It’s a horrible time to leave the house right now, and that makes it a great time to listen to music. Whether you’re realizing that you never bought any computer speakers, need some way to isolate from your roommates and family, or are finally dusting off that old record collection, here are some easy upgrades that will help you get the most out of your quarantined listening time.
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Free Home Audio Tips
Often times, big audio improvements just take some menu diving and feng shui.
Check Your Streaming Settings
I can’t tell you how many friends and family I’ve had check their streaming settings, only to realize that they didn’t have them set on the highest possible audio quality. Enter your music streaming app’s settings menu and make sure you set it to high quality. Both Apple Music and Spotify make the Music Quality settings easy to find. You can download your favorite playlists and albums if your home Wi-Fi cannot handle the fast stream.
Speaker Location Is Everything!
Bass loves to hide in corners, so try to setup your speakers far from them—ideally in the middle of a wall. If you’re wondering where to place them relative to your usual listening position, keep this in mind: The ideal stereo image (big, wide, live-sounding audio) comes when your head forms an equilateral triangle with the two speakers. Also, do your best to make sure that the tweeters (the smaller round drivers that put out the high notes on most speakers) are as close to ear-level as possible, because higher-end sounds are affected by direction the most.
Move Your Furniture to Deflect Sound
Your own room is one of the most important aspects of a speakers’ sound. If you put an amazing pair of speakers in a terrible room, you’ll have terrible sound. Most rooms have similar problems: They’re a bit too reflective, and a bit too bass-heavy. Flat walls and corners are the culprit. Sound is a wave, and if that wave ricochets straight back off a wall, it can interfere and cancel out other waves coming at it, making for weird frequency dead zones in your room.
Try putting a chair or other dense furniture in the corners because that’s where bass tends to congregate and create weird sound problems. Also, consider placing a bookshelf or other irregular furniture on the far wall that faces your speakers—where the sound reflects back into the speakers—so that the different sizes and shapes of books on the shelf bounce soundwaves in different directions.
If You Wanna Go Pro…
Alright. This tip isn’t quite free, but it can be cheap. If you want to get fancy and make a dedicated listening room, look for proper sound treatment materials. Do not buy those weird foam squares you see on Amazon. They won’t work very well. Broad-spectrum soundwaves are absorbed by dense, porous material, so while high frequencies are absorbed by the foam, the mid and low-end frequencies go nuts.
Instead, snag some rock wool insulation and some fabric so you can make your own panels. Be sure to place them in corners and at reflection points, and you’ll notice wildly improved sound.
A Few Easy Upgrades
I get asked about affordable ways to upgrade sound quality a lot. Here are so of my go-to tips.
Modernize That Old Stereo
If you’ve got a stereo from the pre-streaming era, install something like an Amazon Echo Input. The cheap little dongle won’t quite compete with super-fancy streamers that cost hundreds (or even thousands) of dollars, but it sounds pretty darn good. It lets me easily stream my favorite new tunes without plugging anything in.
Get a Digital-to-Analog Converter
The soundcard in your computer is fine, but I always notice a significant difference in sound quality when I plug in a dedicated digital to analog converter (DAC) like the Audioengine D1 ($169) or AudioQuest Dragonfly ($99). You shouldn’t have to spend more than a couple hundred bucks for one, but you probably won’t find a good one for less than $50.
Computer Speakers, Remember Those?
If your PC could use some audio magic, I’m a big fan of the iLoud Micro Monitors ($300), which feature Bluetooth, and sound almost as good as speakers twice their price. If you’re looking for something more affordable, try the Presonus Eris speakers ($100), which offer a similar (though not quite as immersive) studio-style sound.
Try Some Studio Headphones
There are a ton of amazing, expensive audiophile headphones, but you’ll find the best value in studio headphones, or headphones designed for audio producers. They’re not the flashiest headphones, but they sound good for the money and are super durable.
You can find great studio headphones in the $100-150 range, like the Audio Technica ATH-M50xBT ($149), Sony MDR7506 ($145), Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro ($1