[jimdandy]

Went to Best Buy a few weeks ago and listened to the HDJ-2000s. I left and something told me to go back so I did. I bought them for myself for my birthday. I hooked them up to my Sony receiver and they sounded pretty good. I blow one of my speakers I had hooked up to it. I decided to reinstall Xense sound card back into my computer to see what they would sound like. I got a deal on the card from a friend. Got it for 50 dollars. I should also mention the headphone price. BB had them on sale in the store for 140 dollars. I did not know how good of a deal that was until I got home and realized the on the net they go for 349. Well,I plugged them into the sound card and I'm impressed. I'm 51 years old and have had and heard a lot of headphones. Movies,music everything sounded good. I listen to metal. AC/DC,Rob Zombie,Five Finger Death Punch,Korn and so on. Plus a little Sarah Brightman. Sound is amazing especially with Dolby Headphone turned on. They sound like they were made for it. Sound better than the originals. The build quality impressed me too. Not much plastic mostly metal. Very solid. I must say for 140 dollars they are more than worth the money I paid.   

 

[EpicPie]

They're great DJ'ing headphones too.

 

[jimdandy]

Thank you for the reply and yes I can see where they would be. Had they been 349 I could not have afforded them but for the price I could not pass them by. Wish I could have got a second pair and sold them on Ebay. Could have made 100 making these 40. Pioneer really out done themselves I think. In a age of plastic I appreciate they are made of metal. I'm tired of seeing plastic myself. I had 1966 Galaxie 500 hardtop when I was 18. My first car. Everything was metal almost. The trim around the windows inside and out was metal. Wish I still had it. 390 big block. Well rambling sorry. They feel like they are built like a tank. I can feel the weight on my head lol. But they are not uncomfortable. Watching movies for 2 hours and still not that bad. Awesome headphones for 50/50 music and movies. Stereo switch and Dolby Headphone really give a good surround stage when watching movies. Music is good too. Makes the stage bigger almost like listening to speakers. I was thinking about getting a WOO Audo or Schiit headphone amp but I don't know if I would like giving up Dolby from the sound card. Or get the Creative ZXR.

 

[PurpleAngel]

Hopefully you disabled the motherboard's on-board audio? in the BIOS.
 
Xence and ZxR use the same TI 6120 headphone amplifier and close to the same DAC chips.
So can't see a good reason for swapping out the Xence.
 
Might try the "Unified Xonar Drivers"
http://maxedtech.com/asus-xonar-unified-drivers/
 
Try Cyberlink PowerDVD Ultra 11, for playing Blu-ray disks, $30 on eBay.

 

[jimdandy]

Yes PurpleAngel I think I have to agree with you. I done a lot of studying when I was looking at headphone amps. You get to a certain point then one has to spend quit a bit of money to see a gain in sound. Plus I have read some reviews on the place where I was going to buy the ZXR and there are a few people having issues with them. So,"if it is not broke don't fix it" comes into play and also the software does not have too many features. So it might not be worth the 250 to buy it and replace what I have. I'll look into my BIO and see the settings also. Thank you. Also I noticed you have an Asus card too cool.

 

[PurpleAngel]

  Yes PurpleAngel I think I have to agree with you. I done a lot of studying when I was looking at headphone amps. You get to a certain point then one has to spend quit a bit of money to see a gain in sound. Plus I have read some reviews on the place where I was going to buy the ZXR and there are a few people having issues with them. So,"if it is not broke don't fix it" comes into play and also the software does not have too many features. So it might not be worth the 250 to buy it and replace what I have. I'll look into my BIO and see the settings also. Thank you. Also I noticed you have an Asus card too cool.

I like my Essence STX, but I just ordered an external DAC/Amp, the Audio-GD NFB-15.32, $300.
So , I'm assuming I''l be putting my STX up for sale up on Ebay, in a few weeks.