[Freddy1765]

I'm buying an Asus Xonar U7, and a pair of 250 Ohm headphones (DT770 or DT990, haven't made up my mind yet). The Xonar doesn't quite have the power to drive the headphones though, but I found a guy selling a used E09K. The question is, can I use the E09K as an amp and the sound card as the DAC? How do they connect to each other? I read on a forum that they connect through RCA, but to my knowledge only the headphone out on the Xonar is connected to the DAC, not the ports on the back, which therefore won't provide a virtual surround signal.
So, can the E09K connect to the Xonar through the Xonar's headphone out?
The purpose will be gaming, so the surround effect is pretty crucial.
 
I'm supposed to pick up the amp from the guy on thursday, so I really need to know whether they're compatible for my purposes.
Thanks a lot in advance!

 

[cel4145]

The U7 connects to your computer using USB or optical. Thus, the ONLY way it can generate an analog signal for the speaker jacks on the back is to use it's on DAC. However, it's possible that the ports on the back do not work with the Dolby Headphone DSP, but instead with the speaker virtual surround DSP. You could ask questions here: http://www.head-fi.org/t/669127/asus-xonar-u7-dac-amp-appreciation-impressions-thread

Do you have to have an external DAC (soundcard) like the Xonar U7? If not, the Xonar D1 would work very well (Dolby Headphone does work via the output on the back) and probably save you some money.

 

[Freddy1765]

Thank you for responding! I posted a question in that thread and got a good answer, so it's all sorted out.