Gamers, What's Your Audio Set Up?

[baritonejohann]

Anything I recommend will be bigger and more expensive

I'm not sure how you'd connect a subwoofer, your soundcard doesn't have 5.1 analogue out?

ASUS Xonar Essence STX II 7.1 Sound Card Review

ASUS marked their entry into the high-end sound card market with the Xonar Essence ST some years ago. Today, we will take a good look at the new STX II. The STX II brings new op-amps and a more precise clock generator to the table; the latter should lower jitter. The STX II also bolsters 7.1...

www.techpowerup.com

You'd need a dedicated subwoofer out on the soundcard, or one on the speakers, or failing that, a second L/R pre out from the soundcard or subwoofer then sending that to the subwoofer, using subwoofer own crossover.

unless that daughterboard has 5.1/7.1 out?

stereo only, so id use the throughput on the T5 to the monitors. Thanks for all your input!

 

[mrk]

Have you installed fiio's usb driver? https://forum.fiio.com/note/showNoteContent.do?id=202105191527366657910&tid=17

Huh weird, I just checked the driver version I was on and it seems even though the driver was installed, Windows was using a Microsoft driver. So reinstalled it and now I see this:

Tested out both the initial delay and the click and both are now gone! How bizarre, since the X9 was clean even without the Eversolo USB driver install. Ah well that has sorted it then

 

[hornetstinger]

stereo only, so id use the throughput on the T5 to the monitors. Thanks for all your input!

Going through another circuit, probably not ideal for sound quality. Does the Edifer sub have a high pass? It should have so edifer sub

>60hz sent out to speakers
<60hz to the internal plate amp

Might be worthwhile getting the Asus output daughterboard, if you can buy it separately. That allows you to audio direct from soundcard to sub and speakers seperatly

 

[mrk]

FiiO has a linear power supply coming out soon with the same size and style of the K13 R2R, if they release a stereo power amp in the same way then that stack would be a very very cool looking stack.I'm going to be using it exclusively for a bit to see if any issues arise with heavy use over time, so far the only gripe really has been that I can't choose my own RGB idle colours lol and that there is no way to mute using the knobs, have to use the remote, oh and the lack of 12v trigger so have to turn the power amp off manually, but the toggle switch is nice to operate so there is that...

 

[Angst]

FiiO has a linear power supply coming out soon with the same size and style of the K13 R2R, if they release a stereo power amp in the same way then that stack would be a very very cool looking stack.I'm going to be using it exclusively for a bit to see if any issues arise with heavy use over time, so far the only gripe really has been that I can't choose my own RGB idle colours lol and that there is no way to mute using the knobs, have to use the remote, oh and the lack of 12v trigger so have to turn the power amp off manually, but the toggle switch is nice to operate so there is that...

On the k15 you can configure the volume control dial to mute when you press it in, is that not configurable on the k13 the same way?

 

[mrk]

There is no option for that in the menu, and the Fiio Control tool only has PEQ options and firmware update features. Maybe it's too new for those to be implemented yet I guess?

 

[Angst]

Fair, what does it do instead if not mute?

The control app only does peq etc for the k15 aswell, the button is configured on the touchscreen for it.

 

[mrk]

Scratch that, there's a new Android app that now supports the K13 R2R and in that app you get extra controls for the lighting, and you can name the amp to whatever

(not volume knob function control to set to mute here though)

There is a convenient one-page user manual too which some may find interesting:

 

[Raymond Lin]

Just because it is 99ft long it doesn't make it 1 page

 

[Raymond Lin]

p.s. I would love to try this but I like the screen on the DX5 and enjoying the amp. The UI is fine, don't really touch the PEQ, just use the presets EQ (Bass/Warm/Airy/Dynamic) from time to time.

The small footprint is also great on my small desk. and XLR too

 

[mrk]

I like the overall display and buttons on the DX5 II yeah, though I did have a gripe with how tiny the top row of indicator text is when displaying the spectrum for example. The simplicity of the K13 display (same as K11) means big fonts easy to read the volume level. The chassis is also less of a finger smudge magnet as the Topping finish is, just picking the DX5 II up or pressing in the volume dial resulted in smudges I found, this is less so.

A good first impression so far that's for sure.

 

[Timber]

Been interesting to read @mrk impressions. In many ways it sounds like the K13 R2R is possibly right although part of me wonders if I'm still better spending money on a tube amp instead. But again would like for more reviews to emerge, particularly in comparison to the K15, or reference points I know like the K7 etc.

 

[Angst]

What's the new fiio app?

 

[Raymond Lin]

I like the overall display and buttons on the DX5 II yeah, though I did have a gripe with how tiny the top row of indicator text is when displaying the spectrum for example. The simplicity of the K13 display (same as K11) means big fonts easy to read the volume level. The chassis is also less of a finger smudge magnet as the Topping finish is, just picking the DX5 II up or pressing in the volume dial resulted in smudges I found, this is less so.

A good first impression so far that's for sure.

No smudges on the white . I know what you mean with the info being small when it's that dancing graph, I forgot the name for it. But there is always the standard one with the big numbers.

Next K13 with XLR and nicer display...may be a little smaller then I would love one.

