[gerpogi]

Not comes to mind for a reasonable price.
When you starting going up in price, it more like external DAC/amps, then external sound cards

If it's worth the money I might go for it. What would be your suggestions?

 

[James neutron]

thanks for the info! it seems as if you are not fully convinced the Omni is that good , would you suggest something else? I plan to use it with my Fidelio x1

 
Well, I'm not a fan of soundcards when it comes to driving headphones. But then again I have no idea how easy or difficult Fidelio X1 is to drive.
Also, up to 100-150$, soundcards are kind of the only choice.
Moreover, you need to spend quite a bit more to really feel substantial differences from a decent quality soundcard (in the 250-300$ range), or pair the soundcard with an amplifier if it doesn't cut the mustard with the headphones you have.
But either way, for 70$ that Omni should be excellent value and I don't know if you could pick anything better in that price range.

 

[gerpogi]

Well, I'm not a fan of soundcards when it comes to driving headphones. But then again I have no idea how easy or difficult Fidelio X1 is to drive.
Also, up to 100-150$, soundcards are kind of the only choice.
Moreover, you need to spend quite a bit more to really feel substantial differences from a decent quality soundcard (in the 250-300$ range), or pair the soundcard with an amplifier if it doesn't cut the mustard with the headphones you have.
But either way, for 70$ that Omni should be excellent value and I don't know if you could pick anything better in that price range.

I know the price range could be very restrictive =\. And only reason I was thinking of sound card is because I love the surround sound feel on my headphones.

thanks for your answer!

 

[Stillhart]

I'm upgrading my sound card soon.  I am using a Recon3D right now, mainly because I got it on clearance for $5!  But I want to upgrade to something a little more versatile.
 
I'll be getting the Sound Blaster Z, which is basically the same thing as the Omni except it's a card, not a USB device.  This gives me a nice 600ohm amplified headphone jack, as well as an optical out.  Later, I can use the optical out to pass processed virtual surround (stereo sound) to a DAC/Amp combo if I want to upgrade the sound.  I'm mostly buying the card for the DSP (virtual surround).
 
I believe the Omni can be used in the same way.  My understanding of the difference between the internal one and the USB one is that the USB one uses more system resources.  If you have a halfway decent system (which I assume you do if you're gaming) you probably won't notice the difference.
 
I think the Omni is a smoking deal.  It's like $60 (correction, price went up in the last two days, it's $70 now) on Amazon.  It's not the best sound card you can get, by any means, but it's a solid choice and it allows you to upgrade to a real DAC/Amp easily later if you want to throw more money at the hobby.
 
BTW, the X1's are supposed to be pretty easy to drive.  The Omni should have no problem with it.

 

[gerpogi]

I'm upgrading my sound card soon.  I am using a Recon3D right now, mainly because I got it on clearance for $5!  But I want to upgrade to something a little more versatile.

I'll be getting the Sound Blaster Z, which is basically the same thing as the Omni except it's a card, not a USB device.  This gives me a nice 600ohm amplified headphone jack, as well as an optical out.  Later, I can use the optical out to pass processed virtual surround (stereo sound) to a DAC/Amp combo if I want to upgrade the sound.  I'm mostly buying the card for the DSP (virtual surround).

I believe the Omni can be used in the same way.  My understanding of the difference between the internal one and the USB one is that the USB one uses more system resources.  If you have a halfway decent system (which I assume you do if you're gaming) you probably won't notice the difference.

I think the Omni is a smoking deal.  It's like $60 (correction, price went up in the last two days, it's $70 now) on Amazon.  It's not the best sound card you can get, by any means, but it's a solid choice and it allows you to upgrade to a real DAC/Amp easily later if you want to throw more money at the hobby.

BTW, the X1's are supposed to be pretty easy to drive.  The Omni should have no problem with it.

Thanks for the very informative post.! I just ordered the omni today. Hopefully it'll satisfy me. I've only used a g930 And my x1 with onboard sound card so far (alc892) for gaming, I do own beats pro which I use out door And gaming sometimes though, but feels kind of muddy .