Posts Categorised: Audio

0Windows Media Player LogoWindows volume control of HDMI output

Published by & filed under Amplifiers, Misc Media Software, Windows. Last updated .

I recently swapped out my old home cinema audio sys­tem (a Yamaha DSP-E800 and a Den­on ste­reo receiv­er) con­nec­ted via USB DAC and 6 chan­nel ana­log for an Onkyo TX-SR605 which has HDMI audio con­nec­tions. In most ways this was an instant upgrade but one issue really frus­trated me — volume…
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2Home Theatre RoomDesigning a Home Theatre Room & Lounge

Published by & filed under Misc Audio, Misc TV. Last updated .

I have been look­ing to design a new home theatre room, and research­ing this top­ic has led me to a few pre­lim­in­ary con­clu­sions.  First of all, there are lots of dif­fer­ent ideas out there about home cinema room shapes!

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5Highly tuned Arcam Alpha CD playerUpgrading an original Arcam Alpha

Published by & filed under CD Players & DACs. Last updated .

Back­ground

This old stal­wart dates back in design to about 1989 and I believe mine was made in 1991.  The Arcam Alpha uses one of the first DAC chips around, the fam­ous TDA1541(A).  Here’s a good page ded­ic­ated to play­ers fea­tur­ing this chip: Lamp­iz­at­or guy.  The author of that site is fam­ous in DIY circles but misses a few import­ant tricks when modi­fy­ing CD play­ers.… Read Full Article

0Yahama DSP-E800 LogoGetting high end sound from your PC

Published by & filed under Amplifiers. Last updated .

For many people, there’s either sound or no sound, the qual­ity does­n’t really come into it. For oth­ers, spe­cific­a­tion and brag­ging rights rule: bit-rates, sampling fre­quen­cies, band­width, power hand­ling.  For many a simple set of pc speak­ers will do very nicely, espe­cially if there are 6 or more of them (more is bet­ter, right?)  But what do you do if you want awe­some sound from your com­puter?  What do you do if you are an audi­o­phile on a budget?  What if you play games and want sur­round sound but play music through the same sys­tem?  There are many choices and this could get very expens­ive and com­plex, but it does­n’t have to.

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2Helios NeoDigits logoNeoDigits / Helios Network Media Players

Published by & filed under Network Media Players. Last updated .

I recently had cause to resur­rect my old NeoDi­gits Helios X3000 net­work media play­er, and noticed that Helios have deceased.  Sadly this means links to their soft­ware and firm­ware are no longer avail­able.  Thanks to Ravi Srivast­ava and Sean on myce I was able to find altern­at­ive links, although as of Decem­ber 2012 these are no longer act­ive either.  For­tu­nately I grabbed everything whilst I still could.

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