Living with the DX5II and X9 isn't bad though! I still have the Xduoo as well....in a box lol

 

[mrk]

No smudges on the white . I know what you mean with the info being small when it's that dancing graph, I forgot the name for it. But there is always the standard one with the big numbers.

Next K13 with XLR and nicer display...may be a little smaller then I would love one.

Living with the DX5II and X9 isn't bad though! I still have the Xduoo as well....in a box lol

Yeah I did wish at the time I got the silver version for this reason, I should have opted for the silver of the K13 as well actually as it would have blended with the PA7 nicely, completely forgot!

Been interesting to read @mrk impressions. In many ways it sounds like the K13 R2R is possibly right although part of me wonders if I'm still better spending money on a tube amp instead. But again would like for more reviews to emerge, particularly in comparison to the K15, or reference points I know like the K7 etc.

I still want to hear the K15 but have a good impression of how it sound after reading/watching countless reviews on it and some even from people who have had the X9 too or the same headphones or same signature preference as me. Tube though is an area I don't genuinely have an interest in. Once there was a curiosity, but the moment I saw people mention tube hum, tube fade, tube quality lottery etc I figured I already have enough problems with random stuff, don't need tubes to add to that

Plus, tubes offer a form of cosy distortion right, just like R2R minus the faff

What's the new fiio app?

It's not new as such, just updated, it's Fiio Control on the app store though Fiio link to it directly as well, their website is quite terrible for links and display formatting though so I just grabbed the latest off the play store.

 

[Timber]

I still want to hear the K15 but have a good impression of how it sound after reading/watching countless reviews on it and some even from people who have had the X9 too or the same headphones or same signature preference as me. Tube though is an area I don't genuinely have an interest in. Once there was a curiosity, but the moment I saw people mention tube hum, tube fade, tube quality lottery etc I figured I already have enough problems with random stuff, don't need tubes to add to that

Plus, tubes offer a form of cosy distortion right, just like R2R minus the faff

Indeed, I think tubes only really works with some higher impedance dynamic driver headphones. But I wouldn't have bothered if I hadn't got into the HD 6x0.

It's a good point you raise about R2R to tubes and maybe that being too much warmth. Again need more reviews and reference points really.

 

[mrk]

Maybe one day I will tick it off the checklist of things to try at least once, the HD800S and Susvara were recent auditions so I'm now content with what's /mostly/ possible in the upper end of the headphone scale even if the amps powering them weren't quite as meaty as I'd have liked.

Anyways on something a little different, I noticed a quirk with the X9 that it's only audible when certain frequencies are actively playing through any of the outputs, a "pop" can be heard during playback whilst at the same time adjusting volume through certain values where the R2R relay banks switch over. The biggest bank switch is at the -50 to -52dB mark and using this below video as an example to repeat the quirk with:

Here is what I was hearing:

I sent a mail to Luxsin with my findings and within 24 hours was testing a couple of beta firmwares with the last one fixing the issue. Expect the public release to have the fix in place along with some new VU/spectrum meters

 

[Rroff]

I'm increasingly using the Fiio FF1 for gaming as the imaging is nice with in game sounds nicely separated and positioned relative to each other and they are OK for detail, but the soundstage is quite intimate so could be better for gaming - not sure yet if I can bring myself to spending over £100 on the FF5 which supposedly have a wider soundstage. Though I have the Sennheiser HD505s with a boom mic for gaming I prefer the comfort for longer sessions of the flat head earbuds - partly due to wearing glasses which rarely sit fully comfortably with on or over ear headphones.

 

[Raymond Lin]

I'm increasingly using the Fiio FF1 for gaming as the imaging is nice with in game sounds nicely separated and positioned relative to each other and they are OK for detail, but the soundstage is quite intimate so could be better for gaming - not sure yet if I can bring myself to spending over £100 on the FF5 which supposedly have a wider soundstage. Though I have the Sennheiser HD505s with a boom mic for gaming I prefer the comfort for longer sessions of the flat head earbuds - partly due to wearing glasses which rarely sit fully comfortably with on or over ear headphones.

This is going against the grain but I am slowly coming around to think IEM might be the way for gaming. There is no weight on the head to think about.

This is much more evident since I got my Dunu, these fits my ears so well.

 

[mrk]

Weight has not been an issue for me since the Ananda nano days right through to current models, in fact I found the most awkward for weight to be the Fosi i5 because of how much it sticks weight onto the sides from the massively thick pads lol and that created a hotspot on the head that was more obvious the longer the gaming session went on etc. Aside from that i could not game with any other headphone other than a planar now because of how wide the soundstage is and how deep but detailed the bass is.


Back to DACs, I just flicked over to the X9 today doing some further back and forth and yeah even with the Fiio USB driver installed, the X9 has a more immediate response to any sound Windows plays, there is still a very short delay with the K13 R2R which is the same as with the K11 R2R, so the driver has not completely removed that delay but has completely solved the crackle on initial sound playing as mentioned earlier.

The short delay was there with all previous DAC/amps so I guess I just got used to it thinking it was normal whereas jumping back to the X9 I realise that there's some engineering inside going on to not have a delay and everything plays the nanosecond audio is output in Windows.