What should I upgrade? Budget £130

GothicGhost

GothicGhost

GothicGhost

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Joined
23 Aug 2007
Posts
2,796
Hi all.

Looking to get bit better some sound for headphones but not sure what to get.
I did have the power colour sound card but that died after a while :(

I have this mobo using onboard sound at the moment.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/defc...ghz-overclocked-skylake-bundle-bu-069-og.html

Shure SRH440 headphones.

Should I get new sound card, headphones or external DAC?

Sound cards I like the look of because it's the extension for the headphones.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/crea...ound-card-retail-70sb150600001-sc-090-cl.html

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/asus-strix-raid-pro-7.1-pci-e-sound-card-sc-032-as.html

Headphones.
Sennheiser HD 559?
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/akg-k612-pro-reference-studio-headphones-sp-002-ak.html

Thank you.
 
You don't say what you want it for and if you even need 5.1 (for speakers) or virtual surround for headhones.
 
Ops :)

It's for gaming using normal stereo mode on both headphones and my sound bar.
My sound bar only a £70 one Panasonic SC-HTBB connected with the cable not bluetooth.

I was also looking at the Audioengine D1 Premium 24-bit DAC.


Thank you.
 
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Yeah I do :)

Can I ask what did you get to replace the zx?

My only concern is my last sound sound card was from the mm and died a little while after.
It was not the seller fault, power colour was known to just stop working it seems.
And no warranty transfer allowed.
 
The AKG K612 are great for gaming but are notoriously hard to drive and they do need a powerful amp for them to sound their best.

The Sennheiser HD599 will be a lot easier to drive but I really don't think there is a £60 difference between them and the HD598, which I presume they are replacing in the range.

The Soundblaster Zx should be able to just about drive the K612 and will power the HD599/HD598 easily, while I think the Audioengine D1 will struggle with the K612 as it only has USB power, which is probably only USB 2 spec.
 
GothicGhost said:
Hi all.

Looking to get bit better some sound for headphones but not sure what to get.
I did have the power colour sound card but that died after a while :(

I have this mobo using onboard sound at the moment.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/defc...ghz-overclocked-skylake-bundle-bu-069-og.html

Shure SRH440 headphones.

Should I get new sound card, headphones or external DAC?

Sound cards I like the look of because it's the extension for the headphones.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/crea...ound-card-retail-70sb150600001-sc-090-cl.html

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/asus-strix-raid-pro-7.1-pci-e-sound-card-sc-032-as.html

Headphones.
Sennheiser HD 559?
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/akg-k612-pro-reference-studio-headphones-sp-002-ak.html

Thank you.
Click to expand...
bear in mind, you have to connect the headphones directly to the soundcard if you want to use the amp on that asus (and probably creative, if it has a headphone amp) I have the DLX version of that and headphone/speaker switching still works great though, drives my HD650s no sweat, anything above 50 volume is painful. and they are 300ohm.

after doing a lot of research, it seems the chips they use in the asus strix raid cards are very good, DLX especially and easily the equal at least of 'normal' priced external amps. i also like having the card in the pc, very happy iwth my new setup :)
 
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The only black mark against the Strix cards is the high number of driver issues when used with Windows 10. Hardware wise they are a very capable card.
 
I wonder how many of those driver problems are actually caused by something else? I also hear of people having driver problems with the STX but I have never had any trouble whatsoever and that's while using Windows 8, 8.1, 10 and 10 Anniversary edition.
 
Thanks all.

For now I got the a new sound blaster Z OEM version £50 :D
I will be looking to upgrade my headphones next.

Maybe with the Beyerdynamic DT 990 Premium Edition or HD599.
 
I have Beyerdynamic DT990, Sennheiser HD650, AKG K702, Sony MDR-1A and MDR-100AAP...

The DT990s live in their box in the cupboard and haven't seen daylight since I got the K702s, so a few years now. I find the Beyerdynamic highs to be way too harsh, even compared with the detail monsters that are the AKG K702.
 
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