[ProjectDenz]

I'm going to pair my JH13 pro's with the Asus ST straight out of the headphone out (Full-sized cans are just too uncomfortable for long term listening for me). I bought a few opamps to tweak the sound to my liking.
 
Good call/bad call?

 

[WiR3D]

Quote:

I'm going to pair my JH13 pro's with the Asus ST straight out of the headphone out (Full-sized cans are just too uncomfortable for long term listening for me). I bought a few opamps to tweak the sound to my liking.
 
Good call/bad call?

 
Bad call, the JH have a 28 ohm impedance, the asus is 10 ohms.
 
I have the Denon d2k (25 ohm), and i can honestly say its not a good match, this is why:
You have all the detail in the world, but only at high volume, more then i would like.
There is too much extra bass, a subbass head will love it, and i like a bit of extra bass, and i dont like it, well unless im playing skrillex which needs the extra subbass.
Also the sound is very harsh, its not pleasent, if i plug my d2k's into a shi++y sony amp then i prefer that signiture, makes me smile, its smoother and more pleasent. If i had to describe it would be as follows.
 
(Just a note there are a few articles on impedance matching that support the sonic characteristics that i'm hearing,so its not a placebo )
 
Normal sine wave
__--^--__
 
Asus xonar essence paired with low impedance can
_-^_
 
There is just a sense that it hits the note and thats it, no smooth transition what so ever, it makes it effort to listen to music.
(But remember this card IS capable of hitting all the notes, well at that.)
 
I'm going to try rectify it by opamp rolling and possibly an impedance cable, also finally getting my QED 2xRCA male to 1 Jack female cable coming in to test with the RCA outputs. (Broke student, cant afford to start making my own cables, or even have them made.)
 
List of opamps to ATTEMPT to tame harshness, and bass:
LME49990
LME49720HA
AD798
THS4032
+other recs? (please remember on broke student budget, so no Burson)
 
EDIT: my grammer and english is horrible, im too lazy to fix it, its late here, live with it

 

[Thunderbolt]

is there actually any "tweaking" information about the different versions of sound drivers (asus original or uni xonar drivers)?
 
any preferences which version sounds best (in combination with wasapi)?
 
am still using the oldest win vista drivers atm.

 

[WiR3D]

Quote:

is there actually any "tweaking" information about the different versions of sound drivers (asus original or uni xonar drivers)?
 
any preferences which version sounds best (in combination with wasapi)?
 
am still using the oldest win vista drivers atm.

not in my opinion just much smoother operation with the uni drivers.
play with the sample rate if you see whats the best quality, to me 192khz sounds the best, but ironically its measurements are the worst. go figure.
 

 

[olegausany]

I'm happily using UniXonar 1.41 with ASIO (used WASAPI for a long time before) but read in the blog that somebody tried 1.52 and found it sounding much worse than 1.41 so he immediately switched back. This first time i hear problem like this and i didn't try 1.51 myself

 

[calist3r]

Do you guys know why the default mixer setting is at 76/76?
 
Should I just crank it all the way up to 100% and use only the main volume knob?

 

[germanium]

Quote:

Do you guys know why the default mixer setting is at 76/76?
 
Should I just crank it all the way up to 100% and use only the main volume knob?

No you should not boost it to 100% as you will experience the effects of a built in limiter if you do & they are quite disconcerting to say the least
 boosting to 100% actually is boosting the signal by about 12db over the level of what was recorded digitally & if it is anywhere nearclipping in the original you will for sure be riding that limiter pretty hard. If you get something that was recorded very soft as in averaging 20db down from max value then yuou could boost it somwhat over 76% in order to get it sufficiently loud if it is otherwise too soft with the volume control all the way up but otherwise leave it at 76%.
 

 

[PurpleAngel]

AD797BR for use in my Essence STX
Where do you guys get your AD797BRs from, both soldered (in pairs) on to SOIC to DIP-8 adapters and unsoldered SOIC.
Anyone bought used ones them from China?

 

[ROBSCIX]

Quote:

AD797BR for use in my Essence STX
Where do you guys get your AD797BRs from, both soldered (in pairs) on to SOIC to DIP-8 adapters and unsoldered SOIC.
Anyone bought used ones them from China?

The units I used I built.

