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mad lust envy said:

So my E17 came in.... here is the ridiculous frankenstein needed for an E17+12 setup...



I'll be running the E17 through the USB dac, and whenever I game on PC, I'll hook up the spdif from the U3 to to the E17's spdif in. That in effect makes the D03k.... obsolete, but oh well...

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You might want to try the Xonar U7 instead. One device no cable hassle. And as I now can say it sounds more refined than than the Fiio E12. You can run any source @ 192/24. Sounds great.

I think I'm gonna go with the beyerdynamic custom one pro.  I like the looks, and if they sound good, I'm no audiophile so i think they should be good to go

Metal Gear Rising was surprisingly good... but extremely short. The audio and positional cues were superb, though.

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crazyg0od33 said:

I think I'm gonna go with the beyerdynamic custom one pro.  I like the looks, and if they sound good, I'm no audiophile so i think they should be good to go

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I could try them one time in a shop. They sound quite good and the bass switch works audible. Very interesting can. Only the earpads are not as deep as other Beyers I tried. So if you have large outer ears they might touch the driver baffle.

pietcux said:

You might want to try the Xonar U7 instead. One device no cable hassle. And as I now can say it sounds more refined than than the Fiio E12. You can run any source @ 192/24. Sounds great.

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The U7 doesn't even begin to come close to the E12's power. I'm sure it's a great source, but power leaves dsomething to be desired, and it doesn't have posted output impedances, etc. Again, since the U3 is a lot cheaper and I can bypass all of it's internal nonsense for an exterior dac/amp, there is no need for the U7 to me. All I'm taking from the U3 is the digital data. 0s and 1s.

All the main Xonar devices have at least 10ohm output impedances, including the higher end models compared to the U7. The E12 is near 0.

mad lust envy said:

The U7 doesn't even begin to come close to the E12's power. I'm sure it's a great source, but power leaves dsomething to be desired, and it doesn't have posted output impedances, etc. Again, since the U3 is a lot cheaper and I can bypass all of it's internal nonsense for an exterior dac/amp, there is no need for the U7 to me. All I'm taking from the U3 is the digital data. 0s and 1s.

All the main Xonar devices have at least 10ohm output impedances, including the higher end models compared to the U7. The E12 is near 0.

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Agreed, tried the u7, no power, and also quite metallic sounding- as if it was trying to be audiophile but just couldn't manage it. Better dac/amp than the u3 but no where near as good as the fiio e17/audioengine d1- you pay for it though, in $$$ and in complexity in setup

Did you set the swich to usb 2.0? It is on the underside of the device. When set to 2.0 and to high gain in the software, it can drive my AKG K702 quite well. And there is no metallic sound to be found.

The specs shown for the U7 are quite weak. It may drive something to loud volumes, but volume =/= driving force. The Mixamp alone can drive 600 ohm headphones to ear splitting levels. Its still a very weak amp.

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chicolom said:

Like Change is Good said, it sounds like it could be a ground loop issue.  I think that would explain why you don't get noises when using the battery powered E17, and why the noise goes away when you use either the mixamp or E09K separately. 
 
Apart from that, you may also be using a "noisy" USB port for power (try testing it using batteries for power), and it sounds like some of your connectors like the mixamp's HP jack and the Y connectorare a little flakey.
 

But the underlying noise issue sounds like it's a ground loop.

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Yeah, that should be it. I also assume that the ground conductor or something of the Y-cable is broken, because by groping that cable the noise gets louder or quieter. New one should arrive in the next 6 days, I ordered one with iphone standard pinout, 4 pole. L,R,GND,MIC. Hopefully that's the assignment what the Mixamp jack is using.
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benbenkr said:

 
USB on a desktop is the dirtiest connection on a desktop, period.
This is one the reason why USB headsets are stupid. Your USB's I/O is shared with a multitude of sources, not just a mouse and keyboard. It also routes itself from the ethernet port, also adding to the fact there's so many other components nearby (PCI-E slots for example). 
 
A laptop is usually a non-issue because it really only shares its I/O with... well, a mouse if you have one connected.
 
I'm fairly sure as the others have said, you have a grounding loop issue. Your power supply isn't grounded properly or your power extension strip is faulty.
When I first got my E09k, I had an issue with slight distortion when the volume pot is over 12 o'clock. I just needed to change my power strip and problem was fixed after that.

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I tried to use a completely different power socket with the E09k, just like you told me. Sadly no difference. What I noticed, as soon as the USB plug of the mixamp even touches the frame of a PC/PS3 - USB bus, the same noise gets slightly hearable - same the other way, with the USB bus of the mixamp. And with turning the Mixamp on, it reaches his usually, uncomfortable volume level.
 
MLE said some posts ago, that he'd got a separate USB hub to solve that kind of problem. You folks think, this would solve my problem too? I tried a USB extention cable, without success. A USB splitter may work different...

timnswede said:

Has anyone heard anything more about the Audio Technica gaming headsets? http://thegamerspad.net/audio-technica-gaming-headsets-paxaus/

Can't really find anything about them on google, I thought they would have gotten more attention since the AD700 are so popular for gaming.

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This... Could be amazing.

By the wording in the article, it could be the usual 3D wing system, or it could be "redesigned from the ground up" and finally fit European/Caucasian narrower heads without bending the headband in a few places. The earpad design could also use a bit of refinement to be more circumaural, it's big enough to be entirely circumaural but I believe they made the pads broader and shallow-ish so that the drivers could be closer to your ear and the pads are a bit on-ear to keep the middle ridge in your ear from touching the driver casing. In any case, with my size ears and head, the AD700 was the most comfortable headphone to wear for long marathon sessions once I had bent the headband bars in 3 places and put tension between the wings via a rubber-band.

The treble could benefit from a touch of refinement (may not happen in a made-for-gaming headphone), but I think the main thing people wished for with the AD700 was at least a bit more bass extension, which apparently they could achieve just by making the earpads more dense or experimenting with different wraps around the outside facing ring of the pads to seal in some of the acoustics... Apparently some Head-Fi'ers have experimented with Saran Wrap and achieved a massive (perhaps even overdone) increase in bass, so these cans have the potential.

I'll call it first. ADG1 = AD700 w/mic, AG1 = A700 with w/mic

Yeah, probably, but if they're going to change the internal plastic part to make it red (or the outside edge of the A700 yellow), then they could at least also localize the headband fit for Europe and NA by using a shorter bar.

Anybody mentioned the new Creative Headsets yet? The ZxR for 299€. Jesus. 
 
http://de.creative.com/p/gaming-headsets

Does anyone remember the Mixamp alternative that came out about 6 months ago, and looked like it had a ton of options? I can't remember what it was called, and can't seem to find it.

Thanks
-Erik

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fegefeuer said:

Anybody mentioned the new Creative Headsets yet? The ZxR for 299€. Jesus. 
 
http://de.creative.com/p/gaming-headsets

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In case you're not German: http://www.soundblaster.com/products/Sound-Blaster-EVO-ZxR.aspx
 
Looks interesting, I've been impressed by the new Z line of sound cards.