Sound card or nah for AD-900x's

[TumbleButt]

Wut nao Mistah Spwinkulz?

[SSL]

Different dac and amps won't give the same margin of differences as different headphones, and certainly not night and day (well, unless the one compared to is severely lacking in voltage or current, giving crackling sounds and distorting north and south). 

 

That's my main assertion; the idea that an inferior headphone can sound better than a superior headphone just from the source is pretty laughable.

 

Soon, there will be amp measurements available on innerfidelity. The few preliminarious that Tyll has posted show very little deviation in FR among those sampled (including the O2), and as we all know FR is a pretty big determinant since it also provides information about the time domain. So far the main differences are in distortion, noise, and crosstalk. Hopefully he'll add more variables as time goes on, but these are already pretty comprehensive.

 

http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/working-amp-measurements

[Agent181]

Hai I'm an audiophile and I'm just gonna enjoy this thread and read

[Oktyabr]

It doesn't even take money to solve the equation...  just a bit of logic.  "Cleaner signal"...  how clean is clean?  "Better amplification"...  OH, so THAT'S why it's called a "betterfier"!!!  I get it now!  MOAR MUNNEEZ EQUALZ MOAR BETTERFIER!!!   :rolleyes: 

A perfect... BIT PERFECT... signal can be no more than 100% accurate!  That's it!  If a $100 DAC already does the conversion with damn close to 100% *bit perfect* accuracy how much better will a $1000 DAC sound?  100% is as good as it gets, folks.  

An amplifier strives to do one thing and one thing only.  Take a signal and make it louder while adding as little distortion as possible.  A perfect amplifier would add zero distortion of any kind.  If a $100 amplifier can make a signal louder without hardly adding any distortion at all how much better will a $1000 amplifier sound?  Remember, zero distortion is the target!

Some will note that I said "damn close to 100%" and "without hardly adding any distortion" (very close to perfect).  That's because in reality it's arguable that a perfect DAC and perfect amp don't actually exist.  But they get so damn close that for 99.99999% of the listeners, they won't hear the difference.  In other words... close enough.  This is true regardless of how much one costs.  SO close in fact, that the variations between two different people's hearing (no one hears exactly like someone else) will likely be a bigger factor than the accuracy of the hardware involved.

In conclusion, it's easy to buy something that truly sucks in a measurable way.  But most of these manufacturers either correct their product or go broke.  The rest?  There is only so close to 100% that you can get and you can never go over it. 

[BoredErica]

 

No, I'm an audiophile, and you are a fucking idiot. Have you ever hooked headphones up to a $1000+ integrated amplifier being fed by a good DAC or a good CD/SACD player? I don't think you have, or you wouldn't be talking smack. You probably have absolute pleb hardware and have never touched any audio hardware outside of a $120 boombox and you don't know your ass from your elbow in audio.

 

I speak from experience. Something you don't seem to have any of. 

Some of us have tried multiple expensive headphones and/or own one. We just don't feel the need to qualify every post we make with 'I know what I'm talking about cuz' I spend a lot of money'. Often I find it's actually the exact opposite, funnily enough. Any kid working a part time job can make enough for a kilobuck amp, if they are stupid enough to get one. Why are there expensive dac/amps? For morons with more money than sense.

 

It doesn't even take money to solve the equation...  just a bit of logic.  "Cleaner signal"...  how clean is clean?

They used Mr. Clean.

[IIILvLZeroIII]

Thanks guys I want to hear foot steps as clear as posible

[IIILvLZeroIII]

I didn't get my headphone yet and I decided to get the adg1 which is close to the 900x I think I hear on board sucks for high end headphones

[IIILvLZeroIII]

You're hearing a lot of "noise" (static, humming, buzzing, pops, etc) from the electromagnetic interference (EMI) as a result of the audio circuitry being located on the motherboard. A motherboard has a lot of electrical signals flowing through it, which will create noise interference with onboard audio. You will only notice this when you're using sensitive high-quality headphones like Audio Technica AD-900x's, because crappier sound hardware doesn't have the sound quality and clarity to reveal this background EMI noise.

The solution to this is to get a sound card. There are many different options out there, such as internal PCIe sound cards, or external USB sound cards. Personally, I prefer using an audiophile-quality DAC, like the Fiio E10 (link)

Use this as your sound output device, and you'll increase sound quality (and get rid of the EMI noise that bothers you).

If you use your computer for gaming, and want surround sound, get Razer Surround software. It's a software driver for audio that basically emulates 7.1-channel surround sound in 2.0-channel stereo headphones.

Tried it has a .5 delay so it's not use full

[SSL]

Tried it has a .5 delay so it's not use full

 

Not sure if that's normal as I don't bother with such software, others here may have suggestions. If not, you're looking at a sound-card with virtual surround.

 

If you want to save money on the headphone, I'd suggest the AD900X and Modmic, which should come to less than the ADG1. You can cut the price even more by going with the AD700X which is pretty similar to the 900X.

