 years ago I set up my tracking room with a turntable and receiver output to my desk specifically so I could start digitizing all my vinyl. So far not even one has been transferred:rolleyes:
 
I hope you have better luck than I did. When I moved to this house 9 years ago I set up my tracking room with a turntable and receiver output to my desk specifically so I could start digitizing all my vinyl. So far not even one has been transferred:rolleyes:
LOL. I ran into an unexpected buzz kill' here on mine. Recording these disks I kept 'cause I like them. I hadn't heard in so long.. But now that I have, wonder how long 'till I need to again.. :rolleyes:
 
Bet most of them are on YouTube anyway. ;)

Indeed but at what quality level? Vinyl especially demands a good replay system, if someone is ripping "Peppers" with a BSR tt and and a ceramic cartidge that ain't good. The setup I have inherited might not be in the £10,000 "audiophool" class but it is pretty bloody good.

I do agree that inertia can stop the job being done. Some years ago my daughter, then in her 30s, wanted me to put her punk 45s onto CD as she no longer had a record player. Copying 100 sides of such ***t is very wearing on a Bach lover!

Dave.
 
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