Need New Sound Setup

[omaroma11]

Hello I currently have turtle beach x41 and I am looking for a massive upgrade. The headphones-headsets need to 

1 work on my pc and htc one Sweet phone btw

2 Have great sound stage for bf3

3 have decent bass

4 80percent gaming 20 percent music

5 Preferably white color but black is ok

6 with my headphone I need a sound card that has dolby digital live for bf3

7 whole setup needs to be under 350 I dont mind buying used stuff

 

Thank you for your time

[prolemur]

Asus Xonar DX - Sound Card - $90

http://us.ncix.com/products/?usaffiliateid=1000031504&sku=29395&vpn=XONAR%20DX&manufacture=ASUS

 

Sennheiser HD 598 - Headphones - $300

http://www.amazon.ca/Sennheiser-HD-598-Audiophile-Headphones/dp/B0042A8CW2/ref=sr_1_9?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1367195521&sr=1-9&keywords=sennheiser+headphones

[omaroma11]

is the asus dx really a good sound card

And what about the hd 555 and the akg q701

[prolemur]

All Asus sound cards are very good for their price and scale relatively linearly up to this card (best price:performance imo)

The HD 555/558 are not noticeably different - paraphrasing linus & slick.

[ryan9298b2]

I wouldn't recommend the Asus DX, definitely get a higher end card that actually has a headphone amp!  The HD 555/558 have 50 ohm impedance that will destroy the DX.

 

A nice sound card would be either of these and would match the 555/558 very well and will allow you to upgrade to studio quality headphones if you ever come across the need!

 

ASUS Xonar STX Audiophile Grade Soundcard

http://www.amazon.com/Asus-Sound-Essence-Headphone-Audiophiles/dp/B005OAP3WG/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1367210292&sr=8-3&keywords=Xonar+STX

 

ASUS ROG Xonar Pheobus 

http://us.ncix.com/products/?sku=71120&vpn=Xonar%20Phoebus&manufacture=ASUS

 

Both have an aggressive headphone amp!

[NewKID]

I wouldn't recommend the Asus DX, definitely get a higher end card that actually has a headphone amp!  The HD 555/558 have 50 ohm impedance that will destroy the DX.

 

A nice sound card would be either of these and would match the 555/558 very well and will allow you to upgrade to studio quality headphones if you ever come across the need!

 

ASUS Xonar STX Audiophile Grade Soundcard

http://www.amazon.com/Asus-Sound-Essence-Headphone-Audiophiles/dp/B005OAP3WG/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1367210292&sr=8-3&keywords=Xonar+STX

 

ASUS ROG Xonar Pheobus 

http://us.ncix.com/products/?sku=71120&vpn=Xonar%20Phoebus&manufacture=ASUS

 

Both have an aggressive headphone amp!

no... stop it

[t0wer]

I'd second the HD598 recommendation and also throw out a ad700 and dt880 recommendation too.

[h264]

>Need New Sound Setup

 

Did you NEED a new sound setup or do you just want one?  What do you hope to get out of it that your current headset doesn't provide?  It sounds like you really want to play BF3 with the surround sound processing, not so much music.  Is BF3 special in that it does not process surround sound through Dolby Headphone or an equivalent?  Unless I missed something and they're broken already.

 

I'd believe the Xonar DG(X) has Dolby headphone and should be able to do surround sound.  However, most of the games I play process surround sound in software without me having to do anything at all.

 

Headphones with a wire would sound much better though.

[NewKID]

http://www.amazon.com/Beyerdynamic-DT-770-Pro-Studio-Headphones-Limited/dp/B008POFOHM/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1367295353&sr=1-2&keywords=dt770

 

a sound card isnt necessary but a Xonar DG wouldnt hurt. you have isolation, sound stage and sound quality all in one. this also isnt hard to drive, so itd be good for your phone. you may want to change the pads. seems like a common adjustment as they are pleather.

 

HD 555/558 isnt bad but the isolation isnt as great as the DT770. 

[h264]

I wouldn't recommend the Asus DX, definitely get a higher end card that actually has a headphone amp!  The HD 555/558 have 50 ohm impedance that will destroy the DX.

 

A nice sound card would be either of these and would match the 555/558 very well and will allow you to upgrade to studio quality headphones if you ever come across the need!

 

ASUS Xonar STX Audiophile Grade Soundcard

http://www.amazon.com/Asus-Sound-Essence-Headphone-Audiophiles/dp/B005OAP3WG/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1367210292&sr=8-3&keywords=Xonar+STX

 

ASUS ROG Xonar Pheobus 

http://us.ncix.com/products/?sku=71120&vpn=Xonar%20Phoebus&manufacture=ASUS

 

Both have an aggressive headphone amp!

 

I'm sorry Ryan, but I'm going to have to correct you on this topic.  The notion of the impedance of a headphone vs the power delivered by an amplifier is an incomplete representation of a headphone's sound pressure at any given volume percentage.  The FULL explanation is as such:

 

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Headphone Sensitivity – In detail

The other factor that will determine how loud your headphones get with any given amp is the sensitivity, or the amount of decibels output by the headphone drivers in a given amount of milliwatts (db/mW or more commonly SPL).  The higher that ratio, the quicker the headphones will get louder when a load is applied to the drivers.  This is where the music that you listen to can make a real difference.  If the range of volumes in your favourite audio track varies by a lot, you’ll lose a lot if you can’t crank the volume up high enough to hear the quiet parts.  Even headphones with low impedance, like the Hifiman He-500s can be hard to drive if their sensitivity is very low (89 db/mW in this case).

 

The Sennheiser 558's official specs are:

• Sound pressure level (SPL): 112 dB
• Impedance: 50 Ohm

The COMBINATION of the two will determine how hard any headphone is to drive.  This is a high sensitivity, low impedance headphone, especially compared to higher end models like the HD800 (300 Ohms and 102 SPL).  Keep in mind decibels are a logarithmic scale so every decibel of SPL is another 10x harder to drive at the same impedance.  They'll be driven to ear-shattering levels at 50% (from my personal experience! your tolerance to hearing damage might be more than mine) of their volume at the lowest gain.

 

Also the output impedance is 10 Ohms on both cards you listed, which is another problem for any headphone without at LEAST an 80 Ohm impedance. Aggressive amps, indeed!  They really should only be used with the likes of the hd600/650/800 and Beyerdynamics headphones.

 

tl;dr: All the soundcards you listed are not only overkill, in the case of the 555/558s, they'll actually sound worse thanks to the 10 Ohm output impedance on those cards!