[Mad Lust Envy]

The 990 is incredibly comfy, lol. More comfy than the D7000 ever was for me, but I just don't like leather/pleather pads in general, so I'm biased, and the 990 is known to have the best velour pads out of any headphone, basically.

Still, I believe the 990 would be too much like the D2000 in terms of bass and treble, so maybe you're better off with something else. If you could afford it, the X1 is better than the 990 by quite a bit, though that too may share similarities in tonal balance to the D2000. However, it's open, which the D2000 isn't. That is a benefit by it's own accord.

 

[Change is Good]

Finally finished Hitman Absolution. I must say the audio and positional cues in this game were amazing. Some of the best I've heard...

Story was meh...

Up next are Dead Space 3, Tomb Raider, MG Rising, and Max Payne 3. I have to start knocking some of these off before GTA V comes out...

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

Tomb Raider was so damn amazing.

 

[firefly89]

Quote:

About your choices... I don't think the U3 has full functionality with OS X, in fact I'm pretty sure it just would show up as a generic stereo device. So probably no DH from that. Second, I've been very specific to NOT ABBREVIATE Recon3D USB, because there are Recon3D internal soundcards (no native Mac drivers for these by Creative) and then there's the USB unit that does have Mac drivers and CAN address DDL input from consoles S/PDIF optical so that consoles can supply surround sound. Third, the Recon3D USB does not have a digital output to connect to another DAC... the Recon3D USB >is< the DAC, and you would want to double amp using the analogue headphone jack. Don't worry, this works pretty well because the noise floor of the Recon3D USB is pretty low, I've had good/great results with all my amps.

Creative makes an X-Fi Go! Pro (or something similarly named) that is the equivalent USB stick as the Asus Xonar U3, but it says on the product page that it doesn't support Mac either. OS X may still mount it as a generic stereo device, but that doesn't give you a benefit over the pretty good internal sound on Apple computers (most of their headphone jacks also double as optical outputs, too).

I've mentioned before, Creative is rumored to be making another Mac-compatible external sound device, but I don't know what that'll support and I bet it's at least a few months away.
Yeah, here's where I think you're saying that you think the Recon has a digital out... It doesn't. The E17 is a DAC/amp, and the Recon3D USB is a DAC/amp with only a headphone output, the E17's amp section is stronger than the Recon3D's but neither is really good amping for the K701 by themselves. A receiver with headphone surround (like the old Denon/Marantz receivers with DH, old and current Yamaha receivers with Silent Cinema, and other manufacturer's implimentations) would have a decent amp section to be an all-in-one solution for the K701, you can get one like mine for less than $200 US dollar. If you use the Recon3D USB + an amp, that amp could be a FiiO E09k or E12, Little Dot i+, or one of the amps Head-Fi user Chicolom has enjoyed with his Q701 (Matrix M-Stage, iFi iCAN). Some people like the Objective2, but I think it's the person child of a desktop and portable amp that borders on analytical sound and was designed to prove a point and make NuForce look bad; it's a good value SQ-wise but I probably won't buy one.

Does that help any? I'm falling as.eep, and typing/concentrating is getting hard when some of my blinks starts some REM activity. Goodnight my friends on Head-Fi!

 
that's perfect, thanks
 
interesting to hear the recon3d usb has no SPDIF output, good job i'm using HDMI on my laptop to send audio to my receiver (I was using optical, but the optical cable sticking out the side of my laptop is unsightly, the connecter is so big when combined with the 3.5mm adaptor, also I can't get multichannel PCM out of SPDIF so I use HDMI exclusively now)
ok so i'm going to try the recon, A/B it against the u3, test it out on osx (the u3 works on osx, just can't really control anything other than volume as it's a generic plug  'n' play driver, the only real advantage to the recon3dUSB is the native driver, if it works with virtual surround and I actually like it for music/movies then great, otherwise the native drivers aren't that useful), will add an e12 amp down the line or just get one right away
 
assuming my headphones actually eventually arrive, and the 'too good to be true' price doesn't come back to haunt me...

 

[widdyjudas]

I got a deal for the Fidelio X1 here in HK for 290 usd, brand new. Is it worth it to change from HE400? Music and gaming use.
 

 

[Mackem]

Quote:

What closed circumaural cans are good for gaming / music? I found the DT770 Pro 80s felt a little uncomfortable on my jaw after a small while, but I loved the velour pads. Returned them because of aforementioned comfort / clamp issues and the fact that the mids sounded recessed.

Any ideas?

 

[burritoboy9984]

If anyone is interested in a good entry level headset, I've posted my AD700 and Modmic for sale in the classifieds section.

