[hutt132]

I have the HD 598 hooked up to my motherboard audio since the sound card hasn't arrived yet and they sound amazing. I can't wait to hear these on the Essence STX.

 

[FatmanSize48]

Congratulations on the new headphones. With your new sound card, you ought to be set with your headphone rig...for a while. 

 

[hutt132]

Are these settings correct? I have it at Normal Gain.
Under Speaker Properties if I increase the sample rate then I think it overrides the Xonar driver, because when I did that the Dolbly Headphone didn't work.
 

 

[FatmanSize48]

That looks fine. For music, I would recommend turning surround sound off and just leaving it at stereo.

 

[PurpleAngel]

  Are these settings correct? I have it at Normal Gain.
Under Speaker Properties if I increase the sample rate then I think it overrides the Xonar driver, because when I did that the Dolby Headphone didn't work.
 

I would say to set the sample rate lower then 192Khz, I would think 44.1Khz or 48Khz would be fine for gaming, I usually just leave my at 96Khz.

 

[hutt132]

 
I would say to set the sample rate lower then 192Khz, I would think 44.1Khz or 48Khz would be fine for gaming, I usually just leave my at 96Khz.

What would be the benefit of lowering it?

 

[PurpleAngel]

  What would be the benefit of lowering it?

I'm guessing when you set the sample rate lower, it focuses the DAC on the job it's trying to do.

 

[hutt132]

Should I download ASIO or does the Xonar driver override Windows sampling rate and stuff without a problem?

 

[FatmanSize48]

 
I'm guessing when you set the sample rate lower, it focuses the DAC on the job it's trying to do.

Sorry. That's just not true. I don't mean to sound condescending (though I do), but the sample rate at which a DAC is set to operate has no impact on the final product. The chip does not "work harder" with higher samples--it just "does."

 

[PurpleAngel]

  Sorry. That's just not true. I don't mean to sound condescending (though I do), but the sample rate at which a DAC is set to operate has no impact on the final product. The chip does not "work harder" with higher samples--it just "does."

I'm not an expert on DACs so I was only guessing.
But why does a computer give the option of changing the sample rate and not automayically default to the highest sample rate?

 

[FatmanSize48]

The options are available so that one can scale the level of work needed to be done by the CPU to push out audio. With the cheapest and crappiest computers out there, the dedication of what would be an insignificant amount of processing power for normal PCs can make or break the user experience.

TL; DR: The options are there to help the CPU.