[LionheartFer]

Hi, i'm a noob on the audio topic but i need some headphones for gaming and music and at first i thought of buying an Astro A40.
After reading a lot of reviews i changed my mind and aim for the Sennheiser hd 598 or hd 558, not sure yet.
I own a Gryphon z87 motherboard and use onboard sound at the moment with Razer surround software.
 
This are my questions:
 
a) Are the Sennheiser hd 598/558 better than astro a40 for gaming and music? i play games way more than hearing music. 
i hear mostly rock like pearl jam, kings of leon, red hot chilli peppers. And i play all kind of games: FPS, Action, RPGs.
 
b) Is the 100 dlls difference between 598 and 558 worth it?
 
 From what i've read im going to need a sound card that can give me DH, DLL and 7.1 Surround. The problem is that here where i live i can only find these cards:
Xonar dx, Xonar ds, Xonar STX (way out of my budget) and Xonar USB U3.
I was thinking on getting the xonar dx because of the 7.1 but it doesn't have a headphone amp which again, from what i've read is needed for the Sennheiser.
The Xonar ds doesn't have pcie and i dont have pci on my MoBo so think that ones i out.
The Xonar USB3 has all i need (7.1 and amp)  but its mostly for notebooks, i don't know if it will perform well.
 
c) Should i buy the Xonar DX and an amp like Fiio e6? Would this work?
or should i go for the Xonar USB U3?
(Xonar DX + Fiio e6 is about 150 dlls.)
(Xonar usb U3 is about 40dlls.)
 
Thanks for helping me, also im sorry for my english, i'm trying my best 

 

[PurpleAngel]

  Hi, i'm a noob on the audio topic but i need some headphones for gaming and music and at first i thought of buying an Astro A40.
After reading a lot of reviews i changed my mind and aim for the Sennheiser hd 598 or hd 558, not sure yet.
I own a Gryphon z87 motherboard and use on-board sound at the moment with Razer surround software.
a) Are the Sennheiser hd 598/558 better than astro a40 for gaming and music? i play games way more than hearing music. 
i hear mostly rock like pearl jam, kings of leon, red hot chilli peppers. And i play all kind of games: FPS, Action, RPGs.
b) Is the 100 dlls difference between 598 and 558 worth it?
 From what i've read im going to need a sound card that can give me DH, DLL and 7.1 Surround. The problem is that here where i live i can only find these cards:
Xonar dx, Xonar ds, Xonar STX (way out of my budget) and Xonar USB U3.
I was thinking on getting the xonar dx because of the 7.1 but it doesn't have a headphone amp which again, from what i've read is needed for the Sennheiser.
The Xonar ds doesn't have pcie and i dont have pci on my MoBo so think that ones i out.
The Xonar USB3 has all i need (7.1 and amp)  but its mostly for notebooks, i don't know if it will perform well.
c) Should i buy the Xonar DX and an amp like Fiio e6? Would this work?
or should i go for the Xonar USB U3?
(Xonar DX + Fiio e6 is about 150 dlls.)
(Xonar usb U3 is about 40dlls.)

Where are you located?
Get the HD558, uses the same driver as the HD598.
Any chance there is the Xonar DGX sound card around?
The Asus Xonar DS and DSG come with DTS, not Dolby

 

[LionheartFer]

I'm from Spain but im currently living in Mexico and i can't find good stuff here, couldn't find the Audio Technica AD700 that i originally wanted for gaming, things are overpriced too. If you find something is usually 30%-50% more expensive than US prices. But i could find a Sennheiser authorized store and prices seem high but at least im getting warranty. for example: the 558 are about 220 dlls. the 598 about 320 dlls. and astros with mixamp are 350dlls 

 
After digging i finally have found an Asus Xonar DGX avaliable in here for about 50 Dlls but it says is 5.1 surround. I haven't tried 5.1 but i did tried 7.1 from Razer Surround and i did noticed an upgrade from stereo gaming.
I also found a Sound Blaster Z for about 90 Dlls, but looks its 5.1 as well.
 
Would the DGX be my best bet? or should i look for any other Sound Card? 

 

[PurpleAngel]

  I'm from Spain but im currently living in Mexico and i can't find good stuff here, couldn't find the Audio Technica AD700 that i originally wanted for gaming, things are overpriced too. If you find something is usually 30%-50% more expensive than US prices. But i could find a Sennheiser authorized store and prices seem high but at least im getting warranty. for example: the 558 are about 220 dlls. the 598 about 320 dlls. and astros with mixamp are 350dlls 

 
After digging i finally have found an Asus Xonar DGX avaliable in here for about 50 Dlls but it says is 5.1 surround. I haven't tried 5.1 but i did tried 7.1 from Razer Surround and i did noticed an upgrade from stereo gaming.
I also found a Sound Blaster Z for about 90 Dlls, but looks its 5.1 as well.
 
Would the DGX be my best bet? or should i look for any other Sound Card? 

I'm guessing there is not a big difference between the 5.1 and 7.1
Sound Blaster Z would have better audio quality, over the DGX.

 

[LionheartFer]

Ok, i found Sound Blaster Zx for about 110 dlls.  this comes with an audio control module with integrated microphone so hopefully dont have to buy an Antlion mic.Think im going to pair these with the Sennheiser hd 558 as you told me. All this would be the same as buying the Astro A40. I hope this outperforms what i would have gotten there.
Thanks a lot for your support 

 

[PurpleAngel]

  Ok, I found Sound Blaster Zx for about 110 dlls.  this comes with an audio control module with integrated microphone so hopefully don't have to buy an Antlion mic.Think I'm going to pair these with the Sennheiser HD 558 as you told me. All this would be the same as buying the Astro A40. I hope this outperforms what i would have gotten there.
Thanks a lot for your support 

I have headphones that cost twice as much as my HD558s, but I still sometimes like to use my HD558s.
Make sure when you install the sound card, that you disable the motherboard's on-board audio, in the BIOS.

 

[LionheartFer]

All right i will.
Btw i found a pair of hd 598 they are new but they where on exhibition so it costs about 30 more dlls tan the hd 558, what do you think? Should i grab them? Or the hd 558 are more suitable for gaming and the music i hear.
Also i saw a video of a guy modding the 558 and taking of some kind of tape from the interior and said they sounded lot better, what do you think?

 

[PurpleAngel]

All right i will.
Btw i found a pair of hd 598 they are new but they where on exhibition so it costs about 30 more dlls tan the hd 558, what do you think? Should i grab them? Or the hd 558 are more suitable for gaming and the music i hear.
Also i saw a video of a guy modding the 558 and taking of some kind of tape from the interior and said they sounded lot better, what do you think?

The HD558 and HD598 use the sane driver, but different cup designs.
Sennheiser added some black rubber tape to the inside of the HD558's cups to cover around 40% of the opening, removing the black rubber tape should make the HD558 more open, like the HD598.
So you can make the HD558s sound almost like the HD598s.
So might as well get the cheaper HD558s.