Headphones and Soundcard - Page 4

sorry to bump a thread, i have some questions regarding gaming/music soundcard..

alright, im buying a new pc in 3 months, with auzentech xfi forte in it, my doubts about it :

 

1. is it durable enough? i saw a thread in headfi that saying it broke after a month.

http://www.head-fi.org/t/503907/is-my-auzentech-forte-dying-crapping-out-on-me

 

 

2. can it power a beyer dt770 pro? im also upgrading my headphone

3. does it work on win 7?

 

thanks a lot headfi gurus!

I had an Auzentech X-Fi Forte for a while, though I did trade it to someone who needed the extra analog outputs for a Creative X-Fi Titanium HD. (Not because I needed to, but I did want to put the Titanium HD to the test...)

 

It worked fine for the most part, with the grounding "fix" not really improving anything and possibly making things worse. Since the card had a heatsink on the EMU20k2 DSP and was originally purchased in March 2011, I have reason to believe it came from a later batch that fixed most of the grounding issues. As for OS, I run Win7 64-bit, and there weren't any issues with the drivers from what I can tell.

 

The only weird thing was that the front-panel output would occasionally have this loud buzzing, and it was rather unpredictable as to when it would start or stop. Rear output was perfectly clean, however, and since most front-panel audio jacks on computer cases add a horrid amount of noise...

 

I cannot vouch for its compatibility with a headphone I've never had, though. The only dynamic headphones I've owned ran fine without dedicated headphone amps. What I can say is that it gets really, REALLY loud to the point where on such efficient headphones, I wouldn't want to listen at any more than 7-8% volume (driver side).

It has a built-in headphone amplifier that drives the headphone output with discrete transistors, unlike most cheaper sound cards that use an op-amp directly as the output stage. I did not find any specs on what voltage it can output on the headphone jack, but the line output is 3 Vrms, and the headphone one is probably at least as much. According to the specs, it is suitable for headphones in the range 16 to 600 Ohms, but this type of impedance rating is mostly marketing. In any case, it should be fine for the 80 Ohm version, and will be adequate for the 250 Ohm one as well.

namelessPFG, 

how is the xfi titanium compares to your old forte?

 

 

+1 stv014, thanks!

 

probably i should post in the computer audio subforum instead ~~

 

I have the impression that it's a tad warmer (slightly punchier bass, anyway) and has more stable drivers, though the mic boost is oddly missing. (Also, no provision for balanced input like the Forte if you need it.)

 

Also, the volume setting seems to be just as loud as the Forte (with dynamic headphones plugged in directly) and 1% through 5% volume still = mute. Could be an EMU20k2 (PCIe) thing over the older EMU20k1 (PCI)-based Prelude for all I know.

 

Do note that unlike the Forte, there is absolutely no provision to have the RCA jacks and 3.5mm headphone-out playing simultaneously. If anything's plugged into the headphone-out, it automatically mutes the RCA output. Creative claims this is a hardware feature that cannot be fixed by drivers. In my case, it doesn't bother me at all since I don't have any need for simultaneous output, just the RCA output feeding an external headphone amp.

i'd probably go with xfi then, though now im unsure with choosing internal sc or external dac...hmm

Edited by aTlantiz - 12/9/11 at 5:36pm

Start off with a sound card and hold off on external DACs until you have $300-500 minimum to spend. Anything less would likely be inferior performance-wise to an Essence STX or Titanium HD.

 

Even then, you'd want to keep an X-Fi card as a DSP and S/PDIF output to the DAC so that you still have the gaming features, particularly CMSS-3D Headphone.

I'll follow your advice then :), thus i can save up for further setup

 

*edit 

 

in xfi titanium hd web description,it says "Headphone output for audio listening up to 115dB 33 Ohms, and 117dB, 330 Ohms, at 24bit/96kHz"...wait this sc doesnt have a pre-amp does it? so what those numbers mean then?

 

what is an op-amp ? ~~

 

 

Edited by aTlantiz - 12/9/11 at 9:08pm

Whoops, didn't notice this post until now.

 

Yes, the sound card has a pre-amp...otherwise, the microphone input would be useless.

 

It's said that it doesn't have a discrete headphone amplifier, but it's still likely quite capable of driving more sensitive dynamic/ortho headphones. I have no idea what the numbers mean myself. Regardless, if you really need an amp, it's best to go external and feed it with those RCA outputs.

 

OPAMPs...they clearly amplify the signal in some fashion, but I don't know all the details. What I do know is that the Titanium HD allows you to swap/"roll" both the I/V opamps and the buffer opamps, whatever they may mean. This can change the sound signature to one's liking.