My early birthday gift to myself! 🎂

[nerwin]

So I have a birthday coming up next month and last year I didn't buy anything for myself. I had a really rough year and I thought I should buy something for myself, something that's isn't a camera or a lens for once

It turns out one morning I turned on my desktop speakers and yeah they starting popping and humming like crazy whereas the day before they were perfectly fine. I opened them up and noticed a few capacitors that were looking pretty fat and some connections looking a little toasty. I'm like okay...so new audio system for me!

I picked up the Elac Debut 5.2 bookshelf speakers and a Fosi V3 mini amplifier. I was considering purchasing an external DAC but the computer I built, I splurged at the time on a good motherboard that actually has a decent DAC so I don't know if it would provide any noticeable improvement. I'm no audiophile by any means but I do enjoy music and I want my music to sound good, right?

Yesterday I finished building my own custom speaker stands so they I can elevate them a little bit better.

I never really had good audio for my desktop, its crazying how good imaging is with these speakers. The clarity and details in the music is wild, you can clearly isolate the instruments. These audiophile stuff is kinda addicting, but it can be a rabbit hole if you're not careful. $400 budget can turn into thousands! I did my research and these speakers and the amplifier I got seem to be a solid budget audiophile setup. I'm still tweaking things, I ordered some new higher end cables that may or may not make a difference. I also bought some banana plugs, its not that I really needed them but I never used them before and so figured why not, I want the experience!

Anyways enough rambling, here are some pictures!

 

[webestang64]

I like that camera pencil holder.

 

[mjcmt]

Excellent choices for amp and speakers for your desktop system.

 

[terri]

This looks awesome! Happy Early Birthday to you! Glad you treated yourself to a goodie.

 

[cgw]

Andrew Jones designed some nice speakers for Elac. Build your own speaker cables, easily the equal of the snake oil-marinated stuff.

 

[nerwin]

Andrew Jones designed some nice speakers for Elac. Build your own speaker cables, easily the equal of the snake oil-marinated stuff.

I did. I had some extra 14awg speaker wire left from my home theater install. Just added some banana plugs. Its over kill, but makes it easy to work with. I did buy a good quality 3.5mm to RCA cable. I was using a cheap $5 one and I thought it was fine until I tried this new cable I got and there was a noticeable difference. I was experiencing some noise and popping. Thought maybe I needed an external DAC but wanted to try a new cable and sure enough the noise went away and the audio is def cleaner. Still considering an external DAC but I'm trying to keep it simple and the one that's built in on my motherboard seems to sound fine to me. I still might get one just to test it out and see if there is any noticeable difference and if not...well amazon has a good return policy.

 

[cgw]

Look into Belden 5T00UP 10awg and Mogami 3104 12awg x 4 for future DIY speaker cable upgrades. Mogami w2534 is great for interconnects.

 

[nerwin]

Look into Belden 5T00UP 10awg and Mogami 3104 12awg x 4 for future DIY speaker cable upgrades. Mogami w2534 is great for interconnects.

Looks expensive lol. I don't think they'll make the sound any better for 3 feet cables.

 

[cgw]

Looks expensive lol. I don't think they'll make the sound any better for 3 feet cables.

Your welcome(?). For future reference if/when you upgrade from 14 awg.

 

[nerwin]

Your welcome(?). For future reference if/when you upgrade from 14 awg.

I'll keep them in mind if I ever upgrade to more expensive stuff but I can't see spending much more. This stuff is getting expensive already and trying my best not fall down that audiophile rabbit hole.

 

[Peressildur]

Your new audio setup with the bookshelf speakers and Fosi V3 mini amplifier sounds fantastic.

 

[Don Fischer]

I got a birthday coming up so got myself an early present, new Printer. Have or had a Canon 9000 MKII and of the printer's I've had it is hands down the best ever. Well after seven or eight years I started having problems with it. Still does B&W well but not color. Found a Canon Pixma Pro 200 on sale at B&H, $100 off. Bought it hoping it would be as good as my Pro 9000 MKII was. Boy so far it is, maybe a bit better! Got it Friday and burned up a bunch of 13x19 paper and ink by Sunday! happy Birthday to me!

 

[jeffashman]

Looks fantastic! And what an organized desk! Mine is buried. I have a pair of Bose Companion II series 2 speakers that are going on 15 years and are still sounding wonderful. Of course, as I age, "sounding wonderful" is probably changing too...

 

[ClintLloyd]

Awesome stuff! Having great sound is an absolute necessity. ️