[CenturionDk]

Thanks I really appreciate the reply.  I've got closed headphones now (Creative Fatality... (cheapos but they were well reviewed on Newegg when I got them).  It looks like I'll be going for the closed set and sacrifice some of the positioning.  I wouldn't be horribly opposed to moving my set up, but then I wouldn't see my fiance on most days!
 
From what I was reading, the A700 doesn't benefit that much from an amp, so I don't know that this feature of the STX would've mattered that much. I had a lot of driver issues with creative in the past and a lot of the reviews on newegg are negative due to driver problems with the current ones too, which was scaring me off of the HD Titanium despite it's reputation as a better gaming card. I wasn't able to find a new Forte on Tigerdirect, Newegg, or Amazon, so I was figuring that either they were having so many problems that all 3 sites pulled them, or they weren't being made anymore.
 
If there isn't much of a difference between a STX and a DG, is it even worth it to have a dedicated sound card? Or is there a big jump from onboard to DG?
 
 

 

[CenturionDk]

One more questions - if you go with a lower end graphics card to you sacrafice virtual surround sound in the headphones?  They are still listed as 5.1 cards but I'm not sure how well they project to headphones?

 

[MalVeauX]

Heya,
 
Going from onboard sound to the Xonar DG is a big leap for headphones because the DG has an amplifier. A lot of people push the STX/HDTitanium and high end HT Omegas and Auzentechs, but for headphones, they really just don't sound like a real amplifier does in the same price range oddly enough. Sure, it's subjective, but it is what it is. So that's why I simply suggested the DG since it's only $35, very easy to jump to from onboard with a real gain from it, without spending so much that you regret that you're not benefiting from a $150~$200 sound card. That said, the drivers for the HD titanium are great. It's previous creative stuff that had issues. And the Auzentech stuff only shows up now and then because of stock and popularity. Auzentech has some high quality stuff, uses X-Fi, so basically no different from Creative cards in the gaming department, but quality wise, they've got differences.
 
What is your onboard by the way? Some of the newer onboard sound processors are as good as some of the better dedicated soundcards when it comes to game positioning and the like (sound quality is a separate issue, and amplification is the main difference). If you don't know what it is, just tell us what motherboard you have and we can find it out easily enough.
 
Your graphics card will have zero bearing on your sound. You're using onboard, as in the motherboard's outputs, right?
 
Edit: By the way, just to note, I have a pair of HD580's. I was watching a simple dialog scene at moderate levels, not even high levels like I usually listen. I could hear it from the other room. So just to re-affirm, open-air cans, you will hear them from even 20 feet or more away in a relatively quiet situation. If it were really noisy I wouldn't hear it, but again, in relatively quiet surroundings, you can definitely hear it.
 
Very best,

 

[CenturionDk]

Sorry* typo on the graphics card... I realize it won't impact my surround sound!  My monitor is flicking and I might have to replace the graphics card so I've got that on the brain.
 
I have an Asus P5Q Pro motherboard.
 
I think I'm set now, I'm ready to pull the trigger on Audio Technica's closed version and a Xonar DG sound card unless you think the sound card isn't worth it with the onboard sound I've got.