Tenson

I would strongly recomend the AKG K66. Semi-open they have a highly accurate, detailed and un-colourd sound that works very well with piano. One of the best at the price I think. They should be nicely in your range. Over here they are £25 which is $74 SGD

Western digital drives are pretty good for the amount of heat Vs performance. I have a WD Caviar SE 80gig which when I got it was suposedly THE fastest IDE hard drive in the world. It is no more noisy then any other drive I have heard and it has a temp low enough to go in one of the acoustic drive enclosures. They do a new one now with serial ATA and 250gig that looks very nice. Watercooling is pretty quiet, BUT it does make noise from both the pump and the fan on the radiatror. If you can get one that doesn't have a fan on the radiator then it is probably the quietest way to cool a CPU. But as you say, if you have headphones on the noise doesn't really matter THAT much!

Hi, I have been on the quest for a quiet, cheap PC for a while now as I use it in my home studio. My room is very quiet so I can hear even the 'silent' fans etc.. MY suggestion would be this: *Case - An AcoustiCase OR any mid to large case that is well built. Get some foam or thick carpet and glue it to the inside of the case. Cover everything except one hole at the bottom for cool air to be drawn in and the PSU fan at the top will blow hot air out. This will work like a chimney and be the best way. *CPU - Intel and clock it as low as it will go while still doing the job you want. If you don't know about clocking just leave it. *Heatsink - I don't think the Celeron 1gig will run with no fan at all so.. just get the biggest copper heat sink you can and replace the fan with a 'silent' one AND get a Fan Mate to use with it Or put a resistor in its power line. Make the fan speed as low as possible without the CPU overheating. Use a good thermal paste not the silly 'pads' that come on the bottom of the heat sink. *Hardisk - Any hardisk other than the Seagate barracuda (it gets too hot) and put it into a Silent Drive Enclosure These are great! *PSU - Get a Q-Technology Ultra-Quiet PSU They have a variable fan speed control and 'silent' fans. You can do this on the cheap if you open a PSU and solder a resister into the fan's power line. Also squirt silicon between the fan and the PSU and the PSU and the case where they touch. *Video Card - An old one with no fan and if possible no heat sink. Maybe a ATI Radeon 7000 *Motherboard - If your motherboard has a fan on it. Rip it off and get a Silent Motherboard Heat sink All of this put together will make for a VERY VERY quiet PC. It should be reasonably cheap compared to going for water cooling or a fridge computer thing.. lol Good Luck!

It may work better, but think of the heat from 1100 AMD computers! I'm not one to go for Mac's but I have to hand it too them, the G5 seems like a niiicce machine!

Senn, You do not require a soundcard as well! You just plug it into your USB 'hole' on the back of the computer and it works. Everything is built into that little box Connecting a guitar would be analog. The main reason I am sugessting that one is because it has the right input for a guitar without useing any preamp. You just press a button 'HiZ or LowZ' HiZ is for guitars and LowZ is for a line input such as a CD player.

If you want to connect your electric guitar WITHOUT going through an amp first, then you may need to get a guitar pre-amp. The reason it will not work so well on either the line in or microphone in is because the impedance does not match correctly. It should work on the line in input, but not as well as if you have a guitar preamp. http://www.edirol.com/products/info/ua5.html That would be great for what you want. However I don?t know the price! It shouldn?t be too much though. How to build a simple guitar preamp if you don't want to buy one - http://www.till.com/articles/GuitarPreamp/

N@Z- Not allot of point charging you as it would be like what.. £8? Then you have to convert it then send it and then I have to send the CD. I would however be happy to send you a copy when it is done free of charge! Or I can put them all on my web server. Is that a good enough bargin?

But is it SG$200?

None, it was plugged into the soundcard directly and then I used 'Trash' to add the amp sound. It is just a program that can make a signal sound like it has gone through a guitar amp. Best of all it has about 200 to choose from Would you like to buy a CD when it is finished!? Hahaha...no seriously..

