[ROBSCIX]

Hopefully you get something that is a better match for you.

 

[dan.gheorghe]

I currently have the essence st. The st has an integrated headphone amp. I am curious how much you let it burn in. It makes a difference after the burnin. I am using the card with maier`s corda cantate 2. When i received the cantate 2 i let it burn in 150-200 hours. The difference were very noticeable. The bass was more detailed and more powerfull the mids  had more clarity, the sound was smother and better. With amplifiers the burnin is very important. And if you used the headphone output, you should have let it burn in >= 100h. The amplifier should bring more clarity, and overall more quality to a headphone`s sound. Even though your ath 900 have only 40, i used hd 595 before my current hd 650 and they only had 50 ohms. The amplifier did make a difference (a  good one)!!

 

[avlover0424]

Can't agree with Chuckiefresh...
 
I would recommand anything but creative x-fi, cuz i used to have one but what it did for me is only crackling noise...
 
Also creative's customer service and refund process were terrible!
 
xonar's much better...

 

[BlutoSlice]

I use the Xonar DX with ultrasone HFI780 and there is no lack of Bass. Allthough the EQ need tweaking for my tastes I up the bass sliders via the DX control panel by a fair few DBs, this gives me the level I like without any distortion.  I previously had for many years a SB live 5.1 and a audigy SE which would have still  if the win7 driver support was there all though I now prefer the sound of the xonar.  It would have to be the high end card to tempt me back to SB,  not buy another basic SB again (audigy se is crap and distorts on windows 7 drivers, offical and unofficial) and more than likely I would upgrade to a Essence ST or its sucessor or just get an external DAC for music and keep the DX for gaming.