E12 and E17 are portables. E17 is a DAC too, which will work for your non-gaming (like taking with your iphone or whatever).
The E17 is indeed a DAC, with USB & optical inputs (and analogue if you just want to use it as an amplifier), but just FYI it won't natively connect to an iPhone without a lightning-to-USB adapter (and perhaps a small USB hub to "hide" the power requirements). Just saying. E17 is still a good/practical portable.
Wow, thanks dude! That's kind of you and I appreciate it.
Regarding the Creative E3, it doesn't look like it'll work with a console directly. Seems similar to a crossbreed of the E17 and the SBZ/SB Omni with a little bluetooth thrown in. I doubt you'll be able to use it wirelessly with something like a Mixamp. I'm gonna keep my eye on that device, thanks for the link.
Hey man, you've been keeping the thread alive, you deserve the recognition. I'm trying to come back too, miss talking to the regulars
Maybe I'll even finally make my surround setup YouTube playlist public
I'll have to look into this E3 as well!
Q701 (and K712) will want an amp so I would stay away from it if you don't plan on getting one.
I don't think a Recon or Omni will give you too much improvement over the U3, but I haven't heard the U3 so I dunno. I wouldn't worry too much about the new E3... I suspect it's more marketing than value; I get suspicious of anything that claims to have so many bells and whistles in a small portable inexpensive package.
Oh c'mon, you liked the Q701 even before you got an amp, you just liked both your headphones better when you added an amp. The Q701 just scaled up more
I use my AKG's off the Omni most of the time when I'm on PC, I wanted an amp to clean things up when I used the Recon3D USB, but the Omni has a decently capable amp. MAKE SURE TO UPDATE ITS FIRMWARE!!!
I dunno about you, my Omni is usually set to around 20% with my Q701 and K712 while playing games, surround is perfectly adequate for gaming (though I prefer adding a tube amp for music or when I want the "ultimate" experience). The Omni has more amping power than a FiiO E17 or Mixamp. Also, the U3 has an amp that's pretty weak and dirty, relatively speaking. The main redemption for it is that it's cheap for adding surround sound processing, and it allows optical output to better sounding gear (like an E17, Bifrost, whatEv).
With the above said about the Omni and AKG's, I would like to re-recommend the AKG K612. For iMac2Much, the comfort of a full-sized open headphone (of high quality) will be a bit of a revelation, it's a tad less lively in the highs than the Q but has an overall engaging sound that evenly presents bass-mids-treble and is a bit cheaper. I borrowed Change's old one, sounded quite good for gaming off of the Omni, really great off of my Schiif Bifrost and custom SET Class-A tube amp playing FLAC music files (very near K712, if you never had a good headphone before you'd have to listen to both for a while to hear the difference). Q701 or K702 have the benefit of removable cables though.
Probably using a card that has optical input, then run optical out from console to optical in in audio card then set optical in as a main audio source on pc, then apply dolby headphone encoding and output through headphone jack. To be honest, just buy a mixamp or dss, less hassle.
Also, I know You guys advised me to go with K612 and not hd598 but I found used hd598 for an equivalent of 70 usd so I bought them immediately.
Eh... The only creative soundcard I know of that can process optical surround input is the Recon3D USB, it's a licensing issue rather than hardware limitation. I would agree about just using a console surround processor (like the Recon3D USB, powered off console's USB port), much less hassle and electricity waste (DEM UTILITY BILLZ!).
On a budget, that deal you went for was a no-brainer! However... Long term, I'd still want the K612
I did Order a pair of DT880, exited about that but I've never heard a Soundmagic yet
I personally tend to prefer lively but balanced headphones, I can only listen to v-shaped frequency responses (like HE-400, V-MODA LP) for a little while.