lttlfld
Head-Fier
- Joined
- Dec 2, 2013
- Posts
- 81
- Likes
- 14
I have a nice gaming desktop I enjoy gaming on at home, but I also travel for work (2 weeks at a time) and game on a MSI GT60 ONE. I just bought the Sennheiser HD 598s and my day one impressions are holy moly incredible. I use them probably 60/40 for gaming/music.
However, I do not have a sound card for my desktop and no DAC or amplifier in general. My question is what all do I really need to buy to enhance these headphones? Here are some possible scenarios:
1) buy a nice sound card, suck it up when using the laptop
2) buy a nice DAC or Amp (btw I still don't totally get the difference between these) and use them/it for my laptop and desktop
3) buy a decent sound card and a decent DAC/amp. Use DAC/amp for laptop and DAC/amp + sound card on desktop. For this scenario I would want good synergy between sound card + DAC/amp (if it matters)
I could also buy a very nice soundcard AND a very nice DAC/amp, but this could easily top $400, and that seems absurd when the headphones were only $200 with tax.
I think I would ideally like to spend $100, but obviously everyone wants to spend less money.
As an aside, my dad had an extra Creative Labs SB0790 PCI Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio Sound Card laying around, but I've read this thing is a POS and not truly X-Fi (although I admit I really don't know what X-Fi is).
I've spent hours on forums and I'm almost dizzy from trying to figure this out. Picking out the right headphones for me was hard enough!
ALSO, I can return the 598s (bought them yesterday at fry's) if different cans might help solve this.
Thanks!
However, I do not have a sound card for my desktop and no DAC or amplifier in general. My question is what all do I really need to buy to enhance these headphones? Here are some possible scenarios:
1) buy a nice sound card, suck it up when using the laptop
2) buy a nice DAC or Amp (btw I still don't totally get the difference between these) and use them/it for my laptop and desktop
3) buy a decent sound card and a decent DAC/amp. Use DAC/amp for laptop and DAC/amp + sound card on desktop. For this scenario I would want good synergy between sound card + DAC/amp (if it matters)
I could also buy a very nice soundcard AND a very nice DAC/amp, but this could easily top $400, and that seems absurd when the headphones were only $200 with tax.
I think I would ideally like to spend $100, but obviously everyone wants to spend less money.
As an aside, my dad had an extra Creative Labs SB0790 PCI Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio Sound Card laying around, but I've read this thing is a POS and not truly X-Fi (although I admit I really don't know what X-Fi is).
I've spent hours on forums and I'm almost dizzy from trying to figure this out. Picking out the right headphones for me was hard enough!
ALSO, I can return the 598s (bought them yesterday at fry's) if different cans might help solve this.
Thanks!