[Thurso]

Was hoping someone here could shed some light on a problem I'm having. I'm a noob when it comes to anything audio related. I bought the x-fi titanium HD a bit ago. http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Blaster-Titanium-Internal-SB1270/dp/B0041OUA38/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1353881322&sr=8-1&keywords=x-fi+titanium+hd
 
I've been really happy with it sound really good on my crappy headset. I read that it was a good card for headphones which is what I use virtually all the time for music / gaming.
 
I wanted to get a good headset to go along with the card and read up on different ones I saw that the Sennheiser HD 598's got really good reviews and people raved about the sound.http://www.amazon.com/Sennheiser-HD-598-Headphones-Accents/dp/B0042A8CW2/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1353881327&sr=8-2&keywords=hd+595
 
I also read that my soundcard doesn't have a headphone amp so I've been messing around with an amp that my father gave me called the sansui 2000x he owned it in the 70s and it is still is really good condition.
 
The problem is my crappy headphones don't sound that great on the amp, sure everything is a little more vibrant and loud but the quality sounds decreased. I figured it would sound amazing with the new headphones. That was until I got them... They sound better than the headphones I have a little bit in terms of quality... but the treb sounds really muddy when I turn it up with the 598s.. I'm amazed they sound this bad after all of the awesome reviews I've been reading and got to thinking could it be something with the amp that I'm using? I have it going into the headphone jack in the sound card to a red and white RCA in the back of the amp. Could that be messing with some of the quality coming from the soundcard that maybe the amp isn't meant to handle?
 
I tried hooking these headphones into my ipod to see if it was specific to my computer but they sound the same on my ipod yet when I put them into my amp on my computer they sound even worse than hooked up to an ipod. I guess I just don't like the sound of them.
 
I've always heard that using an Amp is better than not using one but with my new and old headset they sound worse with this amp vs straight into the soundcard.
I'd welcome any help, since I'm clueless.. I really appreciate it thanks a ton.

 

[PurpleAngel]

With the TiHD (Titanium HD), external headphone amplifiers (or in this case a receiver) are usually hooked up to the TiHD's RCA output jacks.
The TiHD can send headphone surround sound thru the RCA outputs.
 
If the Sansui 2000X headphone output jack has a high impedance. That can negatively affect the sound quality of 50-Ohm headphones like the HD-598.
 
A headphone amplifier like the O2 (Objective 2), new $155, would do a really good job of driving the HD598.

 

[Thurso]

Sorry for the late reply I wanted to tinker with them and see if there was anything I could do to make them sound better.
What I tried was changing all the settings messing with the amp, changing the rates but they just don't sound that great at all. I was thinking it was the headphones but then I tried them on a old crappy dell that has a Audigy 2 zs in it and I was blown away how great it sounded without the amp. With the amp they sounded AMAZING.
 
I'm just completely baffled that an old audigy card sounds better than my 130 dollar titanium hd. I really believe its the soundcard and not the headphones. Now that I think about it, there were another pair of headphones I bought and sent back(corsair 1300 vengeance)  because they sounded horrendous.. yet they got amazing reviews.. stupid me for not trying them on multiple setups I just assumed something was off with them or that they weren't designed very well. They were a gaming headset and funny enough, in games the positional audio was amazing. I could hear where people were through walls and hear anything coming but the sound quality was terrible.
 
I'd appreciate any suggestions as I have no clue. Could it be that the x-fi is not good paired with an old 70s amp? That a headphone amp specifically designed for computer would be better?  I know when I bought it I read many times that it was alright for music but really shined in gaming. I also remember reading that it didn't have a dedicated headphone amp and that using an amp it would sound much better, which is part of the reason I started using the sansui 2000x. I also have a 5000x  amp, and it's the same thing, sounds mediocre on the hi-fi titanium hd yet on the auidgy 2 zs it sounds amazing and the headphones really shine.
 
Maybe it could be that the x-fi titanium hd is just not good for music but then again if an old creative card plays music and games better than it then what good is it? I appreciate any help or suggestions you could offer. Thanks a ton.
 

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

Sorry for the late reply I wanted to tinker with them and see if there was anything I could do to make them sound better.
What I tried was changing all the settings messing with the amp, changing the rates but they just don't sound that great at all. I was thinking it was the headphones but then I tried them on a old crappy dell that has a Audigy 2 ZS in it and I was blown away how great it sounded without the amp. With the amp they sounded AMAZING.
 
I'm just completely baffled that an old audigy card sounds better than my 130 dollar Titanium HD. I really believe its the sound card and not the headphones. Now that I think about it, there were another pair of headphones I bought and sent back(corsair 1300 vengeance)  because they sounded horrendous.. yet they got amazing reviews.. stupid me for not trying them on multiple setups I just assumed something was off with them or that they weren't designed very well. They were a gaming headset and funny enough, in games the positional audio was amazing. I could hear where people were through walls and hear anything coming but the sound quality was terrible.
 
I'd appreciate any suggestions as I have no clue. Could it be that the x-fi is not good paired with an old 70s amp? That a headphone amp specifically designed for computer would be better?  I know when I bought it I read many times that it was alright for music but really shined in gaming. I also remember reading that it didn't have a dedicated headphone amp and that using an amp it would sound much better, which is part of the reason I started using the sansui 2000x. I also have a 5000x  amp, and it's the same thing, sounds mediocre on the hi-fi titanium hd yet on the Audigy 2 ZS it sounds amazing and the headphones really shine.
 
Maybe it could be that the x-fi titanium hd is just not good for music but then again if an old creative card plays music and games better than it then what good is it? I appreciate any help or suggestions you could offer. Thanks a ton.
 

The DAC (Digital to Analog Converter) on the TiHD (Titanium HD) should be better then the one in the Audigy 2 Zs, so just about any headphone should sound better with the TiHD over the Audigy 2 zs.
I'm assuming when you hooked up the TiHD, you used RCA to RCA connection?
Did you turn off the motherboard's on-board audio? (in the Bios).
Did you update the TiHD's drivers to the latest version?
Or try deleting all Creative software and do a fresh install.
 
Try posting this problem to this thread, should be lots of TiHD users there.
http://www.head-fi.org/t/534479/mad-lust-envys-headphone-gaming-guide-updated-11-12-12-sennheiser-hd650-added
 
Also post this problem to the Creative Labs forum Sound Blaster thread.
http://forums.creative.com/forumdisplay.php?f=6

 

[Thurso]

Ahh it seems that was the problem. My motherboard audio was still enabled somehow. I turned it off last time I was messing with the bios I thought. I also noticed that my 6870 video cards have some audio device in the sound options.. while checking the bios, I noticed they had hdmi audio - enabled, so I turned that off as well and rebooted. It was like night and day. Thanks a ton for the help man. you rock! XD