[Drakemoor]

I'm really new to this so i'm looking for some help on a few things. I'm about to buy a pair of Sennheiser HD 555's and will be using my computer as the source. I have an onboard nvidia soundstorm and a soundblaster (not great, i know but it'll have to do for the minute). The soundstorm has an optical out but the only thing i've used that for so far is a minidisc recorder, i normally just use the line out on the soundblaster because the soundstorms line out is full of hiss. I've been told the senn's won't work too well on the line out (is this because theres not enough power to drive it or because the sound quality from the line out is so poor?) and i've been told i'd be better off buying an amp to drive them and getting a chaintech soundcard, this is where things get problematic for me. If i bought the chaintech card would i use the line out or the Optical out, if so how would i then connect it to an amp?

I'm pretty sure i've been looking too hard into this (i was thinking of using the optical out connected to a digital to analogue converter and then into the amp, but i'd surely be losing quality from having it go through so many components and i'm assuming theres a much easier way around this problem).

Sorry for the stupidity of the question, like i said i'm pretty new to it, any info you could give me on it would be greatly appreciated.

 

[proxops-pete]

Unless you get a special (and very expensive) amps, most amps don't have digital or optical line in. So you are likely to be using Line Out of the Chaintech card. Besides, Hi Quality setting only uses that Line Out via the Wolfson DAC. Get a PiMETA if you can off some of these fine Head-Fi'ers (from $100 to $200) and you will be in heaven w/ Chaintech and 555.

EDIT: Oh and welcome!!

 

[Drakemoor]

Thanks for the help

Ok, i think i'll opt for what you said, thers two things i'd like to learn more about though. If i use a regular amplifier that i normally use for my Hi-Fi would i get the same sound quality as the headphone amps? Also, i have just downloaded Foobar and i'm wonder how it improves sound quality. I've tried resampling but i don't think i have the hardware to go any higher than 44.1Khz. At first i honestly thought it sounded better but after listening/comparing it to WMP i realised it was same. Can anyone give some instructions or tips on how to optimise it for my hardware or give a run down how it works?

Thanks

 

[proxops-pete]

Use Kernel Streaming...

It bypasses Windows' sound mixer... which makes the sound crappy...
As for using your Hi-Fi receiver, it depends on the quality of your receiver/amp. Is it cheapo like Aiwa? Or is it brand like Marantz?

 

[Drakemoor]

It's a technics reciever, nothing amazing but if i upgraded i wouldn't see the difference. I'm currently tuning and tweeking Foobar to see what everything does, i'm also looking around on the web for anything related to it.

 

[proxops-pete]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Drakemoor It's a technics reciever, nothing amazing but if i upgraded i wouldn't see the difference. I'm currently tuning and tweeking Foobar to see what everything does, i'm also looking around on the web for anything related to it.

Technics is pretty good... esp. if it's more vintage ones from 80's...

As for Foobar help, Zemo is the man... see his Foobar2000 Setup Guide @ Fix-IT.org. Good luck.