thanks for the replies :) i went ahead and ordered a soundblaster zx, it was on sale for <$80. (yes i know i shouldnt use the acm, with the sale the zx was cheaper than the z)

ah, the headphone jack's path uses a single dual-channel opamp vs the line-out using two single channel opamps? interesting.   also, you were mentioning the titanium hd in your post, does it still apply for the zx or is it laid out differently?

the headphone amp is a diy ppa v2, bought the pcb off (tangentsoft? i think) and sourced the rest of the parts elsewhere. made it like ..9 years ago or so?   so i take it the speaker jack does not go through the card's amplification stage? or is that recommendation more due to headphone jack...

wasnt really sure if this should go in the dac forum or here.   i'm looking for a replacement for my desktop, i had an x-fi elite pro that bit the dust. seeing as last time i really looked into audio stuff was when the x-fi cards were the hot new thing, i wanted to check in to see if the...

bullet points up front, details / context to follow:   -budget: <$100 -no amp needed (already have one) -50/50 split games / (music movies etc)     context: i'm looking for a replacement for my desktop, i had an x-fi elite pro that bit the dust. seeing as last time i really looked into...

thanks for the feedback guys, i'll try and wait to see if there's a good enough sale that i can justify expanding my budget :)

is there a fundamental difference between the z and zxr, or is it more of an incremental upgrade? for the price, the z is looking pretty good to me at its price, zxr is a bit steep. might just live off onboard sound for now until black friday rolls around and hope they go on sale :)

what's the current consensus on sound cards for fps gaming? my old x-fi elite pro just kicked the bucket a couple weeks ago (some visibly busted caps, tried replacing them but didnt work :( ) and i'm looking for a replacement. through some quick searching i've been seeing some stuff about the...

is this thread still active? it seems like the images in the first post are no longer hosted, does anyone have them saved?   my x-fi elite pro recently bit the dust, it was causing my computer to crash. upon inspection, it seems i have a few bulging caps (3 of the 4 medium sized ones that go...

nah, it was pretty easy. it's just the pleather (fake leather?) material, cuts pretty easily. then underneath that is the foam inside of each bump that's glued to the headband. if you're adding a layer of foam like i did, you don't have to be too neat / even with cutting out the lumps, since the...

i combined what a couple other people here have done, i knifed the lumps off with an exacto knife and then used some high density foam strips (they sell a 25' roll for like 3 bucks at your local hardware store, they're used for weather stripping / insulating) to line it with. i put two strips...

i just got mine in a couple days ago, i ordered one. :)   so far so good :) i haven't done the bass port mod yet, but my ppav2 is currently sitting broken next to me too (need to fix a couple wires that broke). gonna fix the amp first and try it some with the amp before doing the bass port...

i'll probably just buy them soonish and see for myself, i dont think there's anywhere i'd be able to try them around where i live. there's only so much that can be conveyed through words :p

so it seems like it stock it's on the colder side but the bass port mod moves it to the warmer side? sounds pretty good to me :)   have you tried the bass port mod combined with k712 pads?

are you comparing with the stock q701 or modded? thanks for the input :)