[jrodefeld]

Hello everyone,

I have some HifiMan HE-400 headphones that I bought a few months ago. I haven't really listened to them that much yet.

I have an Asus Xonar Essence ST sound card in my computer. Do you think this is a sufficient way to drive the HE-400's?

I am using Foobar2000 with WASAPI output. The phones are plugged in through the headphone amp. The Asus drivers are set for PCM 44.1 KHz sample rate and the headphones are set for Extra High Gain.

I am listening to FLAC files in Foobar.

Thus far I am not exactly blown away but I haven't listened to them much yet. I'm sure they'll improve once they break in.


I am just curious as to what improvement I could expect if I got a different DAC / Amp combo to drive the HE-400's? And how much would I have to spend to see a significant improvement over the Asus Xonar Essence?

Or could I just add an amp and still use the Asus as the source?


What do you think?

 

[PurpleAngel]

I have some HifiMan HE-400 headphones that I bought a few months ago. I haven't really listened to them that much yet.
I have an Asus Xonar Essence ST sound card in my computer. Do you think this is a sufficient way to drive the HE-400's?
I am using Foobar2000 with WASAPI output. The phones are plugged in through the headphone amp. The Asus drivers are set for PCM 44.1 KHz sample rate and the headphones are set for Extra High Gain.
I am listening to FLAC files in Foobar.
Thus far I am not exactly blown away but I haven't listened to them much yet. I'm sure they'll improve once they break in.
I am just curious as to what improvement I could expect if I got a different DAC / Amp combo to drive the HE-400's? And how much would I have to spend to see a significant improvement over the Asus Xonar Essence?
Or could I just add an amp and still use the Asus as the source?

Hopefully you disabled the motherboard's on-board audio? in the BIOS.
 
If you want to try to improve audio quality, over the Essence ST.
Audio-GD NFB-15.32, $255+shipping
Audio-GD NFB-11.32, $340+shipping
http://www.audio-gd.com/Products-EN.htm
(sell off the Essence ST)