[Giants84]

Hey hows it going, just bought the denon d2000 and when i am watching a movie or tv show it sounds really weird/distorted. Not sure whats going on my crappy old headphones sounded better, do i have to setup these headphones some how? Thank you.

 

[MD1032]

Hey Giants84,

Welcome to Head-Fi. Tell us what kind of equipment you're plugging your headphones into and we'll try to help you out best we can. Have you tried plugging them directly into an iPod?

 

[Giants84]

Sorry about that, i am plugging into the front of my computers headphone jack, i have a high end pc with a good sound card. Thank you. I don't have an ipod lost it and never bothered to buy one again lol but it sounds great when i plug it into a stereo. Also forgot to add, when i put on the headphones i hear a sound like static.

 

[stang]

Well a high end computer will have one or more SSDs, i7 cpu, Windows 7, 6GB of ddr3 2000mhz RAM, ATI 5870 etc and a good sound card like Auzentech Prelude or X-Fi Elite Pro. I barely consider my computer high end and my i7 920 is running at 4ghz and i have two GTX 285 and a 128gb ssd. Either way, having a good or bad computer won't really matter at al with audio, the soundcard is the main thing. Are the Denon D2000 plugged into the useless front panel audio on your computer or at the rear of the computer into the soundcard directly? With the D2000, out of a computer unamped, no wonder you are getting static. All that electronic interference inside the computer will be surely messing up the sound. For now, I would say get a good beginners DAC/AMP like the Zero off ebay for like $150. I use my X-Fi Elite Pro>Zero DAC> Qinpu A-3 and it sound great.

 

[Giants84]

It's plugged into the front because when i plug it into the soundcard the computer cant even find the headphones, no idea what to do. Where can i buy that amp other then ebay?

 

[stang]

Your soundcard must be really, really bad then. What one is it? You really need a DAC before getting an amp for the computer. You can get the Zero DAC or something similiar or if you want something more portable the iBasso D4 is supposed to be great. Those Denons should never be powered out of anything less than a decent amplifier and lossless music (DVDs should be fine for movies though). There are also many mods for the Denons that you can do or get done after you get a good DAC (and/or amp).

 

[Giants84]

My sound card is the soundblaster x-fi trust me there is nothing in my computer that is bad lol, it's the most high end gaming machine on the market. I have no idea what a DAC is or even where to buy it, google brings up nothing other then reviews. Thanks.

 

[Giants84]

Maybe there is a way to get into the settings and change stuff around, anyone know about VLC players?

 

[stang]

Most high end gaming pc on the market? i7 975? two ati 5970? One or more SSDs with Windows 7 installed? I have no idea why you would buy Denon D2000 without even knowing a thing about DACs rofl. I'm guessing you just buy the best that you can afford and expect it to be extremely good?

 

[Uncle Erik]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Giants84 /img/forum/go_quote.gif My sound card is the soundblaster x-fi trust me there is nothing in my computer that is bad lol, it's the most high end gaming machine on the market. I have no idea what a DAC is or even where to buy it, google brings up nothing other then reviews. Thanks.

First, what's good for gaming is not necessarily good in the same sense for audiophilia. I had a Soundblaster some time ago and found it useless for listening to good headphones. I don't use the computer much for sound, but eventually moved to an M-Audio Delta 66 card, which is professional gear meant for studio work.

Do not assume that because a piece of gear is good for one thing that it is good for everything.

The only thing that improved my sound was taking the sound processing outside of the computer. Switching power supplies are remarkably noisy. You might only hear the fan, but a switching supply throws off RFI (radio frequency interference) like a small radio transmitter. That radio hash gets picked up in audio circuits and that's what you hear.

So while your switching power supply might be of extremely good quality and very reliable, it throws off electrical noise. It's sort of like having a very good car and expecting it not to have any exhaust fumes. Of course it will, and that doesn't mean that it's a bad car. But you have to have something else entirely if you don't want the fumes.

Another drawback of soundcards is that they're run off the 12V rail inside the computer. I'm not sure of the maximum Amps you can pull, but I'd expect it to be limited, as well. The problem is that you're not going to get that much power off 12V, especially not when you compare it to 115-120V coming out of the wall with plenty of Amps. An amplifier that plugs into the wall can draw as much power as it needs, which is why most serious listeners use one that does.

A DAC is a digital-analog converter. It takes the digital signal from a CD player or from a computer and turns it into an analog signal that can be amplified and listened to.

If you want the best performance from a computer based system, you will want to run a digital connection from your soundcard to an external DAC. Then connect that DAC to an external amplifier that plugs into the wall.

You can find some units that have both the DAC and the amplifier in one box, but I prefer to buy separate units. That way, you can upgrade more easily and carefully pick the amp and DAC you want.

 

[Giants84]

No actually i can afford to buy much more expensive headphones first of all, second of all the reason i bought the denon d2000 is because it was recommended by a lot of people. Also in gaming sound is important so a high end gaming pc wont have a crappy sound card, so not sure how you can figure that. My sound was perfect with the free headphones dell gave from turtle beach because they were completely connected to the sound card with surround sound green/orange/yellow etc connectors, and now they broke so i got these.

When i try to connect the denon headphones into the sound card they are not found, so it has nothing to do with the sound card but the headphones because cheap turtle beach headphones worked fine. Thanks for the help appreciate it.

 

[stang]

well then since you can afford much more expensive headphones, why not get a Benchmark DAC1 and a good amplifier? Search on the for sale forums here and see what you can find, you can't expect us to do all the work for you

 

[Giants84]

The funny thing is i read exactly on these forums before that these headphones are fine without an amp, now i need a dac and an amp it does not make sense to me that cheap headphones would sound better without an amp or dac. What is the reason for that?

 

[stang]

They are supposedly very bad without an amp, but still acceptable. Cheap headphones? Are you serious? These are fairly expensive headphones...you may be extremely wealthy so they seem cheap to you. You do not need an amp or DAC. You said the D2000 sound horrible coming from the audio out on the front of your computer, a DAC will fix that and an amp will improve the sound quality a fair bit.

 

[Baird GoW]

get a audio-gd compass its a dac and amp combined. you may think its fairly cheap if you thought the d2000 were cheap. or you can get an EF2 from head-direct
btw how much did you pay for your d2000s