Will a Xonar DGX fit my mobo/case?

[CK7]

Pardon my ignorance, I'm fairly inexperienced with PC upgrades, but I'm wondering if the community here can confirm that an Asus Xonar DGX will fit in my ASROCK Z87Extreme3 motherboard/ Zalman 5 fan case (Korean). I have one GTX 760 Windforce GPU.

I'm looking for a sound card for $60 or less that supports Dolby Headphone, mostly for gaming, but music (FLAC) and movies also.

I currently use a pair of Sennheiser HD 280 Pro's, but will order some Ultrasone Pro 900's next month. I already ordered an Astro Mixamp Pro (for PS3 also) but was worried my mobo sound may be the weak link that tarnishes my chain of audio. I will be using headphones 90% of the time, and only 2.1 speakers the rest of the time.

 

[thor220]

Those are some expensive cans. Do you have prior experience with quality audiophile headphones or are these your first set? I really won't recommend that any starter drop that much on their first set.

I definitely wouldn't recommend those for gaming or to be paired with a Xonar DGX. You at least have to go with a Xonar Essence II with those cans.

Judging by the fact that you didn't know that these are not gaming cans and that you wanted to pair them with an internal sound card I can tell you don't know much about audio yet. Your going to need a DAC / AMP if you want headphones of that caliber to shine.

 

[CK7]

They will be my first quality set. They go for around $500 here, so I suppose that is somewhat expensive, but I want some quality cans so I'm not afraid to pay for them. I chose them based off of Mad Lust Envy's Gaming Headphone Guide over at head-fi:

http://www.head-fi.org/t/534479/mad-lust-envys-headphone-gaming-guide-2-17-2015-x2-partial-evshrugs-x7-review-added

(The last headphone review in the list as of 2.19) He claimed that, and I quote, "the Pro 900 is lethal with Dolby Headphone. They are stupid awesome for gaming." which sounded pretty good to me.

Why wouldn't you recommend them for gaming? (I'm just looking for a high-quality "fun", closed set BTW, not looking to compete). I was also considering some Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro's, ~$300, but I can only find the 32 Ohm version here (not the 80) & I was a bit wary of getting the 250 Ohm ($420) because that would mean I'd need a serious gear chain whether I'm using it on PC or consoles, and I kinda want this to be as simple as possible.

It's true, I don't know a whole lot about audio yet, but I am patient and willing drop $200 on something like a Xonar Essence II even if it means waiting another month to save some more cash. From what I read, the Xonar DGX has an amp, and supports Dolby Headphone, so why is it inadequate?

 

[thor220]

Typically, people go for open cans for gaming. Open cans just have a larger sound stage so you can tell when the sound is coming from. If you do need isolation (you don't want sound to leak or don't want to hear external sound) then the cans you picked out are good.

The Xonar DGX is inadequate because the included DAC/AMP is only so-so. Yes it's one of the few sound cards with an AMP but because of that extra feature (normally only seen on expensive sound cards) they compromised on the DAC and the AMP isn't very clear. The amp is going to muddy up the sound.

I would highly recommend at least the Xonar Essence STX.


As a note, make sure you install the unified Xonar drivers instead of the Asus provided ones. Asus hasn't updated theirs in a long time while the community made drivers still receive updates. Must more stable.

 

[CK7]

Yeah, I guess I should have mentioned I need cans that block external sound because I have noisy neighbors.

Thanks for all the info, Thor. I shall look into some higher quality sound cards like the Essence STX before I make a decision.

 

[CK7]

Man, this stuff is confusing. The more I research, the more it seems everyone has a different opinion.

Anyhow, if anyone is still following this thread, what about something like a FiiO e17 for an easy, external AMP/DAC combo, and then just have the Astro MIxamp Pro for my PS3?

 

[thor220]

Your headphones will work nicely with the FiiO e17, they're a good portable amp. Should work well for you. I cannot comment on the Astro MIxamp Pro though.