[mdh994]

Hey guys, this is my setup at the moment: Gaming Pc -> Asus Xonar u7 -> Fiio E6 -> Sennheiser mm30i
 
I have one question, when i plug my earphones straight into the Asus, it just becomes a mumbled mess of sounds that sound nothing like the song that is playing (even with everything disabled)
but when I plug the Fiio into it, it becomes perfect and so much better then the Pc -> Fiio e6 -> Sennheiser mm30i
But when I plug a pair of headphones into the Asus U7 they sound great.
I dont understand why I need the Fiio to make my earphones sound good out of the u7.

 

[appsmarsterx]

have you used your motherboard's onboard realtek with your mm30i ? before I explain this, I'd like to know your impressions with your mm30i with your onboard setup... so that way we have 3 sources to compare.

 

[mdh994]

They sound alright but no where near as good as with the fiio or u7 or both. Its just not as clear with the onboard sound.

http://www.gigabyte.com.au/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3908#sp

That is the motherboard I have just incase u need specs.
I appretiate the help.

 

[appsmarsterx]

  But when I plug a pair of headphones into the Asus U7 they sound great.
 

 
what I still don't understand is what headphones sound great when plugging them in to U7? and what doesn't ?
 
 
are you using your MOBO's SPDIF connection to connect your U7 with PC ? have you tried using usb instead of SPDIF ? because sometimes motherboard SPDIF connections might have some issues. as an example my Asrock Z77 SPDIF connection has some cracking/popping noise issues.

 

[mdh994]

I am saying my in ears plugged straight into the u7 sounds bad. But when i plug over ear headphones into the asus u7 they sound really good, sorry about the confusion I am new to this whole audio thing.
And about the spif, its not plugged into pc, its an output which goes straight into my home theartre system.
The u7 is plugged straight into a usb port. I have tried various usb ports and made sure the u7 is set to usb 2

 

[appsmarsterx]

so what I understand, you are experiencing some soundstage congestion with U7 when using with your iems,
 
different amps/dacs will give different results with different headphones, in the audiophile world we call it as "synergy". sometimes it's quite challenging to find the right headphone/amp combination(synergy), because sometimes this can be very subjective topic. as an example: some people might use warmer amps with brighter headphones, some might prefer neutral amps.
With some amps, some headphones might sound congested, this is really hard to explain or prove scientifically, I haven't done any extensive experiment in this topic, but with my limited experience, I ve experienced it few times. other thing is lots of IEMs and headphones like M50 might not have the best soundstage and imagine, they already sound congested to me when compared to soundstage kings like q701,hd598,ma900.  
 
personally I'm not a big fan of IEMs or closed back headphones for gaming.  I would highly recommend something other than mm30i. something with a larger soundstage. 

 

[mdh994]

Yea thanks mate for all your help, I suppose they are just a standard IEM, I have just recieved my M50x's and they sound awesome in the u7, so I won't be using my mm30i's anymore, they were just a temporary thing.
I have just recently bought the Shure 215's so I hope they would work better but I probs will not be using it in the amp, they will just be for my phone paired with the fiio.
Thanks again.