[chicolom]

Check out my laptop's audio board.    Pretty impressive.

   I wonder if it will drive orthodynamics... 
 

 

[Mehdi]

Quote:

Did you let the battery on the E11 full charge?
Try set the voltage switch to high, it's located under the battery.

 
I just double checked, the voltage is set to high.
 
Quote:

Lol, thinking the E11 is actually giving enough power to the Q701. Try harder. The Q701 needs STRONG desktop amps to truly shine. They work fine with little amps, but big amps are where its at for the AKGs. Head-fi has mentioned it countless times.
The only time the E11 should be sufficient is when hooking it up to the Mixamp for gaming. For music and non gaming, you will want amps usually in the $250+ range.

I tried the combination of the Mix Amp as well for gaming as well The reason I got the e11 was to see if an amp actually improved the SQ of the Q701s, to a noticable degree, before I tried to jump into the more expensive ( and harder to return ) amp category. 
 
$250+ though? Damn. The O2 is only $150, and the E9 is $100 - so neither of those will be good enough either? 

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

 
I just double checked, the voltage is set to high.
 
I tried the combination of the Mix Amp as well for gaming as well The reason I got the e11 was to see if an amp actually improved the SQ of the Q701s, to a noticable degree, before I tried to jump into the more expensive ( and harder to return ) amp category. 
 
$250+ though? Damn. The O2 is only $150, and the E9 is $100 - so neither of those will be good enough either? 

Both the O2 (Objective 2) and Fiio E9 will do a fairly good job of driving the 62-Ohm Q701s.
I've heard that the Little Dot 1+ Hybrid does a good job.
I'm sure there are decently priced headphones amps (made in China) on eBay that can drive the Q701.

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

The E9 does a decent job, but the NFB5 is a clear step up.

Your problem is you are using a portable amp. The AKG's bare minimum for real amping to make a difference is a desktop amp.

 

[Drastion]

I have finally got my dss in the mail. I got mainly for the bass boost and headset that was more of just something to give to a friend. But the boost seems to be off. So I listened to a test tone and the boost didn't kick in untill the last 20% of the dial. I still have room to adjust. Seems odd to go from nothing to full o. in such a small movement.

Also looking at getting a bass heavy headphone that doesn't loose mids for the sake of slam. Was wanting a denon but now they are priced way to high for what they are worth. So I am mainly looking at either a dt 990/600 or ultrasone hfi 2400. Those or a he 400 just can never seem to find them on sale.

Anyone know if a beyer T1 would be better for gaming?

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

I heard the T1s are stellar gaming cans... if you can afford them. The bass isn't much more than DT880s (FWIH) though, so I dunno if that's enough for you. The DT990/600 are a good bet, as long as you know you can handle that treble.

 

[Drastion]

That's the part that worries me is the treble. That is what after the denons leads me to the ultrasones. Kept seeing the t1 in amazon warehouse for less than 550. That was my jump in price on the d7000. So either that or the hifiman as other than the akg k422 I have been disappointed with my recent headphone purchases.

Bass boosting my q40 was too much but it added better body to the q701. Sad to see you are giving up yours but you are looking at the same headphones I am. Im in no rush to get them now that the denons are gone. So should be interesting if you do get a chance to try them out.

 

[Drastion]

MLE

Have you had a chance to try gravity rush for for the vita yet? Don't game anywhere near as much as I used to. So only unique games like that and last guardian interest me anymore.

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

I'm waiting until I finish Apollo Justice, before I start my run of Gravity Rush. Trust me, I'm ready to play, but I don't like playing two games at once. And I'm not playing AJ a lot, so it might take awhile. I did love the Gravity Rush demo though.

 

[XHale]

The full game is more alot more awesome than the demo IMO. Being able the fly around a city is so fun.

 

[crzycuyler]

Quote:

 
Did you check my thread?
 
If you're going to use both speakers and headphones...are we talking stereo speakers, or surround speakers? If it's the latter, things just got much more complicated since the higher-end sound cards tend not to bother with more than two analog channels.

 
That's a lot of information that I can't wrap my mind around, and there doesn't seem to be a comparison of the technologies. I currently do not have surround sound, but I intend to in the future. I will be using my B&W 685s and ASW610 with my AVR3312 for now when gaming on the television, and I also have AudioEngine A5+ (and D1 DAC) that I would like to use for gaming. I do not yet have a nice pair of headphones, but I anticipate using headphones just as much as my current setup. In the future, if I want surround sound, would I just use the build in DAC of the receiver through HDMI? (if graphics cards output audio though HDMI, which I do not yet know). I really don't quite know the questions to ask. I just know that audio is very important to me and that I am willing to change my setup to accompany more immersive sound.

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

 
That's a lot of information that I can't wrap my mind around, and there doesn't seem to be a comparison of the technologies. I currently do not have surround sound, but I intend to in the future. I will be using my B&W 685s and ASW610 with my AVR3312 for now when gaming on the television, and I also have AudioEngine A5+ (and D1 DAC) that I would like to use for gaming. I do not yet have a nice pair of headphones, but I anticipate using headphones just as much as my current setup. In the future, if I want surround sound, would I just use the build in DAC of the receiver through HDMI? (if graphics cards output audio though HDMI, which I do not yet know). I really don't quite know the questions to ask. I just know that audio is very important to me and that I am willing to change my setup to accompany more immersive sound.

I like the idea of running HDMI from the graphics card to the receiver.
HDMI can carry full Blu-ray 7.1 Audio, so 5.1 gaming audio is easy for HDMI.
The one drawback is the Denon 3312 receiver may not support Dolby Virtual Headphone for true headphone surround sound.
The Denon has Dolby Headphone, but that might be Dolby Pro logic only.
 
If you added an Asus Xonar DX or D1 to your computer, you could run optical from the Xonar to the Denon.
Then you would have Dolby Virtual Headphone 5.1 for when you plug the headphones into the Denon receiver.
But still use the HDMI of any time your not using headphones.
 
The Denon 3312 receiver's headphone jack might have a high impedance, which is not the best for low Ohm headphones.
I would think the Beyerdynamic DT990 Pro 250-Ohm would be a good choice for headphones.

 

[crzycuyler]

Quote:

I like the idea of running HDMI from the graphics card to the receiver.
HDMI can carry full Blu-ray 7.1 Audio, so 5.1 gaming audio is easy for HDMI.
The one drawback is the Denon 3312 receiver may not support Dolby Virtual Headphone for true headphone surround sound.
The Denon has Dolby Headphone, but that might be Dolby Pro logic only.
 
If you added an Asus Xonar DX or D1 to your computer, you could run optical from the Xonar to the Denon.
Then you would have Dolby Virtual Headphone 5.1 for when you plug the headphones into the Denon receiver.
But still use the HDMI of any time your not using headphones.
 
The Denon 3312 receiver's headphone jack might have a high impedance, which is not the best for low Ohm headphones.
I would think the Beyerdynamic DT990 Pro 250-Ohm would be a good choice for headphones.

I don't want to limit myself to the best headphone for the AVR. I will be using the computer in two locations, and I may find that I prefer the A5+ and headphone solution more accommodating to my needs. 
 
Also, if I ran optical from the Xonar to the Denon, wouldn't relying the DAC in the Denon keep me from achieving Dolby Virtual Surround 5.1?
 
Anyways, I am so far out of the loop. What is the difference between Dolby Headphone and Dolby Virtual Surround and all the other crazy headphone DSPs? I basically want to know what is commonly accepted as the best method to experience immersive audio for gaming. 
 
Sooo... I feel like the priority is for headphones because if I want to use surround sound, I can use a receiver. Does using a stereo speaker setup work similarly to headphones? Am I right in thinking that surround sound processing should be left to devices besides the computer?

 

[NamelessPFG]

Quote:

That's a lot of information that I can't wrap my mind around, and there doesn't seem to be a comparison of the technologies. I currently do not have surround sound, but I intend to in the future. I will be using my B&W 685s and ASW610 with my AVR3312 for now when gaming on the television, and I also have AudioEngine A5+ (and D1 DAC) that I would like to use for gaming. I do not yet have a nice pair of headphones, but I anticipate using headphones just as much as my current setup. In the future, if I want surround sound, would I just use the build in DAC of the receiver through HDMI? (if graphics cards output audio though HDMI, which I do not yet know). I really don't quite know the questions to ask. I just know that audio is very important to me and that I am willing to change my setup to accompany more immersive sound.

 
I was concerned my guide would do that to some people...
 
By "comparison of the technologies", do you mean CMSS-3D Headphone, Dolby Headphone, etc.? That's why I linked these videos. They can give you a loose idea of what to expect, though I have the feeling that I really need to record my own. With your speaker system, you could even step up to the Smyth Realiser and calibrate it at home if you have $2,500+ to spend on a headphone surround DSP...
 
For your speaker system, modern graphics cards with HDMI outputs do have the audio path implemented, so no worries about HD movie bitstreaming or whatnot. You don't even need to futz around with Dolby Digital Live or DTS Connect with HDMI for surround sound in games, since HDMI has enough bandwidth for 8 channels of PCM. Older games with hardware-accelerated EAX effects likely won't let you enable them without switching to a sound card, though, which is obviously undesirable if you play anything old enough to use them. (Seems like I'm the only one who still cares about old PC games around here.)
 
And, yes, that would basically be using the receiver's DAC by feeding it an HDMI audio signal.

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

I don't want to limit myself to the best headphone for the AVR. I will be using the computer in two locations, and I may find that I prefer the A5+ and headphone solution more accommodating to my needs. 
 
Also, if I ran optical from the Xonar to the Denon, wouldn't relying the DAC in the Denon keep me from achieving Dolby Virtual Surround 5.1?
 
Anyways, I am so far out of the loop. What is the difference between Dolby Headphone and Dolby Virtual Surround and all the other crazy headphone DSPs? I basically want to know what is commonly accepted as the best method to experience immersive audio for gaming. 
 
Sooo... I feel like the priority is for headphones because if I want to use surround sound, I can use a receiver. Does using a stereo speaker setup work similarly to headphones? Am I right in thinking that surround sound processing should be left to devices besides the computer?

The Xonar DX & D1 can pre-process Dolby Virtual Headphone before sending down the optical to the Denon.
 
"Dolby Headphone" can be used to describe several different Dolby headphone functions.
So receivers can have the sticker that say "Dolby Headphone", but not support all Dolby Headphone functions.
The important one is Dolby Virtual Headphone, which can take up to 8 channels (7.1) of audio and convert it to 2-channel audio, to feed thru your headphones, into your ears, tricking your ears into thinking you are hearing surround sound, It's easy as your ears are only 2-channels (right and left ear) anyway.
I believe something like Dolby Pro logic is and older and less effective surround sound tech.
Some Dolby Logic takes just 2-channels of audio and expands it to a fake 6-channel audio.
 
True Dolby Headphone surround sound is usually done by non-receiver devices, like sound cards, Astro Mix-amp, Turtle Beach DSS, etc.
But it might help to look up reviews on your Denon receiver, I believe some really high priced receivers came with true Dolby headphone surround sound (maybe).