 

[verde57]

http://cimarrontechnology.com/single-to-dualop-ampadapterpn020302.aspx

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

Bad call, the JH have a 28 ohm impedance, the asus is 10 ohms.
I have the Denon d2k (25 ohm), and i can honestly say its not a good match, this is why:
You have all the detail in the world, but only at high volume, more then i would like.
There is too much extra bass, a subbass head will love it, and i like a bit of extra bass, and i dont like it, well unless im playing skrillex which needs the extra subbass.
Also the sound is very harsh, its not pleasent, if i plug my d2k's into a shi++y sony amp then i prefer that signiture, makes me smile, its smoother and more pleasent. If i had to describe it would be as follows.
(Just a note there are a few articles on impedance matching that support the sonic characteristics that i'm hearing,so its not a placebo )
Normal sine wave
__--^--__
 
Asus xonar essence paired with low impedance can
_-^_
There is just a sense that it hits the note and thats it, no smooth transition what so ever, it makes it effort to listen to music.
(But remember this card IS capable of hitting all the notes, well at that.)
I'm going to try rectify it by opamp rolling and possibly an impedance cable, also finally getting my QED 2xRCA male to 1 Jack female cable coming in to test with the RCA outputs. (Broke student, cant afford to start making my own cables, or even have them made.)
List of opamps to ATTEMPT to tame harshness, and bass:
LME49990
LME49720HA
AD798
THS4032
+other recs? (please remember on broke student budget, so no Burson)
EDIT: my grammer and english is horrible, im too lazy to fix it, its late here, live with it

I'm not sure it tames harshness and bass, but it's only $15 on eBay for 3 LME49860NAs op-amps.
The LM4652, LME49720NA and LME49860NA are the same op-amp, the LME49860NA are cherry picks of the LME49720NA, because the LME49860NA has a better voltage range.
I believe the AD798 is a misstype and should say AD797, the preferred AD797 is the AD797BR which you can get them new for $6.50, or used lower price ones on eBay.
The LME49990 and AD797 are single channel SOIC op-amps, so they have to be soldered in pairs on a DIP-8 adapter.
 
 
 

 

[calist3r]

Quote:

No you should not boost it to 100% as you will experience the effects of a built in limiter if you do & they are quite disconcerting to say the least
 boosting to 100% actually is boosting the signal by about 12db over the level of what was recorded digitally & if it is anywhere nearclipping in the original you will for sure be riding that limiter pretty hard. If you get something that was recorded very soft as in averaging 20db down from max value then yuou could boost it somwhat over 76% in order to get it sufficiently loud if it is otherwise too soft with the volume control all the way up but otherwise leave it at 76%.
 

Just saw this, thanks!

 

[WiR3D]

Quote:

I'm not sure it tames harshness and bass, but it's only $15 on eBay for 3 LME49860NAs op-amps.
The LM4652, LME49720NA and LME49860NA are the same op-amp, the LME49860NA are cherry picks of the LME49720NA, because the LME49860NA has a better voltage range.
I believe the AD798 is a misstype and should say AD797, the preferred AD797 is the AD797BR which you can get them new for $6.50, or used lower price ones on eBay.
The LME49990 and AD797 are single channel SOIC op-amps, so they have to be soldered in pairs on a DIP-8 adapter.

Yes you are observant, that was a typo, and i am aware of the dip8 adapters.
Thanks anyway, any input/info on the use of an impedance cable?
 

 

[shorke]

Hey, so I have this sound card (http://www.htomega.com/claro2.html) coming to me brand new since my Claro Plus broke. I enjoyed my Claro Plus, I thought it was very clear sounding. But the Claro II is also based off of this same card from 2007, it just has shielding and anti-pop now. It is 2012 now and I'm sure cards have progressed since then. I am looking at the AKG Q701s or Sennheiser HD 650. My plan was to just build or buy an O2 and use it with this soundcard, but I've been told the DAC won't be good enough and that the ST is much better, the best sounding sound card out there. Should I sell the Claro II and just get the ST? The reason I am weary is because the O2 sounds like it has better compatibility with headphones, the st/stx seems to have problems with some like the D2000 or so I've heard. Plus the ODAC sounds intriguing. So what I'm asking is, am I going to really hear that much of an increase in sound quality if I got an ST over the Claro II and an O2?

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

Hey, so I have this sound card (http://www.htomega.com/claro2.html) coming to me brand new since my Claro Plus broke. I enjoyed my Claro Plus, I thought it was very clear sounding. But the Claro II is also based off of this same card from 2007, it just has shielding and anti-pop now. It is 2012 now and I'm sure cards have progressed since then. I am looking at the AKG Q701s or Sennheiser HD 650. My plan was to just build or buy an O2 and use it with this soundcard, but I've been told the DAC won't be good enough and that the ST is much better, the best sounding sound card out there. Should I sell the Claro II and just get the ST? The reason I am weary is because the O2 sounds like it has better compatibility with headphones, the st/stx seems to have problems with some like the D2000 or so I've heard. Plus the ODAC sounds intriguing. So what I'm asking is, am I going to really hear that much of an increase in sound quality if I got an ST over the Claro II and an O2?

I vote to go with the O2, Asus has one new sound card (Phoebus) coming out soon (one or two months) and I'm sure others are too.
C-Media just came out with the Oxygen HD CMI8888 audio processor, it's C-Media's first native PCI-Express audio processor.
So at least wait a few month or more, before looking to replace the Claro 2.