Best Soundcard (PC) for Bassy Music like trance, dubstep, etc.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ineedmorebase 

Thanks, what the title says :P

Heya,

Xonar STX or Titanium HD. Both have amps and are great for headphones. Hope you have the right headphones though. Using a $120~$200 soundcard to power some $50 cans is silly. Alternatively the Xonar DG is only $35 and arguably drives headphones just as well determined by listening (not by numbers).

Overall, you're better off getting an external USB DAC/AMP that will blow these sound cards out of the water and be useful on ALL machines, not just one computer at a time.

Check out the Hifiman EF2A or the Matrix Cube Dac. Both are DAC/AMPs in two different price tiers that are excellent and will drive nearly anything you have unless you're super high end.

Very best,

I've read at several places that Titanium HD would have a bit stronger bass output between the two.

However since you seem to mainly look for bass output you should concider following option. Get some Audigy 2 ZS or Audigy 4 card (Audigy 2 ZS will be more than fine and is the easiest to find 2nd hand and should cost you around a silly $15 or so, believe me you want to try it out for such price). Install kX Audio 3rd party drivers. Start using the wonderful hardware-based DSP 10-band EQ that you can even load multiple times if one with +/- 12 adjustment range wouldn't be enough, I've only tried with up to 3 EQ instances and for sake of testing, tested boosting bass by a whooping +36 and lowered the volume sliders (as raising the EQ sliders will ofc result in higher output levels too) and it sounded like being next-door to a nightclub with the bass bleeding through the walls and the rest were barely heard, yet it didn't clip/distort like almost any software EQ would have (iTunes, foobar2000, winamp etc) already would started doing with some perhaps 2~3 dB gain unless lowering preamp and lowering preamp or lowering the whole curve and keeping bass sliders at zero-level will ofc also result in more bass but in lower sound quality as well compared to using a hardware DSP EQ and raising the bass sliders. It's something that has to be heard and you become a believer. This option will provide you more bass than the other 2 soundcards alone ever would be able to due to software (implementation) limitations and has the capability to bring even basshy headphones to become bassheavy.

I listen to a lot of trance, hardstyle and some dubstep (mostly Mt Eden which also have some melodies in it) and I can't see myself changing soundcard anytime soon from my Audigy 2 ZS due to the kX Audio drivers.

Both cards have EQ functions so you can base your buying one some other factor.... I myself have the Ti HD since it's the best for gaming.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TwoEars 

Both cards have EQ functions so you can base your buying one some other factor.... I myself have the Ti HD since it's the best for gaming.

Yea poor ones though, at least the Asus one. Ti HD might be a bit better, is it hardware based though? Can't seem to find that info anywhere. As a pro-EQ enthusiast (that have tried like 20 different EQs) I know there's a huge difference between one EQ and another. The kX Audio driver included EQ allows 0.1 increment adjustments and beyond +/-12 adjustments (without distorting too).

sorry doublepost.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ineedmorebase 

how about fiio e7/11

 

Heya,

If you can get the combo used, it's a great combo. No one can argue with the power of the FiiO e9 for the price point except for snobs essentially (cause it's FiiO, but they're great, good products for a price point that competes). I just wouldn't recommend spending more on your dac/amp than your actual headphones (at least not until you're in the super high end arena and it doesn't matter that things are thousands of dollars to you). In the entry point, spend more on headphones, less on your other components. Just make sure you have a decent enough DAC so that you're not listening to noise and hiss. The amp doesn't need to be crazy, most entry level stuff doesn't even need amplification either. Brand new, the e7/e9 combo is like $230. Used you can get it for less than $200 likely. Take a look in the for sale forum. I think I saw it for sale around $160 which is a great price. Otherwise, consider some like the Nuforce or iBasso line in the $100 range. With the 580's I don't think you're going to notice a huge difference between a little amping and serious amping. Again, I can't help but recommend the hifiman EF2A. Powerful and a nice USB dac for the price point--just not portable, and it's tubey and looks sweet and retro (if you like that sort of thing).

Then simply use your player of choice (fubar for example) and use the EQ and play with it. You can milk it for more bass, just tweak slowly so you don't distort your sound. Then you can use the setup on any machine, and not just a PC with an internal slot for a sound card (like migrating to a laptop for example).

Even better, get something that has inputs other than USB (find an entry/mid level dac that accepts USB, spdiff, optical etc) so that you can get the most out of your money (ie, always be able to hook it up to any device, not just a computer--and also be able to hook up multiple devices and switch between sources). That way you can enjoy different stuff without rendering some of your equipment obsolete when you get upgraditis.

Very best,