[kazooki117]

Hi, I had a few questions.
 
I am planning on buying the beyerdynamic DT770 Pro 80 and pairing it with an amp for my laptop computer. I was wondering what a good amp would be.
 
Right now I am looking at the ASTRO mixamp versus the Creative Sound Blaster X-fi USB 1240.
 
I know that the ASTRO uses dolby, and the Sound Blaster uses CMSS-3D; is there much difference between the two? Are there any other similarly priced amps that would be worth considering? I have no other DAC, amp, or surround sound enabler, and this would be my only one.

 

[Eric_C]

Quote:

Wow...that is a lot of info here! Too much for me to understand, being a noob @ audiophilia. However, this site and its forums was recommended as the best place to get advice for any and all of your audio needs, so please help a fellow out!
 
I require a set of headphones, mostly for music (my choices range from Sting & The Police, to Chemical Brothers & Infected Mushroom, to Metallica) and movies & TV series, with occasional chat (I have a separate mic for that). I am not a gamer. I am going to use them for about 6-8 hours daily, maybe more. My current headphones are the Jabra Halo which I found satisfactory for all my needs, but after 18 months of solid use, they won't charge anymore

(I blame the headband design for that). I am not necessarily looking for Bluetooth headsets, though, and my budget is around a 100$.
 
Please recommend

 
P.S.: I almost went for the Audio Technica AD700 until I read the reviews here and found that they are bass anemic. So, back to the square-one for me.

You may have better luck asking in any of the numerous non-gaming threads instead.

 

[obazavil]

I think you should check the headphones on the first page of this thread and see how they perform for music.
 
I owned K702 and DT990 and they work well for music, but need an amp. DT990 are great for techno and many genres, K702 ppl say they lack bass but is fixed with tubes.
Sennheiser 598 I think are good for music.
Denon sounds good. D7000 are good but expensive.
 
hmm...
 
I just saw you budget is $100. CAL are good at that price range
Fischer Audio FA-003 is at $150. I heard good things about them, dunno the details.
 

 
Quote:

Wow...that is a lot of info here! Too much for me to understand, being a noob @ audiophilia. However, this site and its forums was recommended as the best place to get advice for any and all of your audio needs, so please help a fellow out!
 
I require a set of headphones, mostly for music (my choices range from Sting & The Police, to Chemical Brothers & Infected Mushroom, to Metallica) and movies & TV series, with occasional chat (I have a separate mic for that). I am not a gamer. I am going to use them for about 6-8 hours daily, maybe more. My current headphones are the Jabra Halo which I found satisfactory for all my needs, but after 18 months of solid use, they won't charge anymore

(I blame the headband design for that). I am not necessarily looking for Bluetooth headsets, though, and my budget is around a 100$.
 
Please recommend

 
P.S.: I almost went for the Audio Technica AD700 until I read the reviews here and found that they are bass anemic. So, back to the square-one for me.

 

 

[chicolom]

Quote:

By the way, the new Ear Force DSS is out...seems like they just added a "Surround Angle" button with 6 different presets and an Equalizer button as well ("select between flat, bass boost, aggressive bass boost, treble boost, aggressive treble, boost, bass & treble boost, midrange boost and aggressive midrange boost.").
 
It's also 10$ less than the original. Neat!

Hmm..
http://www.turtlebeach.com/products/audio-processors/ear-force-dss2.aspx
 
Amp section is probalby the same.  "Adjustable Surround Sound Angles" = HRTFs?
 
There's nothing like "aggressive" EQ-ing to improve your headphone's sound!
 
 

 

[paulkemp]

The eq is nice enough. Still a cheap alternative if you dont need a mic. 

 

[cashmoney]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I forgot to mention that I plan to use them solely for CoD. I think I'll go with the 700's instead of the 701's. I know that he had a double revelation when he put on the 701's, but there can't be too much difference, right? I'm surprised more people don't do the 700 and astro mixamp combo. I know all the YT "famous" people use the A40's, but I believe that's just due to pure simplicity. What do you guys think? Do the A40s hold a candle to any of headphones on Shin's list, especially the 700's?

 

[Phos]

I've heard they aren't very good.

