[Incrementum]

Quote:

 
 
It should suffice quite nicely. Technically speaking the Titanium HD is an amp. Though clearly not the best when put in the context of standalone audiophile headphone amps which cost the same or more. Obviously.
 
But it should do great for you. That plus the DT 990 Pro will be like working wonders compared to what you were using. 

Alright.  I think I'm going to go with this for now and look at external amplifiers down the road.  Thanks.

 

[Incrementum]

Does anyone know if I'll have any issues getting surround sound working by plugging the DT 990 directly into the sound card?  Do I need to buy any special cables to make all this work right?
 
I could also just go with the DT 990 Pro and FiiO E17.  Just get the sound card at a later time if I feel I need it.

 

[Thommohawk]

You won't get surround sound at all if you get the Fiio E17 although it might be a better choice from a pure audio quality perspective than the sound card. 
 
Having said that, the surround sound I'm presuming you mean Dolby Headphone simulated 5.1 or some such - in that case it should be software driven thus no need for extra wires. But I've never owned that card so it might need them though I can't see it. 

 

[Incrementum]

Quote:

You won't get surround sound at all if you get the Fiio E17 although it might be a better choice from a pure audio quality perspective than the sound card. 
 
Having said that, the surround sound I'm presuming you mean Dolby Headphone simulated 5.1 or some such - in that case it should be software driven thus no need for extra wires. But I've never owned that card so it might need them though I can't see it. 

I'm just hearing a lot of iffy things about the Creative sound cards and gaming.  Some say surround sound is better for gaming and some say that stereo with good headphones is better.  Ahhh I'm going craazzyyyy

 

[chewy4]

Quote:

You won't get surround sound at all if you get the Fiio E17 although it might be a better choice from a pure audio quality perspective than the sound card. 
 

As far as the DAC goes, I seriously doubt that. If it has enough power to drive the cans then the soundcard is better.
 
Getting a standalone DAC/Amp is going to take away CMSS-3D(or Dolby Headphone if you decide against Creative). I would advise against that for gaming, those are very nice features and I think that gaming audio is terrible without them as far as directional placement goes.
 
 

I'm just hearing a lot of iffy things about the Creative sound cards and gaming.  Some say surround sound is better for gaming and some say that stereo with good headphones is better.  Ahhh I'm going craazzyyyy

What do you mean by surround sound? Simulated surround sound or an actual 5.1/7.1 system? Most good soundcards will give you both options.
 
As far as the effects go, for me Dolby Headphone makes the directional sound a lot more spherical. Really really nice. I don't have a ton of experience with CMSS-3D.

 

[Roller]

Quote:

I'm just hearing a lot of iffy things about the Creative sound cards and gaming.  Some say surround sound is better for gaming and some say that stereo with good headphones is better.  Ahhh I'm going craazzyyyy

 
Iffy things actually refer to Asus soundcards and gaming, due to their partial gaming audio support. If you plan on doing any sort of gaming beyond casual, X-Fi powered cards are what you want to get. A lot of people like the artificial coating given by the artificial coating that are surround virtualization techs like CMSS-3D (Creative) and DH (Asus), but those are merely extras on top of the gaming audio support from the audio hardware. However, it should be said that recent games have terrible audio renderers, and those do benefit from surround virtualization techs, but I think you should play around with stereo and surround to see what you prefer.
 
Also, the Creative X-Fi Titanium HD has a very capable DAC, better than external DACs costing quite more. If you want to be perfectly sure you're driving your headphones properly, just add a headphone amp later on, like an O2.

 

[Incrementum]

Welp I made the big purchase and went with the Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pro 250 ohms and Titanium HD.  I'm pretty excited to try all this stuff out.  Everything should be here this Friday so I'll let you guys know how everything works out.
 
Thanks for all the help.

 

[Incrementum]

Quote:

 
Iffy things actually refer to Asus soundcards and gaming, due to their partial gaming audio support. If you plan on doing any sort of gaming beyond casual, X-Fi powered cards are what you want to get. A lot of people like the artificial coating given by the artificial coating that are surround virtualization techs like CMSS-3D (Creative) and DH (Asus), but those are merely extras on top of the gaming audio support from the audio hardware. However, it should be said that recent games have terrible audio renderers, and those do benefit from surround virtualization techs, but I think you should play around with stereo and surround to see what you prefer.
 
Also, the Creative X-Fi Titanium HD has a very capable DAC, better than external DACs costing quite more. If you want to be perfectly sure you're driving your headphones properly, just add a headphone amp later on, like an O2.

Do you prefer stereo over CMSS-3D and DH?

 

[Roller]

Quote:

Do you prefer stereo over CMSS-3D and DH?

 
Yes. I find that all current software surround virtualization techs give sound an unnatural feel. Music and movies sound best without CMSS-3D, games can benefit from CMSS-3D to an extent, but the SQ trade-off is too big, its usefulness being mainly for competitive gaming, not for immersive gaming. I tend to rely on the game audio renderer to be high performing, but unfortunately newer games tend to use poor renderers that lack true sound maps with accurate positional cues, and for those CMSS-3D can help.
 
All in all, I recommend you to try different settings, and do read this thread: http://www.head-fi.org/t/593050/the-nameless-guide-to-pc-gaming-audio-with-binaural-headphone-surround-sound

 

[chewy4]

I think DH makes games loads more enjoyable. Without it, left and right sounds bounce around way too much. With it, you actually have a spherical soundstage and everything smoothly transitions from side to side.
 
I don't notice any unnatural feel with it at all, although I don't like it with music.

 

[Roller]

Quote:

I think DH makes games loads more enjoyable. Without it, left and right sounds bounce around way too much. With it, you actually have a spherical soundstage and everything smoothly transitions from side to side.
 
I don't notice any unnatural feel with it at all, although I don't like it with music.

 
Slight correction there. When you say "spherical soundstage", you should say "spherical 2D soundstage", as that's the difference between playing a game with a proper audio renderer and a simple software audio renderer.

 

[chewy4]

Quote:

 
Slight correction there. When you say "spherical soundstage", you should say "spherical 2D soundstage", as that's the difference between playing a game with a proper audio renderer and a simple software audio renderer.

Yeah, more circular. 

 

[Roller]

In any case, I do think Incrementum will be very satisfied with his setup. The DT990 are very good for immersive gaming and due to their soundstage, they also fare nicely with competitive gaming. Music will be engaging as well as movies being immersive as well. However, I would add a headphone amp to the setup later on. Something like an O2 or Schiit Asgard would be a great addition to his setup.

 

[Thommohawk]

Quote:

Welp I made the big purchase and went with the Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pro 250 ohms and Titanium HD.  I'm pretty excited to try all this stuff out.  Everything should be here this Friday so I'll let you guys know how everything works out.
 
Thanks for all the help.

 
Congrats on the purchases! 
 
I'm thinking about picking up the Titanium HD myself for my PC as I also really liked the software interface of my old cheap X Fi as opposed to the awful software interface of the Xonar Essence.
 
It seems to have a lot of the same things, but with much more support for gaming in the Creative card. Plus from what I've tried in the past I seem to prefer CMSS over Dolby Headphone. 

 

[Incrementum]

Wow am I glad I bought these headphones and sound card.  It's such a massive improvement from anything I've used before it's crazy.
 
Listening to my favorite songs is like a completely new experience because I'm picking up so many more little bits and pieces that I couldn't hear before.  It's kind of crazy how good these headphones are for just about every genre of music.  Gaming is also sweet and I dig the CMSS-3D in BF3 but haven't used it much outside of that.
 
Is it normal to hear like a recording noise on certain songs?  It's almost like the headphones are too good for the quality of music I listen to and it's picking up literally every detail that was in the original recording.