[Tato23]

hi all, 
 
Alright i am upgrading my headphones from g35's to AD700, the cans arrive Wednesday. Now i have used on board sound all my life.  Do i need to have a proper sound card or amp here immediately when they arrive to properly test the headphones? If they are gonna be better than the g35's just plugged into on board then that will be great and give me a couple of days to figure out what soundcard I want. 

What do you guys think?  I just need to know if i need to order a low budget sound card NOW that will make these cans sound amazing for mostly gaming and some music. Or if i can wait a couple of days to see if i like the cans first. 

 

[PurpleAngel]

The ATH-AD700 will work fine plugging to your motherboard.
So you have time think about adding a sound card.
The Asus Xonar DG or DGX sound cards are a good value.

 

[Tato23]

Thanks purple for the reply, what % increase am i going to get from getting a sound card? Is this going from like 90% to 100%? Or more like 50-100% increase with the sound card? For quality of sound. 

 

[Tato23]

Quote:

The ATH-AD700 will work fine plugging to your motherboard.
So you have time think about adding a sound card.
The Asus Xonar DG or DGX sound cards are a good value.

Also, any difference between the DG or DGX? besides what slots they fit into? Thanks for the help! 

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

Thanks purple for the reply, what % increase am i going to get from getting a sound card? Is this going from like 90% to 100%? Or more like 50-100% increase with the sound card? For quality of sound. 

A few things to factor in,
The ATH-AD700s do not really change that much from being amped or unamped.
On-board audio has been improving over the past few years, so it's hard to say from motherboard to motherboard, how good the on-board audio (on a given board) is compared to the Xonar DG(X).
Chances are the headphone jack impedance on the Asus Xonar DG(X), is a fair bit lower then then just about any motherboard (which is a positive for the Xonar)
The Xonar DG(X) comes with a fairly decent (but low cost) DAC chip
The Xonar DG(X) comes with Dolby Headphone 5.1 surround sound, chances are your motherboard did not.
 
For $20, you can get a used Xonar DG from Amazon (maybe on eBay too).

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

Also, any difference between the DG or DGX? besides what slots they fit into? Thanks for the help! 

The difference slots they fit into is the only difference, otherwise they are the same.

 

[Tato23]

Quote:

A few things to factor in,
The ATH-AD700s do not really change that much from being amped or unamped.
On-board audio has been improving over the past few years, so it's hard to say from motherboard to motherboard, how good the on-board audio (on a given board) is compared to the Xonar DG(X).
Chances are the headphone jack impedance on the Asus Xonar DG(X), is a fair bit lower then then just about any motherboard (which is a positive for the Xonar)
The Xonar DG(X) comes with a fairly decent (but low cost) DAC chip
The Xonar DG(X) comes with Dolby Headphone 5.1 surround sound, chances are your motherboard did not.
 
For $20, you can get a used Xonar DG from Amazon (maybe on eBay too).

Awesome thanks so much! My motherboard is an ASrock z68 extreme 4...according to the features i read on newegg. 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157250

it says "7.1 CH HD Audio with Content Protection (Realtek ALC892 Audio Codec), THX TruStudio PRO"
 
Is that good? Lol i have no clue what i am reading. 

since thats my on board sound am i gonna see an enormous help with a sound card? Or is my on board good enough to where a sound card might improve it 10%

 

[PurpleAngel]

Fairly good for on-board audio.
Maybe add a sound card down the line, if and when you upgrade the headphones.

 

[LeJohn]

Your onboard audio is above average, given that you can use full sized 7.1 headphones in it, buying a soundcard between $0-$70 wont significantly increase the sq by 15%-25%, you won't notice the change much, unless you buy high end sound cards. But if you really want some improvement, I recommend you buy a portable amp that you can use on you pc and your phone.

 

[Tato23]

Really? hmmm now i am back to my original debacle haha, i dunno if i should go for an amp or a sound card lol. 

If anyone else wants to weigh in on this subject that would be great. 

Also, i am not sure how to get the 7.1 working? I am not even sure if it is.  Would this be something I enable in the bios? Or in my sound options under control panel?  Perhaps its these current headphones im using that aren't taking advantage of it (senn 280pro) 

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

Really? hmmm now i am back to my original debacle haha, i dunno if i should go for an amp or a sound card lol. 

If anyone else wants to weigh in on this subject that would be great. 

Also, i am not sure how to get the 7.1 working? I am not even sure if it is.  Would this be something I enable in the bios? Or in my sound options under control panel?  Perhaps its these current headphones I'm using that aren't taking advantage of it (Senn 280pro) 

Check the Asrock website, make sure your using the latest drivers.
Maybe even get drivers straight from Realtek website.

 

[Tato23]

Alright I am downloading the drivers.  
 
Purple what are your thoughts on getting an amp to run since the on board audio is actually quite good?  I have read else where that people with this motherboard, has seen great improvements with a sound card, so im trying to gather as many opinions as i can from people. 

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

Alright I am downloading the drivers.  
 
Purple what are your thoughts on getting an amp to run since the on board audio is actually quite good?  I have read else where that people with this motherboard, has seen great improvements with a sound card, so I'm trying to gather as many opinions as i can from people. 

They might be willing to spend more cash for a sound card then you.
The Sound Blaster Z is $80
Asus Xonar Essence STX $180
 
you could just use on-board audio for now.
Or spend $20 for the Xonar DG, see it it improves the audio quality, it's only $20 to find out.

 

[baconbriefs]

I currently use a rebranded version of this for my HD518:
 
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829128010
 
Sounds great without an amp, and already really loud at 30% volume.
 
I also used to use the Realtek ALC888 and ALC892 for PC speakers, but the HD428 I bought 2 years ago sounded so anemic when plugged into them. I got a Xonar DG and it was a huge improvement, at least for me. My music sounded like, well, music.

Sadly, I couldn't use the Xonar DG anymore because I switched to a mITX motherboard so I just the external DAC above.
 
DG - PCI slot
DGX - PCI-E slot
 
Personally, I'd get the DGX because a lot of new motherboards today do not have any PCI slots anymore. It would be a bummer if you got the DG and the new motherboard you wanted didn't a slot for it.

 

[Tato23]

Hmm okay...well this will be a tough decision for sure.  Perhaps the 20 dollar DG could be a safe way of testing to see if the sound is better. Thanks a lot guys, hopefully more opinions will get in here and can help me decide on what to go with.  

For now the 7.1 works, but when i test it on the realtek program i can't hear the subwoofer.  I can hear all the other channels, just the sub is silent, so ill do some digging and maybe find out why that is.  The lows come out fine on the music, just not sure why its not on the headphones. Perhaps cause its actually trying to find speakers and the headphones cant simulate a direct sub.