I was 17 this augest 12th! Does that make me 5th or 4th youngest? Blues when was ur B-day? I don't think it is too bad to be young. It is a good escape if you say something silly The poll is a bit unfair really because people who are over about 40 will not vote

Guitars used are... Fender Gibson The distorion is added by the computer useing a plugin called 'Trash'

You wont know what your missing Why not give them a demo?

gryphon1972, yea it is a pro recording card. However it still sounds allot better than a standard card. The clock is low jitter and has decent output connecters etc.. USB.. http://www.m-audio.com/products/m-audio/au...diophileusb.php <--Prob what is suited to you. http://www.edirol.com/products/info/ua5.html http://www.edirol.com/products/info/ua1000.html

Thanx gryphon, the tunes are noralised so they can't get any louder! The reason is because the kick puts some nasty spikes in the mix, but I am not a fan of useing oodles of compression as it takes away from the attack of the kick. I reckon anyhoo... I hope your guitarist hasn't run away! Keep up the good work!

I think you are right Q00, however the Terratec 6fire has the front bay thing So there is more connectivity and you do not need to go round the back of the comp to plug in the headphones! But ultimatly I like this Hehehee....

Thanx for inviting me Blues! Just a pity I didn't know the Lounge existed until now! LMAO! Hmm.. I am in the middle of watching Noir, but I have not had much time in the last month to watch any I have the rest of this week off now though so watch out anime collection! I think my favourite animes of all time have to be Full Metal Panic, I, My, Me, Strawberry Eggs, FLCL and erm.. what else is good... Oh Cowboy Bebop and Angelic Layer! I draw anime as well, but I haven't done allot of that lately either. I think I might be board with drawing. Check out some of my drawings here: http://www.geocities.com/fuzzey_door/ Also I will just upload a pic for my signature that is a bit smaller than my current one! (I'm a perfectionist) EDIT: OOooh, I can't believe I forgot to plug www.oekakicentral.com It's a wicked webpage where you can draw anime and people will comment. You can also go into ?paint chats? where there is a big canvas that all the users of the chat share and you can chat and draw together and all see each others work. Check it out!

Wow that?s very good!! I love the atmosphere. As has been said, you have a nice voice. Just a pity I can't understand you! I think the reverb sounds ok, but I do think there is quite allot of hiss for only two instruments. Was the guitar very quiet? It's not exactly a problem though, I just noticed it as I know the AT3035 has an extremely low noise floor. We have quite allot in common, I also do some recordings of me and my friend (does that makes us a band?) I use a AT3035 mic for the vocals. Its a great mic for the price isn't it! I didn't know about the Studio Forums site, it is very good. I have also now posted some of my tunes if anyone would like a listen! Three songs and three very different styles. http://www.studioforums.com/6/ubb.x?a=tpc&...24&m=2786011844

The stupid thing is, it's for the people who listen in their cars going *BOOM BOOM BOOM* that they do it! When they have their 1,000Watt amps why can't they just turn the volume up a bit more?!

Sorry , I just need to upload this pic so that I can link to it of your server for my signature! Mod edit: In future please do that in the Lounge. In this particular case, the Animie thread.

I can't believe you are saying LP Meteora quality is poor! I think it is some of the best recording and mastering I have heard. Yes it is VERY compressed, but this type of music is simply not feasible if you don't compress. I believe in most of the tracks, the major compressed/clipping parts are only when the multiple layered guitars come in. The guitars are recorded by sticking their 400Watt or so amp into a sound proof box 3ft X 2ft X 3ft or there about and then putting a microphone about 1/2ft away from the driver! If you can imagine the uncompressed dynamics of that then you will understand the need for such compression. However I completely agree it has a hypnotic, trance effect. But personally I feel the effect is part of the music?s Uniqueness! At least is it better than White Stripes recording quality... BTW, you can probably get allot of those tracks you want if you go and look in old vinyl shops and get them nice and cheap! Good Luck hunting!

