[Edoardo]

Quote:

And why do you think that? 

I love my HD650s when coupled with an amp that makes them give a big soundstage - I've personally found the HD650's soundstage to be potentially much larger than most head-fiers often describe - and and their impactful - does this word exist in English? - bass. 
 
The Essence I tried made me appreciate them, but not love them.
 
This, of course, is just an opinion!
 

 

[oshia86]

What amp would that be?

 

[Edoardo]

Quote:

What amp would that be?

 
Something a little more powerful or saught after. could be either an OTL Tube amp or a professional oriented amp, depending on the sound signature you are looking for... 
 
A total beginner could also think about a DAC+headamp+preamp combo such as the Onix Dac 25A or the Cambridge DacMagic Plus, since the volume control surely comes in handy if you want to hook it up to a pair of active speakers
 
My impressions on the Onix Dac 25a
http://www.head-fi.org/t/583671/onix-dac-25a-review-a-few-impressions-and-considerations

 

[JRG1990]

You don't have to rule out passives, this amp will fit on a desktop easily http://www.amazon.com/Dayton-DTA-100a-Class-T-Digital-Amplifier/dp/B004JK8BDK/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1323463301&sr=8-4 .

 

[Eightythree]

Lots of great advice here guys. I have a question, don't laugh because I honestly don't know, when you talk about "driving" headphones or speakers I guess for that matter, are you talking about how loud they can go?
 
For example, with the built-in amp of the STX, on High Gain (+12 dB, 64~300 ohms) I can turn them up to literally deafening volume level pretty easily. You can even set them to Very High gain (+18dB, 300~600 ohms) which I imagine would blow my ear drums out.

 

[Edoardo]

It's about both loudness and accuracy. It's not just about gain and SPL, but also about frequency response pattern and harmonic distortion.

 

[Head Injury]

Quote:

It's about both loudness and accuracy. It's not just about gain and SPL, but also about frequency response pattern and harmonic distortion.

Both of which the STX excels at, especially into high impedance loads 

 

[Edoardo]

Quote:

Both of which the STX excels at, especially into high impedance loads 

Actually I've never found precise specs of the STX headphone section...

 

[Head Injury]

Quote:

Actually I've never found precise specs of the STX headphone section...

http://www.stereophile.com/content/asus-xonar-essence-ststx-soundcards-measurements
 
Two things to note:

1. Not sure if the frequency response measurement was via the headphone jack, or if it was a test of the line out.
2. There's a typo somewhere in the +18 dB test. The text says 30 ohm load, the graph says 300 ohm load. Either way it's good. If the increased distortion is the result of a low impedance load, the performance is still inaudible. If it's the result of the higher gain setting, it won't matter because you won't need that gain setting on anything short of an HE-6.

 

[Eightythree]

I tried to make heads or tails of all those graphs but I couldn't figure it out. Can you translate that into audio-for-dummies speech?

 

[Head Injury]

Quote:

I tried to make heads or tails of all those graphs but I couldn't figure it out. Can you translate that into audio-for-dummies speech?

Everything measured is good enough to be inaudible, except for the 10.7 ohm output impedance in some cases. There's plenty that wasn't measured though.