-Erik

 

[Vicx]

Quote:

The 990 is incredibly comfy, lol. More comfy than the D7000 ever was for me, but I just don't like leather/pleather pads in general, so I'm biased, and the 990 is known to have the best velour pads out of any headphone, basically.

Still, I believe the 990 would be too much like the D2000 in terms of bass and treble, so maybe you're better off with something else. If you could afford it, the X1 is better than the 990 by quite a bit, though that too may share similarities in tonal balance to the D2000. However, it's open, which the D2000 isn't. That is a benefit by it's own accord.

 
Ok I checked out the X1 but I think I'll see how my D2000 goes first, I'm not much of an audiophile so I think it'll be good enough for me, I'm already amazed at how good it is alone on the PS3. Just bought the 2012 astro mixamp as I've heard too many bad things about the 2013 edition for almost no benefit other than the EQ settings.

 

[pietcux]

Quote:

Interesting. Thanks Piet.
 
Anyway Peter, do you have any personal comparison between FiiO E11/E12 and your Meier?
 
 

I could not hold back, ordered the E12 tonight. Will post my comparison with the Meier Stepdance then.

 

[firefly89]

ok I got my k701's today, still waiting for the amp and the recon 3dusb to be delivered- had a quick test of them but got to work today. First impression is that the bass is great, I was expecting weedy bass due to all the neg comments, 100x more comfortable, but overall not hugely improved on my k81- it's not night and day, it's better of course, but not even twice as good, I think it might be the limit of my source music though (320kb's), will try them for gaming, and test them with the amp.
 
The u3 sounds terrible even compared to onboard sound! it makes me think that the fiio e12 won't improve things when outputting from the u3, and the recon might not be much better. So I think i'm going to try the xonar u7 (has DH), see how it sounds with and without the fiio
you said the u3 is thin and weak, you're right- so is it better to double amp it or get rid of it entirely. I would use it like you do as a digital out to go to a DAC but spdif doesn't work on osx. The recon3dUSB might be equally poor sounding, and although that has native mac drivers it has no spdif output, so I might end up getting a usb dac, and running it with the recon/u3 for DH in games (a bit of an effort to switch cables all the time)
 
 
essentially is the recon 3d usb going to be a bottleneck in my sound chain? But if it's good enough for EVshrug it's probably good enough for me

 

[pietcux]

I have the K702 running from my Xonar U7. It is a very good combination. From the K702 I get the comfort for long gaming or movie sessions and the good positional queues, from the Xonar U7 I get the Dolby headphone implementation to make the sound immerse me. And both are also very good for music from the PC. And I only use ITunes 320 VBR.

 

[firefly89]

Quote:

I have the K702 running from my Xonar U7. It is a very good combination. From the K702 I get the comfort for long gaming or movie sessions and the good positional queues, from the Xonar U7 I get the Dolby headphone implementation to make the sound immerse me. And both are also very good for music from the PC. And I only use ITunes 320 VBR.

 
 
nice, so running without an amp?
was it you that posted before saying you'd tried the u3 and found the u7 headphone output a lot better?
 
I think what i'm going to do is buy everything, and test it out for a week or two, then return what I don't want to amazon
so going to try:
 
fiio e12
xonar u3
xonar u7
recon 3dusb
 
edit: add fiio e17 to that list too
 
 
my ideal solutions:
1) the u7 sounds just fine without the amp so I can return the e12 and the u3- cheapest and neatest (one box) solution, still doesn't solve my osx problem though
2) the recon with the e12 sounds great and has native mac drivers (2 box solution)
3) e17 used as dac and amp, no dolby headphone (one box solution)
 
is there no way to use the xonar software to process the audio, but output it over another device? So connect the e17 and the u3, but just send the DH coded digital information into the e17 dac/amp? 

 

[pietcux]

But you say you are on a MAC with OSX, right? Then the U7 will also not provide any Dolby function. DOLBY is running on Windows. And there are no Mac drivers yet.

 

[firefly89]

I am on a mac, but I only use Dolby for gaming, which I do on windows (bootcamp), music on osx is always stereo, and movies are usually played in surround sound rather than headphones- afaik creatives recon3d USB has thx virtual surround and works in mac, but really not sure how much I'd use it in mac- to be honest I'm happy to switch to windows when I want to watch a movie with headphones
I only considered the u7 for its higher quality components and nicer look


As long as it works with generic drivers on osx and sounds good that's fine


Got the e12 in the post- made an unbelievable amount of difference, and now the u3 sounds better than onboard- if the u7 sounds better still then that would be fine for me, but I will also try the creative and see if I like that (and try it out for console use)

 

[pietcux]

It has three output options selected by pressing the volume knob:

• Headphone
• Speakers
• Digital

I have no clue which are selected by the generic Mac driver. I can only hope it works for you.