well i just pulled the trigger on one of these to get into the realm of a balanced set up.  Ill be using my STX as transport via spdif to the mini-i/quatrro amp to my HD650's in balanced.  Hope this makes a nice difference.

the middle gain setting on my stx fixed most of the problem for me.  Ive recently added a proper amp and my ears don't fatigue/hurt at all anymore.

If you plan on going fully balanced down the road with a proper balanced dac the quattro all the way.  Even still if you want to leave yourself some options the quattro is a good idea as long as your not on a tight budget.  If the difference in spending 250$ vs $400 is something you dont feel...

to be honest i dont have any expierence with that amp. 

in balanced mode with 300ohm headphones like hd650's it will be 400mw   Quote:  

honestly as long as it comes with USB ports or a s/pdif your good to go.  Like said above i would worry about your hardware choices if you want a computer that can game.   Ive owned 2 computers by this company and they do laptops check them out.  www.digitalstormonline.com   Quote:  

I experienced this for a while, it was so tight i was getting headaches from wearing them.  I extended the headphones as far as they could go and just bend the metal back and forth a few times and now it barley feels like they are on my head.   Quote:  

wow thats really cool!

wow i cant wait to hear more about this product, ive got an bryston 3b and love it!

As a person who just recently got a dedicated amp and who used the stx to amp my HD650's ill put in my 2 cents.  Like said above the volume isnt the problem its how it sounds.  It does do a good job but the sound difference in a proper amp is apparent within the first few seconds listening to...

my vote is get the laptop you want with all the hardware you want and leave the sound done on the outside via dac/amp

right now its hooked up in solo mode(unbalanced) i do however plan on getting the balanced cable when i hear some feedback with running a unbalanced source. Seems to really shine in the mids and jazz playing.  I havnt heard the m-stage unfortunately but the general consensus is from tam and...

any update on this?  I just helped someone with a similiar issue on another forum and it was due to the power cable at the end of the card being loose.  Try to unplug it and replug it in.

all i have to say is wow!   I just hooked up my quattro and im flawed.  So much more open and much more clear compared to the amp on the stx.  Im running the RCA outs from the stx to the quattro.  I almost thought the amp was broke when i first plugged it in the fuse wasnt set right. 

i thought i read that only 1 op amp is used for the RCA's.  using the headphone amp to a external amp is a terrible idea.

using the RCA outs to a dedicated amp would be your best bet in my opinion.  The DAC in the stx is the best part of the sound card.  I just ordered a matrix quattro amp my self.   Quote:  

pulled the trigger on the quattro a few days back, cant wait until it gets here.

thank you so much im looking foward to your response.  I emailed tam about this and he says its a good way to run it even with an unbalanced source.  From what ive read its the extra power that helps more than anything since your doubling it.     Quote:  

very cool my one major concern was right off the bat something wasnt going to sound correct which you answered for me.

thank you!  did you do any listening?

well after a ton of reading i'm gonna pull the trigger and order the amp.  Not gonna get the balacned cables until i can get a better answer on how the amp sounds in balanced mode with a unbalanced source.

Thank you! i hope you don't forget.   Quote:  

any feedback on this?  I emailed tam audio and he came back to say its a recommended way of running the quattro, id like a bit more feedback on it though. Quote:  

the line outs(RCA's) are not amplified, youll be fine.

people go nuts in the overclocking community and will run prime95 on small fft setting for 24 hours straight.  In my opinion that is insane if its prime95 stable or in my case for sandy bridge linx with the avx binaries for around 2 hours your good to go.  i would try running hwmonitor instead...