h264

If you get an external DAC you won't need your onboard at all, but you will still need an external headphone amp. You could definitely hook an external amp like the O2 to your onboard, however.

Just making sure. yeah, I agree.

well for HD600s, only because I just got a pair of HD650s and know how hard they are to drive, I would recommend going with the O2+ODAC if you can afford it. FiiO E10 would be nice, but it's not gonna cut it. His onboard isn't doing it either, obviously. I KNOW for a fact an O2 will drive a 650 with general ease. get one with the 1x/2.5x gain option if you get it with an ODAC would be my other recommendation. EDIT: tl;dr: get either an O2 and attach it to your line out or something similairly as powerful, or get the O2+ODAC combo since it sounds like you want that anyways.

oh, so you have a Realtek ALC892 (with a fancy shield and name) connected to HD 600s? Does it get loud enough for your tastes?

http://www.amazon.com/Cable-Adapter-Female-6-3mm-3-5mm/dp/B008JGWY2Y/ get a pigtail adapter like this one, it should reduce the chances of doing that again.

what do you have now?

The O2 was created to prove an amp could be designed on a scope, measure to nwavguy's standards, be audibly transparent, and sound subjectively good. Maybe something can best it at measured performance, but at that point you probably can't tell the difference. At least as headphones go.

default, highest bit depth and sampling rate possible, and lowest gain that gets loud enough for you.

All I want is THIS Linus back. I miss watching him come out of the box, too...

THAT i would agree with, but you said specifically in your video that "what Op-Amps basically do is they can color the sound". Saying "Changing Op-Amps colors the sound", I would accept, but you create the notion they perform a function in an amplifier they in fact, do not. I know you think I'm pulling hairs, but that's a pretty important concept. >I would just get a better card or DAC. "Op amp rolling" is rarely useful (even though many people think it is, they most often just experience placebo effects), and in the particular case of the Xonar DS, the performance is already bottlenecked by the WM8776 codec chip with the stock op amp. Sure is a different board than in 2009, that's for sure. I would agree, with only 2 pages in the thread and THIS post, it's not all that popular. >LME 49720 surprisingly good on LPF section, although running a bit hot – sound improves when it’s hot actually rather then when it’s cool. I think no oscillation there – need to confirm with my scope later. And the final stage is still my favorite, AD825. Yeah, this is more like the sort of thing you'd be swapping op-amps in. The Essence One. He's even measuring it too, how prudent. See, my point was, these guys aren't really buying the soundcard, they're buying the op-amps to PUT INTO the soundcard. Yeah, I get it, people will screw with just about anything given the chance, and post it on the Internet. Oh I don't. I'm entirely OK with both your personal preferences about swapping op-amps and your business's need to cover Asus's feature list. All of that is perfectly fine. Please just keep in mind op-amps aren't meant to "color" sound. they are used in an amplifier to increase the signal voltage, hopefully with less distortion. That's all I really hope to convey. Now that's another one of those fool's errands: fighting with Linus on his own forum board :rolleyes:.

Linus's Phoebus Review at 3m:51s Dear Linus, In an effort to increase the accuracy of your review videos, as you got Slick to robotically pledge to us in that now infamous apology video, I'm writing this short note to you to try to educate both you AND the rest of the community about what EXACTLY an Op-Amp is. First things first, a definition. An Op-Amp is short for operational-amplifier, which as it's name implies, *BASICALLY* amplifies signals. It's original use was in old analog computers (old like the vacuum tube days) in order to perform calculations without more modern circuits. In modern times, it's one of the more important pieces of a modern solid-state amplifier. However, it is not a NECESSARY component of these devices as amplification can be implemented with only MOSFETs and JFETs as seen in amps like the Schiit Magni, mind you with a considerable increase in power requirements. It's very important to state that operational amplifiers, ideally, do NOT "color" sound unless they are poorly designed or poorly implemented in an analog amplifier circuit. Which is important in the notion that swapping them out WILL probably create a different result from the original op-amp, not because the new op-amp is "better" or because this is an "upgrade", but because an amplifier's circuit is usually designed around the properties of its Op-Amps. Other non-ideal deficiencies can include high slew rates, high output impedances, and limited gain, all of which must be dealt with by the TOTALITY of the circuitry used to create the amplifier. Fancy parts like gold caps and high-output op-amps are only as good as the board they are printed on and the specific parts they are connected to (and how they are connected and grounded!). I think it suffices to say swapping them is a fool's errand, something that I think Asus may have finally recognized not in principal but in the fact nobody really cared about that feature (including you). While I understand your point some people might like to screw with their own stuff as a hobby -- and I'm all for silly hobbies -- I think those people aren't really buying soundcards. Just saying. Sincerely, h264 p.s: Here's a very nice presentation on the basics, if you have time to watch: The Op-Amp article on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Op-amp NwavGuy's Op-Amp explanation: http://nwavguy.blogspot.com/2011/08/op-amps-myths-facts.html

