Yep, the KVM switches VGA, PS2, USB and audio. It's a Belkin Omniview: http://www.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.proces … oduct_Id=160570

The PS2 switching even works with my SGI/Amiga setup, which I was surprised at.

Of course, there's only ever one output from the KVM to the speakers active at any one time (be it from one of the PC's or SGI/Amiga directly, or from one of the other PC's which have the external mixers).

Nothing fancy about the mains. The sub, on the other hand....

What are these "speaker" things you guys are talking about? XD

OK, in all seriousness, I've been using high-quality headphones for the longest time now. I have speakers for my systems but routinely forget they're there unless a friend is visiting, which is pretty much the only time they ever get turned on.

As such, all the speakers I have are pretty cheap things and not really worth showing. Especially compared to the quality of my Sennheiser HD477 headphones, which I've had for several years now and plug into whatever device I happen to be using. :3

Gemini000 wrote:

OK, in all seriousness, I've been using high-quality headphones for the longest time now. I have speakers for my systems but routinely forget they're there unless a friend is visiting, which is pretty much the only time they ever get turned on.

May I suggest this?

Since starting this thread I've ditched the 2.1 idea for my retro stuff and bought myself some nice little Edifier M2's. I was running a bit short on space anyway with the sub and massive transformer, so when I saw the very stylish little M2's on sale locally I decided it was time to simplify. They don't sound as good but they're only hooked up to a 20 year old sound blaster anyway, and they're beige!

badmofo wrote:

Since starting this thread I've ditched the 2.1 idea for my retro stuff and bought myself some nice little Edifier M2's. I was running a bit short on space anyway with the sub and massive transformer, so when I saw the very stylish little M2's on sale locally I decided it was time to simplify. They don't sound as good but they're only hooked up to a 20 year old sound blaster anyway, and they're beige!

Let me guess: a little bit weak on the bass?

For the retro look, I have a pair of old Altec Lansing ACS-90:

True story: an insect once claimed ownership of the porthole of my right speaker and nested there for a couple of days. Of course I had to repossess the property 😐

Also have another Altec Lansing set, the MX5021, which, apart from a slight hum that you can hear if you stick your ear to the huge sub or crank up to insane volume, delivers surprisingly good audio for its price.

(those glossy plastic satellites look unassuming, no?)

Current IEM I'm using is HiFiMan RE-ZERO.

Planning a DIY ScanSpeak-based bookshelf monitors for future retro PC builds--on second thought, no, that's overkill. No retro soundcard/module is going to worth it. 😉 Except it's an RME or Lynx, maybe -- well, they'll be retro soon enough...

Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman wrote:

Let me guess: a little bit weak on the bass?

Good guess 😀

@archsan - how did you repossess it? Just crank up the volume?

badmofo wrote:

@archsan - how did you repossess it? Just crank up the volume?

She seemed to be comfortable with game sound and music. So I had to shake it upside down when she's not around to dispose of her dinner (dead spider carcass), and shut down the window for some time. I admit I avoided direct confrontation with her (and esp. her stinger thing).

badmofo wrote:

Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman wrote:

Let me guess: a little bit weak on the bass?

Good guess 😀

In multimedia speakers, the existence of "subwoofer" is more to compensate the mains' lack of bass than to deliver truly LFE,. Edifier is a pretty good brand, but it is no substitute for true bookshelf speakers. When I wrote this review, my praises were made in the context of multimedia speakers. 😀

I like TEAC and have a couple of them, including the fantastic PowerMax 240 and... they are still from the nineties 😉

Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman wrote:

Gemini000 wrote:

OK, in all seriousness, I've been using high-quality headphones for the longest time now. I have speakers for my systems but routinely forget they're there unless a friend is visiting, which is pretty much the only time they ever get turned on.

May I suggest this?

You may suggest it, but I won't follow it. I find earphones extremely uncomfortable. x_x;

Besides, the headphones I have now were just as expensive and the audio quality is better than virtually everything I've ever heard, save for a pair of studio-quality headphones my mother has had for decades. :o

Gemini000 wrote:

Besides, the headphones I have now were just as expensive and the audio quality is better than virtually everything I've ever heard, save for a pair of studio-quality headphones my mother has had for decades. 😮

You can't equate prices between IEMs and headphones, just like you can't equate prices between headphones and loudspeakers. If you're talking about sound quality (save for spatiality/staging/imaging, of course, where the better loudspeakers usually have clear advantage over IEMs/headphones) it will be far more cost effective to have it in IEMs first, and then headphones second, and loudspeakers last.

Say, just for example, IEM within several hundred dollars ~ headphones around a thousand ~ loudspeakers from the range of four grands and up (anything more will be paid for premium in design, brand and style -- or just pure SQ in some cases, but it's more like squeezing the last 5-10% here and there, if you could put numbers to SQ, that is...). That's why IEMs are getting more and more popular lately, by the way.

As for IEM comforts, it's indeed tricky to find one that would fit your ears. Best is to have a set of earplugs that is custom-profiled to your ears, such as offered by some IEM specialists like JH Audio, Westone, Ultimate Ears (now owned by Logitech) etc. They're quite pricier than universal-fit IEMs though.

Of course each form-factor has its own advantages (such as it's more comfortable to take a 20-min nap with IEMs than it is with headphones, hehe).

Every computer I have are routed through these ones:

http://www.ciao.co.uk/Productinformation/Camb … system__5457377

They're from 2003, but still do the job well enough, but I've been thinking of replacing them with something with some more "oomph".

archsan wrote:

You can't equate prices between IEMs and headphones, just like you can't equate prices between headphones and loudspeakers. If you're talking about sound quality (save for spatiality/staging/imaging, of course, where the better loudspeakers usually have clear advantage over IEMs/headphones) it will be far more cost effective to have it in IEMs first, and then headphones second, and loudspeakers last.

I know. My point was simply that, for the same price, I ended up with an awesome pair of headphones. ;)

I just use whatever speakers I can get for free. But I'm just being cheap 😜
I don't have a dedicated place for my retromachines yet, I currently use them on my main computer table (it has room for 3 rigs).

Gemini000 wrote:

I know. My point was simply that, for the same price, I ended up with an awesome pair of headphones. 😉

Of course they're awesome 😀 Also, Senn generally makes very comfortable cans.

Many of us have lots of sound cards we often debate upon being more or less quality. However, little attention is paid to our speaker and headphone systems we use to listen to the retro vibes.

I, for one, am using:

Sennheiser EH-2270

Yamaha YST-M100 (3.5" woofer)

KRK V8 (8" woofer)

What are your speaker and headphone systems?

I haven't had speakers connected to my computers in a long time... I pretty much exclusively use headphones for a variety of reasons. :B

For the past few years I've been using a pair of Sennheiser HD 477 headphones. Very basic and somewhat loose-fitting but exceptional sound quality... for $100 headphones. (Though I understand the price was slashed in half late in their life before being replaced by newer models.) Their frequency range is about average for the price and the sound quality drops out if you need to run them at really high volumes because you're deaf, but since I'm nowhere close to deaf, I don't have to worry about that. :P

One thing that's good about them too is that the cables and padding are replacable, a fact that came in handy when the cable cracked at one point a little over a year ago. The replacement cable was about $15 and they've been working fine since. :)

You can see me wearing them in Filler #26 of my Ancient DOS Games web show.

Speakers:

Yamaha TSS-15 Home theatre system

Headphones:

Philips NL9206AD-4