[Fegefeuer]

Quote:

Finished the last couple chapters that I had left on Dead Space 3. I must say it was a bit disappointing compared to the other two. And the story was awful...

. Audio and positional cues were less than average, IMO.
 
Now I'm on Metal Gear Rising. Audio and cues are ok, and the story seems interesting so far... very Kojimaish if I must say (even though he did not write this one). I'm still getting used to the hack n slash gameplay. It's never really been my style of liking.

 
I agree, it was dissapointing. I could only bear it with coop mode and the whole ice planet was pretty boring. Space chapters were definitely the best. Sound Design was worse than Dead Space 2 and 1 and both of them were already using a lot prebaked audio.

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

You should at least post the link.
http://www.head-fi.org/t/676095/mrspeakers-alpha-dog-revealed-the-worlds-first-production-3d-printed-headphones

Hmm, seems very interesting. Not sure it will suit my specific tastes (I prefer warmer, medium speed, with bass emphasis), but it DOES seem to be a pure reference closed headphone. I really loved the MD 3.2, but it was definitely darker, warmer, and emotive, not exactly pure reference (which was perfectly fine for my tastes).

I'm happy for Dan. he's a real stand up guy. He deserves all the praise he gets. I'm a believer of the MD now, and I'm sure that those looking for a neutral, fast headphone won't be disappointed by the Alpha Dog.

The Mad Dog 3.2 is undoubtedly my favorite TRULY closed back headphone, and among my very faves period. I can only expect greatness from the Alpha Dogs, though in a different sense.

 

[miceblue]

I have to wonder how they compare to LFF's Paradox. His mod, according to people, makes the T50RP sound similar to the HE-500 in some ways, as opposed to the Mad Dog's LCD-2-esque sound. If that's the case, and the Alpha Dog had a different sound from the Mad Dog according to Jude, the Alpha Dog may be a stronger contender for a closed-back gaming headphone for me.

 

[firefly89]

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

1. Headphone
2. Speakers
3. Digital

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

That's what im going to find out- I assume amazon returns policy is pretty painless (and there won't be a problem to return them after trying the for a few days? Do I get the full 30 days to return a used product, or jut the 7 day's 'distance selling regulations'?

Firefly,
The U3 may "work" with OS X, but I'm assuming it doesn't add DH processing to multichannel audio, right? And that's the whole point of it, though it sounds like you have few Mac games... The Mac App Store and Steam catalogs are growing, FYI. I prefer Starcraft II in Mac, fewer bugs it seems (played HotS on PC, got weird shadows and looping audio), and some steam games if you buy one copy of the game, you can play it on either system (Like SW: the force unleashed. Weirdly it downloaded like 10x faster too).

Glad you're enjoying the E12! At some point people thought it's purpose was to be a bass machine, which is odd, but as I'm sure you're experiencing it's more about overall improvement and enlivening. I agree that the K701+amp is not a wholly 2x better experience than something like Koss KSC75 straight out of an iPod (listening to Calexico that way right now), BUT... don't you prefer it this way? Lol. Get used to it, and it'll be HARD to go back!

And yeah, the Recon3D USB + E12 + Q701 was good enoUgh for me, lol

The e12 made such a difference, it was 3x better, and the bass was there- I love it! Was decided unimpressed without the amp but the e12 fixed everything
Just need to make sure I'm feeding it good material, will try the recon/u7 with the e12, see which sounds best, might try a proper USB dac too- if it's a lot lot better I'd be happy to run 2 soundcards and switch between dac for music/movies and recon for games
DH does horrible things to music, haven't tried a movie yet but tbh I think I'd likely keep the signal as pure as possible, DH adds too much distortion (but its good for games)

You're right, the u3 doesn't have drivers for osx, so it just sends out plain audio- th e only reason I use it is because it let's me connect that to a USB hub under the desk and plug my headphones into that, so they're not coming out my laptop- all I have connected to the laptop is: spare power lead and USB cable to go to us hub, which makes it easy to grab and go when I need to, my desk is pretty minimal...

I have a good friend that is a MAC user from the beginning of Apple. But he is also a gamer. He bought a PC two years age just because he wanted to have a real fast graphics card like the current Nvidia or AMD. He was sick and tired of either late and overpriced or never available cards. As Windows 7 came out he just went for it. Not to mention the sound possibilities he has now.......I think a serious gamer of current games should go PC or next gen consoles.

ATM I'm perfectly happy with the 650m in my laptop, the rest of the spec is 16gb, 2.7ghz quad core, 512gb ssd- best you could get, will get a thunderbolt gpu, or build a gaming pc if this ever gets out of date
I also have a ps3

I used to have an amazing gaming rig, but sold it

The mac I use for work, but when I realised how powerful it was I started gaming on it in bootcamp

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

I'm warming up to the HP-800. It's definitely a headphone you have to spend like a week with.

