What to do with my speakers?

[TheSloth]

I have a pair of QUAD 12L Pro Active speakers on some rather chunky and expensive stands that have sat completely unused since I sold my Balanced Home 3 months ago, which was also serving as a digital preamp.

I have nothing to drive them with, and am not really too excited to purchase something, but if I did, it would need to be a DAC/Preamp w/volume control all in one. Balanced outputs would be great, but not important.

So, my question is, what can I buy to give them a nice signal, or should I just get rid of them alltogether? Problem is, they are only worth abut $500 resale, and these biamped active speakers sound thousands of dollars better than that...

Edit: I really barely ever use these, as despite their quality, the acoustics of my room are so awful that I can't get particularly great sound out of them. I was actually considering getting an iPod Hi-fi (no, that wasn't a joke) and calling it quits on the whole speaker thing...

[hungrych]

Why not just get a cheaper and better ipod dock instead of an iPod "hifi"?

[TheSloth]

Why not just get a cheaper and better ipod dock instead of an iPod "hifi"?

Because I listened to them all, and after all the crap that Apple took for it, listening to classical music, it was so blatantly better than any of the other 1 box solutions that I was genuinely impressed with it.

[hungrych]

Your speakers are amped right, so you could buy a squeezebox and use the digital volume control, or get pre-outs on your amp. There are so many things you could do without having to compromise and use an iPod Hifi.

[TheSloth]

Your speakers are amped right, so you could buy a squeezebox and use the digital volume control, or get pre-outs on your amp. There are so many things you could do without having to compromise and use an iPod Hifi.

Actually there aren't that many choices which is why I am posting! Digital volume controls are horrible, and I hate the sqeezebox software - I did own one shortly after I sold the Balanced Home for that exact reason, but found the software glitchy, plus at the time it wasn't universal (MacBook Pro here...) (don't even know if it is now).

My source and amp is the HeadRoom convertible, which is a Desktop Portable at heart, and that's not going to change in the near future (if ever). I tried using a 1/4" -> RCA adapter, which not only sounded terrible for some reason (I've used the preamp outs from the Destkop line and they sounded fantastic, so it must be to do with the connectors here), but I'd also have to go over and hook up the thing in this very awkward fashion every time I wanted to use the speakers. Not worth the hassle for the bad SQ I get from that hookup.

So that leaves me with ?

[hungrych]

Actually there aren't that many choices which is why I am posting! Digital volume controls are horrible, and I hate the sqeezebox software - I did own one shortly after I sold the Balanced Home for that exact reason, but found the software glitchy, plus at the time it wasn't universal (MacBook Pro here...) (don't even know if it is now).

My source and amp is the HeadRoom convertible, which is a Desktop Portable at heart, and that's not going to change in the near future (if ever). I tried using a 1/4" -> RCA adapter, which not only sounded terrible for some reason (I've used the preamp outs from the Destkop line and they sounded fantastic, so it must be to do with the connectors here), but I'd also have to go over and hook up the thing in this very awkward fashion every time I wanted to use the speakers. Not worth the hassle for the bad SQ I get from that hookup.

So that leaves me with ?

Well I was thinking more like having actual pre-outs installed on the back.

[TheSloth]

Well I was thinking more like having actual pre-outs installed on the back.

Taken from where? Ever look at the rear panel and circuit board for a Desktop Portable...?

Even if it were possible, there is still the problem of location - the position it would have to be in to feed the speakers would be about 20' away from where I listen...

[hungrych]

Taken from where? Ever look at the rear panel and circuit board for a Desktop Portable...?

NO I HAVENT

Even if it were possible, there is still the problem of location - the position it would have to be in to feed the speakers would be about 20' away from where I listen...

OK OK JEEZ IM SORRY, WHY DONT YOU POST AN AUDIOASYLUM THREAD ASKING ABOUT DACS WITHE BUILT IN PREAMP FUNCTION OR SOMETHING?! AHHH!

[TheSloth]

NO I HAVENT

OK OK JEEZ IM SORRY, WHY DONT YOU POST AN AUDIOASYLUM THREAD ASKING ABOUT DACS WITHE BUILT IN PREAMP FUNCTION OR SOMETHING?! AHHH!

Is everything OK over there? Please don't make me bring out that cookie picture again...

[Dusty Chalk]

Benchmark DAC1? Grace Design m902?

And WRT the Quad 12L's, you should give them to me. I "only" have two Mackie HR824's, and I need a surround sound setup.

[TheSloth]

Benchmark DAC1? Grace Design m902?

And WRT the Quad 12L's, you should give them to me. I "only" have two Mackie HR824's, and I need a surround sound setup.

That's just more than I want/can justify to spend/spending, and there's the dilemma. But if it's got to be one of those $1k sources, what is the best one to go for (ignoring quality of headphone out) in terms of quality of variable line outs?

The 12L's are just such fine speakers at that price point it's painful to sell, but they are doing abolutely nothing here...

[Dusty Chalk]

I'd make you an offer, but I should be spending money on necessities, like furniture and shit. (If you saw my room, you'd agree.)

But I'll take good care of them while you lend them to me!

