Creative Sound Blaster E Series is an External Sound 'Card'

[exfileme]

Here are two external sound card solutions.

Creative Sound Blaster E Series is an External Sound 'Card' : Read more

 

[HumdrumPenguin]

600 Ohms? Nonsense....

 

[jimmysmitty]

[quotemsg=13295510,0,1486113]600 Ohms? Nonsense....[/quotemsg]

I would believe it. Both my motherboard sound card (Asus Maximus VI Formula) and my SB Z both have a 600 Ohm headphone jack amp. My board uses a Ti TPA6120A2 and my SB Z uses a MAX97220A for the headphone jack. Both op-amps provide 600 Ohms and are pretty tiny chips.

Everything gets smaller. If you compare a XB ZxR to a SB X-Fi Titanium, the ZxR has less components yet offers equal to or better sound quality and features.

 

[chaosmassive]

the link that you provided is 404
can you put the picture here instead?

 

[BadBoyGreek]

600 Ohms? Nonsense....

600 ohm sound cards are kind of old news, they've been around a while now. I have the Asus Xonar Essence STX which is rated for 600 Ohm headphones, and combined with my very expensive Beyerdynamic headphones which are rated for 600 Ohms, I experience severe pain in my ears once the volume goes above 50%.

What I don't like about Creative is how they keep shying away from 1/4 inch headphone jacks, as very few of their cards, even high end ones, don't have them. Almost all high end headphones (and no, anything Beats by Dre is NOT high end) don't have 3.5mm jacks. It's stupid to have to use an adapter.

 

[HumdrumPenguin]

[quotemsg=13296393,0,1661905]

600 Ohms? Nonsense....

600 ohm sound cards are kind of old news, they've been around a while now. I have the Asus Xonar Essence STX which is rated for 600 Ohm headphones, and combined with my very expensive Beyerdynamic headphones which are rated for 600 Ohms, I experience severe pain in my ears once the volume goes above 50%.

What I don't like about Creative is how they keep shying away from 1/4 inch headphone jacks, as very few of their cards, even high end ones, don't have them. Almost all high end headphones (and no, anything Beats by Dre is NOT high end) don't have 3.5mm jacks. It's stupid to have to use an adapter.[/quotemsg]

I use the same Stx card, but I pair with the HD 598. I don't think it can drive much more than that. And I'm 100% sure this thingie from creative is far from powering up 600 ohm headphones.

 

[Haravikk]

I'm a bit disappointed at this only being stereo; I know a lot of motherboards these days come with built-in surround sound, but for Macs and other SFF systems a good, affordable USB surround sound device would be a huge benefit. The Omni Surround is nice, but it's not as compact and is overkill for more casual users who are most interested in good output (rather than mixed recording and output).

 

[HumdrumPenguin]

[quotemsg=13297513,0,1416168]I'm a bit disappointed at this only being stereo; I know a lot of motherboards these days come with built-in surround sound, but for Macs and other SFF systems a good, affordable USB surround sound device would be a huge benefit. The Omni Surround is nice, but it's not as compact and is overkill for more casual users who are most interested in good output (rather than mixed recording and output).[/quotemsg]

The main purpose of this device is for you to listen to better music, and for music you go stereo.

 

[dstarr3]

I would love it if this works as a DAC for an iPod classic.

 

[belardo]

There is so little market for these things. With ATX standards and decent audio since 2001+... the Audio Card market has been dying for years. I have bought several Soundblaster cards in the past since Windows 3.1.

 

[BadBoyGreek]

[quotemsg=13297513,0,1416168]I'm a bit disappointed at this only being stereo; I know a lot of motherboards these days come with built-in surround sound, but for Macs and other SFF systems a good, affordable USB surround sound device would be a huge benefit. The Omni Surround is nice, but it's not as compact and is overkill for more casual users who are most interested in good output (rather than mixed recording and output).[/quotemsg]

Surround sound is only good for the movies. It's true that multichannel music has been around for years now, like DVD-Audio etc. but nobody at the high end goes with surround sound. Check out any super audiophile's setup, and you'll see that even those with the deepest pockets who can afford the best, most expensive equipment out there all use 2 channel setups.

 

[BadBoyGreek]

[quotemsg=13297067,0,1486113][quotemsg=13296393,0,1661905]

600 Ohms? Nonsense....

600 ohm sound cards are kind of old news, they've been around a while now. I have the Asus Xonar Essence STX which is rated for 600 Ohm headphones, and combined with my very expensive Beyerdynamic headphones which are rated for 600 Ohms, I experience severe pain in my ears once the volume goes above 50%.

What I don't like about Creative is how they keep shying away from 1/4 inch headphone jacks, as very few of their cards, even high end ones, don't have them. Almost all high end headphones (and no, anything Beats by Dre is NOT high end) don't have 3.5mm jacks. It's stupid to have to use an adapter.[/quotemsg]

I use the same Stx card, but I pair with the HD 598. I don't think it can drive much more than that. And I'm 100% sure this thingie from creative is far from powering up 600 ohm headphones.

[/quotemsg]

I previously had a pair of Sennheiser HD 650s paired with the STX card, and the difference when I hooked up the Beyerdynamics and set the gain on the sound card to the extra high gain setting for 600 Ohm headphones was like night and day. If you think they can't power much more than that, you really should get a 600 Ohm pair and see for yourself. Even reviews on high end audio review sites have all confirmed that the STX can power pretty much any pair of headphones out there, save of course for electrostatic headphones that need their own transformer.

 

[HumdrumPenguin]

[quotemsg=13320055,0,1661905][quotemsg=13297067,0,1486113][quotemsg=13296393,0,1661905]

600 Ohms? Nonsense....

600 ohm sound cards are kind of old news, they've been around a while now. I have the Asus Xonar Essence STX which is rated for 600 Ohm headphones, and combined with my very expensive Beyerdynamic headphones which are rated for 600 Ohms, I experience severe pain in my ears once the volume goes above 50%.

What I don't like about Creative is how they keep shying away from 1/4 inch headphone jacks, as very few of their cards, even high end ones, don't have them. Almost all high end headphones (and no, anything Beats by Dre is NOT high end) don't have 3.5mm jacks. It's stupid to have to use an adapter.[/quotemsg]

I use the same Stx card, but I pair with the HD 598. I don't think it can drive much more than that. And I'm 100% sure this thingie from creative is far from powering up 600 ohm headphones.

[/quotemsg]

I previously had a pair of Sennheiser HD 650s paired with the STX card, and the difference when I hooked up the Beyerdynamics and set the gain on the sound card to the extra high gain setting for 600 Ohm headphones was like night and day. If you think they can't power much more than that, you really should get a 600 Ohm pair and see for yourself. Even reviews on high end audio review sites have all confirmed that the STX can power pretty much any pair of headphones out there, save of course for electrostatic headphones that need their own transformer.
[/quotemsg]

Well then, that's good news for me then. I was thinking about going for Audeze LCD 2 (3 is too damn expensive). Seems like there won't be a need for an external DAC/Amp