Sennheiser HD-650 + X-CAN v3 + which cables?

[azurita]

Hi everyone,

I've got a Musical Fidelity X-CAN v3 headphones amplifier together
with a pair of Sennheiser HD-650. I am looking for the RCA-Jack to
connect my laptop to the XCAN, any good cables around?
BTW, am I loosing a lot of quality by directly using my laptop
standard sound output?

Thanks!

 

[mrarroyo]

Are you sure your computer has a line out? Chances are it is a headphone out in which case you will be amplifying the already amplified sound. This means amplifying the computer's internal amp distortion.

If you do not have a line out, then you would need a DAC to conver the signal from the computer (USB, Optical, or Coaxial) to analog. Then you would feed the analog signal from the DAC to the X-Can V3.

 

[azurita]

I have a USB Sound Blaster XMod which I could use, right? I would turn off any restoration of the sound (the bass and the crystalizer) in order to bypass the sound through the XMod. In this case that would be laptop + xmod + xcan + hd650. would that help to the distortion? now i can't afford the price of a DAC...

 

[onvn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by azurita /img/forum/go_quote.gif I have a USB Sound Blaster XMod which I could use, right? I would turn off any restoration of the sound (the bass and the crystalizer) in order to bypass the sound through the XMod. In this case that would be laptop + xmod + xcan + hd650. would that help to the distortion? now i can't afford the price of a DAC...

If you can't afford a DAC at the moment, save yourself money by not buying good interconnects and just use one of those cheapies, or make your own interconnects for something better for the same price as those cheapies

.. I would put the priority on upgrading source equipment first (ie. invest in a standalone DAC) then go into the stuff like interconnects..

 

[azurita]

ok...i'm afraid I shouldn't have spent that money in the X-Can v3....

 

[pianomav]

What you can do is probably get a more decent soundcard like the emu404 which has a better dac and lineout than your current soundcard.

 

[Dutchess of York]

If your worried about SQ on a laptop, you could buy a used IMOD on FS or the 5.5Gs are on sale now new. If you dont have a portable player, IMOD + Lossless will rivial expensive CD players (so ive read) and you can kill 2 birds with one stone. You can get some mini to RCAs (cables) and an Apple dock (with a line out) any you'll have a great setup.