Found the djtechtools site a few days ago, few questions id like to ask...

hello my names Joe from a town called Widnes in the northwest of England! :D
I'm bang into me techno, minimal and dirty electro. Also iv started listening to a bit of D&B and DubStep thanks to the Ape tent at creamfieds and a night in Liverpool called Chibuku!

I found this site a few days ago and found it very useful, you have already answered a lot of my questions. id like to find a little bit more info out and generally get your opinions.

I'v bin mixin a few little sets on VDJ for the past 7-8 months and recently moved on to traktor 3. I have a dell inspiron 1501, 3500+ 1.79ghz, and iv upgraded the RAM to 2gb.

Im using the standard sound card at the moment (using no headphones :o) hooked up to my oldschool sony stack up system. Starting over the next couple of days and hopefully finishing not too long after Christmas I want to get a nice basic set up on the go!

Firstly I would like to ask a quick question regarding an Audio interface, I'm torn between the Numark I/O and the audiofire2....as traktor can run a little slow anyway I'm worried adding a USB audio interface will slow things up that little bit more. My friend informed me using a firewire will use less processing power than a USB hence the reason I'v been looking at the audiofire2. However, my laptop does not have a firewire port but it does have a pc card slot on the side! So i was thinking of buying a pc card with a firewire port on it and hooking it up that way. Has anybody done this before? Any ideas/information/opinions would be appreciated!

Lastly the Sony ghetto stack up is going to have to go....
What amp and speakers would you be looking at? I want something that's not huge but will easily be able to blast my room with good quality and clear sound. They have to go loud enough to be able to hear around the house but not breaking the bank on price.

Thanks for reading! That was an essay...

Firewire is nice and could be a sweet option as it would leave an extra USB free. Unsure about the processing issue (I dont think it would be a big enough difference tbh).

Speakers look at getting a nice pair of 5/6" studio monitors. The KRK Rokit6 or the Mackie MR5 are awesome. I personally got the MR8s (8") because it ment I didnt neeeed to get a sub. 5/6 (any smaller size speakers) you will need a sub at some point.

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Originally Posted by midian

Firewire is nice and could be a sweet option as it would leave an extra USB free. Unsure about the processing issue (I dont think it would be a big enough difference tbh).

Speakers look at getting a nice pair of 5/6" studio monitors. The KRK Rokit6 or the Mackie MR5 are awesome. I personally got the MR8s (8") because it ment I didnt neeeed to get a sub. 5/6 (any smaller size speakers) you will need a sub at some point.

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The downside to firewire on a PC or PC laptop is that you need a power supply for your sound card. That's more to carry and means you'll need another spot on the power strip... and there's not always 2 available when you get to the club. But with that said, I think you will also avoid the dreaded Ground Loop issues that USB sound cards can have.

Oh true! Totally forgot that as I'm used to mac.

Yeah forget firewire USB ftw.

Using the PC Card slot on the side with drivers and all, is just one more reliability you dont really need.

Also, I have tried this setup (with the firewire pci-card) and had isues with the power to the soundcard. The nonlinear power at clubs made my soundcard glitch and also shut totally down! Powering the soundcard through the laptop is a much safer way, cause of the laptop batteri.

So IMO, always go for the USB when you dont have a firewire port on your laptop.

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Originally Posted by midian

Firewire is nice and could be a sweet option as it would leave an extra USB free. Unsure about the processing issue (I dont think it would be a big enough difference tbh).

Speakers look at getting a nice pair of 5/6" studio monitors. The KRK Rokit6 or the Mackie MR5 are awesome. I personally got the MR8s (8") because it ment I didnt neeeed to get a sub. 5/6 (any smaller size speakers) you will need a sub at some point.

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cheers for the info! Ill have a look into those speakers. Any ideas on a suitable amp for the money?

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Originally Posted by B33SON

The downside to firewire on a PC or PC laptop is that you need a power supply for your sound card. That's more to carry and means you'll need another spot on the power strip... and there's not always 2 available when you get to the club. But with that said, I think you will also avoid the dreaded Ground Loop issues that USB sound cards can have.

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Using another socket outlet will be fine for me, i only plan to be a bedroom dj :D you never know though i suppose. again, thanks for the advice.

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Originally Posted by Flaekiface

Using the PC Card slot on the side with drivers and all, is just one more reliability you dont really need.

Also, I have tried this setup (with the firewire pci-card) and had isues with the power to the soundcard. The nonlinear power at clubs made my soundcard glitch and also shut totally down! Powering the soundcard through the laptop is a much safer way, cause of the laptop batteri.

So IMO, always go for the USB when you dont have a firewire port on your laptop.

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The nonlinear power at the clubs? what do you mean by that? the socket outlets are wired in a radial circuit as a posed to a ring final circuit? I'm confused by this, being an apprentice electrician I'm sure I have a lot more to learn, therefore I'd love to know more. As said before utilizing another socket outlet for the audio interface shouldn't be an issue in my bedroom. However, due to the price difference and previous comments I am swaying more towards the USB Numark I/O.

Thanks for the info everyone :cool:

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Originally Posted by B33SON

But with that said, I think you will also avoid the dreaded Ground Loop issues that USB sound cards can have.

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in my experience a bus powered card like the numark dj-io is less likely to have ground loop issues then an externally powered card like a firebox since the bus powered card will only have one ground whereas the external powered card will have two.

i had two computers plugged into my home stereo system. with the dj/io i never got ground loop hum, but with the firebox i got hum and needed to change around my setup and always be mindful of what wires are crossing where.

Jo3 is right, you can get around this if you can plug the soundcard into a different outlet then the computer, but this is not always possible.