[Mehdi]

I am a PC and Console gamer, who listens to movies a lot. Music are on the tail end of my concern list.

Headphones:

1. Turtle Beach HPA2 w/ MixAmp connector for console gaming (Shipment on the way)
2. Sennheiser 280 Pro

Sound Card: On-board Realtek 889A and Creative Audigy 2 ZS

Amp: Astro MixAmp + Turtle Beach HPA2 Amp


My guess is that upgrading to a Forte may be the next logical step, however experienced enough to know how much of an improvement this will be in 5.1 sound.

Thoughts?

 

[ROBSCIX]

Actually, NO. If you upgrade to the Forte 7.1 and use that as a S/pdif output for your Mix-AMp you will hear no difference aside from gaming effects. When you go digital your Mix-amp will be producing the sound not the card.

Unless you are considering using the Forte for analog 5.1 or using the headphons conencted to the Forte.

The Forte is a second generation X-fi DSP equipped card so for gaming and sound quality it is far beyond the A2 which was a decent card in it's day. However, that day has long sinced passed.

 

[Mehdi]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ROBSCIX /img/forum/go_quote.gif Actually, NO. If you upgrade to the Forte 7.1 and use that as a S/pdif output for your Mix-AMp you will hear no difference aside from gaming effects. When you go digital your Mix-amp will be producing the sound not the card. Unless you are considering using the Forte for analog 5.1 or using the headphons conencted to the Forte. The Forte is a second generation X-fi DSP equipped card so for gaming and sound quality it is far beyond the A2 which was a decent card in it's day. However, that day has long sinced passed.

If I get a Forte, I would be connecting my headphones to the surround sound jacks in the back of the card, I would not connect to my MixAmp via optical. This would defeat the purpose of having a HPX/HPA2, since they have discrete drivers in them.

I am very interested to hear the upgraded difference between the A2 and the Forte. For whatever reason, I keep thinking to myself, that the difference will be minor. This is probably due to my naiveness as to exactly how a sound card works.

side note: Even if I did output audio over the Forte's SPDIF, I thought the card is still processing the audio to some degree? If there really is no difference between a A2 and Forte over SPDIF, shouldn't I try to invest in an expensive HDMI-enabled 5.1 DAC instead? Heck, wouldn't that be better then a MixAmp as well, since for console gaming, I would get to use discrete 5.1 over my HPA2s instead of Dolby Headphone simulation?

ie: HDMI LPCM Dolby Digital To Multi-Channel/Optical Audio Decoder With Amplifier