I don't know if it's because I've now paired it up with the E12, but it sounds so much better than I initially thought. I'm quite fond of it. It's still definitely bassy as all hell, and warmer than basically anything I've used of late, but it's quite enjoyable and fatigue free. I'm digging the sound.

 

[Dillweed]

So, I've figured out that either the Lovely Cube amp, or a combination of the amp and any non-Audio Creation mode on the Titanium HD, seems to be causing a weird blending/muffling of the lower frequencies on the TH600 (and likely also the DT 880 before it), making it sound kind of congested. I guess this is probably a case where a slightly more detail-oriented or analytical-sounding amp could potentially help where the Lovely Cube can't. From what little I've read, something like the O2 or Magni might fit that bill. Anybody have experience with either of those amps? This is probably just another case where I'd have to buy something to find out.

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

I owned the Magni. It's a very neutral if just ever so slightly on the brighter side of neutral. Very crisp and clean. So it may be slightly leaning on detail retrieval than musicality. I stress slightly.

In other news,

The Nuforce HP-800 review is mostly written in, at least in terms of basic characteristics. I have a LOT of gaming to do with them, so don't expect the review too soon, but I do have a huge portion written in.

I'm hoping to score the M50LE, CAL, and SLYR to compare, though I make no promises.

I eventually want to re-write the CAL and M50 reviews to my more evolved review writing style.

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

So, I've figured out that either the Lovely Cube amp, or a combination of the amp and any non-Audio Creation mode on the Titanium HD, seems to be causing a weird blending/muffling of the lower frequencies on the TH600 (and likely also the DT 880 before it), making it sound kind of congested. I guess this is probably a case where a slightly more detail-oriented or analytical-sounding amp could potentially help where the Lovely Cube can't. From what little I've read, something like the O2 or Magni might fit that bill. Anybody have experience with either of those amps? This is probably just another case where I'd have to buy something to find out.

Are you connecting the Lovely cube to the Titanium HD's headphone jack or RCA's (hopefully the RCAs)?

 

[xEzio]

Thanks for this guide! Loving my Q701's so far. But I wanna try the DT990 now!

 

[Dillweed]

Quote:

Are you connecting the Lovely cube to the Titanium HD's headphone jack or RCA's (hopefully the RCAs)?

Straight out of the RCA line outs. It's pretty much been that way since I got it.

 

[mvrk10256]

Did some GTA on my recently acquired Fidelio L1's. I would say they are 95% fo the X1 and soo well made. However they are a touch heavy, and a touch tight. 
 
For all around gaming I still love my AD700s.

 

[firefly89]

for what its worth:
 
what i've discovered so far
 
1) k701 sound bad without an amp, so bad that onboard sound+amp sounds better than a fancy expensive soundcard without the amp
2) the xonar u7 sounds way better than the u3, it's less harsh, it's less metallic sounding (vocals sound more natural and less hiss), the SNR is a lot less, but it's actually not as loud as the u3 (at least without driver support on osx) maybe the smoother sound isnt great for games though but it did bring out some smaller details in the mix so maybe it's actually better? xonar u7 seems to have a slight echo/reverb to the sound, sounds nice but i'm no expert
3) spdif output on u3 never works on osx
4) spdif output on u7 works perfectly on osx, and so does 7.1 channel analogue
5) xonar u7 looks great, feels great, xonar u3 looks and feels like a cheap product
 
 
still got to compare dolby home theatre, to dolby headphone- and I will try out the recon if it ever gets here (says not shipped yet from amazon)
 
will test if xonar u7 can do dolby digital live, I suspect it can though (in windows)
 
also ordered a few other dac's and amps, will test those and find one I like best

 

[Dillweed]

[snip] Never mind my rambling. I'm just going to figure out what needs to be done.

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

I guess if you play on OSX, the U7 makes more sense, but if you have your own dac and amp and game on windows, the U7 is completely unnecessary. All those specs are for the internal dac and amps in those devices, which are both bypassed with a proper U3 setup.

I've said more than a few times, unless you're gonna send the signal from the U3's spdif out to another dac an amp, don't bother. It's a horrible amp, most of all. YOU SHOULD NOT BE ATTACHING ANY HEADPHONE TO IT DIRECTLY.

Doesn't matter how cheap the U3 looks. It should be well hidden behind your main dac and amp anyways, not a show piece.

 

[mpawluk91]

Ok so which version of the mixamp should I get? I want crispy clean 7.1 with good bass

I'm looking for the absolute best solution