[asdfTT123]

Hey guys,

I just got my Essence STX and I just started playing around with it with my ATH-AD700s. I was wondering what kind of settings you guys are using your cards with. Are you guys using it on normal music and headphone settings? On normal headphone settings with Dolby Headphones enabled with DH-3 (largest room) I personally find there's too much muffled sound that makes vocals sound awful and adds too much of a "warm" ambiance. Do you enable Dolby Headphones and if so what settings are you using? Also, do you guys recommend any settings in particular that would go well with my AD700's? I listen to an extremely wide range of music. Thanks!

 

[leeperry]

hifi mode and the middle impedance setting is all you need IMO.

 

[taso89]

Heavens, no. Dolby Headphone sounds like my music is coming from a tin can. I prefer to keep the sound unfiltered and run Foobar through ASIO for bit-perfect playback, leave all the work to the headphone amp and DAC for music =]

 

[ROBSCIX]

Quote:

Originally Posted by asdfTT123 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hey guys, I just got my Essence STX and I just started playing around with it with my ATH-AD700s. I was wondering what kind of settings you guys are using your cards with. Are you guys using it on normal music and headphone settings? On normal headphone settings with Dolby Headphones enabled with DH-3 (largest room) I personally find there's too much muffled sound that makes vocals sound awful and adds too much of a "warm" ambiance. Do you enable Dolby Headphones and if so what settings are you using? Also, do you guys recommend any settings in particular that would go well with my AD700's? I listen to an extremely wide range of music. Thanks!

People have very different setups and tastes. Many will used Dolby Headphone and many will not. Some like their music unprocessed and others will add reverb, EQ..etc..
Test out all the settings so you know what each one is capable of then apply as much or as little processing as you like.

 

[leeperry]

Quote:

Originally Posted by taso89 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Dolby Headphone sounds like my music is coming from a tin can.

DH is meant to downmix 5.1 to stereo anyway, that's all...and even that, it does it very poorly(way too hollow). marketing at its best!

if the OP wants a fake surround sound, SRS Audio Sandbox has an option to give a so called 3D sound on headphones from a stereo source

 

[chinesekiwi]

Depends on what it is. Dolby Headphone with DVD's that have Dolby Surround (i.e. AC3 data) with Dolby Headphone makes for a much more immersive experience, particularly with say concerts or stand-up comedy, like you part of the crowd.

For music, not so much.
It doesn't have the same immersiveness for movies/DVD's that don't have Dolby Surround.