 

[Rebel975]

All I remember about the A40's was that they had absolutely no bass. "Bass light" isn't even appropriate for them. I'm talking zero bass. This is good for positioning I suppose, but really bad for immersion. IMO, there has to be balance.
 
 
Oh, and it wasn't comfortable either.
 
Their headset is mediocre, but their Mixamp is so vital for me. It's crazy how much I depend on the mixamp. Without that little box I wouldn't have gotten into headphones (or audio in general) in the first place.

 

[matryx]

What do yous think of this Sherwood receiver for $110 to use as a mixamp/decoder?

http://www.walmart.ca/canada-estore/catalog/productdetailpagecontainer.jsp?skuId=168266

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

Hi, I had a few questions.
I am planning on buying the beyerdynamic DT770 Pro 80 and pairing it with an amp for my laptop computer. I was wondering what a good amp would be.
Right now I am looking at the ASTRO mixamp versus the Creative Sound Blaster X-fi USB 1240.
I know that the ASTRO uses dolby, and the Sound Blaster uses CMSS-3D; is there much difference between the two? Are there any other similarly priced amps that would be worth considering? I have no other DAC, amp, or surround sound enabler, and this would be my only one.

Personally I would go for the Astro Mix-Amp, as Dolby Digital (Dolby Headphone) is great for movies.
 
 

 

[Evarin]

I ordered the Fischer Audio FA-003. It will take a LONG time to get here, but once it does I will post impressions if anyone is interested.
 
Happy New Year, everyone.

 

[NamelessPFG]

 
Quote:

Hi, I had a few questions.
 
I am planning on buying the beyerdynamic DT770 Pro 80 and pairing it with an amp for my laptop computer. I was wondering what a good amp would be.
 
Right now I am looking at the ASTRO mixamp versus the Creative Sound Blaster X-fi USB 1240.
 
I know that the ASTRO uses dolby, and the Sound Blaster uses CMSS-3D; is there much difference between the two? Are there any other similarly priced amps that would be worth considering? I have no other DAC, amp, or surround sound enabler, and this would be my only one.

X-Fi HD USB, right? That doesn't process CMSS-3D Headphone in hardware like the internal sound cards with EMU20k1 and EMU20k2 DSPs do, and it certainly doesn't have Game Mode available.
 
Thus, I can't be sure that its CMSS-3D Headphone experience will be anything remotely like what I can get out of said internal sound cards, which performs on par with Dolby Headphone in games with software audio engines pre-mixing everything to 7.1 at most and utterly curbstomping DH in games that use DirectSound3D or OpenAL, because then it's providing more of a 3D binaural experience due to having direct access to the in-game sound coordinates instead of simulating a 5.1/7.1 speaker system with no height cues.
 
To further add to the matter, the X-Fi HD USB would have software-emulated EAX 3.0 and 4.0 according to the OpenAL flags and being compatible with ALchemy, but I'm not sure that the Astro Mixamp would even get that far. It's generally something you only have to worry about for older games, though.
 
Too bad Creative doesn't see fit to provide these features outside of desktop sound cards...makes laptop gaming quite a bit more problematic in the audio department.
 
Also, if you don't need S/PDIF input, you could save a lot of money and still get Dolby Headphone by getting a Xonar U3.

 

[chicolom]

FYI,  I have a Labtec LVA-7330 Boom Microphone for sale in my sig for you gamers wanting a mic

 

[Rebel975]

I'm thinking of buying a Schiit Bifrost and setting it up like this:
 
Xbox (spdif) > spdif to coax converter > Bifrost > Astro Mixamp > Lyr > HE-500
PC (spdif) > Bifrost > Lyr > HE-500.
 
 
I'd only get a simulated 5.1 instead of 7.1, but it might be worth it. If not, I can always just use the Bifrost exclusively with the PC. Thoughts?

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

The Bifrost won't keep the Dolby Digital signal, so the Mixamp is going to get a stereo signal, killing off the whole reason to have the Mixamp for simulated surround. You'll just be getting a heavily processed stereo signal expanded to simulated surround, and not Dolby Headphone.

Do yourself a favor and feed the optical directly to the Mixamp. Keep the Bifrost out of the equation.

BTW, the whole 7.1 thing is false marketing, as you're only getting 5.1 under the best conditions. They market it as 7.1 because Dolby Headphone does a good job making it sound like sounds are coming from all around you.