h264

You need an app to look at the website on your phone? Wish I'd known that, I'd been using mobile Chrome since ever. Controltalk is VERY apple proprietary as it would turn out. Better get the android one for android and the apple one for apple.

I guess if I had $500 I'd find a cheap AKG K702 (or K601 at >$230) on ebay and get an O2+ODAC. Or perhaps since you'll want plenty of bloom, a Beyerdynamic DT880 or DT990 250Ohm and a FiiO E10. You could do that one for under $270 frankly with the 990pro.

Not really a big enough difference for $100 more too. Either would be fine on fancy soundcards, though. Or cheap ones, for that matter, that have headphone amps.

I can't guarantee hd600s will get loud enough on that onboard. You'll have to be my guinea pig and find out.

they were sold together back in the day iirc Linus unboxed both at once: yup, I remembered right. The Xense is every bit as good now as it was then, so why not if you like the headset.

If your speakers are loud enough on your onboard and don't pop or hiss, don't bother.

blind leading the blind. Hilarious read, thanks.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Esmooth-ES-821EB-Ebony-Wood-On-Ear-Headphones-iPod-iPhone-HTC-Samsung-Blackberry-/400478360646?pt=US_Headphones&hash=item5d3e5ed446 these?

ohhhhhh, I see, you have IEMs. Well, yeah, uhhh, how do I say this.... That 117 db SNR on the headphone amp .... that's only for MAX volume. It's more like 75 at 50%. Which isn't bad, but your IEMs are REALLY sensitive at 119 db/mW, which would be why the noise floor is in your face. Unfortunately, I can't think of many amps off the top of my head that have low enough noise to really work well with IEMs like these. The Sansa Clip+ is a pmp I use with my Etymotics. No hiss there. The FiiO E10 will proabably still have some hiss, but not nearly as much. Maybe try something like an O2+ODAC with 1x/2.5x gain. Or high impedance headphones.

what gain setting is it on? It hisses like a maniac on high and extra high gain.

Sources have a maximum amount of power they can output into a given number of Ohms (and this varies greatly with the impedance). For instance, an Essence STX may be able to output 650mW into say 32 Ohm, but only 120mW into 300 Ohms. This will directly correlate into the SPL that you hear in the headphones. For comparison, here's the O2's maximum outputs at various impedances: another benefit of a low output impedance is that you get more power into higher impedances, since you waste less VOLTAGE at the output. Remember the Relationship at any given frequency is power = voltage^2/resistance EDIT: I really was not clear: It's a mathematical relationship between resistance, power, and voltage. you're saying that as resistance goes UP voltage goes DOWN, but given: p = v^2 / r, so, if R is 600 Ohms, and power is say .6 watts you get 18.92 volts vs if R is 32 you get 4.38 volts well, for instance, in the graph of the O2, if you ignore the THD measurement and just worry about the voltage measurements, you can see for the 33 Ohm vs the 150 and 600 Ohm it actually draws MORE MAX voltage and LESS MAX current (power) at a higher impedance. from nwavguy: so, no, sorry man. Your not quite right. They are both going to be affected by each other. Usually, though, as resistance drops voltage decreases and current increases, and thus the headphone will get louder at lower turns of the volume dial.

yeah, I see that now. I KNOW they need some sort of power though.

It's his job, man

It's actually easier to hear it than the 18Khz one since it got clipped back under the nyquist by youtube's compression. interesting.

Please also keep in mind the maximum power those headphone drivers can handle is 200mW. If you go over that amount to try to make them loud enough you WILL break the drivers and they'll start to sound terrible.

NP. I just happened to be around.

yup

yup

No beer for you, eh?

It's 5 years old and I've wised up a lot since then. It's also partially broke. It's a long story, I'll tell you later...

I'd use a FiiO E10 or just stick with your onboard for the HD558s. Yes. Sensitivity can matter as well if it's particularly low (below 90 SPL).

I can't count how many times I've tried to explain this, but I'll try another way: My problem with Linus's blanket "get a soundcard" recommendation is that it's much more complicated than just $ = performance with audio. For each individual there's a matter of what sort of headphones they'd like to plug into their fancy soundcards, and how much of a difference it will make. The main differences as soundcards get more expensive will be: 1. Features: DDL and DTS Connect for instance 2. VOLUME (especially the Essence STX and the Phoebus. This is the main reason people think their soundcards "sound" better) 3. Sound Quality (better or worse depending on the impedance match/mismatch, not so much the DAC these days. Amps may add distortion and slew, but it's mostly inaudible to the standard human ear and brain) People who want to purchase low impedance headphone don't need 2, and 3 may be better or worse depending on the damping factor (your headphones should be around 8x the output impedance of your amp, in this case, it'll be around 10 Ohms for the entire Xonar line. The higher the factor, the better (Well, there's another problem called "over damping" but it's not really an issue with so few VERY high impedance headphones running around). Note that means that the Beyerdynamics are perfect matches for the Xonar line, even the 80 Ohm version of the 770 is OK. I can personally attest my DT990pro sounds fine in my Essence STX. If all full sized headphones were 250 Ohms, Xonar cards would be fine, but unfortunately the 1,000 pound gorilla in the room is the iPod. Most headphones are in the 32-64 Ohm range these days so the kiddies don't return them for not getting loud enough in their iPods. It's fine to design headphones this way, as long as the amps follow their lead. Problem is, they're not, and it's going to be a real problem soon as headphones like the Beyerdynamic Custom One Pro are clearly the future as the maximum power of smartphones ( smartglasses and smartwatches?!?!) drops to save battery life. Also note, none of this matters an iota compared to the sound of your headphones. A Beyer will sound like a Beyer, over or under amped. period.

I wish you'd been in the board room the day they decided "let's release this"

six caps on a pci-e card. that's all. It's a "loopback" device that draws power from the pci-e bus and does nothing.

This. Stupidest thing ever. Period. How it ever existed is beyond me. It's called the HIS iClear. It was SUPPOSED to "clean dirty pci-e signals that degraded video card performance". I can assure you based on the protocols that govern basic digital signal error correction that this is in fact, total bunk.