A40 with Sound Card

korkie

korkie

korkie

Associate
Joined
15 May 2012
Posts
33
oHi folks, as you can tell I'm new here so please be kind :P

I'm about to purchase a set of a40s and I'm unsure about a few things.

My main use out of them is going to be gaming and then music . I've read on a few threads that I can't game with surround sound unless my mobo or sound card supports Dolby digital live, and apparently the a40s don't support DTS so DTL is the only option (is this true?).

So if that's the case I would definitely need a sound card. Now would it be ok if I just bought a really .cheap sound card that just encodes the surround sound and let my mixamp do the hard work, or should I buy a better quality sound card to get the most out of my a40s, in which case is there even a point to my mixamp ?(ive heard there could be interference if the sound card is good quality). In which case I would probably just get the headphones on their own and a good sound card.

For the sound card I was thinking of either the xonar essence or the d2x.
Please advise and thankyou!!

Ps. I find it a real shame that we pay $250 for headphones and they don't even support the better quality encoding of dts..so we automatically have to fork out extra $$ for sound card...
 
The only thing your motherboard needs is optical out, the mix amp will sort everything else out.
Don't get hung up on dts, it's not a headphone technology, also do some research on the product you are about to buy as it doesn't look like you know what the mix amp does....
(it takes a surround sound signal and creates a virtual surround environment that can be interpreted as surround by a stereo set of headphones)
If anything, just get a mix amp and some Panasonic htf600, and an ant lion mod mic, it will sound better than the a40's.
 
sHo0sH said:
The only thing your motherboard needs is optical out, the mix amp will sort everything else out.
Don't get hung up on dts, it's not a headphone technology, also do some research on the product you are about to buy as it doesn't look like you know what the mix amp does....
(it takes a surround sound signal and creates a virtual surround environment that can be interpreted as surround by a stereo set of headphones)
If anything, just get a mix amp and some Panasonic htf600, and an ant lion mod mic, it will sound better than the a40's.
Click to expand...

Yeah I did have a rough idea of what the mixamp does, but the problem is unless there is Dolby digital live support from the mobos audio codec (usually realtake 898, and 99% don't have it) then the mixamp won't receive a surround sound signal, since games all use DDL for surround. Which is why people say to get a sound card, mainly for the DDL support.

This is what I have gathered from reading a lot of threads. If this is wrong please tell me but a lot of people have reiterated that point, that even if you connect the mixamp with optical on the mobo, then it still won't decode into surround since the mobo can't encode into surround, as that is only possible with DDL support.
 
What motherboard do you have or plan to buy? Those technologies are fairly commonplace in the latest motherboards.

Is it solely for PC gaming? if it is then don't waste your money, get the Xonar DG (which supports dolby headphone) for about £25, then some good headphones, and a clip on mic (or the ant lion mod mic). If you want to use it for xbox and ps3 as well, then stick with the mixamp.
 
Oh and yeah it is solely for PC gaming. I have a pretty nice set up for my xbox and ps3 :).
And the mic doesnt really concern me too much, would be happy without it too. And apart from the a40's i was considering just getting the sennheiser PC 360s and just plugging them into a sound card, but just dont know whether i definitely need a sound card (would prefer without).
 
You shouldn't need a sound card, I had a mix amp with my a30s and as far as I can remember they had the surround stuff.

I personally would go with some pc 360s and a good sound card like the d2x, as I personally prefer 2.1 to 5.1/7.1
 
KiiYzOo said:
You shouldn't need a sound card, I had a mix amp with my a30s and as far as I can remember they had the surround stuff.

I personally would go with some pc 360s and a good sound card like the d2x, as I personally prefer 2.1 to 5.1/7.1
Click to expand...

The headphones work, just not with Dolby Virtual Surround unless you have DDL capable motherboard/soundcard. Any will do, but it depends on your budget. For the headphones ONLY, the cheaper ones wont show much if any difference as DDL is still the output. If you have some other speakers too, get a mid range. Top end is for audiophiles really, or people who dont use mixamp A40 style
 
Just get the PC360s and a Xonar DG - it has a built in headphone amp specifically and supports encoding of dolby headphone, which I believe the D2x does not have, total setback should be about £150
 
thanks guys your are being very helpfull.

will the dolby headphone sound the same as dolby digital live (mainly the surround sound)? or would it sound better if i had a mixamp (lets say the a40's mixamp since its apparently really good) connected to the xonar dg so that i can use DDL?

thanks :)
 
Dolby Digital Live converts ALL of your PC's output into a Dolby (AC3) Digital Signal. These digital beeps are then decoded by your Amp (the mixamp in this case) and sent to the correct sound channels.

