Well then I guess I'll just plug the DT 880 premium into the back of the STX. If need be, I suppose I can plug my crappy old speakers into the front panel since looks don't really matter to me and I'll hardly ever use speakers any more anyway. Can someone suggest a decent extension cord...

How about the front panel jack? Is it true sound quality is noticeably reduced as the cable goes through the case? Or is there just a very slight difference that only a true audiophile or a really high end headphone might pick up on?

Quote:   Don't extension cables and front panel jacks produce lower quality sound than plugging the headphones directly into the back panel? Either way, I think I'll go with Premium 250 ohm version because I forgot about clamp force and I have a pretty big head, so less is most likely...

Quote:   Thanks for the input. I guess that settles it then. If the Xonar STX is slightly better, that's what I'll go with. It's also slightly cheaper in Canada than the X-Fi + amp option, so I can spend the extra $20 for the DT 880 Premium (250 ohms). The only differences between the...

Quote:   OK, so I looked into the options you mentioned and narrowed it down to two. The MKIII and O2 are out because the tube amp is too big for my tiny desk and too expensive considering I'll need a sound card too, and the advantage of the O2 is wasted on me because I plan to stick with...

Thank you for this information. I had been looking at the E9 before posting but had not read up on whether it is any good. If I do go ahead and buy it though, would it be redundant then to buy an STX for my next PC as I was planning or would the effects of both amps add on to one another? Also...

Hello everybody,   I am totally new to mid- to high-end audio and since I don't understand it very well yet, I would really appreciate your help. As an FPS gamer, I have completely neglected audio in favor of video, so much so that my current setup is an ASUS Xonar DG, a 5 year old set of...