2.1 speaker system

Lindsay Lohan wrote: I use a old and cheap Creative 5.1 ( i never bothered in fancy pc sound at all) I always picked up noise from the CD-rom, power supply and HDD  of the pc and i have tried everything! But i never found a efficent way of cancelling it

I can only say that I had that problem both with the soundblaster live and on my two notebooks - but not with the Audigy 2 ZS, and not with the X-Fi. With these cards I don't hear the slightest noise even with the volume turned up 75%.

Lindsay Lohan wrote: Certainly on my pc speakers if you turn the volume up to say 60% you can already hear alot of noise (Even some noise from the PC itself.) So certainly filters of some kind would help!

My PC is connected to my Harman-Kardon amp & Elac speakers (I know oliver - the system sucks). I can turn the volume WAY up and don't hear any noise.

What soundcard are you using? Independently of that you should check your inputs ... make sure that mic in and line in are disabled.

Lindsay Lohan wrote: But many enthusiaists like to have a own electrical course for their HI-FI equipment to ensure no interference by other electrical appliances. And i belivie that this is certainly the best idea

I don't know ... is it really a good idea to spend thousands of dollars on a magical device that might improve your sound in case of interference which you couldn't even hear in the first place?

And my personal recommendation!

DALI 2002LE!

B&W ASW300 subwoofer

I use an AIWA hi-fi system, it a 2 speaker system!!!

However also I use a AMSTRAD micro hi-fi which is suprisingly good too!!

Lindsay Lohan wrote: I have seen some test of cables using spectrum analysis to see if the signal was different with expensive cables and with cheap cables and there actually was a difference

Sure, nobody denies that there is a difference that shows in a spectrum analysis. The question is: Can you actually hear the difference ... the only way to find out is to conduct listening tests. And these usually show that most people simply believe to hear an improvement of sound when they listen to a sample and have been told that the $1000 cable is used - even when the cable hasn't been changed at all. That's what I meant above ... a placebo effect, wishful thinking.

Lindsay Lohan wrote: Besides electrical devices can pollute the power net severly, i know i had some troubles getting a device that communicated through the power net to function properly because of all the pollution.

Also no denying here. But again: I'm sure than in most houses (at least in industrialized areas) the power lines are not causing any audible noises or pollution. Computer networking via power lines operates at much higher frequencies than audio (like 1,000,000 times higher).

oliverstoned wrote: "To protect oneself from the painful experience of being wrong, the human brain tries to maintain the illusion of an audible difference. It's the same with politics, religion, astrology and any other aspect of our daily lifes." It also aplies to your theories, like the one saying that tube amp are less good than solid tate cause they have more distorsion. But we have already discussed it.

Yes, we did discuss it - No, I didn't say that. You can object to what I'm saying, but please don't go around and tell that I said something which I clearly did not. It only shows that you don't really pay attention to what I'm saying.

^ One Word:

Scam.

at least from a scientific point of view. Sorry! If you really believe that $20,000 cables will make your system sound better ... go ahead.

Read this 10 page article:

http://www.audioholics.com/techtips/audioprinciples/intercon nects/truthcablesinterconnects.php

It is a very balanced article. The author is not just bashing the cable industry ... he is looking for proof of the ability of expensive cables to influence the sound ... and he finds some. But he is also coming to the conclusion that most of what some manufacturers of really expensive cables say is simply not holding up to objective testing.

I really had to smile when I read his description of a test where people were supposed to tell the difference between cables. A really expensive audiophile system was set up and technicians showed the cables to the test subjects and then played something. Most people really thought that they heard a difference between the really cheap cables and the really expensive ones. The funny thing is: The technicians didn't really switch cables ...

This shows that the human belief system is not rational at all. See this interesting article: http://www.csicop.org/si/9505/belief.html.

Think about it: When a normal person (meaning: not a technical expert) goes to an audiophile store and a sales person shows a really expensive hifi system and talks that person into buying it ... can that person then be objective about the system? I mean, admitting that it doesn't sound much different than a cheaper system would mean that that person acted foolishly. It would imply that that person was wrong all the time when listening to music on that system, thinking that it sounds superior. To protect oneself from the painful experience of being wrong, the human brain tries to maintain the illusion of an audible difference. It's the same with politics, religion, astrology and any other aspect of our daily lifes. The more we like something, the less rational we are about it. We can try to keep rational, but it is very hard.

oliverstoned wrote: So you somehow contest that power issues may affect the good working of a device. That's interesting.

Not at all. Where did I say that?

What I'm saying is this: Power issues rarely ever affect the working issues of any modern amp (even low cost) so that the noise/pollution can actually be heard. This is not due to a lack of "transparency" in low cost amps which somehow filters out the noise or fails to reproduce it. It is simply due to the capabilities of the power supplies of the amps. The power supply converts the alternate current (ac) to a stable direct current (dc). In this process any instabilities are removed, except for some rare circumstances such as defective cables or devices in the same building, or trouble at the power plant. But these circumstances are VERY rare. It's certainly nonsense to spend huge amounts on cables and power supplies to filter out noise that you couldn't even hear in the first place.