Lauen

Link to images on OneDrive then: http://1drv.ms/1ulE7I0 and http://1drv.ms/1ulEeDF

and can I do anything about this?

I've been using two 2TB Seagate Barracuda drives now for a little over two years, and recently they have started not showing up when I start windows some times, they're slow to access some times, and sometimes when trying to watch videos (such as the newest Supernatural episode) it will play for about 10-15 seconds, then the image freezes, the audio goes back 10-15 seconds and then repeats the same thing over and over. with a frozen image. Is it the end of my harddrives? It's the first time I've had a harddrive die naturally on me, I think (lol)

little sister?

I was thinking the exact same thing but didn't know how to phrase it. Thank you based sheep

forgot about that

You just resurrected an ancient thread man

wat oh you mean ASIO? I don't think so? besides, unless you have a Pentium 2, it shouldn't be an issue. also the U7 isn't very good. I'm pretty sure it has a high output impedance, which makes it bad for low impedance headphones, such as your 558's. I would return it and get a Fiio E10K or a Schiit Fulla, or maybe even the Syba DAC (you can find it on ebay and amazon at least). there is also no guarantee that it will actually sound better than your onboard, in fact unless your onboard is broken, there is a good chance it sounds just as good as any "fancy soundcards" or external dac + amp setups. I can at least confirm the soundcard situation myself, I have in fact broken a pair of IEM's because I plugged them into my soundcard, and with the 10 ohm output impedance, it actually ruined the drivers. Keep in mind those were 16 ohm IEM's though, they are more fragile and don't handle as much power, but still.

Out of those, I'd get the Shure SRH440 and get the 840 pads. Sounds almost identical, and costs less. I don't like the M40x everyone keeps talking about because the pads are too small for me, they are almost on-ear, and the pads get really stiff over time, which the 840 pads don't, I've had them for 10 months or so now and they're still as soft as when I got them.

if my research is even remotely correct, the II is actually worse due to nearly 40 ohm output impedance, rendering it useless for headphones with less than 320 ohm impedance. an external DAC + amp setup is miles better. an example of this is Schiit Magni + Modi (or other things from Schiit) or the O2 and ODAC. or the Fiio E10K, or Syba DAC (found on ebay and amazon at least) or the new Schiit Fulla (which sadly has some issues with the first batch) out of all of those, I'd get the o2 and ODAC for the adjustable gain and extremely low output impedance.

you mean $33.70

IMO it's more about going from shit to good and then good to very good and then eventually getting the perfect headphone (for you). I didn't say it sounded better but doesn't it have slightly better output impedance? plus what you said, gain options and the possiblity to use pretty much any headphone with it.

wat

can I ask how different they sound? I looked up the amps used on your motherboard, and depending on gain, the output impedance is between like.. 1000 and 1 they are using a shitty amp, because the only motherboard manufacturer who understands amps is ASRock who uses the great TI NE5532 for their Purity Sound 2 solutions. here is the spec for yours: absolutely disgusting.

an amp alone won't do anything, you need a dac of some sort in front. If your onboard is genuinely broken, look at the Fiio E10K, it's a great USB dac and amp. If you want something better, Schiit Magni + Modi is nice, and the O2 and ODAC combo is excellent.

on innerfidelity. and it's legit.

