[His Lorship]

Hi all.. This post is similar to a previous one but my question today is intended to be specific to the microphone and not redundant. I've decided I'm unsatisfied with my on-board DAC audio and want to do something better.

So I've narrowed down my amp/DAC selection for the HD6xx down to the Chord Mojo or the Schiit Modi/Magni Uber stack.... At this point I'm leaning toward the Mojo for being slightly superior and ultimately more mobile and convenient.

Now... As for the Sennheiser PC37x - Can someone help me wrap my head around how that would work. What I mean is, how would I physically install the Microphone cable. If I plug the headset drivers to the Mojo, do I need to buy an extender cable to run my microphone to the back of the PC? Or is there a better way to do this... Should I just buy a good sound card for the headset for gaming purposes and leave the HD6xx plugged into the Mojo?

Can someone explain to me what my best options are for sound cards, and nuances thereof? Or should I just use the Mojo for everything and run extender cable to the back of the motherboard for microphone.

I will consider buying a higher end motherboard, such as the Gigabyte new line that comes with higher end Bur Brown DAC. Is anyone able to elaborate on the new on-board Sound Blaster ZxRi with "Burr-Brown high end 127dB DAC capable of 192kHz/24-bit audio signal" for some of the new motherboards such as this:
http://www.gigabyte.us/Motherboard/GA-Z270X-Gaming-9-rev-10#kf

Thanks in advance for your responses.. My hope is to have a good primarily gaming setup that is good enough to listen to high quality music while browsing the internet and doing other things as well.

 

[cossix]

First things first, if you're getting the HD6xx then you'll definitely want a good DAC/amp like the Mojo. You won't want to run the 6xx through your motherboard. As for your Senn gaming headset, you don't need to bother plugging into your Mojo. For gaming, the motherboard will be just fine. For gaming, sound quality doesn't matter much at all, unless it actually sounds like static. Soundstage and positional audio are far more important, but that is all up to the headphone and game audio respectively. I would suggest you just run your Senn gaming headset straight into your mobo and leave the Chord Mojo for your nice music cans.

 

[squee116]

First things first, if you're getting the HD6xx then you'll definitely want a good DAC/amp like the Mojo. You won't want to run the 6xx through your motherboard. As for your Senn gaming headset, you don't need to bother plugging into your Mojo. For gaming, the motherboard will be just fine. For gaming, sound quality doesn't matter much at all, unless it actually sounds like static. Soundstage and positional audio are far more important, but that is all up to the headphone and game audio respectively. I would suggest you just run your Senn gaming headset straight into your mobo and leave the Chord Mojo for your nice music cans.

+1 Nailed it.

It would be one thing if you're brewing you're own headset with discrete mic and high-end headphone, but with with the "gaming" headsets, you really don't need to include your dac/amp in the mix.

 

[His Lorship]

Well I am a bit unconvinced. My motherboard sound is pretty bad. Like I said I would like the headset to double as a mediocre listening platform and the onboard isn't cutting it. I would consider doing a "build your own" setup, but that has it's own set of problems... I'm not sure where to start for a open back and vastly superior headset that will double as a decent headphones (I mean that the Sennheiser from my experience and reading are one of the better/best options for directional sound), and even if I did, then would I not have to improve the DAC/amp to fully appreciate it? In this instance since I already own the gaming headset I'd like to improve the DAC/amp and maybe consider new headphones and separate mic later on.

Also, I could use the HD6xx for gaming but I've heard the soundstage and directional audio is inferior for gaming purposes (not so for music, of course).

I'm not sure I entirely agree with "sound quality doesn't matter much at all" for gaming, and even if that holds true, I'm hoping my home PC will be primarily for gaming, but also for listening to music. Maybe I don't entirely understand how sound works though... Are you saying that all DACs are equal for gaming? Is that because I can't tell the difference, or because how sound is processed through software? I'm a bit lost here...

I could of course just switch between headsets between music and gaming, but I'm kinda wanting to leave the HD6xx at the office sometimes and not lug them around back and forth.

Please understand I appreciate the feedback, but it's not a question of "if I need it", I'm more asking what my options are for improvement under given circumstances.

 

[cossix]

If you don't wanna be moving gear around, I'd say just go with the Mojo and have it close enough to your setup that you could run your Senn gaming headphones through the Mojo and have the mic jack go to the PC. That's a nice simple way to go about it!

