Sound Upgrade!

Cookeh · 22 Apr 2014 at 22:50

I'd keep it tbh, its not great but its not exactly bad either - assuming you can get the drivers working.

kaotikuk · 24 Apr 2014 at 10:57

decided to go with the asus, as the i couldnt get the x-fi in my computer as graphics card blocking the mini slot lol. So have the dx mic, 598 headphones and asus zonar dg on the way

. What drivers should i get for the DG soundcard btw? ive read theres third party ones or something?

Cookeh · 24 Apr 2014 at 11:28

There are, but I'll be damned if I can find the link. I believe C64 has it. Stock ones are pretty good anyway.

Psycho Sonny · 24 Apr 2014 at 12:18

kaotikuk said:
decided to go with the asus, as the i couldnt get the x-fi in my computer as graphics card blocking the mini slot lol. So have the dx mic, 598 headphones and asus zonar dg on the way . What drivers should i get for the DG soundcard btw? ive read theres third party ones or something?

practically same setup as me: DX Mic, HD 595 (the 598's predecessor) and asus xonar dg

the 598 is slightly better but i bought the 595 second hand for £65, I would say mine is the ultimate bang for your buck setup as everything altogether cost me <£85.

I think that will do me until something breaks, got a wireless mixamp second hand for console use.

I have been looking at buying other headphones, but it's just going to get ridiculous and I doubt I can justify more purchases with how little use they get.

So I have decided that enough is enough and no more headphones.

kaotikuk · 25 Apr 2014 at 11:07

sound card arrived and no problems so far, used drivers from asus site. Can already tell a difference with my siberias! but my 598's should be here in the next 15 mins

wooo with a bit of luck my dx mic arrives same time as headphones. Such an improvement, well chuffed!! cheers for all advice guys!

kaotikuk · 25 Apr 2014 at 12:11

one more question, should i have the analog out set to 2 speakers or headphone? 2 speakers seems louder, but quality seems the same? theres 5.1 speakers to... then an option for dolby headphones when i tick headphones so i dunno whats best for gaming? music wise it seems 2 speakers is best

eggyoke · 26 Apr 2014 at 12:13

Sorry for hijacking your thread

Does anyone use a EPH-02 with a Xonar D2X? If so is it worth it? Is there a noticeable difference between direct plug-in and going through an amp?

I'm currently forced to use onboard audio which sounds like running mud because my Xonar D2X decided to pack in due to faulty power connector (I'm waiting on hearing back from Asus about possible repairs.) I have a pair of HD-595's and was always kinda disappointed with the sound from plugging them directly into the D2X, I'm thinking I need a dedicated amp and so have been looking into the EPH-02 to go with it. So I was wondering if it would be worth spending on an external amp or is my problem mostly down to my headphones which are considered very good.

Marine-RX179 · 26 Apr 2014 at 13:40

kaotikuk said:
one more question, should i have the analog out set to 2 speakers or headphone? 2 speakers seems louder, but quality seems the same? theres 5.1 speakers to... then an option for dolby headphones when i tick headphones so i dunno whats best for gaming? music wise it seems 2 speakers is best

This is just my opinion, but I think you should stick with using headphone setting, rather than using speaker option as the emulated surround effect of headphones and speakers are not the same using Dolby Headphone as oppose to Dolby Virtual Speakers.

Personally, I think for listening to music you'd still be better using Stereo instead of Dolby Headphone (but you could still try it if you want), but for games and movies, you can enable the Dolby Headphone option, and then select the room size depending on your preference. I wouldn't bother too much with the option on the right such as game, music or movie...just manually choose the room size of your for your own preference for each of the things. Have a play around and see what suit you the best...you should also play around with the 7.1 Virtual Speaker Shifter (which require enabling Dolby Headphone first) for customising you own emulated surround environment.

Cookeh · 26 Apr 2014 at 15:59

Stereo is better for music, Dolby is better for gaming (helps with positional accuracy with some headphones). Give these videos a listen to see if you can hear the difference with Dolby or not and so determine if its worthwhile having on:

The quality is the same regardless of the speaker/headphone setting.