[Mistersprinkles]

Tried it has a .5 delay so it's not use full

 

I haven't gamed with my UD 301 but my rPAC doesn't seem to have any delay for gaming. Might want to look into one of those OP.

 

Anyways I'm done arguing. I said some things that I regret. I still disagree with you guys.

 

Those are nice LCD 3's. If you own those you are a lucky guy. If they are plugged into that garbage phone though, you're nuts.

[IIILvLZeroIII]

I'm Canada the 900x cost more than the adg1 and the adg1 are the around the same as the 700x

[Fred Castellum]

Dang guys were audio enthusiasts, we should share our experiences and our knowledge on audio gear, not bicker amongst ourselves on what's right or wrong, if you want to show someone what's "correct" then make a effort to persuade with technical facts, instead of throwing curse words when you perceive something someone said to be wrong.

[IIILvLZeroIII]

Well I am just going with a different mobo that has better sound

[xtroria]

Dang guys were audio enthusiasts, we should share our experiences and our knowledge on audio gear, not bicker amongst ourselves on what's right or wrong, if you want to show someone what's "correct" then make a effort to persuade with technical facts, instead of throwing curse words when you perceive something someone said to be wrong.

Hey, if people tell me I'm closed minded for putting attention to the numbers and the science I'll curse at them i dont care

[creatip123]

Thanks guys I want to hear foot steps as clear as posible

 

I've chatted with some fps players I found online. They say competitive players (not necessarily on competitions, but those who played very seriously) changed the soundpack of the game. They replaced the sound files to something of blank sounds or very low volume sounds, except the footsteps. The result, in game you almost don't have any sounds except for footsteps. 

 

As to how/the procedure, I don't really know. 

[BoredErica]

I've chatted with some fps players I found online. They say competitive players (not necessarily on competitions, but those who played very seriously) changed the soundpack of the game. They replaced the sound files to something of blank sounds or very low volume sounds, except the footsteps. The result, in game you almost don't have any sounds except for footsteps. 

 

As to how/the procedure, I don't really know. 

I consider that cheating...

 

Dang guys were audio enthusiasts, we should share our experiences and our knowledge on audio gear, not bicker amongst ourselves on what's right or wrong, if you want to show someone what's "correct" then make a effort to persuade with technical facts, instead of throwing curse words when you perceive something someone said to be wrong.

What you do when you have no technical explanations to begin with is to resort to attacks.

[creatip123]

That's my main assertion; the idea that an inferior headphone can sound better than a superior headphone just from the source is pretty laughable.

 

 

What I concluded from some other similar topics is that people tend to get 'bad amp' and 'impotent amp' mixed up. The line between them is kinda blurry tho. 

 

I'll just put it here for the others:

 

- Bad amp will sound bad, no matter what's plugged into it. 

- Impotent (but good) amp will sound good on easy to drive headphones, but bad with harder to drive headphones, because they're lacking the juices needed (hence, impotent). So it's case per case.

 

For example, the Fiio E6 is a good amp, but it's impotent when plugged to the HE400 (and the likes). That small battery just wave its white flag when the need of a big and stable current is demanded.

 

Most onboard and (cheap) soundcards I've tried are good, but kinda impotent. Assuming there are no problems with statics, EMI, noise floors, etc, they do sound good. But yeah, plugged with HE400, most of them gave up. 

 

I haven't gamed with my UD 301 but my rPAC doesn't seem to have any delay for gaming. Might want to look into one of those OP.

 

Anyways I'm done arguing. I said some things that I regret. I still disagree with you guys.

 

Those are nice LCD 3's. If you own those you are a lucky guy. If they are plugged into that garbage phone though, you're nuts.

 

Nah, none of us idiots here own that level of headphones. All we could do is just drool at guys who own them, like wizzie...

[SSL]

I've chatted with some fps players I found online. They say competitive players (not necessarily on competitions, but those who played very seriously) changed the soundpack of the game. They replaced the sound files to something of blank sounds or very low volume sounds, except the footsteps. The result, in game you almost don't have any sounds except for footsteps. 

 

As to how/the procedure, I don't really know. 

 

Might as well just call FPS games CFL games instead - for "competitive footstep listening".

[creatip123]

Might as well just call FPS games CFL games instead - for "competitive footstep listening".

 

Some people take FPS games waaaayyyy too seriously. I mean playing games are supposed to be fun, not depressing, but yeah....

 

Asus backed it up one step further with their 'sonic radar'

 

 

The red splotch indicates sounds and footsteps approaching....

[xtroria]

Some people take FPS games waaaayyyy too seriously. I mean playing games are supposed to be fun, not depressing, but yeah....

Asus backed it up one step further with their 'sonic radar'

The red splotch indicates sounds and footsteps approaching....

HD800 with mediocore aim wont make you a pro, that's for sure. But for some games that have good positional audio like csgo, it does help you time when to camp