[SolomonPierce]

I'm pretty new to the audiophile game, I've always loved music but it's been a long time since I have spent much on headphones.  It all started this summer in Poland where I bought a pair of K540s and I thought they were damn fine for the price.  Today my 598s came which I have been looking into for a while, now I did not expect much from the bass (the k540s don't have much to speak of) because I've read it's okay but not great.  To my surprise, without an amp, hooked into pc with sb titanium series soundcard, I cranked pc volume and slowly raised foobar volume, and I was STUNNED that the bass gets so heavy!  Huge hits and sustain, so much that I am scared to keep it up that high.  at -10db it is already too high like **** your pants crazy.  I don't even care much for bass in music, but I always had the x-fi crystalizer on in my soundcard options to increase bass on the AKGs, now it's just crazy.  So if anyone's looking for bass I'm guessing it'll do this with just about any cans with decent bass.  Unbelievable.
 
My question though is that I've never had a headphone amp before.  For these I ordered the Fiio e7 / e9 combo as a starter amp / dac (hasn't been delivered yet).  Is this going to be dangerous to use now because my volume right out of my computer can already reach insane levels...  Is it still worth having this amp combo for these phones?  If not should I keep it for a future higher impedance set or save the money for a better amp?

 

[NamelessPFG]

Do you plan on keeping the X-Fi around for the Crystalizer and gaming features? You can't use it and the E7, since the E7 lacks S/PDIF input...
 
Whether they're worthy of your headphones or not, I lack the knowledge to answer that for sure. It's said that the HD 598 doesn't benefit too much from an amp, but I don't know about the K 540.

 

[SolomonPierce]

Can't you use the E7 docked as a dac for the E9?  Isn't the latter a usb connection?  I don't want to change sound card but I don't care about gaming on these phones as much.  Mostly got them for music.
 

Yeah it's a relatively unknown model tbh but besides the flimsiness they're very nice semi open phones...  I was really asking about the hd598 or future cans I might but.  540s are relatively low impedance around 30 / 35 iirc.

 

[NamelessPFG]

Yes, you can use the E7 as a docked DAC for the E9. What I'm trying to say is that either the X-Fi or the E7 will have to be your primary audio device. If you're not careful, the E7 could end up being selected as the primary audio device while gaming and you'll get none of the X-Fi benefits for that.
 
However, it's perfectly possible to tell certain applications to use certain output devices, should you feel the need.

 

[SolomonPierce]

Oh yes I know that, I wasn't sure what you'd meant.  So with 598 e9/e7 combo would be better for music than my soundcard right?  I mean it's a decent card but still cheaper than this amp combo (even if it is the cheap option when it comes to amps) I figured a dedicated headphone amp would be better.  I read somewhere that, even though it's not required with the 50ohm on the 598s, it makes them open up more.
 
Again I'll keep gaming on the soundcard, I don't care about switching between default audio devices as long as the Fiio combo will be better for my music than the soundcard.

 

[NamelessPFG]

It could be better, it could not be better. Hard to say.
 
If it's not an Auzentech-built X-Fi (Prelude, Forte, HomeTheater HD) or the Creative Titanium HD, then it probably won't be regarded that well by audiophile standards without extensive modification...on the other hand, if you care at all about 24-bit/96 KHz support, word is that the FiiO E7 only takes up to 16-bit/48 KHz.
 
Regardless, only your own ears can decide what gear you'll prefer in the end. If you don't mind plunking down the cash first to find out, we'd all like to hear your findings. If the E7 DAC isn't doing it for you, you could sell it and feed the E9 with the X-Fi's output while you save up for an even better DAC.

 

[SolomonPierce]

Yeah I keep it at 24bit/41k right now, I had it at 96KHz but it was messing up Skyrim... it had some crashing issues due to sound.  Honestly I don't notice that much of a difference between 41 / 96... it might be because it's hard to listen to them side by side other than doing the windows sound test.  I can hear it more with 16bit.  I'm interested to try it on the e7 and see if it is worse or not.  I'm not sure of the exact x-fi model, my dxdiag just says creative sb, I know it's titanium series but I forget what it was exactly.

 

[Head Injury]

You might be better off without the E9, actually. The E7 will have plenty of power and the HD598 doesn't necessarily play nice with high output impedance like the E9 has.
 
You probably don't notice a difference between 44.1 and 96 because there is no difference, but that's an argument for another thread 

 

[SolomonPierce]

Well do you think the e9 is worth holding on to?  I've never returned anything to Amazon, I got the combo last night after ordering the 598s themselves because I got on a bit of a spending spree and wanted to make sure I got the most out of these.  I'd probably try selling it before returning it honestly, but I know I'll be getting another set of cans one day with a higher impedance so is it decent enough to keep?