Yeah, I didn't consider that until reading your post.   Thanks again for taking the time to help me understand this stuff. Your posts are full of useful info and I've learned a lot.   With that said, I think that's about it for this thread.

  That's not what I was getting at.   Previously, you said:   What about the other way around? The E10K only has coaxial out, but couldn't that be used to output to an external soundcard?   Sorry for the late reply.

  Good to know about Razer Surround.   The E10K has a coaxial output. Is that the same thing as SPDIF?

  That's a very informative write-up. It's interesting to see some of the applications of a DSP as well. Much appreciated!   In my use case, I don't use virtual surround, so I guess a DSP is fairly useless for me. Seems like I'm not losing much by going the DAC-amp route.

  What does a DSP chip do, and what am I going to miss by not having it?

  Ok, I understand now, thanks.     If I buy the E10K, would the improvement be noticeable on my HD 202s? And what headphones do you think would be a better fit for it?

My onboard soundcard produces hiss in my headphones (Sennheiser HD 202), and I want to use a USB soundcard instead, but I've run into a lot of confusion. I've found several devices that seem to do what I need, however they're labeled as amps, DACs or audio interfaces. Can those be used as...

Quote: I don't know if someone else has said this already, but I for one am not hearing any sudden increase in volume when doing that. Quite the opposite, in fact. I'm hearing a gradual decrease in volume, followed by a gradual return. This happens two times. First, between 5700hz and...

Quote:   Line attenuators? I have to admit that I have no idea what those are. How much do they usually cost? Are there any brands in particular that I should look for?   Quote:   Lots of useful info there. I followed every step, but none of them fixed my problem. Thanks anyway.

Quote:   Quote: As for the 100$ DAC for my 40$ headphones, yeah, you can see now why I'd rather find other ways to fix this.

Quote: Thanks for the reply, but unfortunately, that didn't do it. The app tells me "This machine should be able to handle real-time streaming of audio and/or video data without drop-outs.".    

Quote: I know that my computer is causing it, but why now? Why wasn't there any static before?   As for an external DAC, is there anything I could find at around 17€/25$?   Quote: Again, anything I could find in that price range?  

I'm using a pair of Sennheiser HD202's, plugged into a Realtek HD soundcard, and I'm hearing a weird kind of static in my headphones whenever I do certain things on my computer, like scrolling down a page in the browser, or selecting text anywhere. That alone wouldn't annoy me so much, except...

Quote: Well, I looked at the thread again, and I initially got pretty excited to find a couple of headphones that fit my budget (50$/35€), and apparently sound pretty good: the Prodipe Pro800, the JVC HA-M750, and the Audio Technica ATH-M30. Then I got a lot less excited when I couldn't...

Quote: Unfortunately, Joker's thread doesn't help me much. I'm looking for a pair of full-size headphones, not something portable.   As for your soundcard suggestion, thanks, I'll look into it.  

Hi. First time poster here.   I'm interested in buying a pair of full size Hi-Fi headphones for listening music on my PC. I mostly listen to metal, and bass-heavy rock (grunge, stoner rock, etc). I've searched far and wide for something that fits my budget, and I've narrowed it down to...