[jawa]

Hi,
I'm needing of an advice for a sound card that would give good amp for my newly purchased Sennheiser HD-555.

Also, would those sound card with front panels makes better amp?

or maybe just a formal headphones amp under $150?
also, can I output the sound from my pc to this headphones amp? is that possible?
Thank you!

 

[chinesekiwi]

what do you need to plug into the sound device?
Is it purely just for music or do you need gaming aspects?

 

[jawa]

purely music ..... and some bluray rips

Would you recommend going with sound card like Auzentech or Xonar or Omega..

or .. now this is very I get confused...

do you have to get both DAC + headphones amplifier? or just the amp is OK?

I'll be connecting my HD-555 to either my HTPC or Zune.

 

[RallyMaster]

Musiland Monitor 02US. It serves as both a DAC and an amplifier. Not that you need much amplification for that HD555 anyway.

 

[jawa]

and which sound card would you recommend? is auzentech Forte recommended?

Can u get musiland only from ebay? what's the next step from musiland?

 

[chinesekiwi]

ha, the Musiland 02 Monitor US is one of the best bang for buck soundcards / USB DACs otu there and yes, It's only available from Ebay (+ probably easier as well as they are shipped from China).

It easily beats my opamp-upgraded STX.

 

[jawa]

what's the best soundcard that would give best amp for headphones? gimme 2

 

[Shiobock]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jawa what's the best soundcard that would give best amp for headphones? gimme 2

Asus Xonar Essence STX has a built in headphone amplifier and you can change the opamps to fit your purist hi-fi needs, I'm quite sure it's the best option in your price range unless you can find a good DAC + amp combo.

 

[DJ.BigBear]

internal DAC, get Xonar Essence STX

 

[jawa]

it seems they came out with a newer version which is Xonar ST at newegg?
is that better than STX?

Also, how come hardly American companies are into this amp+DAC business? If China can do better, I'm sure we can make it even better. *sorry no offense to china

So people here recommend Musiland for a budget around $200ish?

 

[DJ.BigBear]

the only differences between ST and STX is:
ST is PCI while STX is PCIe 1x
ST can be paired with an expansion card to have 7.1 analog output and etc etc while STX can't

it's not a matter of who can do better, to do research and manufacture such thing cost far less in china.
and i believe anyone can do better than the other if they spend a lot of effort and resources to it.

 

[RallyMaster]

The STX has a piss-poor excuse for an amplifier circuit that consists of a $2.25 IC. You'd almost get more quality out of a CMoy. The ST has a different clocking circuit from the STX which I've heard reduces jitter and produces music truer to the source.

I have something else to add to the "why do Americans not do this?" question. If you develop, manufacture and market something in the United States, expect it to cost more for almost the same product.

 

[DJ.BigBear]

lol, true, you do end up better getting cmoy amp.

 

[jawa]

is there people here that can assemble the cmoy for me and I'll pay them? cuz I'm not really good with DIY stuffs.

 

[DJ.BigBear]

try google penguin amp.
it's a good cmoy amp, and looks nifty too

 

[jawa]

guess what? I returned my Sennheiser HD-555 ($83) and replanced it with Denon AHD2000 ($214), both from Amazon.

Why? because the ear padding & top head padding on HD-555 are made from "foam/sponge" like thingie .. and it attracts "white stuffs" or hard to clean as you guys can see from pictures in Amazon.

Unlike Denon AHD2000 the paddings are made from leather, though some complain that after 5hrs of use they might get hot.. well, I will just take a break in between anyway (not that I have time to listen to 4hrs of headphones time).

I'm hoping the sound quality of these Denon AHD2000 would surpass HD-555.

 

[Sickened1]

If your budge is under 150 look at a Auzentech X-fi forte, it has a headphone amp built in. And drives my 555's very well.