[Soymilk]

wasnt really sure if this should go in the dac forum or here.
 
i'm looking for a replacement for my desktop, i had an x-fi elite pro that bit the dust. seeing as last time i really looked into audio stuff was when the x-fi cards were the hot new thing, i wanted to check in to see if the landscape had changed. for a similar budget (<$100), is there any usb dac that would be better suited than simply getting a soundblaster z? i still have my headphone amp, and i know the soundblaster is supposed to have one built in; my thought was if i can spend the full budget on just a dac instead of a dac/amp combo of sorts, maybe i can get better value? i remember last time i looked (~10 years or so ago) the general consensus was that dacs were very poor at positional audio though. is that still the case? if gaming is fairly heavily considered, would i still be best off just getting a soundblaster z?
 
my usage split would be roughly 50/50 between games and everything else.
 
if anyone's curious or makes any difference, the rest of the setup is:
speakers: swan m10 (just ordered, my klipsch promedia 2.1's recently died too)
headphones: ppa v2 -> dt770pro80 / q701
 
thanks!

 

[PurpleAngel]

What is the make and model of the headphone amplifier?
 
For under $100 and for FPS gaming, the Sound Blaster Z card is a good choice.
 
For gaming plug the headphones directly into the SB-Z's headphone jack.
For music audio, connect the headphone amplifier to the SB-Z's front speaker jack and plug headphone into external head amp.

 

[Soymilk]

the headphone amp is a diy ppa v2, bought the pcb off (tangentsoft? i think) and sourced the rest of the parts elsewhere. made it like ..9 years ago or so?
 
so i take it the speaker jack does not go through the card's amplification stage? or is that recommendation more due to headphone jack gets some audio processing for 3d positional stuff for headphones? would it be worse to go headphone jack -> amp -> headphones?
 
i ordered the zx since it's on sale at the moment (<80, convenient timing!). i know the control module is not good for audio quality, so i wont be using it. i'll maybe keep it for its mic or see if i can sell it off on craigslist or something.

 

[PurpleAngel]

  the headphone amp is a diy ppa v2, bought the pcb off (tangentsoft? i think) and sourced the rest of the parts elsewhere. made it like ..9 years ago or so?
 
so i take it the speaker jack does not go through the card's amplification stage? or is that recommendation more due to headphone jack gets some audio processing for 3d positional stuff for headphones? would it be worse to go headphone jack -> amp -> headphones?
 
i ordered the zx since it's on sale at the moment (<80, convenient timing!). i know the control module is not good for audio quality, so i wont be using it. i'll maybe keep it for its mic or see if i can sell it off on craigslist or something.

 
The Ti-HD's headphone jack is decent,
but has a 35-Ohm output impedance
 
Where as the Ti-HD's line-output (RCA) takes advantage of the Ti-HD's two 49710 op-amps.
And most external headphone amplifiers have a way lower output impedance, then 35-Ohms.
So audio quality, using the external amplifier, should be better (at least slightly) then plugging headphones directly into the Ti-HD's headphone jack.
CMSS-3D headphone surround sound, should be equal, either using the Ti-HD headphone jack, or the RCA outputs.

 

[Soymilk]

ah, the headphone jack's path uses a single dual-channel opamp vs the line-out using two single channel opamps? interesting.
 
also, you were mentioning the titanium hd in your post, does it still apply for the zx or is it laid out differently?

 

[PurpleAngel]

  ah, the headphone jack's path uses a single dual-channel opamp vs the line-out using two single channel opamps? interesting.
 
also, you were mentioning the titanium hd in your post, does it still apply for the zx or is it laid out differently?

 
The Ti-HD uses two dual op-amps for the headphone jack
And the same two dual channel op-amps, plus two single channel op-amps, for the line-output (RCA).
 
The older Ti-HD and newer SB-Z (& SB-Zx) are laid out differently.(like different DSP (Digital Signal Processors).
But do offer a lot (but not all) of the same inputs and outputs.