No seriously, why do you need a digital out, again? Just geta Mackie 1202VLZPro or something, there's your "preamp"...or if you need a digital, I have a Yamaha 01V I ain't using...

[TheSloth]

I'd make you an offer, but I should be spending money on necessities, like furniture and shit. (If you saw my room, you'd agree.)

But I'll take good care of them while you lend them to me!

No seriously, why do you need a digital out, again? Just geta Mackie 1202VLZPro or something, there's your "preamp"...or if you need a digital, I have a Yamaha 01V I ain't using...

My only digital source is in my headphone amp (desktop DAC in the desktop portable), so whatever is feeding the speakers needs to have a DAC in the chain somewhere, and the headphone amp won't do the trick for the reasons in my posts above.

What's a Yamaha 01V?

[TheSloth]

My only digital source is in my headphone amp (desktop DAC in the desktop portable), so whatever is feeding the speakers needs to have a DAC in the chain somewhere, and the headphone amp won't do the trick for the reasons in my posts above.

What's a Yamaha 01V?

Found it. Don't think that's what I'm after...

I'm loosely considering the Lavry, which seems to be a balanced source that fits my preferences, plus the fact that I already have some nice balanced interconnects. WAY too expensive though. Not sure there is anything else though - really don't want digital volume control. My original source for these was a QUAD 99CDP, which has decent variable outputs and a DAC that's at least on par with the better HR DACs. They seem to be going for around $500 these days, which isn't so bad, plus it gives me a nice transport.

[Dusty Chalk]

What's a Yamaha 01V?

Entry level digital mixer. Can take digital inputs and produce balanced outputs, so could act like a digital source/preamp/EQ while you're at it.

Yamaha marketing page/ad copy

[Dusty Chalk]

Found it. Don't think that's what I'm after...

Well, you could use the EQ function to correct for the room a little bit. But yeah, it's probably sub-par as far as DAC's are concerned. Would work for most people, but maybe not someone with as refined ears as yours.

[TheSloth]

given that your room has bad acoustics, i would just put the quads in the closet and get the iPod Hi-Fi.

Yep, I think I'm with you on that one. Though, they woudn't go in the closet, they'd be sold. Real shame that stands are so hard to sell - $200 and they weigh as much as I do, fantastic things, probably couldn't even give them away.

The speakers really would only be for the most casual listening, and if I wanted to play something for someone, and I have a feeling the iPod will do that just fine.

[TheSloth]

yeah, the iPod would be perfectly fine for that.

You'd think, wouldn't you? So did I, until about an hour ago. Decided to make use of the 24 hour city and went to the 5th avenue Apple Store. Just to check, I had a good listen there (as much as you can in such a setting) and continued with plan A - get iPod Low-Fi. Got the thing home, unpacked it, listened for a few minutes, used this smiley , moved it around, changed the source around a bit, and then repacked and boxed it.

This was the worst sounding piece of audio equipment I have ever experienced in my life. And I'm talking worse than laptop speakers here. Why? This thing has the most weird-ass frequency response I've ever heard, with this massive mid-midrange peak that makes EVERYTHING sibiliant at ALL volume levels - it sounds as if the sound waves from the left and right side are colliding with one another in the middle (which is probably exactly what is happening...), creating this hideous resonance in my ears at least that I just can't bear. I kept turning the volume down to try and find a comfortable listening level, and found that the only comfortable level was 0. I had no expectations for this thing to be 'good', but I at least expected it to produce some reasonably pleasant (i.e. not headache inducing) noises at lower listening levels - nope, can't even do that right. Also, if you are sitting near the 'full range drivers' you can hear the high frequency distortion from the horrific amplifier. So bad, I initially thought it might be broken, but after enough listening I decided it was working just fine.

MOST EVIL AUDIO DEVICE ON THE PLANET. Worse than the speakers in my MacBook Pro (as in it gives me a headache, the MBP doesn't), worse than a pair of JBL Creature speakers, MUCH worse than BOSE triports. I cannot believe Apple are selling this thing - it's as if it was purposely voiced to only sound good in a showroom with lots of other midrange noise so that in such circumstances it sounds 'balanced'.

[TheSloth]

weird, the iPod HiFis i've heard haven't done that, at least the headache inducing sound stuff part.

I couldn't for the life of me work out the damn thing. I tried it in different positions, which did significantly change the sound, but not to the extent of removing that issue. I certainly gave it it's due, considering there was nothing else I could do with it. And I'm not getting into 'burn in' with an iPod hi-fi...! And I also don't think there was anything 'wrong' with it, as there was nothing else wrong with the sound per se and no obvious distortion or anything.

Maybe there is just something in my room acoustic, but even still, my QUADs never had that problem. The low-fi sounded horrific. So I'm sort of at square 1, except that I have still decided to sell the QUAD's and stands (already had a good offer on the stands fortunately on audiogon). Suppose I'll just put some money in the bank! How un-head-case of me.

[TheSloth]

Well, I remembered that I had a pair of those JBL Creature II speakers sitting in the cupboard, do I hooked them up to my iPod dock and they really don't sound too bad. Far less offensive than the iPod Hi-fi (which is starting to make me thing that the hi-fi wasn't working properly...). They'll do for now.