[RPGWiZaRD]

Onboard soundcard sucks and it's the reason for lack of bass in your ears! It would make a huge difference whatever card you pick, I'd say go for the Essence STX, it would be less hazzle and provide a good result too, I haven't tried it so can't say for sure and I've been interested but in my ears this Audigy 2 ZS sounds so great with XB500 in particular and the EQ is simply amazing with these drivers and I get great working positional sound in games too so I've had my doubts about even Xonar Essence STX being an upgrade to me but concidering how the components on the card itself is of better quality, the sound quality itself should probably be better but it's the EQ and surround sound for gaming that are the parts that I'm worried about as you can use the EQ in kX Audio drivers like a "software amp", it doesn't distort the sound despite raising the sliders by a huge amount, I've tried using 3 EQs on top of each other of total +36 boost capabilities to the frequencies and it was quite a funny experience, now most other EQs start distort quite a bit even going halfway up above zero level.
 
With any Audigy supported card + kX Audio drivers there couldn't be possibly too little bass for any1 probably whatever headphone you pick even, it can turn bass shy headphones into bassheavy headphones using the EQ which is the most distortion-free EQ I probably ever will have experience with.

 

[Smuul]

Quote:

Onboard soundcard sucks and it's the reason for lack of bass in your ears! It would make a huge difference whatever card you pick, I'd say go for the Essence STX, it would be less hazzle and provide a good result too, I haven't tried it so can't say for sure and I've been interested but in my ears this Audigy 2 ZS sounds so great and the EQ is simply amazing with these drivers and I get great working positional sound in games too so I've had my doubts about even Xonar Essence STX being an upgrade to me but concidering how the components on the card itself is of better quality, the sound quality itself should probably be better but it's the EQ and surround sound for gaming that are the parts that I'm worried about as you can use the EQ in kX Audio drivers like a "software amp", it doesn't distort the sound despite raising the sliders by a huge amount, I've tried using 3 EQs on top of each other of total +36 boost capabilities to the frequencies and it was quite a funny experience, now most other EQs start distort quite a bit even going halfway up above zero level.
 
With any Audigy supported card + kX Audio drivers there couldn't be possibly too little bass for any1 probably whatever headphone you pick even, it can turn bass shy headphones into bassheavy headphones using the EQ which is the most distortion-free EQ I probably ever will have experience with.

You said earlier that you use Foobar2000. How much you can raise lows with F2000? Or you can only use driver amp for quality bass? If so, then how much you can amp with that?
 

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

 
Quote:

You said earlier that you use Foobar2000. How much you can raise lows with F2000? Or you can only use driver amp for quality bass? If so, then how much you can amp with that?
 

 
You can raise bass quite a bit with foobar2000 but it'll hurt overall sound quality, you just have to use the reducing technique though to prevent distortion, keep the lows around zero and lower everything else but this IMO is far from an optimal solution. With kX Audio driver's EQ I can raise like everything and also get more of everything at the same time, makes it more "dynamic"/speaker sounding without loss of sound quality which you'd lose with foobar2000 if reducing the other frequencies quite a bit as you make it more bass-biased.
 
I'd be interesting in hearing how nicely Xonar Essence STX's EQ works though, if this one also allows fairly huge boost over zero without distortion, it goes up to +20 and down to -20 so that's a huge range to play with but if it will distort sound then ofc that big range would be pointless.
 
I still wish some1 was able to try an Audigy (1 / 2 / 4) card with XB500 and kX Audio drivers though, it's something that has to be experienced to believe in. It's heavenlike for bassheads and the best is it's sooo freaking cheap! (if you can find a card)
 

 

[Roller]

It's really a shame kX team didn't go to X-Fi territory, as that would have been huge

 
Btw, RPGWiZaRD, which OS are you using with your Audigy?

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Quote:

It's really a shame kX team didn't go to X-Fi territory, as that would have been huge

 
Btw, RPGWiZaRD, which OS are you using with your Audigy?

Creative hasn't open sourced the drivers for X-Fi so even if they wanted they wouldn't be able to code the drivers.
 
I'm using Windows 7 x64. It sounds best with Windows 7 too in my ears. A bit clearer/crisper sound and better and a bit deeper sounding bass compared to XP.
 

 

[putente]

Hi.
 
I'm looking for some cheap, powerfull bass cans, to use with my FiiO E7+E9 combo. As you can see from my signature, I have other cans, and so I'm just looking for something that can give a lot of good and strong punch, with still a bit of SQ on the rest of the spectrum...
Would the XB700 be a good choice for me, considering the price and bass performance? I really want to "feel" the beats... 

 
 
Thanks.

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

XB700 is a fantastic headphone, IMHO, and would pair up well with the E7/E9. Lots of rumble in jungle.

 

[putente]

Another question. How is the treble on these XB700? I'm after something that can put some serious punch on the bass notes, but that's soft on the highs. I don't want any harsh treble on these ones... 

 
 
I've been reading a lot here about these XB700 and the smaller XB500, but I can't figure out which will be more suited for what I'm looking for. They'll be amped by a FiiO E9, mostly unEQ'ed (from the CD Player->E9). Which of the two can make the bass be more felt (the beats itself), and still be pleasant to listen to across the rest of the spectrum?

 

[dailysmoker]

the treble on the xb700 is not high it's perfect the overall sound is very  good and the bass outstanding with my fiio e5 if i put bass boost on i get a good bass massage just AWESOME!!!!!

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Yep, XB700's treble is on a fairly good level, it's a bit like M50 without the peak in the lower-medium highs, I'd concider it fairly neutral or just tiny bit emphasized and doesn't usually cause any sibilance issues. XB500's treble is on the smooth/dark side of neutral and therefore XB500 is a bit warmer sounding. Without EQ the tonal balance of XB700 probably appeals to more people and is more versatail/works great with broader range of music genres while with EQ applied it's a bit more difficult to tell which appeals more and comes down to personal taste regarding the mid/upper bass differences and if you prefer a very forward/engaging ("in-your-face") & warm sound with XB500 or a bit more laid-back and less warm sounding XB700. I'd say XB500's bass can be felt a bit easier as it's strong from lowest bass notes to the upper bass range while XB700 only got a very strong deep bass output (tiny bit more than that of XB500 but a lot  less of the mid & upper bass).

 

[129207]

Anyone else noticed the XB700 loses some of it's punch after, say, 100 hours? The bass is still huge, deep and overpowering but it doesn't kick me in the face anymore. Kickbass gone, it mellowed out on me! Nooooes! I now turn to my (Rockbox-) EQ'ed HD25-1 II for punchy bass. XB700 now plays ambient/dark ambient music exclusively. 
 
Btw, Noisia's "Split the Atom" on my Sennheiser HD580 with Rockbox' bass EQ on +4, Arrow 12HE Bassboost on +2... Brutal decapitating bass. Soul shaking, heart stopping, breath-taking rumble like pure bass dropkicks to the cerebral cortex. 

 XB700 is out. Bye. 

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

I don't know about losing it but I didn't think it had enough punch for starters so I liked XB500 more, I was using XB700 probably around 100hrs during a period of ~2 weeks until I decided to try out XB500 as well. No matter how I EQ'd XB700 by even ridiculous amount to the mid/upper bass range it just didn't start to sound/behave the same way as XB500 does with mid/upper bass frequencies, the bass was always "softer" no matter what.

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

I may have a theory of what's happened for you though and it may not be a change in the driver at all, could be the pads that have been misshaped such as the pads getting more "thin"/compact or soft at the top which happened to my XB500 after a while as at least when I wear them the head is "thicker" at the spot at the upper edge of the pads so more pressure is applied on that point while the pads are pointing vertically (90 degrees), ie. not following the shape of the head. This leads to the driver pointing not quite as directly towards the earchannel, a bit upwards in my case. To counter this I added some paper pieces like this (not the most elegant solution but whatever) http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/254/img0387z.jpg/ to keep it in place so that the whole cup is always slanting a bit so the pads rests evenly on my head. Another pic showing roughly the distance that's left between the inner headband and the driver cup after the modding when you twist the cups outwards quite gently simulating the position when wearing them on the head (for me the optimal is 3~4mm space in-between for getting even pressure on the pad when wearing them): http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/8/img0403w.jpg/
 
Depending on how much slanting the cups are made the weaker/stronger bass as the direction at which the driver points at changes. 
 

 

[Smuul]

Actually it happened with me too. I haven't counted hours or can't even guess the time, but I can hear the bass less than when I bought them(XB500). I listened to them through my Sony Ericsson W960i, and at the beginning of using them, they made my ears quite mute after 30 minutes of listening. For now it has lost such power and I have a suspicion that some higher or overall frequencies have been lost. I already thought about buying also XB700s, but I didn't expect that someone had quite the same issue.

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Quote:

Actually it happened with me too. I haven't counted hours or can't even guess the time, but I can hear the bass less than when I bought them(XB500). I listened to them through my Sony Ericsson W960i, and at the beginning of using them, they made my ears quite mute after 30 minutes of listening. For now it has lost such power and I have a suspicion that some higher or overall frequencies have been lost. I already thought about buying also XB700s, but I didn't expect that someone had quite the same issue.

Did you read my previous post and could you check/thinker if this is the case with you? I just want to confirm whether or not it's the pads deforming which is the cause. For me it was. The pad's upper edge became softer/thinner which led to the driver won't have the same direction/angle against the earchannel as when it was new and hence the change in bass. Doing the simple mod took care of it for me though and I can depending on how much I let the cups be angled alter the sound slightly, it does make a noticable difference in sound how the whole cup is pointed when it rests on your head.