Hence DDL doesn't sound like anything, it's just an encoding method.

The reason people suggest a DDL compatible card is so everything arrives at the mixamp as AC3 to be decoded by Dolby Headphone (fake surround) correctly.

If your card doesn't do DDL then it will only send standard stereo over the SPDIF (optical) connection.

If you want to share the mixamp with consoles then you need a sound card that does DDL if you want the best fake surround. Most of the ALC onboard chips can do it but it's generally restricted by design and/or a specific vendors driver package.
 
Last edited:
yashiro said:
Dolby Digital Live converts ALL of your PC's output into an Dolby (AC3) Digital Signal. These digital beeps are then decoded by your Amp (the mixamp in this case) and sent to the correct sound channels.

Hence DDL doesn't sound like anything, it's just an encoding method.

The reason people suggest a DDL compatible card is so everything arrives at the mixamp as AC3 to be decoded by Dolby Headphone (fake surround) correctly.

If your card doesn't do DDL then it will only send standard stereo over the SPDIF (optical) connection.

If you want to share the mixamp with consoles then you need a sound card that does DDL if you want the best fake surround. Most of the ALC onboard chips can do it but it's generally restricted by design and/or a specific vendors driver package.
Click to expand...

in that case couldnt i just get the same quality surround sound without the mixamp? as instead of the card just encoding the AC3 audio it does the decoding aswell and sends it to my headphones through dolby headphone, in which case it would make the mixamp redundant?

thanks
 
If the PC performs it's own Dolby Headphone (or something else that results in Virtual Surround) then, yes the Mixamp is redundant. By and large it is usually redundant for PC users with headphones.

So as you can see the Astro Mixamp primarily benefits console users.

The Astro headphones themselves are 'OK' but nothing amazing and certainly don't justify their high price.

Shoosh's post from earlier is pretty spot on to be fair.

sHo0sH said:
What motherboard do you have or plan to buy? Those technologies are fairly commonplace in the latest motherboards.

Is it solely for PC gaming? if it is then don't waste your money, get the Xonar DG (which supports dolby headphone) for about £25, then some good headphones, and a clip on mic (or the ant lion mod mic). If you want to use it for xbox and ps3 as well, then stick with the mixamp.
Click to expand...
 
Yeah I thought it sounded right aswell. Just want to make sure that if I get let's say pc 360s, and use Dolby headphone with the xonar dg, then would I get the same quality as using the 360s with a mixamp and Dolby digital live? Does using Dolby headphone as the decoding sound sound the same as using DDL is the main question.
 
thanks a lot guys! iv'e finally gotten a proper answer to my question where all others couldnt get a grasp.

apparently however the mixamp can simulate 7.1 when paired with dolby digital live, so would that mean it would sound slightly better then just the 5.1 i'd get from the dilby headphones on the sound card?
 
No. All it means is that the amp can accept a 7.1 signal. The output sound quality would be no different.

All Dolby Headphone does is use maths on the input signals (2.0, 5.1, 7.1) then play back what it thinks you would hear if you were stood there. This usually involves leaking sounds across channels and slightly altering it.

Just get some normal headphones and a separate mic. Don't get any headsets with a volume controller on the cable, they always break.
 
yashiro said:
No. All it means is that the amp can accept a 7.1 signal. The output sound quality would be no different.
Click to expand...

so even with the mixamp it still wont output to 7.1, even though its receiving it? so pretty much with or without mixamp (sound card either way) ill only be hearing 5.1? sorry i just want to make 100% sure before i purchase, coz if thats the case then ill be looking at getting the sennheiser HD 598 (just because they look a lot more comfy then the 595s)
 
You are confusing yourself a bit I think. How Dolby Heaphone Works

A mixamp takes the signal, alters it and outputs it as standard stereo. The alteration of the sound is what the mixamp is for. Whether the amp gets 2.0/5.1/7.1/5000.1 is irrelevant.

It takes a signal meant for separate speakers and squashes it into your headphones.
Using scientific calculations it changes the sound so it's more three dimensional to someone wearing headphones. It's why it's called virtual surround.

Comfort wise the 595/598 are pretty much the same. 595's are old now though and had an issue where the headband cracked easily.
So if you're choosing between those two get the newer model, the 598.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom