[Roller]

Ah, ok. Are you planning on swapping opamps right after you get the card? I ask because I think you should listen to the card for a while to get familiar with its sound, and then decide what you want to do regarding its sound
 
Also, if you found that your headphones weren't being driven properly, you could get an above entry portable headphone amp like PA2V2 or Fiio E11, which are quite good performers for their price, and would work fine up until you got more power hungry headphones, for which the Fiio E9 would be a good fit due to its good price/performance ratio, being able to power just about any headphones you throw at it, short of orthos.

 

[Nitrius]

No plans on swapping anything, gonna test it stock with my Sennheiser PC350 for now, until i get a new pair of headphones, not decided on what yet, but hopefully something a lot more suitable for music than the PC350, as i think they lack a lot of punch.

 

[rashbeep]

i'm in a similar situation myself looking for great gaming AND music audio. i've been entertaining the idea of getting the titanium hd for a while and then maybe adding an amp like a matrix m-stage later on. i also wanted to get a dac as well, but i don't really like the idea of switching inputs all the time. would that setup be alright for music and gaming?

 

[Roller]

Yes, a Titanium HD would be ideal for a gaming and music setup. While the regular Titanium only has great gaming performance, the Titanium HD does have one of the best sonic performance among all internal soundcards, having a nice signature and the complete gaming feature set.
 
With the Titanium HD, you should focus more on adding an amp, as its DAC is already of quite high quality and not really something you should worry about upgrading anytime soon, IMHO.

 

[rashbeep]

thanks for the reply
 
i think i just might end up getting that with the m-stage. nitrius, when you get your card post impressions!

 

[Nitrius]

Well looks like my soundcard is gonna be a bit delayed, was hoping to get it this weekend, but looks like it won't arrive before Monday or something.

 

[Nitrius]

Question about the HD, if i want to connect an amp to the soundcard, do i use a RCA cable to 3.5mm cable and connect it to the 3.5mm headphone jack? Or do i just plug the RCA cables into the RCA jacks on the HD card?

 

[Willakan]

The latter.

 

[Roller]

Quote:

Question about the HD, if i want to connect an amp to the soundcard, do i use a RCA cable to 3.5mm cable and connect it to the 3.5mm headphone jack? Or do i just plug the RCA cables into the RCA jacks on the HD card?

Ideally you want to connect through RCAs, but for the time being, as in running without external amps, you can use the headphone jack.

 

[Nitrius]

Just got the Creative X-Fi Titanium HD, about to set it up now

 

[Nitrius]

It's up and running, flawlessly so far =) Though got a few questions, one of the RCA jacks on the card seems to have a red light lit, what does this mean? And Creative WaveStudio and Soundbank, are these two audio editing software?

 

[Arnotts]

I just wanna enter this thread to say that Roller gave absolutely excellent advice.
 
It's rare to come on Head-Fi and see that. Hope you enjoy your Titanium HD!

 

[Roller]

Quote:

It's up and running, flawlessly so far =) Though got a few questions, one of the RCA jacks on the card seems to have a red light lit, what does this mean? And Creative WaveStudio and Soundbank, are these two audio editing software?

Glad to hear that
 
That led just points that optical out is available.
 
WaveStudio is an audio editing app while Soundbank is a management app for integrated sound banks to be used with external apps.

 

[Nitrius]

Well am very happy with the soundcard so far, and it works great with my new Denon AH-D2000 headphones, also bought an amp(Argon HA1), but it doesn't do much, infact i think the headphones sound better connected directly to the soundcard so far.

No driver problems either, the installation went super smooth over here. Found an Automode Switcher on the driver CD as well, which is a nice addition i must say, makes it easier to change between Game mode for games and other modes for music for example, didn't found anything like it on the Creative websites, so it's kinda weird it was on the CD, but it works, so i ain't complaining.

Only downside so far is that the card seems to be receptive of high amount of interference, got an old Phone(SE K610i) and it looks like the soundcard picks up some interference when my phone search for a network, tried with different phones, and it looks to only be my SE k610i that does this at the moment, so i've just placed it a bit farther away from the computer to "fix" the problem, probably gonna get a new phone at a later date, and then i hopefully don't have to think about it ever again.

 

[rashbeep]

that's great to hear. i think i'll pick up one myself. still not sure what amp to use with it though especially after what you have said :S