He still reads the thread, from time to time. He may have upgraded his headphone, but he started talking about Custom-building his PC rig and then wasn't a regular poster anymore. I could be wrong remembering him settling on the Q701 (and kinda wishing that one day he could save up for an HD800... well I made it man! Made easier that used ones now are almost half the price of new HD800's back then), and I guess he was satisfied and hit endgame. Miss his wit though!
Gosh, just had an unsettling feeling. I hope I don't get bored of headphones and gaming once I am married next Sunday (the 12th). Preparing for that has kept me busy and tired lately, but I always assumed I'd eventually be back FULL FORCE!
Thanks Ev! Good to know about the X7/X-Fi. I'm curious to see your findings with the upgrade OpAmps. I think before I take the plunge into an X7, I need to decide whether I prefer Dolby Headphone vs CMSS/SBX.
In short, I've really grown to appreciate swappable OpAmps as a feature and it elevated the X7 to a midpoint between a good desktop amp and a high-end desktop amp; a solid value upgrade for the price. I've gotta post my review soon because it's driving me MAD and I feel like I'm overdue to be done with it, lol. Full disclosure, my almost 2 years old X7 developed an odd audio artifact which was becoming more and more noticeable before I got the Burson Audio v5i OpAmps, and I was hoping to get it sorted before posting my final review, but Creative sent two automated emails without actually responding yet. I think I'll just have to comment on the v5i's merits separately from the pre-existing problem, and hope that I can get the problem sorted when I'm not busy and tired.
Do you think sound quality on PC will take a significant hit going from X-Fi DAC to the the Xonar DGX? If so, I'm wondering if a Xonar Essence STX II would be a better replacement to pair with the K7XX, and be able to use DH. I was listening to music last night while reading hundreds of pages on this thread and the AKG's sounds so good. I don't want to give up my music SQ on PC if I can help it.
I think from prior experience I prefer Dolby Headphone, but on the contrary I feel my older Extigy using CMSS is a better sounding device than the DSS2. {snipped...}
On a side note, the HD6XX sparks my interest for daily drivers when I'm not gaming.. Down the rabbit hole I go...
I do think that the DGX should have an inferior DAC to the X7, which would be noticeable even if you used your O2. I haven't heard the DGX though, and if the DGX supports digital output to another DAC while passing along the Dolby Headphone mix, then the sound quality difference between any of the Asus sound cards would be moot (other than price you paid). If you just want Dolby Headphone, then forget about any of the cards and just buy the U3 or whatever's cheapest, and use an optical output to a Modi, Bifrost, Mojo, or some other DAC.
The beauty of the X7, however, is that you don't need to connect a separate amp, or a separate DAC. Techradar stated exactly what I'm talking about in their recent review of the M2 DAP: "But daisy-chaining devices to your phone can be a right royal pain in the AAC." I only use one gaming console, but even a single Optical switcher would IMO be preferable to having separate whole systems for two consoles, my PC/Mac, and my smartphone. Sure, a Jotunheim amp + Bifrost Multibit DAC or better would beat the X7 for audio quality (and you even could optical-output to such a DAC), but the X7 is a solid desktop-class performer and will outperform any Mixamp/DSS/portable sub-$200 setup with surround DSP out there.
You wanna talk about how deep the rabbit hole goes... I backed the Smyth Realiser A16 campaign this summer on Kickstarter! Excited for that, though I feel like I'll be waiting 3/4 of a year to get it.