If you're getting lower impedance / more efficient headphones, you wouldn't need a DAC nor an amp. and for the first good headphones, I see no need in spending more than 1-200 USD. A great starting point is the Sennheiser HD558 for open headphones, or the Beyerdynamic DT990 if you want stronger bass, however it usually comes in the 250 ohm variety, but it might not need an amp depending on how loud it actually gets on your motherboard. the Fidelio X2's mentioned are very good. Sennheiser HD600 or 650 are also very nice but may need an amp. For closed headphones, a great start for neutral ones are Shure SRH440 or 840, or the Sony MDR-7056 or v6. For more bassy ones, Audio-Technica ATH-M50's come to mind, but they are, for me, very uncomfortable, as the pads are basically on-ear and become very stiff over the course of a month or two. They also sound no more than okay unless they're at around $100 USD, if not there are much better options for the price. for even bassier sound there are the Beyerdynamic DT770 which come in 32, 80 and 250 ohm, they are all good but sound just a tiny bit different, the 250 supposedly sounds the best but not THAT much better, so then the 80 is nice cus it will probably work on all devices you have. the Custom One Pro's are also great. Another step up and we have the Mayflower Fostex T50RP V3, modded by Mayflower Electronics, which is a bass monster with very good sound in general, but requires an amp. If you need an amp or a dac for any reason, Schiit Magni + Modi is a nice solution, but even better is the O2 and ODAC solution, in NA sold by Mayflower and JDS Labs. in EU sold by Epiphany and Head 'n Hifi. Soundcards are generally bad due to their amps usually having >10 ohm output impedance which is bad for <80 ohm headphones due to the dampening factor, that headphones should have at least 8 times the impedance of the source. the O2 amp has <0,1 ohm output impedance, and good power so it should work with pretty much anything. for mic, You don't really need anything fancy if you're not gonna be recording videos or anything, so a ModMic is a great option. or a Blue Snowflake. If you are in need of something better, Blue Snowball, Yeti, Audio-Technica AT2020 and 2020+ are great. I think that covers most of what I wanted to say.

PC333D aren't that expensive, I'm sure you mean the 360 or 363D or something like that EDIT: wtf the 333d's cost so much more than I thought they did

I don't think so unless you're under water when you come out of the shower.

Well I've heard different statements about this. Some say (members here) that the Q/K 701 / 702 (very similar headphones) do need an amp to get to its full potential, but others say that an amp didn't make any difference. Unless your sound solution right now is muddy or broken, I don't think it really would make much of a difference. If it doesn't get loud enough for you on onboard, that's your cue to get an amp. EDIT: But by all means, if you wanna future-proof yourself, an o2 amp is a great choice.

I'd definitely go for the SE215, I've heard lots of good things about it. I haven't had the chance to try them out for myself though.

no the problem is that the initial indexing took forever and was so slow. It might be that there is 1.6 TB of stuff but it was still super slow imo.

so I installed Bittorrent Sync to try it out, I added the folders I wanted to share (music, TV shows and movies) which equals about 1.6TB of files. I was sitting around watching Avatar: The Last Airbender and the video started chopping up and stopping at random points, so I figured I should reboot since it had been like two weeks since I last rebooted, but it didn't even shut down, so I just flipped the switch on the psu, and then booted it normally and went back to watching Avatar, but just accessing the folders took several seconds, while it was almost instant before. I started getting worried about my harddrive dying (I'm pretty broke as I went back to school) and I also didn't wanna lose all my movies and such. But then I realized that Bittorrent Sync had been indexing files for a little while already so I had a look and it was still indexing, so I exited the program and turns out it was consuming all of the bandwith, and it now worked normally. Anyone had this issue before? It's pretty annoying, I couldn't even listen to music.

I've recently gotten into a band (Haken) which is prog metal, you got sorta heavy guitars and stuff, and they incorporate lots of jazz and funk elements, and for this music I like accurate, clear mids and an airy soundstage so Sennheisers are pretty nice for it, but if you want isolation, I really like my Shure SRH440's (with 840 pads) and stuff, but imo the CHC Silverado's don't REALLY work for it as they don't have as good mids, even though they are great for rock and I REALLY like them for a certain band (Ghost, aka Ghost B.C.) cus they just sound good with rock.

How about CHC Silverado's? http://www.amazon.com/California-Headphone-Co-Headphones-Detachable/dp/B009F4BV8C/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417488825&sr=8-1&keywords=chc+silverado still $50 on amazon, they sound good, fold, are good for use with phones and such, have detachable cables (but sadly a non-standard cable) and they're pretty damn comfy, but they get hot after a bit, and they may have a little high clamp force but you can stretch them out anyway. They are over-ear, despite the looks on the picture.