[Laecs]

Recently i've been looking to purchase a new pair of headphones, and as a result need a new sound card.
I've been looking at the Xonar Essence ST for the upgrade and it seems to have good reviews and very good quality for the price. The max im willing to go is about $200 for a sound card.
If anyone has experience with using a beyerdynamic DT880 (600ohm) edition with the ST it would be great if you could tell me what kind of performance you're getting, as i am looking at buying these headphones or similar pair.
 
Currently I have an X-Meridian 2G sound card, but am looking to sell this in order to buy a new card. A PCI card would be best due to some expansision issues with my GFX blocking one PCI-e slot so PCI is the best option for me.
 
If anyone has any other suggestions or tips that would be great, thanks .

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

Recently i've been looking to purchase a new pair of headphones, and as a result need a new sound card.
I've been looking at the Xonar Essence ST for the upgrade and it seems to have good reviews and very good quality for the price. The max I'm willing to go is about $200 for a sound card.
If anyone has experience with using a Beyerdynamic DT880 (600ohm) edition with the ST it would be great if you could tell me what kind of performance you're getting, as i am looking at buying these headphones or similar pair.
Currently I have an X-Meridian 2G sound card, but am looking to sell this in order to buy a new card. A PCI card would be best due to some expansision issues with my GFX blocking one PCI-e slot so PCI is the best option for me.
If anyone has any other suggestions or tips that would be great, thanks .

One option is to get a used Asus Xonar D1 ($55) and spend the left cash for a tube amplifier (check eBay).
But nothing wrong with getting the Essence ST.
The X-Meridian 2G, Essence ST and Xonar D1 all use the C-media CMI8788 audio processor.
Maybe just add an external headphone amplifier to the X-Meridian 2G.

 

[trog]

I would say dun rule out a X-FI Titanium and a seperate desktop headphone amp option 

 

[Laecs]

I wouldn't but it might be hard to fit another PCI-E card especially if i want to SLI later on, im running GTX 670 (Gigabyte ver) at the moment and as i mentioned it is very crowded, A PCI connection would be a better fit, but if there is a decent PCI-E card i could check it out.