[Evshrug]

Squit,
I recommend looking at the AKG and Sennheiser products reviewed in Mad's guide in the first post, and shop your local prices. The AD700 or AD700x might also be worth looking into since you have the M50x for music (and the AD for sound whoring).
-----


ShadowSkulkerer,
The Mixamp is a DAC, and doesn't allow you to use a different DAC instead. That's one of the whole reasons people wanted Creative to make a surround processor which could send the virtual surround mix through optical out, that's what we thought the Omni would be till it came out as a PC-only device.

The X7 is kind of a surprize, we finally get a console-compatible headphone surround processor which can be connected to external audiophile gear, but... it basically already has the DAC and Amp improvements we wanted, built-in. It even has unexpected extras like user-moddable OpAmp socket, dual Bluetooth connections, Speaker taps, and USB Host mode to bypass the internal DACs of iPods and iPhones. Oh, and a headphone stand. It's not the cheap little passthrough processor we were looking for (which would probably be against Creative's best interests), but it's a very convenient and tidy all-in-one solution, and if I sell all the stuff the X7 would be replacing I'll have plenty of money left over!

 

[martin vegas]

 

[ShadowSkulkerer]

Evshrug,
Ah, thank you. If the x7 is as good as they say it is I Want it. I'm trying to avoid buzz and such background noise as much as possible.

 

[Squit]

Squit,
I recommend looking at the AKG and Sennheiser products reviewed in Mad's guide in the first post, and shop your local prices. The AD700 or AD700x might also be worth looking into since you have the M50x for music (and the AD for sound whoring).

 
 
Thanks, managed to find the original AD700 around £60 mark. I also bought a splitter with volume control need it I think never have suffered with audio loss personally I'm no expert mind you but my sound card should be more than capable to power them (Soundblaster Z)

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

What I want to know, is the power spec for the X7 is in varying impedances, as well as what the ouput impedance is on the headphone jack. I'm gonna assume they wenf the typical 10ohm route, which is unfortunate, though it's mere conjecture for now.

 

[ShadowSkulkerer]

Why? What should the output impedance be? I have only a vague understanding of these things after reading term glossaries and many discussions.

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

General rule of thumb is to have your output impedance to be 1/8 to 1/10th the impedance of a headphone for cood electrical damping. The less damping, the more the amplifier is likely to alter the way a headphone sounds, by making things like treble harsher, bass less controlled, among other negatively impacting things.

There are some times when this isn't the case, and there are amplifiers with high 120ohm output impedances since it may give certain headphones a tube amp type sound.

In general though, high output impedance and low impedance headphones don't work well together. Considering most headphones tend to fall in the low impedance area, it is generally favorable to have amps with 3ohm or less. Sadly, a lot of amps sold are 5-10ohm and sometimes higher. I.E., the Xonar U3 I have, has a 23ohm output impedance. This is why Iprefer to bypass the internal amp, and use my own.

in short, if you wanna hear your headphones own sound with the least interference, try and get a low impedance amp.

For cold, dry, thin sounding headphones, they MAY actually benefit from high output impedance, at least by ear, but may measure worse.

Also, some headphones, like planarmagnetics are designed differently from standard, dynamic headphones, and aren't really affected by output impedance.

 

[ShadowSkulkerer]

Wow! Thank you SO much for explaing it to me. I have learned so much already from knowing nothing before.

EDIT: I found this on soundblaster's site.

"A high power, high efficiency Class-D digital amplifier TPA3116D2 delivers up to 100W power (2 x 50W @ 4Ω*), allowing you to connect to passive bookshelf or tower speakers. The Sound Blaster X7 features an impedance switch to select between 4Ω and 8Ω to match your speakers to deliver the best audio performance."

But I guess that doesn't tell you the headphone output.

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

Yeah, that's for external speakers, not headphones. And those impedance ratings are for the type of speakers you're using, not the actual output impedance of the device itself.

I'm not very well versed on speakers and what good power is for them, but I wonder just how powerful the X7 truly is for driving passive speakers. Like the very popular and affordable Andrew Jones Pioneer speakers which are 6ohm and handle 90w... I assume the X7 would be too weak.

 

[wilflare]

I wonder if the Mixamp Pro 2014 improved on anything at all

 

[Fegefeuer]

General rule of thumb is to have your output impedance to be 1/8 to 1/10th the impedance of a headphone for cood electrical damping. The less damping, the more the amplifier is likely to alter the way a headphone sounds, by making things like treble harsher, bass less controlled, among other negatively impacting things.

There are some times when this isn't the case, and there are amplifiers with high 120ohm output impedances since it may give certain headphones a tube amp type sound.

In general though, high output impedance and low impedance headphones don't work well together. Considering most headphones tend to fall in the low impedance area, it is generally favorable to have amps with 3ohm or less. Sadly, a lot of amps sold are 5-10ohm and sometimes higher. I.E., the Xonar U3 I have, has a 23ohm output impedance. This is why Iprefer to bypass the internal amp, and use my own.

in short, if you wanna hear your headphones own sound with the least interference, try and get a low impedance amp.

For cold, dry, thin sounding headphones, they MAY actually benefit from high output impedance, at least by ear, but may measure worse.

Also, some headphones, like planarmagnetics are designed differently from standard, dynamic headphones, and aren't really affected by output impedance.

 
Well, you could be very right. Most (if not all) solutions with this particular opamp come with 10 Ohm output impedance.

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

Damn. Not a good sign for most headphones... I mean, it's not a dealbreaker, but it isn't ideal...

Still, your average consumer won't even tell the difference. Consider the high price tag, not sure your average consumer is the target demographic.

 

[Fegefeuer]

Well, if it really is 10 Ohms then it's like the Asus Essence One (which was 399$ as well) which became quite popular/successful (also being a good combo for the HD 800). Like the E1 Opamps are swappable. 

 

[HiCZoK]

trying to decide if is should get something from superlux or kingston hyerx cloud or maybe pull the plug and drop the cash on steelseries H wireless. Those are not mentioned here enough. any opinions ? I am mainly about comfort and warm/entertaining tone and kinda leaning towards kingston tho it would be perfect if it had detachable cord

 

[Enginigmatic]

  trying to decide if is should get something from superlux or kingston hyerx cloud or maybe pull the plug and drop the cash on steelseries H wireless. Those are not mentioned here enough. any opinions ? I am mainly about comfort and warm/entertaining tone and kinda leaning towards kingston tho it would be perfect if it had detachable cord

I tried the Steelseries H. The product itself is very featureful, which is why it appealed to me. Personally I found that the Skullcandy PLYR1 had better audio quality. Out of the three wireless headsets I tried (Astro A50 being the third), the Skullcandy PLYR1 was surprisingly the best-sounding set, particularly for the likes of movies or music. It's also the least expensive of the three. I would say, in terms of sound, PLYR1 > Steelseries H > Astro A50. Haven't tried the HyperX Cloud.
 
Using my Sony MDR-V6 as a benchmark, none of the wireless headsets were satisfying to me, and I gave up on the idea of a wireless gaming headset. I cringe at the idea of more wires and chaining DACs and amps to a source, but I don't see an alternative. I ordered an AKG Q701 and Fiio E17 last night.
 
If you can float the $, I would try to purchase two different headsets and compare them, and return at least one of them.