is the upgrade really going to be worth it? 500 bucks for a small increase in sound quality seems a bit steep =/   Also....should i sell my sennheiser hd 600 and denon ahd2000 if im going for the hifiman he-500? seems like it would destroy all of my current headphones even with my asus xonar...

Quote: which amp under 500 dollars would you suggest? i need it to accept digital pcm out from the xonar stx for a pure source signal.    right now: Foobar2k => hardware ASIO => headphone out 1/4"   After i get a external amp for around 500: foobar2k =>hardware ASIO => asus...

Quote: i am curious about this also...i have an stx with a denon ahd2000 and a senn hd600, and soon getting a hifiman he 500.    What desktop amp can i connect the digital out pcm from the asus xonar stx to that will give a significant increase in sound quality?

hey guys im about to order this headphone....but i only have a asus essence xonar stx sound card with built in amp to power it.   Will this be enough to get at least 80% of the headphone's potential?

I am curious about the planar magnetic hps...so im looking at the hifiman he500.   Will i see a big difference between this headphone and the two i already have?    Will my soundcard + onboard amp power these hifimans well enough?   Is the hifiman he 500 the best headphone for 700 bucks?

Actually for the xonar stx the best setting would be the ASIO hardware driver. Wasapi loses some of its precision it seems like.   I am still getting some poping and cracking when doing a ton of operations at once, but i have upped the latency in foobar2k asio and the driver to 50ms, and it...

do you have the same gap on your headphones? and how do you know that it isnt affect the acoustics?

I got the AKG Q701 and they're awesome...but the left side has a gap in the area where the headphones swivel, while the right side does not.   This is not causing any problems audio wise as far as i can tell, but is it changing the acoustics of the left side?

Quote: Yes, but I have read that with proper amping...the bass becomes more controlled and the mids come more upfront. While...with poor amping the bass is bloated, while the mids are very recessed.    Could this be an issue I am having?   It feels as if the AH-D2000 denons have...

I use a rear headphone jack on the asus xonar essence stx set at 2 channels, 24bit, 48hz, hifi mode, all dsps off, windows sounds disabled.   Currently I use:     AHD2000 67-0 OHMs AKG Q701 300-67 OHMs HD600 300-67 OHMs   This seems to give me the clearest outputs...  ...

Whats the best settings for each headphone when using the rear headphone jack?   It seems that   AHD2000 67-0 OHMs AKG Q701 300-67 OHMs HD600 300-67 OHMs   This seems to give me the clearest outputs...   Exactly how does one use the onboard headphone amplifier on this sound...

I had a pair of green akg Q701s, and i returned them cause the bright green color bothered me. I got the same ones in black instead.   I noticed on the left earcup, the gap between the area where the strings go in and the larger cup, is larger on the left than on the right.   Rather...

Asus Xonar Essence STX working with stock op amps...   hd 555, hd 600, akg q701, denon AD-H2000, ath-M50is.    Will any of these headphones be made obsolete by a HE-500 from hifiman? I am thinking of getting one.   The akg/sennheiser are my neutrals....while my denon is the basshead...

whats the best place for me to buy those op amps for my stx?

will a xonar essence stx amp these phones well enough?    I want them bad, but not sure if my amp is up to the task...

Quote:   I am 25 years old so i know exactly what you mean, and all this stuff I of course pay with my own hard worked for dollars. Thing is im crazy enough of a hobby doer that I follow things through to the end usually, so my logic was why would anyone get a ATH m50 when they could get...

Quote:   Well thats kind of the entire point Astro....the STX and ST which are 180 and 200 respectively are the ones with the built in headphone AMPs. You can drive any headphone with either of these sound cards (to the best of my knowledge). 600 ohm headphones like beyer 900s are so...

Quote:   trust me when i tell you this because I just myself got a ATH-M50 strait cabled version....   DO NOT GET THE M50, instead save your pennies and get a denon AH-D2000 instead.   You will be very dissapointed when you compare the Q701 to the ATHM50....they're not even on the...

BY FAR!!!!   Audio Technica's ATHM50s.    I already had purchased sennheiser hd600, akg q701, and denon ah-d2000 just a week or so before trying to buy a audio technica athm50s because of the raving reviews people are giving it everywhere online.   What a huge mistake....this...

guys....HUGE apologies for the double post, i had just enough seconds to type everything out and click submit....seems i did it more than once?   No matter....       In windows 7 64bit.....   WASAPI is bleh compared to ASIO. In fact, it is very well known that ASIO is the...

  Well guys after extensive OBSESSIVE research....and i mean the unhealthy obsessive borderline crazy type of research where your girlfriend/family start to question your sanity.   HERE AT THIS MOMENT IS MY AUDIO SETUP:   Windows 7 64bit Enterprise Edition (Legitimate, company license)...

Im glad to hear I am not the only person with this problem...     What makes me most upset is that these headphones are by far the most comfortable out of the 3 I had just purchased one after the other:   1) Senhieser 600   - shipped from amazon directly, came in PERFECT condition...

I did everything accuractely, except i ad to wrestle with the magnetic area with the bullsete. now the right and left ones look different.    Am i screwed?  

its really a shame considering how awesome these cans are, to have them held together by something so shoddy =(

So i bought this brand new for 350 from alo audio....it came very well packaged, and i even called ahead to request that in specific....   But somehow I recieved a broken....unsealed from QC box with no tape on the openings....rattling around product that doesnt even have that NEW smell that...