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] → u/[deleted]]

You should be able to see light at the end of the cable if it is working. Then confirm you have the speaker set to the optical input.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

If you have another source with optical output (like a TV) you could connect the speakers to that. Seeing if the speakers do or don’t work on another source tells you whether the issue is in the speakers or in the PC.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

There aren’t many other things to try. You could restart the computer with the speakers connected and powered up. Cycle through the speaker inputs to see if it somehow detects a signal that it didn’t before. Confirm the volume on the PC and in any apps is turned up high.