[ls13coco]

Hey all, audiophile noob here.
I recently got myself the Sennheiser HD 598 which is running through a Asus ROG Phoebus sound card. My game was changed going to open-back and a well known name, so yesterday I went ahead and also ordered the HiFiMan HE400i and AKG 712 Pro.

I signed up for the Massdrop Creative Sound Blaster X7 and am really hoping it goes through, but if it doesn't, I am not going to wait around.
I have been eyeing into a Schiit stack, but am also wondering if these 3 HP's that I now have would be best with a solid-state or tube amp.

Also, two major features I liked about the X7 is two headphone inputs and an digital optical in and out (could finally use my 5.1 system with my computer, my sound card with windows 10 doesn't allow digital to analog optical 5.1 for some reason).

Thanks for any info, I've been researching this past week a lot but I'm not seasoned.

 

[kimvictor]

Frankly, the ss(solid state) and tube amp just depend on your preference. Tube amps are generally warmer and smoother, but also much noisier. If you speak of the technical aspects, ss easily outclasses tube amps in its price range, but the matching is the key. So my answer would be: it depends on the tube/ss amp you want and your preference. I, for instance, have always been a SS guy, and find that some ss amps can be warm and smooth too, without sacrificing noise and details. 
 
I have the 598, and personally wouldn't match it with a tube amp, as 598s are already extremely smooth and warm. The 712 could benefit a bit from tubes. 
 
I've owned a Schiit stack too, but wasn't terribly fond of them. They were too cold and bit too noisy for my liking. Now I have a japanese amp/dac that sounds really nice with my HD800, but they don't have the features you've mentioned.

 

[PurpleAngel]

  My sound card with Windows 10 doesn't allow digital to analog optical 5.1 for some reason).

"windows 10 doesn't allow digital to analog optical 5.1 for some reason" does not make sense.
Do you mean you can't output 5.1 (6-channels) of digital audio out the Phoebus's optical output port?
What is the make and model of your 5.1 speakers?
Did you disable the motherboard's on-board audio, in the BIOS, when you installed the Phoebus sound card?

 

[ls13coco]

Yeah, using the provided or aftermarket toslink to go from digital optical to s/pdif into the soundcard doesn't even register. There seems to be bad support in general for s/pdif according to the asus forums, and some time ago there was a "support" page on Asus' website that I found through googling the issue that stated surround sound through s/pdif is not supported in win10.
It's the JVC TH-G30, and yeah I disabled RealTek the day I got this card last year before installing the drivers.

  "windows 10 doesn't allow digital to analog optical 5.1 for some reason" does not make sense.
Do you mean you can't output 5.1 (6-channels) of digital audio out the Phoebus's optical output port?
What is the make and model of your 5.1 speakers?
Did you disable the motherboard's on-board audio, in the BIOS, when you installed the Phoebus sound card?

 

[ls13coco]

Bump.. gave it a few days, patience is a virtue though