[Colactix]

Hi there
 
just picked myself up a pair of ATH M50's, they sound great but im unsure of my setup. I have a Asus Xonar D2X soundcard with a 5.1 surround sound setup coming from it. From this i  have my M50's plugged into the sound controller from the surround setup. Im new to this , so correct me if im wrong but this will be still going through the soundcard? I have also been thinking about an AMP and whether that would be a worthwhile investment?

 

[PredatorZ]

    I would plug into the headphone jack on the back, add an extension if needed. You want to have your setup set to stereo 2 channel, at least for music, then you will get the best sound from your setup. Amps and Amp/DAC's would be your next step up, but the audio card you have is a pretty good one, great S/N ration, so it should be very quiet. Not sure if your sound card has upgradable op-amps, Asus has a new external Amp/DAC The Xonar Essence Muse addition, if you could upgrade your OP-amps, get the Muses. Hard to tell from the pics of your card if it has socket-ed OP/amps, if not soldering is involved, you could have a reputable tech solder in sockets in place of you current parts to make future upgrades possible.
    I would give your current setup a try 1st see how you like it, play some hi res files if you can, look for low level detail and a sense of space and air around instruments and the echo and hall effects of the recording venue. The better amps and dacs will reveal a lot more detail, you should hear things on familiar recording you never noticed before. Good luck in your journey, grats on the new cans, enjoy !

 

[Colactix]

Thanks great reply, The sound is better, but i notice a sort of hissing background noise when i turn up the volume and especially on audio with guitar solos and little vocals, could this be due to the lack of an amp or bad settings on the equalizer?

 

[PredatorZ]

Turn off any EQ to start, make sure the volume is up all the way on what ever player you are using, or turn up your system volume to max and use your player volume to control the sound. With the specs on that card you shouldn't be getting background noise or his at normal listening levels. Sometimes routing of internal wiring on your PC might cause some added noise and static, wires act as antenna to high frequency signal, like whats going on inside your computer. You might want to pop open the case and make sure no wire or hard drive cables are close to your sound card if possible. I'm not anti EQ, but to troubleshoot a noise issue its best to simplify what and how you are effecting the signal, you cab always turn it back on later, or worst case use it to filter the noise if possible. An equalizer with customizable slopes would be ideal to filter a specific frequency.
 

 

[Colactix]

Quote:

Turn off any EQ to start, make sure the volume is up all the way on what ever player you are using, or turn up your system volume to max and use your player volume to control the sound. With the specs on that card you shouldn't be getting background noise or his at normal listening levels. Sometimes routing of internal wiring on your PC might cause some added noise and static, wires act as antenna to high frequency signal, like whats going on inside your computer. You might want to pop open the case and make sure no wire or hard drive cables are close to your sound card if possible. I'm not anti EQ, but to troubleshoot a noise issue its best to simplify what and how you are effecting the signal, you cab always turn it back on later, or worst case use it to filter the noise if possible. An equalizer with customizable slopes would be ideal to filter a specific frequency.
 

Hi, there are no wires around the audio card and i have tried the the EQ. It only happens on some music and i was wondering whether it could be down to the production of the music itself, as its fine on some and fine for movies and games. Your help is much appreciated =)

 

[PredatorZ]

Could be just low res recordings, MP3's are compressed, and you will hear it in noise and artifacts you described. Id say you are ok, if its not all the time its just the recordings.