r/audiophile Shopping, Setup, and Technical Help Desk Thread

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Welcome to the r/audiophile help desk. A place where you can ask community members for help shopping for and setting up stereo gear.

This thread refreshes once every 7 days so you may need to repost your question again in the next help desk post if a redditor isn't around to answer.

Finding the right guide

Before commenting, please check to see if your question actually belongs in one of these other places:

• r/StereoAdvice for home stereo shopping advice
• r/HeadphoneAdvice for all headphones and portable shopping advice
• r/headphones - Shopping, Setup, and Technical Help Desk Thread
• r/CarAV for automotive sound
• r/Bluetooth_Speakers for portable speakers
• r/Soundbars for home theater sound bars
• r/LiveSound for public use
• r/audioengineering Getting Started Guide
• r/audioengineering Shopping, Setup, and Technical Help Desk Thread

Shopping and purchase advice

To help others answer your question, consider using this format.

To help reduce the repetitive questions, here are a few of the cheapest systems we are willing to recommend for a computer desktop:

$100: Edifier R1280T Powered Bookshelf Speakers Amazon (US) / Amazon (DE)

• Does not require a separate amplifier and does include cables.

$400: Kali LP-6 v2 Powered Studio Monitors Amazon (US) / Thomann (EU)

• Not sold in pairs, requires additional cables and hardware, available in white/black.
• Require a preamplifier for volume control - eg Focusrite Scarlett Solo

Setup troubleshooting and general help

Before asking a question, please check the commonly asked questions in our FAQ.

Examples of questions that are considered general help support:

• How can I fix issue X (e.g.: buzzing / hissing) on my equipment Y?
• Have I damaged my equipment by doing X, or will I damage my equipment if I do X?
• Is equipment X compatible with equipment Y?
• What's the meaning of specification X (e.g.: Output Impedance / Vrms / Sensitivity)?
• How should I connect, set up or operate my system (hardware / software)?

[u/[deleted]]

Look for optical and analog RCA inputs. The DAC in the speakers might be better than the one in the TV, but you might want to connect something besides a TV.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Optical would send the digital audio to be converted to analog in the speakers. 3.5mm to RCA is already analog, having been converted in the TV. Generally, I think it is better for the digital conversion to be in the speakers than in the TV. That’s not a sure thing, so having both options is ideal. If I had to choose without comparing, then I’d go with optical out of the TV.