good sound card for beyer dt770's?

[Ginger-Menace]

Hi All,

i have myself a pair of beyerdynamic dt 770 250ohm head phones, the current sound card i have is asus xonar dg, and i feel im not getting the best perfomance from the cans. i mainly use the pc for gaming and very rarely use it for music, is my current SC good enough or would i benifit from a better one?

GM

[shaithis]

I believe the Xonar DX has the best DAC of the Asus cards. The DG looks to have the worst DACs among the Asus cards. The other Asus cards seem to fall in-between.

The "X-Fi Titanium HD" has a very high-end DAC that is used in many hi-fi components and is better then the Xonar DX.

After that you start getting into pro audio solutions.....and large amounts of cash.

[GeorgeStorm]

I've personally just upgraded to an ASUS Xonar DX, and I'm very happy with that, although I can't really comment with how it would compare with other solutions.
I was recommended the ASUS since I've heard more people complain about drivers with the creative cards

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

It might worth getting an external DAC or one of those Tripath headphone amp and DAC jobbies off Ebay.

Having said that I use an external soundblaster card with my headphone amp and it really does make my Grado SR125 headphones sound nicer.

[Ginger-Menace]

i think i may have to do a bit of reading as i do not know what a DAC is lol really just looking for a simple upgrade

[Ginger-Menace]

and how would said DAC work? does it come with a component to go in the pc? would i use my existing sound card?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

and how would said DAC work? does it come with a component to go in the pc? would i use my existing sound card?

A DAC is a Digital to Analogue Converter. A sound card has a DAC but some of the external ones can end up being better. However,the main advantage of DAC and more headphone amp combination is that you have power to drive your headphones. Even a headphone amp alone plugged into your exisiting sound card should help IMHO.

and how would said DAC work? does it come with a component to go in the pc? would i use my existing sound card?

Some are USB and others will use your optical or electrical outputs from your motherboard.

Have a look at the HLLY and Little Dot DACs and headphone amps on Ebay - there are a few other companies too. They are Chinese are pretty decent for the money. There is loads of info about them on the internet.

[Ginger-Menace]

excuse my ignorance, but would this route be better than an internal sound card suck as the asus DX? like i said in my op i only use my pc for gaming, very rarely for music (maybe once every 3-4 moths)

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

excuse my ignorance, but would this route be better than an internal sound card suck as the asus DX? like i said in my op i only use my pc for gaming, very rarely for music (maybe once every 3-4 moths)

I am talking more for music where quality is more important - the DT770s are orientated towards music as are all the higher end headphones.

For gaming there should it no real world difference as games use compressed sound files anyway. Maybe you should look at the more gaming orientated headphones which have surround options built in or are more base heavy,ie, don't have a balanced sound.

However,you are using closed back headphones - open backed ones tend to have better stereo imaging and a more open sound.

[Ginger-Menace]

im really pleased with the headphones, cant really afford to get a new set though, looks like ill try and stick it out with my current asus dg, only problem is i have the upgrade itch, and thought a new sound card would solve it

[Ginger-Menace]

thank you for you help and advice though

[Cheapy]

The only reason to have a sound card is to get the virtual surrond sound like Dolby Headphone etc like cat said. The DG's amp is only rated up to 150 ohm's if I remember right so its probally having problems powering your headphones. I recently got the Beyer DT990 pro 250 ohm with the Fiio E9 and they do sound a lot better out of the Fiio E9 than the DG but it all depends on what you want to spend.

[krazy_olie]

I believe the Xonar DX has the best DAC of the Asus cards. The DG looks to have the worst DACs among the Asus cards. The other Asus cards seem to fall in-between.

The "X-Fi Titanium HD" has a very high-end DAC that is used in many hi-fi components and is better then the Xonar DX.

After that you start getting into pro audio solutions.....and large amounts of cash.

The d2/d2x and essence st/stx should be quite a step up.

DACs are a bit of a phenomenon in the hi-fi world atm.

As you are using it for gaming you will definitely want to be using dolby virtual headphone or cmss-3d. Getting these technologies to work as they should can be a right pain but it is definitely worth it! Even with the dg

Probably the d2/d2x would hit the value spot as it's mainly for gaming, but the essence is (supposedly) hi-fi class and would allow you to listen to music at the sort of quality you would associate with a separate cd player.

The Titanium HD is supposed to be quite good, even though Creative does seem to be heading down some sort of downward spiral. Creative Alchemy which allows you to use hardware sound for older directsound games in win7/vista does work quite well, don't know if Asus' implementation is quite as good.

[Ginger-Menace]

thank you guys, i will have a play around with the dg's settings i do have it on dolby headphone but will tinker further

[krazy_olie]

thank you guys, i will have a play around with the dg's settings i do have it on dolby headphone but will tinker further

cool, Just note that if not set up properly dolby headphone will likely make things sound thin and/or echoey. Every game is different to get it to work, sometimes you'll need to do weird things like set the output of the game to surround sound. Almost certainly a good idea to turn it off for music.
Also have a stab at using dolby virtual speaker, it's the same thing only designed to give surround sound on stereo speakers but I've read of people preferring it even with headphones.

[pooley]

Hi All,

i have myself a pair of beyerdynamic dt 770 250ohm head phones, the current sound card i have is asus xonar dg, and i feel im not getting the best perfomance from the cans. i mainly use the pc for gaming and very rarely use it for music, is my current SC good enough or would i benifit from a better one?

GM

If you main use is gaming then you already have the best card suited for your needs.

Those cans are wasted on just gaming but enjoy