Finding your groove: getting into vinyl with Audio-Technica
I’d like to think that I could’ve been friends with the late Hideo Matsushita, founder of Japanese Hi-Fi powerhouse Audio-Technica. If I could, I’d travel back in time to 1960’s Tokyo, where a young Matsushita curated “vinyl listening sessions” at the Bridgestone Museum of Arts, exposing visitors to the sounds and possibilities of high end audio and the warmth of vinyl records. I imagine sitting with him in a mod coffee shop, listening to the stories of what he witnessed in those sessions, the conversations he had with visitors, and what ultimately motivated him to head back to his small apartment above a ramen restaurant and start an audio company of his own. In the histories I’ve read regarding AT’s humble beginnings, Matsushita’s motives seem clear. Produce high end audio at affordable prices, bringing audio excellence into spaces and to customers that simply didn’t have access to it before. His first two products, the AT-1 and AT-3 phono cartridges did exactly that, and...
Dec 6, 2023
From what I can tell, to get a functional setup for an XBox I need an DAC/Amp with optical in to get the audio from the Xbox. Then I also need to have a line out that will pass through the Mic input, which then has to be run to the controller. (Thanks microsoft...) So its a bit of a wiring mess. I'm not sure if there is a better setup that people are using- maybe just use a standard DAC/Amp, and since my modmic can be plugged in separately, I could run that straight to the controller- not sure if that works or not.
However, I recently came across the Mayflower ARC DAC/Amp, which has headphone output, but also has mic input, and a seperate pass through mic output. Clearly designed for Xbox compatibility. It seems to get pretty good reviews.
What are other people using for console DAC/Amp solutions? Is the Mayflower ARC literally the only option that doesn't suck?