What soundcard to buy

[lachyman]

Hey guys,

As I had a chance today to see the drastic diffirences between headphones and having and not having a souncard, I decided to get a new headset this Christmas (Sennheiser PC360) and a souncard soon after that. I can spend around €100, it has to be PCI-e and be somewhat red/black themed. It will be mainly for gaming, but also music from time to time.

I have these options:

Asus Xonar Phoebus - €100

Creative Sound Blaster Z - €77

Creative Sound Blaster Recon3D Fatal1ty Proffesional - €90

Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium HD - €126

I'm looking for the best positional accuracy but also a lot better audio for music.

[megadarkwood]

Fiio e10

 

Heard good things about it

[Freaky_spider]

dont buy one, its a waste, get better headPHONE!!!!! not a headset, they suck, buy a seperate mic

 

best thing to do, EVAR!

[SirReallySam]

Whatever is cheapest

[lachyman]

dont buy one, its a waste, get better headPHONE!!!!! not set, they suck, buy a seperate mic

best thing to do, EVAR!

Not possible and even cheaper here, I need a good mic and modmic doesn't sell here, apart from that PC360 is just HD558 with a boom mic, the price is the same. Also I don't want another box on my table, the Fiio E10 isn't available here.

[megadarkwood]

Not possible and even cheaper here, I need a good mic and modmic doesn't sell here, apart from that PC360 is just HD558 with a boom mic. Also I don't want another box on my table, the Fiio E10 isn't available here.

Zalman clip on, or Thermaltake Chao Echo

[MayflowerElectronics]

Not possible and even cheaper here, I need a good mic and modmic doesn't sell here, apart from that PC360 is just HD558 with a boom mic. Also I don't want another box on my table, the Fiio E10 isn't available here.

 

Then you don't need a sound card, or an upgrade.

[Freaky_spider]

Not possible and even cheaper here, I need a good mic and modmic doesn't sell here, apart from that PC360 is just HD558 with a boom mic. Also I don't want another box on my table, the Fiio E10 isn't available here.

still, i would suggest looking at a headphone with a clip-on mic, you will have a) a better mic  b) a better audio experience that isnt 'gaming' optimzed

 

also please DONT buy a sound card, they only help if you have some REALLY good cans... sorry but HD558 isnt in that category....

[Emperor_Piehead]

I would go with what mayflower said. The PC360's aren't really high enough impedance to need a sound card anyways.

[lachyman]

Then you don't need a sound card, or an upgrade.

Can you please explain? I am a competitive gamer who is going to spend €150 on his headphones, so I want to have a soundcard as well, it's a day and night diffirence for me, I tried the Creative headset with sound card installed in it, when I turned it on I heard what I always wanted to, so I am set. Now I have Roccat Kulo with onboard audio so you can imagine what I have to get over every day.

[lachyman]

I would go with what mayflower said. The PC360's aren't really high enough impedance to need a sound card anyways.

It made a huge diffirence with 29Oohm headset, PC360 is 50ohm.

[EmoRarity]

Don't need a sound card or amp for those headphones. Save your cash for something useful. 

[Lauen]

[RANT]

 

Don't bother getting a soundcard unless the onboard is broken somehow and you don't want external stuff, and whatever you've heard, the Phoebus isn't gaming optimized. in fact, from what I've heard (sort of experienced) it's worse having it compared to just onboard. reasons:

 

A lot of people have issues with the mic circuits on it, it gets interference from the graphics card, resulting in noises going through the mic. example: you're playing, say Minecraft, and talking to friends on skype. They will hear a high pitched noise, which is directly conncted to how many FPS you have, the higher FPS, the higher pitch noise. As far as I know, RMA-ing doesn't help unless you get a new card that magically doesn't have this interference. 

 

It's overpriced. by a lot. it's not really worth half of it, to be honest. The only noticeable difference in sound from onboard is how loud it can get, due to it being capable of pushing 600 ohm headphones. 

 

If you're getting it because they claim better positional audio, that's bullshit. They have virtual surround, powered by Dolby. if you want virtual surround, installing Razer Surround will do exactly what you want it to do, for free. or you could just leave it to the game itself, which would be the simplest and best way of doing it. 

 

 

Now, you might see in my sig, that I have a soundcard in my rig. This is from before I even knew that there existed such as my M50s and the Fiio E10 (which I don't own because it's over double the price here in Norway, ruining the price/"performance" ratio), and the reason I got is becasue my old DX had the same microphone issues as the Phoebus, and they have the same audio processor, if I remember correctly. 

[ShearMe]

Lol at all the people saying get separate headphones and mic. I know that's what we usually recommend around here, but the PC360 is, like, the one exception.

[MayflowerElectronics]

Lol at all the people saying get separate headphones and mic. I know that's what we usually recommend around here, but the PC360 is, like, the one exception.

 

He's not in the states, so normally it's pretty expensive isn't it?

[ShearMe]

He's not in the states, so normally it's pretty expensive isn't it?

But he already owns it.

[MayflowerElectronics]

But he already owns it.

 

[ShearMe]

Wat.jpg

[MayflowerElectronics]

Wat.jpg

 

It's the letter O (as in Oh I didn't know he had them already) with a cute octopi in it.

[ShearMe]

Actually, re-reading the thread, it does look like OP doesn't own them yet. However, he said they'rethe same price as HD 558 + boom mic, so I assume it's reasonable.

[h264]

see the drastic diffirences

 

[Turkatron]

Wat.jpg

"Jakes on you, I'm an Octopus."

[lachyman]

Update:

I found FiiO E10 Olympus for €70. I don't really know what to get now...

[mr moose]

Update:

I found FiiO E10 Olympus for €70. I don't really know what to get now...

don't get anything straight away, when the headset comes try it with the onboard first. 

 

Your mobo is only marginally worse than cd for SQ.  with a 90dB noise floor it's really only noticeable for those with really sensitive headphones.

[EmoRarity]

It's the letter O (as in Oh I didn't know he had them already) with a cute octopi in it.

Your humor is getting as bad as mine.