Well i guess we'll have to agree to disagree lol.
I still think upgrading ZXR from the Z is a bigger upgrade in sound quality then to add an external amp. It was for me anyway. But at the same time I have never used the M-stage with the Z and seen its result so its just my opinion.
I don't think he's trying to disagree with you, I think he's trying to broaden your perpective. That the improvement in SQ that's audible to you, going from Z to ZxR, is probably due to other factors making a more significant difference than just the S:N. They could have the same S:N, but still sound different. Sticking to using an S:N as the sole measure of DAC quality is like saying the Ohm "rating" of an amp is the only measure of how good it will sound with a headphone... It's just not the complete picture.
To the person asking... $600 is more than I have to spend ons a birthday present, and I have a full time job, lol! Well... I did just buy a car in July, that downpayment was plenty higher than $600... but I'd been saving for a while. And August I bought a $500 computer, but I needed that too, and I use it to make money. On sheer entertainment equipment, I don't think I've spent $600 at one time on one thing.
The new AKG's are definitely hot products (I'm still enjoying my Q701, $200 used, slightly retuned sound signature but a $100 amp definitely did a fair job driving them with power to spare), and either sound card will do fine driving them. "I" might choose a Z hooked up to an external amp, because the amp can be used with other sources than just the computer (and I already have the amp). I think you can have the card process surround before sending it through the line-outs; I recommend researching further to find out for sure.
Quick question,
I plan on picking up the AKG K702-A's sometime in the next week or so (birthday gift to myself). Primarily being a PC gamer, I've lurked back and forth between MLEnvy's thread and this one here, that being said I saw it mentioned a few pages back that I could use the Asus Xonar U3 to run Dolby Headphones through a DAC/AMP (extremely appealing as I have a mini-ITX system without room for a internal card). So my question is... Would the following work correctly to get dolby surround coming from my planned headphone purhcase?
Computer > Xonar U3 (SPDIF Out) > AudioEngine D1* > Schiit Asgard 2 > K702-A
* To be replaced with the Schiit Bifrost sometime closer to christmas (not sure if it's going to be much of a difference but I want my stack to match)
P.S. Not sure if it's all good to post in here for my first post on the site so don't crucify me if it isn't
This is a soundcard thread, crucify, CRUCIFY!!!1! Kidding with ya.
Apparently I mixed together my memories of what the two people asking for tips said. Oh well.
The U3 (and U7) have been confirmed to send Dolby processed surround sound out through SPDIF, and of course the Shiit (and Audioengine) gear are very high quality. Possibly gear overkill for DH gaming, but at least you won't be underpowered.
If you've been reading MLE's post long enough to have seen Nameless & My posts, you'll know that while DH is Mad's favourite processing (and I respect that, it's part of my current console setup), but Nameless & I find DH a little limited and outdated compared to what Creative offers. Creative's processing can (if fed the data) create 3D surround compared to the 2D "ring of speakers" simulated by DH (and the very similar Silent Cinema). The good news is that there are people who like each of the different processing codecs. Ultimately, any surround makes a significant difference in gaming over stereo, and your preference (+ what hearing you are equipped with) will dictate which one you will
enjoy the most.
. Even though the last one is out of my pricerange, I'm now convinced I should spend the majority of my budget on headphones now.
) that are locally available:
