[Twisteve]

OK, so ive decided to return my HD555's and bithead amp. What I have now is a soundblaster audigy2zs, which I would like to get rid of and replace with a better one. I still have time to return it, so I want to upgrade before im stuck with it. What would be the best soundcard to go with my unamped A900's, mainly for gaming, then for music (65/35). Ive heard good things about these chaintech cards? Are they as good as people make them out to be? Where to find / links would be great too

Thanks in advance

 

[breez]

Chaintech AV-710 is really no good without an external amp because it doesn't have an amp on the card. Someone here already had a thread about A900 + Chaintech unamped and was unhappy with it.

 

[Twisteve]

How about the emu 404, or emu 1212?

Someone mentioned these in my other post, are these any better than the audigy2 zs?

 

[Mr.Radar]

Yes, but you need about two or three different adapter to connect headphones to them directly.

 

[Twisteve]

Ok then are there ANY other soundcards that are better than the audigy2 zs when unamped? -Headphone to soundcard- (besides the platinum edition, and whatever comes after that).

 

[lan]

Why go unamped? You said you wanted to upgrade yet you are going from an an to without one.

 

[Twisteve]

Well, I cant use the amp while gaming anyway(or dont want to because it isnt as good for gaming as plugging my headphones into soundcard instead), so I might as well return the Hd555's and the amp to buy better headphones. It is IMO worthless to have headphones / soundcard / amp that dont all work together.

 

[breez]

Why is amp bad for gaming? I cannot understand.

 

[Twisteve]

Well isnt it better to have the EAX feature from soundcards when playing games?

 

[breez]

An amp doesn't prevent that. Your soundcard outputs the EAX processed sound as analog signal (or digital if you have external DAC) and your amp just amplifies the signal and drives your headphones.

 

[cadobhuk]

What,did you think amps have some special anti-eax buffers or what?They just amplify the singnal that was sent into them,with all sound effects and whatever comletely unchanged.

 

[Twisteve]

I posted in about every section of this ****ing forum looking for a way to have my headphones into amp into soundcard, and the only thing I learned was to have my amp for music, then plug it in to my soundcard for games. So then I CAN just use the bithead as an amp and not as a soundcard too? And how do I do this?

 

[h3nG]

have my amp for music, then plug it in to my soundcard for games.

i'd like to know who told you that, so others can begin ignoring his advice.

but in anycase, your audigy to bithead to headphones shoudl work just fine.

 

[breez]

Oh, I missed the fact that you have bithead amp. I don't know much about it, but it is also an USB sound card, right? Then you wouldn't get any EAX if you used it as sound card. Does it have analog sound inputs? If not, you should probably just get a normal amp (return the bithead if you got it very recently) which then connects to any sound source, not just the USB sound card in bithead.

 

[Twisteve]

Everyone tells me something different.. seems like no one actually has the bithead.

I cant return the bithead to get a new amp without returning the HD 555's with it, because I got them both for $259 @ headphone.com and anything more expensive than $300 total between amp / headphones is too much for me. SO BASICALLY~~ Does anyone know FOR SURE if I can use the bithead amp and have it connected to my soundcard.

Am I supposed to put the mini to mini cable from the back of the amp to where why headphones would normally go on my soundcard? Can the Bithead be used as an amp without having to use batterys? I keep asking these questions and getting partial answers, if someone could just hit all these points I would be very gratefull.


EDIT- I can return the headphone, bithead, and soundcard that I have now. Is there any other setup for under $400 that would be better than this one?