Category Archives: Audio

Home Theater Refresh (Pioneer SC-1223-K Review)

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Recently my Sony receiver, which has been with me through college, finally gave up the ghost. I’ve been in limbo on what would make a good replacement. After doing some research and coming to one conclusion and then after seeing the reviews I changed my mind and ended up deciding on the Pioneer SC-1223-K Receiver. Tech Spec My old Sony most likely subcomed to heat failure. It also didn’t have any HDMI inputs. The tech in it was also from a time past, when 5.1 just became a “thing”. For its replacement I wanted to get something that was not so much future … Continue reading →

Fixing USB DAC Issues

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So I got this wonderful amp/DAC combo and headphones. Guess what! There is a terrible audio popping while listening to music on my computer! How can this be?! I spent so much money and this DAC is crap! Oh wait, it’s not the DAC. Or the amp. Or the headphones. The first thing I did was Google to see if there was some known issue with the ODAC or Windows 7 and USB Audio. I found this thread on Head-Fi which referenced the ODAC. I also remembered a while ago that I dug out my old SoundBlaster Extigy external sound … Continue reading →

O2+ODAC Combo By JDSLabs and Beyerdynamic DT-990 Headphones

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As I mentioned in my just posted headphone article I ordered an O2+ODAC Combo from JDSLabs. I’ve now had the amp/DAC combo with my DT-990s for about a week. I’ve been wanting to write a full article about both the amp/DAC and headphones but wanted to give them some time to make an impression. O2+ODAC Combo The O2+ODAC combo from JDS Labs is an awesome little amp and DAC. It’s  very powerful for a little guy. I didn’t opt for the higher impedance headphones so I can’t be 100% accurate in saying that it shouldn’t have trouble driving anything you … Continue reading →

Done With WinAmp

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I’ve been using WinAmp for the last 11 or so years. I’ve been a loyal fan of “whipping the llama’s ass,” but it seems as if development and functionality died out long ago. I mean look at WinAmp’s website! It looks like it’s stuck in the early 2000’s web design. I’m all for not fixing what isn’t broken, but their player seems to still be stuck in the Windows XP era. I mainly used WinAmp for streaming from my favorite classical station 99.5 All Classical and some other ShoutCast stations. Lately I’ve noticed some odd sound effects and weird behaviors while streaming … Continue reading →

Spectrograms Are COOL!

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So I started using a new application to listen to my audio. It has a spectrogram visualization. Here’s what Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D Major looks like: Generated while listening to the MP3 in foobar2000.

Beyerdynamic Headphones

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I’ve come up on a small work problem. I’ve broken my wonderful Beyerdynamic DT-660 headphones. They’ve made a great entry into the world of audiophile grade listening equipment. The problem that I’ve run into is that their build quality just isn’t up to the task of supporting someone who uses their headphones at work. It’s not because the environment is abusive to headphones. Well, not in a manner that I thought of when I made the purchase. The problem I ran into is that through the repetitive on and off of the headphones from my head during the normal course … Continue reading →