what's the best setup for my pc

heyhey!

new to the forum, yet have been reading for months now. i currently have a logitech Z623 2.1 speaker set, and am looking to get a really nice headphone/amp(if neccessary) setup to add to it.

a little background..

my video card (gtx 470) is so big it covers up my x1 slot, so getting a sound card in there is out of the question.

i could get a PCI soundcard but i wasn't sure if that would make a major difference from my realtek 5.1 onboard card.

also, i am currently looking at the hd595's, the ah-700's, and the s60i.

my question is, what's the best route to getting a good headphone setup going??? is it headphones+amp? headphones+pci soundcard? just headphones??

i'm willing to spend 200 on the cans, and no more than 150 on the amp, or soundcard.

i can't figure out if the sound quality will be worth the additional 150 for an amp or card. any input would be greatly appreciated!!!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Roller 

What are you planning on listening to? Music, games, movies?

 

And when you talk of ATs, I suppose you're talking about either ATH-A700 or ATH-AD700, closed and open cans, respectively.

 

The sound quality of a dedicated DAC has nothing to do with that low form of buzzing circuitry that is onboard sound

thanks for the reply!

i play a lot of fps games mostly. for music, i listen to classical/ambient (sigur ros, clint mansell, mozart, epica, etc.), and a little bit of everything else. 

and when you said that the dac has nothing to do with the pos sound card i have....is that a hint that i need a soundcard and not an amp or amp/dac? haha

Quote:

Originally Posted by Roller 

Well, since you play a lot, specially FPS genre, you need accurate positional cues, which make certain headphones better, as well as a soundcard (DAC) that fares better for games.

 

I recommend you getting Creative X-Fi Titanium HD, it's within your budget, great for games and quite good for music as well.

 

About headphones, many people think that ATH-AD700 (not ATH-A700, those are closed) are very good for FPS, giving indeed a competitive advantage.

 

So perhaps the Titanium HD and ATH-AD700 would be a good set up for what you look for, as well as being within budget. If you wanted to slightly improve over that combo, you could also get a PA2V2 amp.

 

And I'm sorry about how I sounded about that piece of circuit you have, but it shouldn't even be called sound card as it is merely an onboard chipset

hahaha it's all good! i would have to agree!

as stated in the first paragragh, unfortunately :( , my graphics card is hiding my only pci-e x1 slot so i can't get any pci-e soundcard in there. 

that's the main reason why i couldn't decide on a decent setup. have regular pci, and usb, to decide between.... :( 

okay. you wouldn't prefer the usb x-fi HD you have??? 

and thanks for all the help! 

now i just wish i could actually try on a single pair of these headphones before i buy, lol. i've returned every gaming headset (g930,g35,tritton 720s, tritton ax 51 pros, and on and on) you guys can think of already, after trying them out. 

hey.

they discontinued the prelude

check out these two. is either a good option?? is the extra 100$ of the meridian worth it?? 

http://www.auzentech.com/site/products/x-meridian2g.php

http://www.auzentech.com/site/products/x-raider.php

so i couldn't find a fatal1ty pro over the past week (even used, minus one that i saw with like 30$ shipping and it had problems lol) 

but i DID just see this at a local store

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0310208

what's the downside of getting that versus the fatal1ty pro??? it's the x-fi xtreme gamer whereas the one you mentioned is the x-fi xtreme gamer fatal1ty pro? 

negative.

my video card's massive body is hiding the pci-e x1 slot.

only thing it's not blocking is a regular pci slot

and i wish. it would make my life MUCH more simple lol.