 

[squee116]

Well I am a bit unconvinced. My motherboard sound is pretty bad. Like I said I would like the headset to double as a mediocre listening platform and the onboard isn't cutting it. I would consider doing a "build your own" setup, but that has it's own set of problems... I'm not sure where to start for a open back and vastly superior headset that will double as a decent headphones (I mean that the Sennheiser from my experience and reading are one of the better/best options for directional sound), and even if I did, then would I not have to improve the DAC/amp to fully appreciate it? In this instance since I already own the gaming headset I'd like to improve the DAC/amp and maybe consider new headphones and separate mic later on.

Also, I could use the HD6xx for gaming but I've heard the soundstage and directional audio is inferior for gaming purposes (not so for music, of course).

I'm not sure I entirely agree with "sound quality doesn't matter much at all" for gaming, and even if that holds true, I'm hoping my home PC will be primarily for gaming, but also for listening to music. Maybe I don't entirely understand how sound works though... Are you saying that all DACs are equal for gaming? Is that because I can't tell the difference, or because how sound is processed through software? I'm a bit lost here...

I could of course just switch between headsets between music and gaming, but I'm kinda wanting to leave the HD6xx at the office sometimes and not lug them around back and forth.

Please understand I appreciate the feedback, but it's not a question of "if I need it", I'm more asking what my options are for improvement under given circumstances.

So here's the deal:
1) You don't mention the circumstances under which you were unsatisfied with the PC DAC. What headphones did you use with it? What about the experience were you unhappy with?

2) Using a pre-made gaming headset is going to handicap your sound more than PC-native DAC/AMP because:
a) the headphones are designed to be driven by most any source, and likely won't scale much with better DAC/AMP the way you want;
b) rule of thumb - if the term "gaming" is on the headset, it's about half the price/performance ratio that a normal headphone would be (this is a generous estimation);
c) as a matter of providing smaller download files, eating less system resources, and quicker loading times, most game audio is compressed to hell and back, hence why an above poster mentioned replay fidelity not being the most important;

3) If Simplicity is your aim, you'd be better off just keeping your HD6xx's for gaming with the chord mojo, and using antlion modmic plugged directly into the PC. Then, you don't have to do a headset shuffle, and you'd have headphones actually capable of scaling with your equipment. Certainly, other headphones like the HD598 would do a fine job for gaming (maybe even better), but they also wouldn't need a discrete dac/amp stack.

 

[His Lorship]

So here's the deal:
1) You don't mention the circumstances under which you were unsatisfied with the PC DAC. What headphones did you use with it? What about the experience were you unhappy with?

2) Using a pre-made gaming headset is going to handicap your sound more than PC-native DAC/AMP because:
a) the headphones are designed to be driven by most any source, and likely won't scale much with better DAC/AMP the way you want;
b) rule of thumb - if the term "gaming" is on the headset, it's about half the price/performance ratio that a normal headphone would be (this is a generous estimation);
c) as a matter of providing smaller download files, eating less system resources, and quicker loading times, most game audio is compressed to hell and back, hence why an above poster mentioned replay fidelity not being the most important;

3) If Simplicity is your aim, you'd be better off just keeping your HD6xx's for gaming with the chord mojo, and using antlion modmic plugged directly into the PC. Then, you don't have to do a headset shuffle, and you'd have headphones actually capable of scaling with your equipment. Certainly, other headphones like the HD598 would do a fine job for gaming (maybe even better), but they also wouldn't need a discrete dac/amp stack.

1) I'm using the Sennheiser PC363d currently. The bass is pretty lean, which isn't horrible but I am curious if a good quality amp would improve that. I'm also curious if they will scale better for music with a decent DAC/amp. Maybe, maybe not.
2) I agree mostly with the generalization - and to your point I try to stay clear of most "gaming" peripherals. The exception to the rule may or may not be the Sennheiser PC series. I just picked up the Sennheiser PC37x as a backup headset and it says per the manufacturer the drivers "come from the same family as the Sennheiser HD598 and HD600". From firsthand experience they are vastly superior to other "gaming" headsets I've tried - even with a crummy onboard DAC/Amp. I really, really like having the microphone on the headset - it works really nice and it's very convenient.
Thanks for mentioning the smaller file sizes on the sound - now that you mention it very few games use uncompressed audio. For example, Titanfall was a 50GB game mostly for the sound, and that was certainly the exception, not the rule.
3) Thanks I'm going to give it a shot, but if HD6xx directional sound is as bad as others have mentioned, that won't work for me.