Head-Fi.org › Forums › Equipment Forums › Headphone Amps (full-size) › M-Stage, V-DAC, X-FI Titan Soundcard, Cans - simple questions
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

M-Stage, V-DAC, X-FI Titan Soundcard, Cans - simple questions

post #1 of 40
6/17/10 at 8:05pm
Thread Starter 
My x-fi titanium champion series (DAC) has a toslink in/out, which is what I wanted to use to connect to my AMP but it looks like the M-stage doesn't have optical in.. Anybody run into this before that is maybe familiar with one or both pieces of hardware? Will I need 3.5mm to RCA coax or just RCA to RCA coax? (which is best?)
Edited by sainthoodx - 6/18/10 at 11:14am
Reply

Gear mentioned in this thread:

Sennheiser HD 595 Headphones
Musical Fidelity V-DAC Upsampling Digital to Analog Audio Converter
PCI Express Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion Series
Powered by NexTag
post #2 of 40
6/18/10 at 1:21am
Thread Starter 
Do any AMPs have optical I/O? Or are toslink and spdif mostly there to help prevent DACs from bypassing a soundcard?
Edited by sainthoodx - 6/18/10 at 11:11am
Reply
post #3 of 40
6/18/10 at 1:59am
Thread Starter 
There are AUX input/outputs on the friggin' front faceplate of the x-fi titanium "I/O Drive". I'm wondering if I could just connect coax with RCA connectors from there (acting as a DAC) to the amp??
Edited by sainthoodx - 6/18/10 at 11:04am
Reply
post #4 of 40
6/18/10 at 4:18am

Firstly spdif is digital, and from a titan you need a dac that accepts a toslink connection.  Secondly your current option is to connect via rca ic's to the m-stage inputs.  Would the quality degrade?  Yes, but the titan's not very high qual anyways.

Reply
post #5 of 40
6/18/10 at 10:31am
Thread Starter 
Did you mean that it isn't a high quality source or high quality DAC? I was hoping to plug the soundcard (acting as a DAC) directly into the amp. I didn't want a stand alone DAC if I could avoid paying, but If I got a stand alone DAC, I'd get one with optical in, right? Because optical is the only DAC connector that won't bypass soundcard features, right?
Edited by sainthoodx - 6/18/10 at 11:20am
Reply
post #6 of 40
6/18/10 at 6:41pm
Thread Starter 
I feel like i've learned a billion new things in the past week about audio. Thanks guys. I still have a long way to go.
Reply
post #7 of 40
6/18/10 at 6:56pm

I think you'll be happy enough going with IC to your amp.  When I had the titanium I was pretty happy.  When I got my STX I couldn't stand the titanium.  When I got my external dac I couldn't stand the STX.  BUt when I sold it all and went back to my titanium I didn't mind it too much once I got use to the SQ.  

Reply
post #8 of 40
6/18/10 at 7:39pm

If you can afford to buy a matrix without really knowing what it does you can afford a nice external dac to go with it - hook it to the soundcard and enjoy all your super duper effects processed digitally by the superior dac in the external unit.  A deidicated dac - not these all in one dac amp combos, you already have an excellent amp.

Reply
post #9 of 40
6/18/10 at 7:39pm
Thread Starter 
Great! I play games, so I don't want to lose the cool positional audio of the titanium. Do normal external DACs offer that or do you recommend i spdif an external DAC from my soundcard?
Reply
post #10 of 40
6/18/10 at 7:41pm

No. No. Yes.  Enjoy

Reply
post #11 of 40
6/18/10 at 7:53pm
Thread Starter 
Yes, I decided that I wasn't going to learn anything if I didn't just dive in and get my feet wet. So far I sound like an audio expert compared to everyone else I know (which is sad, but I'm a quick learner ;).
Edited by sainthoodx - 6/19/10 at 5:17am
Reply
post #12 of 40
6/19/10 at 5:14am
Thread Starter 
Which DAC with optical would scale well with my M-Stage and HD 595 combo (nothing rediculous, but is a good match for these two)?
Edited by sainthoodx - 6/19/10 at 5:18am
Reply
post #13 of 40
6/19/10 at 5:26am

check out the Audio GD range.

Reply
post #14 of 40
6/19/10 at 2:57pm
Thread Starter 
Meh... I can't even find the range.. Other ideas?
Reply
post #15 of 40
6/19/10 at 4:03pm

In all honesty unless you are going to get better phones than the HD595 - I don't even know why you bought the Matrix.  The Cambridge Dacmagic and Musical Fidelity V dac are popular here - These Items will be bottle necked by your current headphones.

 

I'd just plug the HD595 straight to the soundcard - I own these cans and don't even use them for music.


Edited by SP Wild - 6/19/10 at 4:06pm
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Headphone Amps (full-size)

Gear mentioned in this thread:

Sennheiser HD 595 Headphones
Musical Fidelity V-DAC Upsampling Digital to Analog Audio Converter
PCI Express Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion Series
Powered by NexTag
Head-Fi.org › Forums › Equipment Forums › Headphone Amps (full-size) › M-Stage, V-DAC, X-FI Titan Soundcard, Cans - simple questions