Newbie Questions

Some of the higher end sound cards actually have decent amps on them, and since gaming is important you should get a good soundcard. I would suggest forgoing a dedicated amp for now and getting good headphones and good soundcard.

Something like Beyerdynamic DT880 or 990 (~$220-270), AKG K702 (~$250), Audio Technica ATH-A900 (~$180)

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Zalman ZM-Mic1 clip on mic $9. You can get some flex sheath tubing to contain this cable with your headphone cable so it doesn't get tangled or in the way.

For a soundcard, You could go with the Asus Essence STX $180 or the HT Omega Claro Halo ($200). Both have headphone amps to drive up to 600 ohms. I'm not mentioning the Creative Titanium HD because I have personally had a pretty negative experience with it, but you could look at that too. I would tell you to get a set of DT990 Premium (250 ohm version) that normally go for $215 on amazon (currently out of stock, maybe there was a sale), the zalman mic, and the HT Halo. That's a little over budget at $425.

You have posted the same question in two different threads.

"I mostly listen to music with heavy bass like deadmau5 and other such electronic"

==> I think Beyer Dynamic DT880/990 wouldn't be a good options to your favor. I have owned them and mostly suitable for classical/vocal/acoustics

Quote:

Originally Posted by DrGroove 
I'm not mentioning the Creative Titanium HD because I have personally had a pretty negative experience with it, but you could look at that too.

Care to elaborate? My experience with it has been quite positive for its intended purpose, as a sound card for a Windows gaming computer with EAX 5 and CMSS-3D Headphone that's also competent enough to deliver music with enough fidelity to do my Stax Lambda justice.

(Just don't even think of using it with Linux. Unlike other X-Fi cards, it's all but nonfunctional, even with ALSA patches that are supposed to remedy that having been out for a while and apparently not made official yet.)

Quote:

Originally Posted by willie828 

I put it in the wrong thread to being with so I then moved it here. I could not figure out how to delete the old one so...

No big deal to me, I've double posted myself.

Quote:

Originally Posted by NamelessPFG 

 

Care to elaborate? My experience with it has been quite positive for its intended purpose, as a sound card for a Windows gaming computer with EAX 5 and CMSS-3D Headphone that's also competent enough to deliver music with enough fidelity to do my Stax Lambda justice.

 

(Just don't even think of using it with Linux. Unlike other X-Fi cards, it's all but nonfunctional, even with ALSA patches that are supposed to remedy that having been out for a while and apparently not made official yet.)

Drivers are just terrible. I occasionally get pops or static in whatever I'm doing, and every so often sound will turn into about 50% distorted static. This requires disabling and re-enabling the speakers output in windows audio and that fixes it temporarily. There's also the major design flaw of having to manually swap cables in the back when you want to go from headphones to speakers. When everything is working properly, it sounds good and CMSS3D works well. However, gaming mode (required for CMSS3D) does some weird stuff for music, so you can't just leave it on gaming all the time. I leave mine on audio creation mode, which allows you to turn on bit matching. I also have to have it set to 2.1, as selecting the headphone option generates a soft humm/static.

I've very recently discovered that some of these issues MAY be related to having my CPU and RAM overclocked. I have no intention of ever NOT having an overclocked system and am sick of dealing with drivers, so I'm actually trying to move to an external device I can run optical out to.

I have had absolutely zero such sound glitches with my X-Fi cards on my four-year-old Q6600 (overclocked to 3.2 GHz, of course)/GA-P35-DS3P 2.0 system. I don't know if it's luck-of-the-draw or this motherboard being forgiving or what, but in my time of using the Prelude, Forte, and Titanium HD on that same system, sound is always as clean as the source through the rear outputs. (I don't use the front-panel case outputs; too much noise added.)

In terms of Game Mode and music, I hear no major difference between it and the other modes, not what I'd call "weird stuff". Perhaps my ears aren't trained enough, but SineGen reveals no audible differences. Of course, this is with CMSS-3D Headphone off; with it on, it'll obviously reveal an altered sound signature.

The forced speaker/headphone switching is an unusually inflexible design choice, given that Auzentech X-Fi cards don't have that problem. At least I'm a headphone-only user, which makes it a non-issue (just need the RCA-outs to feed a Stax amp).

Of course, anecdotal experiences are strange things...for example, last time I tested an ATI/AMD graphics card, I had driver issues that weren't present on my 8800 GT and even worse performance with the HD 4850, yet I see a lot of comments to the contrary.

well this is sort of related but i have me a question, too. i'm pumpin' out tunes via USB DAC and recording that output using audacity (through the internal mic on the front of my PC). currently i have pc -> nuforce uDAC-2 (in the market, however) -> schiit valhalla -> k702 as my listening setup. of course this mic input has a terrible snr and i've applied nothing to the signal. so then upon listening to me tunes (in this case dubstep and/ or minimal techno) i hear me some sweet electronic noise... my question: is there a hardware upgrade i can make to reduce this? i suppose i could play with the output file with some fancy signal processing software i have but that takes too much time... thanks all!

I think that you would like the Ultrasone HFI-580 for your style of music, this headphone also dose not really need to be amped, so you could get a better sound card / source with the extra money. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by PDT1137 

well this is sort of related but i have me a question, too. i'm pumpin' out tunes via USB DAC and recording that output using audacity (through the internal mic on the front of my PC). currently i have pc -> nuforce uDAC-2 (in the market, however) -> schiit valhalla -> k702 as my listening setup. of course this mic input has a terrible snr and i've applied nothing to the signal. so then upon listening to me tunes (in this case dubstep and/ or minimal techno) i hear me some sweet electronic noise... my question: is there a hardware upgrade i can make to reduce this? i suppose i could play with the output file with some fancy signal processing software i have but that takes too much time... thanks all!

I would hardly say this is a related question, but what does having a mic into your mobo have to do with an external setup? Are you saying when you plug the mic in you can hear something through your headphones?

dr groove, i do appreciate the response... in hindsight my question is completely unrelated... my external setup is really neither here nor there aside from the fact that its what i use to listen... the real issue here is that when i am recording music (usb dac -> front mic input -> audacity) the OUTPUT of the recorded file contains electrical noise from i can only assume the PC as i dont think there is a HD mic on the pc... i was wondering how i might be able to reduce this noise... its really only audible when the music is at low volumes (ie before the drop in dubstep... ) thanks!

Quote:

Originally Posted by PDT1137 

dr groove, i do appreciate the response... in hindsight my question is completely unrelated... my external setup is really neither here nor there aside from the fact that its what i use to listen... the real issue here is that when i am recording music (usb dac -> front mic input -> audacity) the OUTPUT of the recorded file contains electrical noise from i can only assume the PC as i dont think there is a HD mic on the pc... i was wondering how i might be able to reduce this noise... its really only audible when the music is at low volumes (ie before the drop in dubstep... ) thanks!

I'm assuming your recording source is a USB turntable then? And you're using RCA to 1/8" converter to go from uDAC2 to your mic in port?