When it comes to stereo equipment, I am a bit old school. Since the advent of digital music files, I seem to have simply grown more and more ignorant and confused when it comes to tweaking for the best sound. Hopefully, knowledgeable folks on this forum will be willing to help me with advice to tweak my system to obtain the best sound possible, while working with my current equipment, or if I should add any, not spend more than $300.
My equipment:
- Custom built PC including: Intel Dual Core i3-6100 CPU @ 3.70GHz, 16GB RAM, On board Realtek Audio utilizing Realtek system equalizer in Windows 10, MusicBee player, MP3 and FLAC music files
- Emotiva XPA-2 power amp
- Emotiva USP-1 preamp
- Grado Labs SR-325 headphones
- Jim Holtz Statements custom built speakers http://speakerdesignworks.com/Statements.html
- JBL subwoofer
The are a couple of major problems I am dealing with. The first is that I am hearing impaired, especially with frequencies above 1kHz, although I can still hear them. This requires the use of the Windows equalizer to improve the sound, but does increase distortion.
The second big problem is that I was forced to move upon sudden notice into an apartment that has a terrible floor plan for my system, and there is little I can do about it for the time being. My system sounds great, especially in a rectangular room, with the speakers placed properly as advised by the designers. The system is also at its best at higher volume levels to really shine. My neighbors would not appreciate that unfortunately. With my hearing impairment and bad room acoustics, the sound is just muddy at lower volume levels.
Based upon my equipment and issues, what advice could you give that would help to add some clarity/detail to the sound at lower levels, to include hardware or software for less than $300?
When it comes to stereo equipment, I am a bit old school. Since the advent of digital music files, I seem to have simply grown more and more ignorant and confused when it comes to tweaking for the best sound. Hopefully, knowledgeable folks on this forum will be willing to help me with advice to tweak my system to obtain the best sound possible, while working with my current equipment, or if I should add any, not spend more than $300.
My equipment:
- Custom built PC including: Intel Dual Core i3-6100 CPU @ 3.70GHz, 16GB RAM, On board Realtek Audio utilizing Realtek system equalizer in Windows 10, MusicBee player, MP3 and FLAC music files
- Emotiva XPA-2 power amp
- Emotiva USP-1 preamp
- Grado Labs SR-325 headphones
- Jim Holtz Statements custom built speakers http://speakerdesignworks.com/Statements.html
- JBL subwoofer
The are a couple of major problems I am dealing with. The first is that I am hearing impaired, especially with frequencies above 1kHz, although I can still hear them. This requires the use of the Windows equalizer to improve the sound, but does increase distortion.
The second big problem is that I was forced to move upon sudden notice into an apartment that has a terrible floor plan for my system, and there is little I can do about it for the time being. My system sounds great, especially in a rectangular room, with the speakers placed properly as advised by the designers. The system is also at its best at higher volume levels to really shine. My neighbors would not appreciate that unfortunately. With my hearing impairment and bad room acoustics, the sound is just muddy at lower volume levels.
Based upon my equipment and issues, what advice could you give that would help to add some clarity/detail to the sound at lower levels, to include hardware or software for less than $300?