Rameish, I also gave my impressions in another thread. Bare in mind I am probably a bit biased as I own a pair! But to be honest the only things they have against them in my view are: 1.They have a strict criteria for amps 2.They don't have amazingly extended bass. What bass they do have, they do very well. 3. They have no isolation. "........ I was suggested the AKG K1000(£460). I got them mail order knowing I could send them back if I was displeased. I am unbelievably glad I tried them! They are the best headphones I have ever heard. The actual 'sound quality' is far better than any speaker (within reason.) With a centre vocal the sound appears roughly 5 inches in front of the face, rather than inside the head like ALL other headphones*see below* I have tried. The rest of the soundstage is spread right round the head and stops a bit behind the ears. With ALL other headphones I have tried the soundstage is either left, centred in the head or right. Compared to my speakers which are Monitor Audio Gold Reference 10's (£800) The soundstage is danm similar! The area between centre and the left right is less accurately pin-pointed but are still strongly present. The size also seems about the same. Although its smaller, because it is so much closer it appears the same. In terms of transparency they are in a world of their own. With a good recording such as Norah Johns it can sometimes be pretty freaky as the sound just comes from nowhere all around you with pin point accuracy, in perfect quality and detail. To me it feels like wrapping myself up in a blanket of perfect sound The same pin point accurate soundstage is still their with speakers but just doesn?t have the wrapping your self up factor Basically if you like the way speakers present music, AKG K1000 are a MUST MUST MUST try! They NEED at least 3days of full burn-in and also a good amp. They need a proper stereo speaker amp. I am happy using my Cyrus, but on some recordings it can come off as a bit too bright. If I had the money I'd get a valve amp. **Grado RS1 (£600) Grado RS2 (£450) STAX something (£450) Senn HD 600 (£180) Other cheap ones.. "

Check out the Terratec AudioSystem DMX 6fire 24/96 Creative Labs SoundBlaster Audigy 1 or 2 Platinum - just for listening the 1 should be okay, but the 2 has more tricks. I wouldn't think any sound card can rival that of a dedicated headphone amp until you get into the professional arena. Good Luck!

Don't use a solid state amp with the K1000 unless you also have the Stefan AudioArt cable! The K1000 really shows up the 'Hiisssk' and sibilant effects of transistor amps. I have not tried the AudioArt cable, but in reviews I have read that it makes it possible to use a transistor amp. But the cable is very expensive. www.stefanaudioart.com/K1000Cable.html The important thing is not the power but the voltage of an amps outputs. I believe the minimum of 8watts or so is if you are going to use an amp with 8ohm outputs. You see if you have an amp designed for a low impedance like that then it will not output a lot of volts. So you need a fair amount of watts to get the needed voltage. However if you have an amp with high voltage outputs to start with, such as an OTL Valve amp (about 30-45volts). Then you really only need a small amount of watts. I don?t quite know the maths but I would say 500mW would be ample if you have a 40Volt output. Because the important factor is the voltage, not the power. As can be seen by looking at the MG head OTL 32 which is designed for the K1000 but only has an output of 18mW! I hope this is not too confusing. I find it a bit hard to get my head round as well!

For those of you interested there was a review of the V3 in this months issue of Hi-Fi world! I wont copy the whole thing here, but this is the main ?jist? of it. ?The original X-Can was far tighter and faster than you would expect from anything with a glowing glass bottle, yet offered the tiniest of ?tubular palliatives? the result was all the speed and grip of solid state rivals but just the slightest valve sweetness and liquidity.? ?The new X-Can V3 claims less distortion, wider bandwidth, lower noise and better stereo separation than its already usefully improved V2 incarnation. It also has better load driving ability??..?The improvement to the volume control is undeniable? It adds ?a good deal more bass power and grip, midband speed and grip, and just a touch more treble air and space. The X-Can V1 was already a capable device but the new V3 is so good to be largely irrelevant to the sound you get from your headphones ? as the problems with your cans become ruthlessly exposed.? The review used HD600 and DT990 ??the musical fidelity box to be unremittingly powerful and big booted ? I head the senns pummel out bass like never before, but with dizzying speed, impressive as it was it seemed just a touch uptight, so I switched to the DT990 only to find a more full and breathy bottom end. With the HD600?s the midband had brilliant attack transients and metronomic sense of timing. The treble sounded more open than with the V1 and just a bit brighter too. A switch too the DT990 confirmed it was far more atmospheric than even the HD600 could convey.? ?it is head and shoulders abvove the Creek OBH-11 and not far behind the Sugden Headmaster.?

Spot on! Who is the avatar of anyhoo...? õ,O Edit: Oh btw Mackie, my name has no 'I' in it. I believe Tenson to be Japanese for 'descendant of god' or something like that.... Not that I?m trying to complain or anything, I just thought as you have called me that a few times now I should comment! If you don't mind me asking now, why did you choose 'Mackie'? Anything to do with the pro-audio brand? Does anyone else have an interesting story of such behind their name?