[Dany111]

Hi!

This will be my first post on this forum. 

I have spent around 10 hours or more trying to get an idea about what I should do.
I have recently purchased a pair of dt880 beyerdynamic headphones. I have bought a series of "cheap" headphones before from the range of 150-250 dollars and everytime i upgraded i have more and more realised the wonderful world of sound... 
My latest purchase before these ones was a pair of Sony MDR a1 headphones. At the same time as i bought them I decided to buy a asus xonar ds soundcard to go with them, as i have heard from some friends that you really need a soundcard to have proper sound! 
My prior setup was my motherboard soundcard (asus z8z-a7 motherboard soundcard) with a q-pad gaming headset worth about 150(?)dollars. I noticed a pretty significant difference compared to my previous gaming headset and realised one thing. Why spend my time listening to ****ty sound when i got the means to get proper quality gear!?
So by proper gear i thought that my existing stuff was "good". I was wrong. 
I went to my brothers house the other week and he has a bit of a hobby producing b-grade music (even tough it is actually pretty good). And he put a pretty hefty sum into a very good set of speakers and a DAC/AMP unit. I was amazed. 
I realised how utter horrible crap i was utilizing; and have now decided after spending a couple of days studying about headphones to get a pair of beyerdynamics dt880.
I read so much about different headphones and my conclusion was to get these pair of headphones. I ordered the 250 ohm version. 
Unfortunatly i didn't realise that when i ordered the 250ohm ones, my soundcard might not be able to power them properly!

So my question for all you audiophiles out there is the following:

What do you recomend me to do? 
Should I just run these headphones using my soundcard, plugging them straight into the jack?
Should I scrap the soundcard and buy a proper DAC/AMP setup to run them?
Should I keep my soundcard, and buy a proper AMP and plug them in?

What i usually use my headphones for is to listen to classical music, rock etc. 
Some rap sometimes, gaming (FPS games etc).

Thanks in advance for any help i can get!

 

[PurpleAngel]

Hopefully you disabled the motherboard's on-board audio, in the BIOS, when you installed the Xonar DS?
 
Look up the Unified Xonar Drivers, I like to use them with my Xonar cards.
 
Option one, get a headphones amplifier, like the FiiO A3 (E11K), $60, can easily drive 250-Ohm headphones.
So plug the A3 into the Xonar DS and headphones into the A3.
The A3 can be powered by USB or it's own built in battery (so very portable).
There any many external headphone amplifiers you can plug into the Xonar DS, the A3 is about the cheapest and still a good value amp.
You could also try the Bravo Ocean tube headphone amplifier ($120), Beyer DT770/DT880/DT990 headphones seem to thrive with a tube amp.
so it's whatever you wan to budget?
 
Option 2, replace the Xonar DS with a Sound Blaster Z card (used off eBay, $70?).
Better DAC chip then the Xonar DS and the built in amplifier can drive 250-Ohm headphones.

 

[Dany111]

I have disabled the motherboard yes. But I didn't disable it before I installed the soundcard, does that matter?

My budget is around 300 dollars for the stuff i need to buy, i just want to have quality stuff that will last for a long time so i don't have to upgrade again.

I read that tube amps are great for the dt880, but how long do they last before you need another set? Is the soundcard good enough to use as a DAC if i get a proper amp then?

I saw a review about JDS-labs amp and that got me interested in one of those... 

https://www.jdslabs.com/products/35/objective2-headphone-amplifier/

Thanks!

 

[PurpleAngel]

  I have disabled the motherboard yes. But I didn't disable it before I installed the sound card, does that matter?
My budget is around 300 dollars for the stuff i need to buy, i just want to have quality stuff that will last for a long time so i don't have to upgrade again.
I read that tube amps are great for the dt880, but how long do they last before you need another set? Is the sound card good enough to use as a DAC if i get a proper amp then?
I saw a review about JDS-labs amp and that got me interested in one of those... 

 
As long as the on-board is disabled, you doing fine.
Normally I would not spend $300 for an amplifier for the DT880.
For $300, I would buy a headphone I believe would be better then the DT880s.
 
I guess for something that would be a good long term investment, check out the Audio-GD NFB-15, external DAC/amp
http://www.audio-gd.com/Pro/Headphoneamp/NFB1532/NFB15.32EN.htm
I just bought one of these a few weeks back
 
The O2 amp sold by JDS is nice, I bought one about three years ago and still have.
Also check out the Schiit Magni amp, it's like the O2, but does not come with a built in battery, like the O2 has.