AKG K92

[Wommers]

Hi,

I bought the AKG K92 headphones mostly for playing games on my PC and watching movies. I currently have it hooked up to my Sony STR-DH510 amp which in turn is hooked up to my 1080TI's HDMI sound output. I am a total noob in regards to this, I have been out of the loop on sound cards for years, but would a dedicated sound card help the K92's sound better or would I be wasting my time? I usually play 3D games like Shadow of War, Dishonored 2, etc. I used to have a Sound Blaster Audigy card many moons ago which had a 3D sound effect, name escapes me now, which sounded great for 3D games so assume the new Sound Blasters would offer something similar?

Cheers

 

[Marsman]

A sound card will help in providing positional sound, so you can locate where sounds are coming from when playing FPS games.

I doubt there would be any difference to the actual sound quality though.

 

[Wommers]

A sound card will help in providing positional sound, so you can locate where sounds are coming from when playing FPS games.

I doubt there would be any difference to the actual sound quality though.

Ok thanks for the reply, positional sound would be nice.

 

[EsaT]

Sound Blaster Z would be basic level
But with that luxury graphics card in there better sound card wouldn't be out of place.
Especially considering it won't get technically old in couple years.

And checking your motherboard being medieval one with antiquated PCI slots eating away all space from proper positioning of PCI-e slots, there might not be good place for internal sound card.
Because above hot graphics card with also CPU glowing heat above isn't good place for sound card.
Even if we disregard that place being almsot touching possibly major EMI source.
So looks like USB sound card might be better.
In them there just aren't much of good choises in more affordable price class.


As for those headphones looks like they have very weak upper mids/lower treble:
https://reference-audio-analyzer.pro/en/report/hp/akg-k92.php

DT990 is supposed to have strongly V-shaped frequency response with not the greatest mids.
Though it's very well balanced for gaming, with good above neutral bass balancing well with details.
Again also closed DT770 is really strong in bass.
And both have lot more flatter frequency response in same testing:
https://reference-audio-analyzer.pro/en/report/hp/beyerdynamic-dt-990-pro-250.php
https://reference-audio-analyzer.pro/en/report/hp/beyerdynamic-dt-770-pro-80.php

So using equalizer to increase 1 kHz, 2 kHz and 4 kHz in relation to rest might well be needed.
Because binaural cues rely heavily on upper mids/lower treble.

I doubt there would be any difference to the actual sound quality though.

Actually some sound quality difference is well possible.
Apparently typically for AVR, headphone output is taken from speaker amplifier using 680 ohm series resistor.
Page 20:
https://elektrotanya.com/sony_str-dh510_ver-1.0_sm.pdf/download.html
So electric damping factor is pretty much absolute zero in any practical sense.
Except with 600 ohm Beyers.

 

[Wommers]

Sound Blaster Z would be basic level
But with that luxury graphics card in there better sound card wouldn't be out of place.
Especially considering it won't get technically old in couple years.

And checking your motherboard being medieval one with antiquated PCI slots eating away all space from proper positioning of PCI-e slots, there might not be good place for internal sound card.
Because above hot graphics card with also CPU glowing heat above isn't good place for sound card.
Even if we disregard that place being almsot touching possibly major EMI source.
So looks like USB sound card might be better.
In them there just aren't much of good choises in more affordable price class.


As for those headphones looks like they have very weak upper mids/lower treble:
https://reference-audio-analyzer.pro/en/report/hp/akg-k92.php

DT990 is supposed to have strongly V-shaped frequency response with not the greatest mids.
Though it's very well balanced for gaming, with good above neutral bass balancing well with details.
Again also closed DT770 is really strong in bass.
And both have lot more flatter frequency response in same testing:
https://reference-audio-analyzer.pro/en/report/hp/beyerdynamic-dt-990-pro-250.php
https://reference-audio-analyzer.pro/en/report/hp/beyerdynamic-dt-770-pro-80.php

So using equalizer to increase 1 kHz, 2 kHz and 4 kHz in relation to rest might well be needed.
Because binaural cues rely heavily on upper mids/lower treble.


Actually some sound quality difference is well possible.
Apparently typically for AVR, headphone output is taken from speaker amplifier using 680 ohm series resistor.
Page 20:
https://elektrotanya.com/sony_str-dh510_ver-1.0_sm.pdf/download.html
So electric damping factor is pretty much absolute zero in any practical sense.
Except with 600 ohm Beyers.

first time I've had my motherboard described as "medieval" ha ha.
Thanks for the reply, there is a spare PCI-e slot a couple of slots down from the 1080TI, I have it well aired as well so cooling isn't an issue.
Is there any CPU overhead reduction on using an internal soundcard these days? There used to be back when I had my Audigy.

 

[EsaT]

first time I've had my motherboard described as "medieval" ha ha.
Thanks for the reply, there is a spare PCI-e slot a couple of slots down from the 1080TI, I have it well aired as well so cooling isn't an issue.
Is there any CPU overhead reduction on using an internal soundcard these days? There used to be back when I had my Audigy.

Very few new cards came out only in PCI models already decade ago and lots of motherboards dragged too many PCI slots for too long.
That resulted very few of PCI-e slots being usable when having gaming graphics card.

Have you checked lowermost PCI-e slot is actually free?
Some non-reference graphics cards need more than two slots.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/crea...ound-card-retail-70sb150000001-sc-087-cl.html

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/search?sSearch=sound+blasterx+ae-5
AE-5 again is with very high end DAC and very good headphone output:
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/crea...aming-sound-card-70sb174000000-sc-104-cl.html

Though as other thing not sure if there's going to be new sound cards released in coming months.
Creative is starting to release products with their "Super X-Fi" tech, which has head and ear shape customizable HRTF algorithm.
That "upstair's guy" forgot to standardize head shape.
So head shape differing from average needs different binaural cues for good directionality.

For current algorithm first minute of this is excellent quick test for headphones:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1_20T8x_OI
Besides 360 directionality good headphones also give good feel of distance.

 

[Wommers]

Thanks very much for the info, EsaT, I'll be sure to check out the links. You know your stuff