Recently purchased AKG Q701 headphones and although they feel a little flimsy for their price tag they do sound great. I'm still debating what to power them with as my Xonar DG is rather noisy and weak. I've been looking at various dac & amp combos but for 200$, a solid soundcard like this doesn't seem like a bad idea. What do you guys think?
HT | OMEGA Claro Halo 24-bit 192KHz PCI Interface Sound Card w/ a built-in HI-FI Headphone Amplifier
ASUS Xonar Essence STX Virtual 7.1 Channels 24-bit 192KHz PCI Express x1 Interface 124 dB SNR / Headphone AMP Card
Budget is ~ 200$
New Sound Card Advice
Started by amythompson172, Feb 23 2012 07:52 AM
9 replies to this topic
#2
Black64
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Posted 23 February 2012 - 10:06 AM
The Omega is best the sound card brand out there right now, I would go for one.
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#3
ekiM
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Posted 23 February 2012 - 10:34 AM
Either the STX or a USB DAC/Amp. I doubt you can get the latter for less than 200
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#4
bp9801
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Posted 23 February 2012 - 11:43 AM
I vote for the ASUS Xonar Essence STX. Basically the same as the card I'm using, and I can vouch for the excellent sound they offer. You will need a spare power connector for it, but that is just to ensure clean power to the headphone amp.
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#5
ajaywilson
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Posted 19 April 2012 - 01:36 AM
Never take IDT soundcard because it does not have "stereo mix" option
#6
Stonerboy779
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Puts on Q701s d-_-b
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Posted 19 April 2012 - 03:02 AM
USB dac/headphone amp. Get that sh¡t out of the pc and onto the desk.
http://www.amazon.co...edir_mdp_mobile
USB dac with headphone amp and RCA pre outs which is nice. The consistent theme of it's reviews is it performs well beyond it's price and that it is being sold almost criminally low.
http://www.amazon.co...edir_mdp_mobile
USB dac with headphone amp and RCA pre outs which is nice. The consistent theme of it's reviews is it performs well beyond it's price and that it is being sold almost criminally low.
Man these spammers are geniuses...put (NO SPAM) in the thread title to hide the spam. It's brilliant. Hopefully this doesn't catch on...what if rapists wear signs that say (NOT A RAPIST)? They will be raping everybody! D:
#7
wevsspot
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Posted 19 April 2012 - 06:48 AM
Wow, really jumping the spectrum here from a $30 dollar sound card to max $200 dollar sound card.
Any reason to pass over the Asus mid-range options such as the DX or D1? Both of which are amazingly priced right now at Newegg.
Any reason to pass over the Asus mid-range options such as the DX or D1? Both of which are amazingly priced right now at Newegg.
#8
Stonerboy779
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Puts on Q701s d-_-b
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Posted 19 April 2012 - 12:13 PM
You realise how much has already been dropped on the headphones? They have an rrp of nearly $500 and I see no reason why a headphone amp/soundcard should stay inside a pc to pick up noise and possibly interfere with GPU cooling.Wow, really jumping the spectrum here from a $30 dollar sound card to max $200 dollar sound card.
Any reason to pass over the Asus mid-range options such as the DX or D1? Both of which are amazingly priced right now at Newegg.
Man these spammers are geniuses...put (NO SPAM) in the thread title to hide the spam. It's brilliant. Hopefully this doesn't catch on...what if rapists wear signs that say (NOT A RAPIST)? They will be raping everybody! D:
#9
wevsspot
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Posted 20 April 2012 - 06:11 AM
To each their own I guess 
#10
d6bmg
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Posted 20 April 2012 - 10:52 PM
Xonar STX, not ST which you have linked to in the first post.
