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xonar with headphone amp

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First post, by ratfink

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Been wondering about getting a newer soundcard as the most up to date thing I have is a Santa Cruz, and that's not installed anyway. My "reasonably up to date" PCs either use on board sound, or a vortex2 with scb-7 that's in there for reasons I forget. Anyway... I was wondering about a xonar, because creative cards seem too expensive and/or confusing [too many models and having been stung with one of those dell-sblives-that-arent-proper-sblive's on ebay I cba with modern creative gear for a few years yet] and xonars seem to get a good press. One I have in mind is this:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php … rodid=SC-011-AS

But I'm not sure what the deal is with a headphone amp. I'm using philips tv headphones with my main rig and it doesnt seem to need an amp...? Though I noticed that the volume control stops making things louder beyond halfway. That's plugging the phones into my sony 2.1 speakers phone jack [at least, its 2 tweeters and a woofer, as such things were once called I believe, so I think it's 2.1].

Any advice?

Reply 1 of 2, by Mau1wurf1977

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A good HiFi or headphone store should be able to tell you which headphones should be driven through an AMP.

How high end do you want to go? I can tell you what some of the PC audiophiles on OCAU (Overclockers Australia) do. They use SPDIF out to go into an external DAC (Digital Analogue Converter) with an AMP attached to it. That way you don't need a new soundcard. ANY card that has SPDIF will do the job.

That way you avoid all the PC noise and are isolated from any 50/60Hz/Grounging noise as well...

Before you get a new soundcard, upgrade the headset. It will make the bigger difference.

This is a link to a store in my area who specialize in selling headphones. Have a browse, read the FAQ and look at the recommended products: http://headphones.com.au/pbrowse?catID=1&sort=recommended

I recommend open headphones unless you have reasons to get a closed one. I like headphones from Alessandro, Audio Technica and Beyerdynamic.

Reply 2 of 2, by HunterZ

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I have a Xonar DX purely for the Dolby Digital Live 5.1 encoding for my Logitech Z-5500d speakers. I can't think of any other real reason why it would be better than on-board Realtek sound.

My speakers have a built-in headphone amp (and HRTF downmixer) that can be used when headphones are plugged into the control pod, so I wasn't even really aware that some sound cards had built-in amps.

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