[lulopon2]

I’ve seen a previous thread telling that Sennheiser will bundle its super gaming headset PC350 with Xonar Xense, but really I don’t know why Sennheiser will do so!

Since I’m an owner of Sennheiser PC 350 and know that its impedance is as high as 150 ohm that few of audio cards can support this spec (honestly, my creative card can’t, so accordingly I can’t totally drive my PC 350 until now),
I’m wondering whether Xonar Xense has an amp module. Or did Xense card tune itself to fit Sennheiser PC 350?

By the way, I know ASUS Xonar was pretty hot in these years but haven’t tried any until now. Do you think it really worth the price? Please give some purchasing advices. Thx

 

[genclaymore]

The specs and what comes with it isnt final, so any thing can change when it does come out.

 

[578xxx]

My cousin works for Sennheiser Germany and he told me that recently many of Sennheiser RD persons flied to Taiwan to support the co-development of Senheisser & ASUS Xense audio products. He has also mentioned that Sennheiser internally put much resource on this co-work, so I am wondering what they can build to amuse us.

 

[sokolov91]

MMMMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmm no offence but I own the PC 350 and an asus xonar stx... and the Asus xonar is totally amazing, while the PC 350, save the awesome microphone, is total crap.

It is totally dumb and useless to combine such a phenomenal card, with such a horrible headphone. The pc 350 is bad for games, and horrible for music.... STX is great for games, amazing for music. I see no logic in this deal.

Unfortunately for Asus, Sennheiser has a bigger brand name, and they will probably blame the STX for the awful sound before they blame the PC 350.

Ohms is pointless, while it may not be the best amp, the STX can drive 600 ohm loads. It drives my HD 600 @ 300 ohms quite well. Of course my dedicated amp is better -especially in the punchiness, but it is by no means severely crippled. The 150 ohm pc 350 is driven no problem.

 

[TrentH]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sokolov91 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Ohms is pointless, while it may not be the best amp, the STX can drive 600 ohm loads. It drives my HD 600 @ 300 ohms quite well. Of course my dedicated amp is better -especially in the punchiness, but it is by no means severely crippled. The 150 ohm pc 350 is driven no problem.

How would you get that card to use 5.1 Surround Sound?
And how is the card for gaming? Does it help with "audio positioning" of enemys?

Would you recommend the STX or HT Omega Claro Halo for a pair of ATH-A700's?

 

[sokolov91]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TrentH /img/forum/go_quote.gif How would you get that card to use 5.1 Surround Sound? And how is the card for gaming? Does it help with "audio positioning" of enemys? Would you recommend the STX or HT Omega Claro Halo for a pair of ATH-A700's?

Card for gaming is awesome and even better for music, but I am not particularly into DSPs and all that jazz. I use Ultrasone Pro 750 for gaming, and the "S-logic" is enough on its own for pin point precision. The STX helps by being crystal clear.

The card supports up to 7.1 I think. You select in the driver how many channels it should receive from your program and it outputs it accordingly. It has a positional setting, and you can choose how far or close virtual speakers are located. It is pretty robust.

For speakers, it will only output 2 CH though. It does not have a break out card like the claro for 5.1 (6 RCA connections). I don't have expirience with the Halo though.

STX has better specs, and a dedicated power pin, instead of dirtier pci power. It also seems to have a few more features for gaming. So unless you have a home theater system to power, I would go with the STX/ST.

 

[ROBSCIX]

The STX can output 5.1 through Dolby Digital encoding on the S/Pdif output. The ST offers analog 7.1 through the H6 DAC expansion board and digital surround through encoding.

 

[avaaron2010]

I don’t think the 150 ohms of Sennheiser PC350 can easily fit in most soundcards especially for those without built-in amplifier. This is known fact and I don’t think ASUS will ignore this fact. Maybe this bundle is perfectly designed and matched for each other. If this cans can already perfectly match with any current model of ASUS Xonar series, I can’t see any reason for ASUS to build another new card…

 

[FallenAngel]

Uhm... lots of misconceptions above.

1) From a stability and circuit performance standpoint, the higher the impedance of the load (headphone), the "easier" it is for a amp to drive it. Move voltage is required from the amp, but less current and mostly, you don't need much voltage to make headphones loud enough to blow your head off.

2) "S-Logic" only means that the drivers are angled, nothing more. Nothing about "pin point precision".

3) Pretty much all multi-channel cards can encode to Dolby and pass 5.1 through S/PDIF, nothing special there.

 

[avaaron2010]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FallenAngel /img/forum/go_quote.gif Uhm... lots of misconceptions above. 1) From a stability and circuit performance standpoint, the higher the impedance of the load (headphone), the "easier" it is for a amp to drive it. Move voltage is required from the amp, but less current and mostly, you don't need much voltage to make headphones loud enough to blow your head off.

Well...I can't figure out what you mean. "The higher the impedance of the load (headphone), the "easier" it is for a amp to drive it." ?? Really, it's a kind of wierd... Could u put it more clearly?

 

[Mehve]

Quote:

Originally Posted by avaaron2010 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Well...I can't figure out what you mean. "The higher the impedance of the load (headphone), the "easier" it is for a amp to drive it." ?? Really, it's a kind of weird... Could u put it more clearly?

In short, a headphone needs a certain amount of power (watts) to output a certain amount of a volume, and that power is based on voltage x current. If you have a high-impedance headphone, you'll get the power from a lot of voltage and a little current, whereas a lower-impedance headphone will need only a little voltage but a lot of current.

Either can potentially be difficult to drive if the amplifier is voltage or current-limited, but with higher-impedance loads, more of the power is actually used at the headphone, which can actually make them more efficient, and thus "easier" to drive. But it depends on the amplifier portion of the soundcard.

In my own experience, while the PC350's are pretty weak for music purposes, they do just fine for gaming and positional audio. But for whatever reason, you'll see a lot of differing opinions on them, so best to try them out before buying, if possible. While I wouldn't try them with onboard audio, my Auzen Prelude has no trouble driving them, and the newer cards like the Xonar series and Forte should have an even easier time.

 

[leeperry]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FallenAngel /img/forum/go_quote.gif "S-Logic" only means that the drivers are angled, nothing more. Nothing about "pin point precision".

Uhm... lots of misconceptions above.

S-Logic means that the drivers are decentralized, not angled whatsoever