Is it worth spending £50 sound card + £100 headphones?

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I have an MSI z68a-GD65 G3 motherboard....

and

I have some old sennheiser stereo headset...

Just wondering for the purposes of playing BF3 in particular...will I notice a huge differnce or not if I fork out for a sound card and new headset?
 
I can tell everyone on this thread I have many cans that out class my HTF600s but do my higher end cans let me hear my tunes in a way that is that much better? I think not.

quoted from headfi.
 
with headpones, the big initial problem is not dac quality, it's always amplification.

So if you are running audio out of the PC to an amp and plugging the cans into the headphone output on this (as long as the amp is an Ok one, not an all-in-one hifi for £200 and 600 LED's all over it), they'll respond pretty well.

If you try and run them straight from an onboard mobo 3.5mm output, chances are most reasonably good headphones will all-of-a-sudden sound dull, lifeless, lack of bass, awful.

Best options are:

- external amp or headphone amp +whatever soundcard you have.
- Proper soundcard with a recognisably good headphone output, like pro grade cards with dedicated 1/4 inch, like the EMU external cards.

I plug HD600's directly into a TC Electronic Konnekt 6 and it is more than good enough. No doubt i could get better from some expensive headphone amp, but i don't trust them to be neutral anyway.
 
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Price doesn't reflect Impedance. I had some £120 headphones with 30 Impedance.
My current headphones are 300 but it varies between frequencies. It will only use 300 at very high frequencies.

You are better off getting the best headphones you can afford because that will make the biggest difference in sound quality.

Plug decent headphones into crappy source = not bad.
Plug crappy headphones into decent source = very bad

Before I had decent headphone amplification my headphones still sounded good. You can always build your own headphone amp it's actually very easy and cheap. You only pay for the labour and the shiny box.
 
Price doesn't reflect Impedance. I had some £120 headphones with 30 Impedance.
My current headphones are 300 but it varies between frequencies. It will only use 300 at very high frequencies.

You are better off getting the best headphones you can afford because that will make the biggest difference in sound quality.

Plug decent headphones into crappy source = not bad.
Plug crappy headphones into decent source = very bad

Before I had decent headphone amplification my headphones still sounded good. You can always build your own headphone amp it's actually very easy and cheap. You only pay for the labour and the shiny box.

I wasn't really talking specifically about impedance, though part of my post does seem to refer to it by accident. My main point was that some sources like most mp3 players, for example, and most basic 3.5mm outputs from onboard realtek style audio, or cheaper external cards, just sound dreadful regardless of what the impedance is for the cans and it's not the dacs (this area is definitely acceptable for most people), it's the terrible amplification on the headphone out that ruins it all.

But you are correct, if they are low impedance the loss in some areas will be less dramatic. Bass might then still pack a punch and the power might still be there but I'm willing to bet they still sound dreadful to good ears, and it likely won't be subtle stuff.

I'm not saying anyone needs a headphone amp. Just a reasonably solid headphone output from 'somewhere'. I wanted to make it clear that most soundcard headphone outs are really poor, especially onboard sound - unless something has changed recently that I'm not aware of. I just don't agree that a newcomer to audio should not worry about this area, it' critical with headphones. But a soundcards quality would not be at all critical if he was looking for a speaker set up and just using a normal 3/5mm out. Unless the person has money to spend out in all areas, the dac area is what I'd sacrifice first, so essentially the soundcard, but with cans, got to be careful of the overlooked headphone out for sure as many of them can be terrible
 
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True but impedance is affected by amplification and you are right most headphone outs are tacked on as an after thought, usually just wired to the same circuit as the speaker amplification with cheap resistance. Low impedance doesn't mean bad sound quality though, my old headphones sounded amazing with rock music. I miss the sound of guitars from them.

The most important thing in the chain of audio is going to always be the instrument physically producing the sound. I know because I started upgrading with DAC>amp>speakers. Once I got the speakers then everything was worth it, they sound great. All amplification is doing is powering the headphones, it's the materials and design of the phones that will affect quality the most. I can plug mine into a crappy mp3 and they still sound good. Amp and DAC just bring them to life.

I agree the DAC should be sacrificed first, it's the most minimal upgrade next to cables though still makes a difference.

OP look on fleabay for a headphone/DAC combination. There is a an amp/dac called AUNE, it got shining reviews and has USB conenction. It would cost you twice the price but it's made in China so it's good value. That doesn't mean it's bad China are excelling in audio at the moment. If you appreciate good quality sound it's worth it. If you're expecting it to give you an advantage or enable special effects in BF3 then skip it, games don't use EAX anymore it's all done by CPU.
 
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Nice looking amp/dac. If I wasn't into audio production I'd be all over that. For me I'm always looking for total neutrality and thus rarely trust hi-fi stuff. To just listen back and enjoy it's another story though.
 
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Same here the HD650 headphones are pretty neutral, bit on the relaxed warm side. I use these for audio production.

The good thing about hi-fi is tailoring the sound to your liking. There is no way you can reproduce the sound of a live band exactly, no way. I would have got monitors but I like my tea with a bit of sugar. I listen to music more than I produce it.
 
I'm looking to get this msi motherboard aswell, but I'm not sure If I should get a dedicated sound card or use the onboard sound.

I will be mainly gaming and listing to music and will be using a 5.1 home theater system with an optical in.
 
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As said, onboard will likely be totally fine. it's the last thing in the chain of importance to many.

Honestly, i can't understand why anyone at all buys a dedicated card these days unless they are very into their audio and have quality stuff to pair with it.

And then why get a consumer card at all if that is the case?
 
The DAC I originally wanted was £1000 but had to settle with the DacMagic (love it). You do need good speakers though to hear the difference.

I just saw a pair of Razer Makos go for £90 brand new on fleabay. They used to cost £250 and they sound awesome, specially the sub for games. If you had bought that over a sound card you'd notice a 90% difference, soundcard a a 10% difference.
 
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Asus Xonar ST / STX or Creative X Fi Titanium HD + decent headphones = Win.

Someone tell me where the reason is to go for a commercial card, though? These ones you listed are between £110-130. So why choose these over a pro card in that price range, or just a damn good dac?
 
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