Gaming sound setup

Budget max of £200

I have onboard sound of a Rampage IV Extreme or an Asus Xonar DG

Open back is fine but I will need a mic, either Modmic et al or standalone so long as it works for Skype calls in game chat

DAC not required afaik but happy to be corrected on that.

I was thinking K702 with the bass port mod

But I know nothing and would like some advice/suggestions

Thanks guys

I'd go for the K612 Pro, better sub bass extension and more even across the whole band. You would need a mod mic. I've owned all of current AKG's and there's really no need to go for anything over the K612 for gaming.

Ryanr1987 said:

I'd go for the K612 Pro, better sub bass extension and more even across the whole band. You would need a mod mic. I've owned all of current AKG's and there's really no need to go for anything over the K612 for gaming.

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what, out of motherboard audio? You sure of that? Some reckon they are even harder to drive properly than the K702/Q701 and most mobos and the DG for certain are not up to giving them enough power.

The K612 are weird they are not difficult to drive in terms of getting the resolution out of them but volume wise they are stubborn so I guess in that sense they are hard to drive- more so than the 701 variants. I assumed that if he was looking into the 702 that he'd have enough for 612 so it depends on his enternal dac/amp. If your audio chain is weak and you prefer not to splash out on something better just grab the HD558 or HD598 if you want a slightly brighter presentation.

So to run the K612 I would want to get a DAC too?
K612
ModMic
FiiO E10K

Are there any tube DAC's in the budget that could be worth considering? I know the Aune T1 fairs well but that blows the budget out of the water... Also if I was to be upping the budget to the £230-250 mark would the extra be better spent on the K702 and the FiiO or the K612 and Aune T1?

Sorry for the noob questions fellas :/

The E10K can run the K702 just fine, the uprated K is a powerful little box.

If you use an external DAC then to get virtual surround / positional audio while gaming, you would need to run the Razer software which works with anything.

I would say the Aune T1 is the cheapest tube DAC worth looking at and even then it's amp section is not that brilliant. It has a very good DAC and the tube buffer is nice for colouring the sound signature but it's solid state amp section is quite rudimentary.

By far the best external DAC/tube/Amp setup for reasonable money is the Schiit Modi 2 & Vali 2 combo but that would more than blow your budget before you even got headphones.

get the phillips fidelio x1 or x2 instead of dac + akg's.

Well hopefully I've just bagged a pair of AKG Kxx in the MM... So do the above DAC suggestions still hold?

Onto the mic, it'd be nice to have one on the desk instead of clipping a ModMic on, nothing studio quality is required but I'm not sure if a generic cheap mic from the rainforest will suffice?

K7xx is pretty much a tuned K702, they use the memory foam pads to add more bass, so yes, the same suggestions hold.

Perfect, thank you very much.

Been reading some more... Now I'm wondering whether I'd be better running a Creative Sound Blaster-x sound card which comes with a mic and the additional benefit of direction/positional sound as opposed to the Fiio E10K...

Can anybody comment on that logic?

Well you'll get positional sound effect by using SBX on a SoundBlaster Z, which is what I assume you're referring to?

I'm not really sure the SB Z's amp is up to the job of driving the AKG's well enough. Their Q/K7** headphones are known for being rather insensitive, so need a bit more power. I've seen a few comments from people saying the Z's amp is a bit weedy for those headphones.

Here a post from another thread from someone with K702 and an SB Z. link

He's ordered a E10K. Maybe you could wait to see what his thoughts are on that. The E10K has a much better amp, so really should do a better job compared to the SB Z, when driving the headphones well.

He doesn't seem bothered about SBX and positional effects either, and there are other people that find that good headphones for gaming work well without the need to use SBX, Dolby Headphone, etc.

Marsman said:

Here a post from another thread from someone with K702 and an SB Z. link

He's ordered a E10K. Maybe you could wait to see what his thoughts are on that. The E10K has a much better amp, so really should do a better job compared to the SB Z, when driving the headphones well.

He doesn't seem bothered about SBX and positional effects either, and there are other people that find that good headphones for gaming work well without the need to use SBX, Dolby Headphone, etc.

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NoNameNoNumber said:

Been reading some more... Now I'm wondering whether I'd be better running a Creative Sound Blaster-x sound card which comes with a mic and the additional benefit of direction/positional sound as opposed to the Fiio E10K...

Can anybody comment on that logic?

Click to expand...

Rids mentioned that you can use the razer software to emulate the virtual sound for stereo headsets. not tried it myself but i'm sure its pretty decent.
http://www.razerzone.com/gb-en/surround


i've ordered it today but not home till the weekend to let you know; if you can wait then i will update.

Ok i'm impressed...

Definitely should have done this earlier; has put a new love back into music again for me. even using for cs (quick test) its sounds very good also.. need to listen a bit more and some more varied music but for sure the bass boost has given these headphones a bit more life at the lower levels..

Would love to hear the Schiit Modi 2 & Vali 2 combo difference

Hey Archerz, thanks for the update

My FiiO arrived today but unfortunately I am yet to get hold of a worthy pair of headphones to really see what it's all about... I friend has some AKG 550s I could try I guess...

So you'll be removing the SB-z from your system in light of your findings with the FiiO?

Is there a way to make it so that it always defaults to my desktop speakers but then switches to the headphones when the FiiO is turned on? A bit of a pain if I have to switch manually :/

I'll keep it in there for now as I use it for desktop speakers. I can't always use the headphones during the day time so need to switch

At the moment i'm using this and keep both connected. Just left click and select SB-Z or FiiO very simple. (or setup a hotkey)
https://code.google.com/archive/p/audioswitch/

or this was top google search

http://audioswit.ch/er