[despine]

HI.

I own a audio technica ath-ck7, A700, bought a eph-100 few months ago
and made a purchase on he-400, which will be in my hands in a few days.

So far I haven't got an amp yet. But I was thinking about O2 or schiit asgard.

I'll be sourcing from my desktop, through xfi titanium card. Not the HD version.
It has 3.5mm 7.1 output formats, and some spdif outputs, I'm guessing toslink.

Trouble is, I know asgard has rca inputs only, my soundcard doesn't have rca output. Only headphone 3.5 out and toslink, I think.

What are my options to connect Asgard to my soundcard? Which route is preferred and is there difference in sound quality?

My guesses are
- 3.5mm to rca to Asgard
-or toslink to some 13 dolor toslink/analogconverter -> rca cables to Asgard

If I got the toslink route, would I be able to use all the features from the soundcard?

btw, I saw a great deal on asgard/bifrost combo on craigslist, but the person isn't replying... I live in Long Island NY, I'm guessing his house got flooded from Sandy or he's just ignoring me...


I'm still just looking around to see what amp I should get, but there is just so much info and can't really decide on which one to get.
So far I've read that people use fiio products, m stage, lovely cube, and like bunch bunch of others like audioengine d1, o2.
Any recommendations would be nice.

Do you think I should just go with either o2 or Asgard?

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

HI.
I own a audio technica ath-ck7, A700, bought a eph-100 few months ago
and made a purchase on he-400, which will be in my hands in a few days.
So far I haven't got an amp yet. But I was thinking about O2 or schiit asgard.
I'll be sourcing from my desktop, through X-fi Ttitanium card. Not the HD version.
It has 3.5mm 7.1 output formats, and some spdif outputs, I'm guessing toslink.
Trouble is, I know asgard has rca inputs only, my soundcard doesn't have rca output. Only headphone 3.5 out and toslink, I think.
What are my options to connect Asgard to my soundcard? Which route is preferred and is there difference in sound quality?
My guesses are
- 3.5mm to rca to Asgard
-or toslink to some 13 dolor toslink/analogconverter -> rca cables to Asgard
If I got the toslink route, would I be able to use all the features from the soundcard?
btw, I saw a great deal on asgard/bifrost combo on craigslist, but the person isn't replying... I live in Long Island NY, I'm guessing his house got flooded from Sandy or he's just ignoring me...
I'm still just looking around to see what amp I should get, but there is just so much info and can't really decide on which one to get.
So far I've read that people use fiio products, m stage, lovely cube, and like bunch bunch of others like audioengine d1, o2.
Any recommendations would be nice.
Do you think I should just go with either o2 or Asgard?

Using a 3.5mm to RCA cable, from the Titanium's line-out/headphone jack to the RCA inputs on the Schiit Asgard will work fine.
 
I personally would get an external DAC/Headphone amplifier with a S/PDIF Toslink optical input.
Something like the NFB-12.1 (new - $250), it comes with dual WM8741 DAC chips and I would guess(?) each one of those WM8741 DAC chips is a better then whatever DAC is in the Titanium (Non-HD).
(DAC - Digital to Analog Converter)
The Titanium (non-HD) can send CMSS-3D headphone surround sound thru its S/PDIF optical output.
I'm going to guess the NFB-12.1 can easily drive the 38-Ohm HE400.

 

[despine]

Thank you for the information

That answers my main question

but since you brought up NFB-12.1,



NFB-12.1 does seem like a fine choice, how does its amping compare to the Asgard or O2? Is it good enough for HE-400?
Since I'm on a budget, I wanted to get it right on the first try, and just be happy with it for a long long time instead of wanting more, you know?


My plan was to get an amp first, and if I don't like the sound get a
DAC like HRT streamer II or one of xonar cards, but stick with my current soundcard if possible..

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

Thank you for the information
That answers my main question
but since you brought up NFB-12.1,

NFB-12.1 does seem like a fine choice, how does its amping compare to the Asgard or O2? Is it good enough for HE-400?
Since I'm on a budget, I wanted to get it right on the first try, and just be happy with it for a long long time instead of wanting more, you know?
My plan was to get an amp first, and if I don't like the sound get a
DAC like HRT streamer II or one of Xonar cards, but stick with my current sound card if possible..

I could not say the NFB-12.1 is better or even matches the Asgard or O2 amplifiers.
But I'm sure the NFB-12.1 would be considered a good headphone amplifier.
I would guess my $27.50 Fiio E6 portable (battery powered) headphone amplifier could drive the 38-Ohm HE-400.
 
Try asking about the NFB-12.1 amplifying the HE-400 on this thread.
http://www.head-fi.org/t/604583/hifiman-he-400-review