DT770 problems

[demoNMaCHiN3]

I just recently bought the DT770s from Guitar Center. For about three days, I was listening to them on my CD player and they sounded amazing. Today I plugged them into my PC and was disappointed. There is a fuzzy sound in the background even when I'm not doing something. The quality of the sound in gaming is not what I expected (the audio positioning was good however). I guess this is due to the fact that I'm using my onboard AC97 sound. I'm going to purchase an X-Fi Xtreme Music card very soon but was not expecting this distortion in the sound. I also have not burned in the headphones for the suggested 100~ hours. Is this what I should expect with only 20~ hours of burn in and onboard sound and will the fuzzyness clear out with the X-Fi? Any extra advice would be greatly appreciated.

P.S. Sorry if these questions sound incredibly stupid. When it comes to audio I am completely clueless, hence these are my first actual "audiophile" headphones and have only used headsets prior to this.

 

[Spadge]

I'm no expert but my guess is that if the noise is only apparent when using your PC then it's the sound card's fault. In that case the x-fi would fix things up.

Hopefully someone with a bit more knowledge will post and let you know for sure.

Paul

 

[PiccoloNamek]

An onboard soundcard will pick up interference from just about everything else in the computer. Best to switch to an add-on card or even an external DAC for better quality.

 

[hardstyler]

I know what you mean. I get lots of background noise as soon as plugging A900 into my laptop and its still there even if you mute all sounds or decrease volume.

 

[denl82]

My dt770/80 sounds really good with my x-fi=)

 

[Jim Barry]

Sometimes onboard audio is reasonably OK, sometimes not. The DT770 is fairly forgiving of background noise because its relatively low sensitivity means that the noise floor is often inaudible. It is not at all forgiving of poor quality sound output, though. The computer I currently use at work has terrible onboard audio - there is a sort of scratching sound whenever I move the mouse. I had to switch use an external USB sound card instead. You should find that the X-Fi is a massive improvement. It has absolutely nothing to do with "burn in" by the way.