What price headphones would I need to justify owning an Asus Xonar Essence STX?

[GuruMeditationError]

I've got an Asus Xonar Essence STX in my PC but I'm not sure I'm getting the value from it, because I don't have audiophile class headphones.

I'm wondering what's the least I could spend on headphones to start getting the value from the Xonar?

Because I'm thinking of selling it to help pay for a Creative SoundBlasterX ZxR for its online gaming features.

 

What kind of price am I looking at for headphones that make owning the Essence STX worthwhile? 

 

 

[Princess Luna]

All these sounds cards only makes sense for audio production workflows, majority of high end motherboards have perfectly good audio processing units even for audiophiles to rejoice.

 

Now if you do want that barely perception audio higher quality at 24bits at 192000hz and what not... something like a Sennheiser HD660S or HD700

[GuruMeditationError]

3 minutes ago, Princess Luna said:

All these sounds cards only makes sense for audio production workflows, majority of high end motherboards have perfectly good audio processing units even for audiophiles to rejoice.

 

Now if you do want that barely perception audio higher quality at 24bits at 192000hz and what not... something like a Sennheiser HD660S or HD700

Wow, those are pretty pricey; not much of a value proposition.

I'm interested in the Creative SoundBlasterX ZxR for the online chat functionality and the volume control, but probably going to try out the Xonar online first, to get an idea of how it performs. 

[Princess Luna]

Just now, GuruMeditationError said:

not much of a value proposition.

Not to sound like a deal breaker but there's nothing of "value proposition" on the whole audiophile proposition.

 

1 minute ago, GuruMeditationError said:

for the online chat functionality and the volume control,

Are you sure your onboard doesn't have these functionalities to a satisfactory degree? what motherboard do you own?

 

1 minute ago, GuruMeditationError said:

but probably going to try out the Xonar online first, to get an idea of how it performs. 

It won't hurt, to just give it a go, maybe it'll suit your taste just as well as the other one would.

 

all in all if you don't mind not going for the best, there are many amazing value alternatives like Kingston HyperX Cloud and Cloud Alpha headset line ups.

[GuruMeditationError]

1 minute ago, Princess Luna said:

Not to sound like a deal breaker but there's nothing of "value proposition" on the whole audiophile proposition.

I know. The only thing I really spend money for is multichannel audio discs like SACD's and DVD-A's
 

1 minute ago, Princess Luna said:

Are you sure your onboard doesn't have these functionalities to a satisfactory degree? what motherboard do you own?

 

It won't hurt, to just give it a go, maybe it'll suit your taste just as well as the other one would.

I'm not (sure that my onboard audio doesn't have it) I was going to see if I could find that out next.
Also, yeah, I'd probably be happy sticking with the Xonar but I just really want the ability to be able to alter the volume without having to alt-tab out of the games.

 

My Motherboard's not a gaming board, it's the z97-WS. I've not looked at the utilities yet, I've only just built the rig and it involved re-organising my room a bit too so I'm getting it all done slowly but surely a bit at a time.

1 minute ago, Princess Luna said:

all in all if you don't mind not going for the best, there are many amazing value alternatives like Kingston HyperX Cloud and Cloud Alpha headset line ups.

Thanks for the recommendations, I'll take a look at those. I'm very value minded but don't have a head for budgets at all, which is a bit of a strange mix; I don't mind the value alternatives, as long as they're not super-cheap and crappy. At the moment I've got a Plantronics GameCom Commander headset that I'm going to wear out before I think about upgrading; I think it should do for a while.