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Hooking up RP8's?

Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2011 8:31 pm
by ChadDub
So I'm gonna buy a pair of KRK RP8's this week, but I'm wondering what I need to hook them up to my laptop.

Can I just connect them into my headphone jack in the front of my laptop or do I need a mixer or an interface?

I'm looking at a picture of the back of one right now and it seems that I have TRS, RCA, and XLR inputs to choose from, and I know XLR isn't an option because I don't have a mixer.

Re: Hooking up RP8's?

Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2011 8:34 pm
by Sine69
An interface isn't required, but it is the preferred method.
My RP5s are plugged into my headphone jack. Works fine for now ;-)

Re: Hooking up RP8's?

Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2011 8:38 pm
by ChadDub
How'd you do it? With what type of cables? I have a shit ton of cables and adapters so I can plug shit into my laptop, but idk what exactly they're called.

Re: Hooking up RP8's?

Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2011 8:40 pm
by Heartless
Get an audio interface. Be a man. Do the right thing.

Re: Hooking up RP8's?

Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2011 8:43 pm
by Phase Down
I say get an audio interface, you will need 2 xlr cables & 2 power cables.

Re: Hooking up RP8's?

Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2011 8:51 pm
by Sine69
ChadDub wrote:How'd you do it? With what type of cables? I have a shit ton of cables and adapters so I can plug shit into my laptop, but idk what exactly they're called.

Just a cable with a 1/8inch on one end, and it splits out to 2 RCA cables on the other end.
Again, an interface would be your best bet, but if you don't want to drop the extra cash that will get the job done.

Re: Hooking up RP8's?

Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2011 8:52 pm
by ChadDub
So what interface should I get? I'm not buying 500 dollar pair of monitors and not having the best sound I can get.

Re: Hooking up RP8's?

Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2011 8:57 pm
by Heartless
ChadDub wrote:So what interface should I get? I'm not buying 500 dollar pair of monitors and not having the best sound I can get.
I use an M-Audio Fast Track. It's simple, cheap, and works great.

Re: Hooking up RP8's?

Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2011 9:16 pm
by Phase Down
M-audio's fine, or get a lexicon ionix u22, its sweet.

Re: Hooking up RP8's?

Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2011 10:40 pm
by david nicol
Go big or go home, go with the Firepod. 10 fucking inputs of glory.

Re: Hooking up RP8's?

Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2011 10:48 pm
by RandoRando
Get the focusrite saffire or ^^^^^ . And sine how is your laptop headphone powering your rp8s. Oh wait they r powered speakers. But still isn't the sound quality shotty?

Re: Hooking up RP8's?

Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2011 7:43 am
by VirtualMark
Mate.... i just bought some rokit 8's too but i wouldn't use the laptop audio for them! Definitely get a proper audio interface. I'm using NI Audio DJ 2, which has 2 outputs and comes with the headphone jack to rca lead. Its pretty cheap and sounds great, but has no inputs, so you could go for the higher model or go for the focusrite sapphire which everyone recommends. I then needed to buy an extension for the rca leads.

If you're using a long lead then using the balanced inputs would be better, but for most uses rca will be fine.

What do you think to the rokit 8's? I thought they sounded real clean, and pretty loud too!

Re: Hooking up RP8's?

Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2011 7:45 am
by ChadDub
Well I'm hoping that they'll sound amazing once I actually get them. Turns out I'll be waiting for one more paycheck till I can buy them. And now that I have all this other shit to buy it might take even LONGER.

Re: Hooking up RP8's?

Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2011 7:58 am
by Sine69
RandoRando wrote:Get the focusrite saffire or ^^^^^ . And sine how is your laptop headphone powering your rp8s. Oh wait they r powered speakers. But still isn't the sound quality shotty?

As far as I can tell, the sound quality is fine haha. But I wouldn't know what it sounds like hooked up through an interface, so idk. :lol:

Re: Hooking up RP8's?

Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2011 8:47 am
by Depone
Sine69 wrote:
RandoRando wrote:Get the focusrite saffire or ^^^^^ . And sine how is your laptop headphone powering your rp8s. Oh wait they r powered speakers. But still isn't the sound quality shotty?

As far as I can tell, the sound quality is fine haha. But I wouldn't know what it sounds like hooked up through an interface, so idk. :lol:
Its like buying a ferrari and putting a skoda engine in it
:D

Re: Hooking up RP8's?

Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2011 8:50 am
by RandoRando
Depone wrote:
Sine69 wrote:
RandoRando wrote:Get the focusrite saffire or ^^^^^ . And sine how is your laptop headphone powering your rp8s. Oh wait they r powered speakers. But still isn't the sound quality shotty?

As far as I can tell, the sound quality is fine haha. But I wouldn't know what it sounds like hooked up through an interface, so idk. :lol:
Its like buying a ferrari and putting a skoda engine in it
:D
whats a skoda,

Re: Hooking up RP8's?

Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2011 8:54 am
by ChadDub
RandoRando wrote:
Depone wrote:
Sine69 wrote:
RandoRando wrote:Get the focusrite saffire or ^^^^^ . And sine how is your laptop headphone powering your rp8s. Oh wait they r powered speakers. But still isn't the sound quality shotty?

As far as I can tell, the sound quality is fine haha. But I wouldn't know what it sounds like hooked up through an interface, so idk. :lol:
Its like buying a ferrari and putting a skoda engine in it
:D
whats a skoda,
Yeah seriously I've never heard of a Skoda engine.

Re: Hooking up RP8's?

Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2011 8:57 am
by wub
Skoda is a car manufacturer. They used to be shit, really shit, back in the day. Then they got bought by Volkswagen, and now aren't all that bad. Their name still carries negative connotations though from their poor performance prior to being bought out.

Re: Hooking up RP8's?

Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2011 9:13 am
by advocate
it's definitely worth using balanced, shielded cables wherever possible. my rp8's went through of phase of terrible electrical interference due to have to use unbalanced RCA's to hook em up. Balanced Jacks or XLRs all the way!!

Re: Hooking up RP8's?

Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2011 9:16 am
by ChadDub
wub wrote:Skoda is a car manufacturer. They used to be shit, really shit, back in the day. Then they got bought by Volkswagen, and now aren't all that bad. Their name still carries negative connotations though from their poor performance prior to being bought out.
they're really obscure then because I have never heard of them in my life lol