[nike290]

I currently have the HD 280 pro headphones and I was wondering if an amp would make them sound a lot better. I have the HT | OMEGA STRIKER 7.1 sound card and I am using FLAC audio files with foobar200. I was looking at the Black Objective2 amp with a budget of $150 and it looks pretty good. What do you guys think?

 

[PurpleAngel]

From my best understanding, the striker, audio quality wise, is just "ok".
Get the Creative Sound Blaster Z (SB1500) sound card, $100

 

[nike290]

  From my best understanding, the striker, audio quality wise, is just "ok".
Get the Creative Sound Blaster Z (SB1500) sound card, $100

My friend has the ASUS Xonar Essence STX and it sounds amazing. Do you know how the creative sound card compares?

 

[PurpleAngel]

 
My friend has the ASUS Xonar Essence STX and it sounds amazing. Do you know how the creative sound card compares?

Upgrading your headphones would be a better way to spend your cash.
For headphones like the Sennheiser HD280 Pro, I would buy the $27 Asus Xonar DG.
 
The Essence STX does have some better features, like a better headphone amplifier and a better DAC chip, over the SB-Z
But for headphones like the HD280 Pro, buying the Essence STX is not worth it.
 
I would say to sell off the striker, get the SB-Z and spend the rest of your budget for headphones.
Does it matter to you if the headphones are open or closed?

 

[nike290]

 
Upgrading your headphones would be a better way to spend your cash.
For headphones like the Sennheiser HD280 Pro, I would buy the $27 Asus Xonar DG.
 
The Essence STX does have some better features, like a better headphone amplifier and a better DAC chip, over the SB-Z
But for headphones like the HD280 Pro, buying the Essence STX is not worth it.
 
I would say to sell off the striker, get the SB-Z and spend the rest of your budget for headphones.
Does it matter to you if the headphones are open or closed?

If you say that I should get new headphones, then I would not want to get a cheaper pair. If I waited and got the HD 598 on sale, would the creative sound card be good enough to get the max potential from them?

 

[PurpleAngel]

 
If you say that I should get new headphones, then I would not want to get a cheaper pair. If I waited and got the HD 598 on sale, would the creative sound card be good enough to get the max potential from them?

Why wait for the HD598 to go on sale, the HD558 will be almost as good and the HD558 is only $130.
The SB-Z would be fine for ether headphone.

 

[nike290]

 
Why wait for the HD598 to go on sale, the HD558 will be almost as good and the HD558 is only $130.
The SB-Z would be fine for ether headphone.

I would wait to see if they go on sale on black Friday.