[shuttleboi]

Hello. I am all set to buy my first soundcard. My setup for the last several years has been my Senn 595 headphones connected directly to a motherboard's jack. My current computer is an i7, Asus P6T mobo, and Nvidia 260.

I would like to get a soundcard that sounds nice, and by the end of the year, I am planning to buy an external DAC and AMP (I'm leaning towards the Headroom Micro stack). I listen to music about 75% of the time and play games (mostly first-person shooters) about 25% of the time.

From reading this board for a few weeks now, I've narrowed my soundcard choice to:

1. HT OMEGA CLARO Plus+ 7.1
2. HT OMEGA Claro Halo
2. AuzenTech AZT-FORTE X-Fi Forte 7.1

Does anyone have any specific opinions on these cards that differentiates one from the others?

Also, I would like to use powered speakers as well (like the Audioengine A5). Can I plug both my headphones and speakers in at the same time to the soundcard and switch between them using software?

Similarly, when I buy an external amp, do they normally allow you to hook up speakers and a headphone at the same time? Would it be ok to hook up powered speakers to an external amp in the first place?

Thanks for any help.

 

[obobskivich]

I would suggest the X-Fi board because of the gaming requirement, and because its got an onboard hp amp which will do nice things with your 595's

as far as the speakers go, this should be no issue with the Claro Halo or the X-Fi Forte, but the Claro Plus+ might be kind of a pain in the neck about it

as far as the "external amp and DAC", I wouldn't be thinking about buying/doing that right now, get yourself one of the soundcards with an hp amp, your 595's aren't hard to drive, and will probably be great from the SC (and just as a matter of economics, why would you spend $1000+ on amplification for a ~$140 headphone?)

if you're going to make the switch anyway (realize I'm not in favour of this, and I do realize you're just gonna blow me off, regardless of not having heard either set-up, because "you know"), some DACs have multiple outputs (identical), and some amplifiers have variable preamp outputs, or line passthroughs (for example most all LD products can be used as preamps, and CI headamps have a loop through, just ensure you buy an amplifier with one of those features)

 

[ROBSCIX]

I have a set of HD5959 and they sound quite good on the Forte 7.1.

The Forte has the head amp but also has digital out which will allow you to connect to a external DAC/head amp combo in the future.