your audio will get louder. bout it.

Well, the problem with that is 90% of DACs, even the crummiest of the crummy, made in the last 5 years are above the level of audible transparency. Now the amps, I'll buy that notion. Especially if you have low impedance headphones, and most of us do, you're getting inundated with products that were made for yesterday's headphones. Either way, your right, monetarily speaking it makes little sense to buy these very expensive soundcards if you don't already have a stable of headphones that really need that amount of power. Most of which aren't even made anymore. I still remember Lenny Loosejocks: "Aw shucks! the ute's buggered!". Now THAT was an OLD flash game. wait, what were we talking about again?

That's probably cause it's really about endless suffering...

Well, there's the "of course it will", with no explanation "bandwagon" and there's the "Read the FAQ" with no explanation "bandwagon". Believe whoever you like. I had to learn the hard way, and so can you.

well, mine looks pretty wacky due to that 1/4" jack, but otherwise the new front panel I got is pretty sweet looking: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/6771-review-of-the-objective-2-odac-combo-desktop-version-by-mayflower-electronics/

you need the extra room for that 1/4" jack. It's a standard variant that NwavGuy defined with the O2's original articles.

LAME 2.0+ with you favorite audio player that supports transcoding. this. 320kbps CBR or V0 is the setting you want (~96% exact waveform and ~93% exact waveform respectively)

agreed. Linus's video really misses the point about open vs closed headphones. 2 and 3 are added.

Exactly Ha! "90% of the time, you don't need a soundcard" resulted in my signature quote when I first started posting on this board. So I shy away from being so blunt. However, there ARE points to having an Essence STX. Very few points, like Surround sound visualization and aesthetics, or the 5 headphones it can drive well that cost many times this card's price. By the feature bill, the Phoebus is a better soundcard, honestly. No better a headphone amp, however

yeah, I know. np man. The main issue is I'd have to talk about vinyl rips, at which point I get to a touchy area since the best place to get those is .... well, you know.

Keep in mind this is a FREQUENTLY asked questions thread. Basically that means it deals in the questions FREQUENTLY presented in posts by curious forum members in order to reduce the number of threads asking the same question. While I appreciate your input, NOBODY has started a thread asking what sort of source technology they should be buying, and I've only seen one thread with anyone asking about vinyl playback. None have asked about ripping vinyl. Probably because it's really not all that important to 99% of people and nobody cares how "loudened" their track is. The music industry does this because people want it after all. >Remember the file type can be converted Only going to come out right in a conversion if it's lossless I'd be OK with general guidance, since asking "what should I get?" is a valid question. However, I'd rather it be a more common question than this. If he'd like to make a vinyl guide, well, that's up to him.

My laptop has a trss jack on it instead of a headphone and mic jack. I think that's the only sort of place you'd find it. Other than that, you'd just use an adapter.

Nuforce is much worse than Schiit's spotty record, they've had a long tradition of products that weren't built properly or didn't perform to spec. NwavGuy isn't even the only one to question them, a Stereophile review was even bad for them.