New to the world of Audiophiles and need some help!

You need a better source either a internal soundcard or an external DAC.

IIRC, those headphones do not require a headphone amplifier to sound as they should as they are lower impedance.  That is not saying you cannot use one if you want or find a unit that you like that has one.  You can find either soundcards or DAC's with and without headphone amplifiers.

Do you want other features like for gaming or movies...etc?

Do you want any type of surround sound virtualization such as Dolby Headphone or CMSS-3D?

Quote:

Originally Posted by chayYEAH 

Okay so basically my soundcard is not actually good enough to drive these headphones so they sound as good as they could, right?

 

Would it be enough to get proper headphone amps in order to experience the full quality or do I definitely need to get a new soundcard too?

 

And yes, since I game somewhat competitively some surround sound virtualization would be nice I guess, though this will only be able with a new soundcard?

 

I am really totally new to this world, sorry haha :D

The onboards are just lower quality in comparison to what is out there so a better source will give you better quality for your HD595's.  In your system, your weak link is definitely your source.

Adding an amplifier will not really help in this situation because your headphones do not really need an amplifier so you need a better source.

If you game and want virtual surround, then I suggest one of the better gaming cards such as the X-FI Titanium HD as that will give you higher end sound and surround sound virtualization for your games.

There are other cards that have different routines for headphones such as Dolby Headphone.

I would say the new X-FI Titanium HD would be your best bet though given your requirements but there are many products and different ways to go here.

My first post also.. but I've been reading around on this forum for well over a year and found a lot of helpful information regarding my most recent purchases (HD650 and Nuforce HD dac/amp).

I was actually in the same situation as you about a week ago. I've been listening to HD595's through my computer with an X-Fi Titanium sound card for the past two years. My music collection is in 16bit 44.1hz flac and I love everything but country, but I felt like I was missing something. The HD595's felt kind of empty.. so I sold them and decided to take a step up and get the HD650's and a good dac/amp combo.

The HD650's are amazing.. you won't be dissapointed at all. However, like you said they do need to be amped properly. I received the headphones in before the amp, so I had them plugged into my X-Fi Titanium soundcard. They sounded good, not bad at all. But moving from the soundcard to the Nuforce HD was a huge difference. Everything is much more lively and full.. big step up from the HD595's. It all sounds better. There are much better descriptions in other places on this site, but that's the best I can give as of now.

The Nuforce HD set me back $350usd, but you can get the Nuforce HDP with more inputs and a preamp for $100 more (not sure if that matters). Some other dac/amps I've considered were the fiio e7/e9 combo (which is ~ $150) and the Yulong D100 (~$450). I went with the HD because of the reviews it got when being paired with the HD650's. The HD650's are a bit of a darker sounding headphone (more focus on the lower frequencies), but when paired with HD, which is a brighter dac/amp combo, they sound much more neutral.

Read around a bit and decided for yourself what you think will be the best dac/amp for your headphones. Your current soundcard will make the HD650's sound good, but not as good as the could sound. I ultimately decided to go with with Nuforce HD and couldn't be happier, especially at this very moment as I listen to the new Radiohead singles.

Also, I don't game so idk how these would sound with games. They do sound awesome with movies though. And make sure you give them some burn-in time also. I've been burning mine in over the past few days with music and pink and white noise. They've had about 35 hours so far of burn-in and they sound way better than they did out of the box. I was a bit disappointed initially as they sounded almost the same as the 595's.. But they improve a lot!

Quote:

Originally Posted by chayYEAH 

Oh sorry, I should've pointed it out more clearly that all the information I am asking for refers to the HD650s now, as I am getting them for christmas, which is in 4 days^^

 

Was already wondering, as I am a 100% sure that the HD650s require headphone amps for one to get the best quality out of them :p

 

 

So I am referring to the HD650s :)

Well that that is different as the HD650's require an amplifier.  So a DAC amp combo would be a good choice for you but you just get stereo output, no virtualization for gaming.  What you can do, is find a used X-FI card and connect it to an external DAC through S/Pdif.

This way you have the features you want for gaming and the upgraded sound and amplification from the DAC/amp.

Again, there are many different ways you can go here depending on what you want your system to be capable of.

A few examples:

USB DAC/ Head Amp Combo

USB DAC connected to a separate Head Amp

Gaming Card's digital output-> DAC/Head Amp

Gaming Card's Analog output -> Head amplifier

Sound Card with built in head Amp such as ST(X) series cards.

The Essence STX/ST would be an excellent match for the HD650, seeing that the DAC on it is of the highest calibre and the onboard headphone amp excels into high impedance loads. Reasonably priced to boot!

I use the ST with my HD650 and it sounds great!

Quote:

Originally Posted by chayYEAH 

Okay, so I pretty much decided to go for either an X-Fi Titanium HD or the Xonar Essence STX, can anybody tell me which one is better?

 

And does anyone know if the Xonar HDAV 1.3 Deluxe is better than these? Or is that one only really useful for watching movies? Because I could get that one too.

 

I will most probably also get a headphone amp in the (very) near future.

The Xonar Essence STX has a capable dedicated headphone amp built-in that can handle high-end dynamic/ortho headphones like the HD650, whereas the X-Fi Titanium HD has no dedicated headphone amp (you're presumably expected to use an external one), but a better DSP for gaming. Still, the Titanium HD should drive an HD595 adequately, though the HD650 could give it trouble.

I wouldn't advise forking over the cash for a card like the Xonar HDAV if you have no need for the audio portion of the HDMI interface, especially not for headphone listening (unless you plan on getting a Smyth Realiser later on).