Headphone amplifier or External sound card or both?

[OlivierVDK]

Hey,
 
I was thinking of buying an Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1 for gaming.
But will this card be able to drive my Beyerdynamic DT990 pro (250 ohm)?
 
If not should I buy a headphone amp with it like the Fiio E17?
 
PC > Creative sound card > Fiio E17 > Headphones
 
please help me , pretty noob at this so yea
 
Thanks in advance!

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

I was thinking of buying an Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1 for gaming.
But will this card be able to drive my Beyerdynamic DT990 pro (250 ohm)?
If not should I buy a headphone amp with it like the Fiio E17?
PC > Creative sound card > Fiio E17 > Headphones

I guess you could plug the Fiio E17 into the X-Fi Surround 5.1's optical output.
The Fiio E17 should a least fairly decently drive 250-Ohm headphones.

 

[obobskivich]

What about the X-Fi HD USB? Supposed to have a more robust amplifier on the headphone output at least.

The 5.1 Surround has RCA outputs as well, which you could connect to something like the FiiO E9 (which will drive your DT990 no problem). My advice would be to try the headphone jack on the 5.1 Surround (if that's what you end up getting), and if you don't like the sound, add an amplifier later.