[kazaakas]

Hey guys,
 
After weeks of lurking, I decided to join head-fi.
I am currently utterly fed up with my Sennheiser HD555's and X-Fi card, After 2 years of listening I really find it dull and veiled.
 
So yeah I decided I wanted something else with a dedicated amp.
 
Currently headphone-wise, I'm in doubt between the AKG Q701 and the Beyer DT880's, leaning more towards the akg's though.
But I also want an amp, I was looking at the Little Dot MKIII, but recently found out tube amps are not recommended for the Q701, so I was hoping anyone could elaborate on this.
 
I was also wondering if an external DAC makes much of a difference with a high-quality internal soundcard, say the Essence STX or something.
 
I'd be using the setup for 65% music 35% gaming, so the asus does have a bit of an advantage here, because of the dolby headphone technology it supports, which I would like for gaming. (Could I also get a cheap $30 xonar for the dolby headphone, and lead the signal digitally to a better external DAC with SPDIF?)
 
Can anyone recommend me a good amp/dac with these headphones?

 

[kazaakas]

Another advantage of a tube amp would be that the tubes could be replaced with warmer sounding alternatives, to make up a bit for the brightness of the Q701, right?
I still wonder why the Q701 and the MkIII would be a bad combination?

 

[Terps Fan]

Hey kaz, if you punch in "amp for Q701" or any combination of K701/K702/ amp there has got to be at least a day and a half of good reading there.  Everything from Woo & Heed to the O2.

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

After weeks of lurking, I decided to join head-fi.
I am currently utterly fed up with my Sennheiser HD555's and X-Fi card, After 2 years of listening I really find it dull and veiled.
So yeah I decided I wanted something else with a dedicated amp.
Currently headphone-wise, I'm in doubt between the AKG Q701 and the Beyer DT880's, leaning more towards the akg's though.
But I also want an amp, I was looking at the Little Dot MKIII, but recently found out tube amps are not recommended for the Q701, so I was hoping anyone could elaborate on this.
I was also wondering if an external DAC makes much of a difference with a high-quality internal soundcard, say the Essence STX or something.
I'd be using the setup for 65% music 35% gaming, so the asus does have a bit of an advantage here, because of the dolby headphone technology it supports, which I would like for gaming. (Could I also get a cheap $30 xonar for the dolby headphone, and lead the signal digitally to a better external DAC with SPDIF?)
Can anyone recommend me a good amp/dac with these headphones?

So you mean adding an external DAC to go with the sound card (like the STX) or use an external DAC instead of the STX?
Sound card already come with a DAC.and you can not daisy chain DACs.
The Titanium HD can process gaming audio and send the digital signal out of it's S/PDIF.
 
The Asus Xonar DG, with the Sennheiser HD558 combo will work.
(some do not think well of the DAC that comes with the DG).
The O2 (Objective 2) portable headphone amplifier might do a good job of powering the AKGs.
 
 
 

 

[daveDerek]

you can find all kinds of well regarded amps to pair with the akg. as the previous poster mentioned there's a ton of reading out there. a couple of amps that folks have liked with the k701 (and therefore the k702 & q701) that don't cost an arm and a leg include the aforementioned (solid state) heed can amp, but don't overlook the hybrid bada ph12.
(here's the big heed thread: http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/192190/heed-canamp)

 

[kazaakas]

Thanks guys, I'll try to find some time for a bit of reading soon,
 
About the DAC's and stuff, I think I was a little sloppy with my description, sorry, my real question was:
 
I want to use dolby headphone in games, but..:
 
Should I get an expensive Xonar card like the STX and use its DAC and lead the unamped analog signal to my amp
or...
Should I get a cheap Xonar card like the DG/DS and lead the DH signal digitally with SPDIF to an external dac and an then to my amp?
 
Because a cheap xonar + separate dac costing like $120 is rougly the same amount of money as an STX

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

Thanks guys, I'll try to find some time for a bit of reading soon,
About the DAC's and stuff, I think I was a little sloppy with my description, sorry, my real question was:
I want to use dolby headphone in games, but..:
Should I get an expensive Xonar card like the STX and use its DAC and lead the unamped analog signal to my amp
or...
Should I get a cheap Xonar card like the DG/DS and lead the DH signal digitally with SPDIF to an external dac and an then to my amp?
Because a cheap xonar + separate dac costing like $120 is rougly the same amount of money as an STX

The Essence STX can not process it's Dolby Headphone and send the signal out the RCA (analog) jacks.
I say just get the Essence STX and just plug your headphones directly into the STX.
 
 
 

 

[kazaakas]

Huh..
So both the built-in DAC and the built-in headphone amp of the stx MUST be used in order to use dolby headphone?
 
thats so lame :C

 

[liamstrain]

If it's any consolation, Dolby headphone almost universally sounds like ****. 

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

Huh..
So both the built-in DAC and the built-in headphone amp of the STX MUST be used in order to use Dolby headphone?
Thats so lame :C

I guess that's one way to look at it.
 
 
 

 

[kazaakas]

Quote:

If it's any consolation, Dolby headphone almost universally sounds like ****. 

It might muffle things a bit, therefore I only like it for competetive gaming, though you can really hear stuff coming from all directions, and as far as I know, there isn't really another way to accomplish such a thing with headphones. (There's the creative card ofc,  even got one of those, but the muffled-ness seems to be even worse than dolby headphone)
 
Quote:

I guess that's one way to look at it.

What do you mean, didn't I understand it right? That's what it comes down to, right?

 

[liamstrain]

I've never heard anything with dolby headphones, that wasn't possible with just a good binaural or even regular stereo mix on regular headphones. fwiw. All those placements are possible without 7 drivers.. and will sound better. 

 

[kazaakas]

But dobly headphone is ment to be a binaural emulation composed of a 7-speaker signal, right?
What else do you find better working for games then?
Because I personally can judge the directions of sounds a lot better with 5.1->CMSS-3D headphone than with everything just set to headphones...

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

What do you mean, didn't I understand it right? That's what it comes down to, right?

You understand it fine, I just would not have used the words "That's so Lame".
One of the big reasons for getting the Essence STX (& ST) is for the headphone output.
So for most Essence users they really do not need to output Dolby Headphone any other way.
 
I believe the Creative Labs X-Fi Titanium HD can output headphone surround sound out of their RCA jacks.