Educate me in PC audio

[Silent Fart]

Ok so I have a pair of plantronics .90's and an audigy 2 ZS. I was wondering what do you gain by spending hundreds of dollars on your headphones. Also why do you use amps? I know totally n00b questions but I have just never put that much thought into my sound.
-Silent_Fart

[towert7]

Spending hundreads of dollars means nothing.

But, getting better headphones means better sound............ Yea.... its that simple ^_^
No really, it doesn't mean you get gold plated headphones..... it just means they sound better, more comfrotable, better build quality, etc.

Add to that the fact that headphones give you a huge bang for the buck, and you can see why spending a couple hundread dollars on headphones is not out of the ordinary. A good 200$ headphone can match speakers up to the 800$ per pair price level on many levels (although speakers are in themself a different concept).

[jcll2002]

What are the differences in the cards... I dont really know anything about it and Im trying to decide between onboard, the audigy se, and audigy 4.

Ill be gaming and listening to alot of music.

Thanks

[iJeff]

What are the differences in the cards... I dont really know anything about it and Im trying to decide between onboard, the audigy se, and audigy 4.

Ill be gaming and listening to alot of music.

Thanks

if you want to play the most recent games, you'll want EAX 4 or 5 support for a better experience. most onboard sound out there doesn't support above EAX 3. That's the same story with any other non-Creative sound card.

I'm not exactly sure which Creative cards support the newer EAX 4 and 5 though.

[strid3r]

Ok so I have a pair of plantronics .90's and an audigy 2 ZS. I was wondering what do you gain by spending hundreds of dollars on your headphones. Also why do you use amps? I know totally n00b questions but I have just never put that much thought into my sound.
-Silent_Fart

High-end headphones are just simply better at reproducing music. We could talk about things like treble, bass, midrange, soundstage, dynamics, imaging, etc etc, but the easiest way would be for you to strap a pair on your head and take a listen if you have that option available to you.

Many sources (mp3 players, sound cards, etc.) are ill-suited to driving headphones directly. That's where the amp comes in. The improvements in sound can vary from anything to tighter bass, improved soundstage, to a "blacker" background. This varies from rig to rig of course.

What are the differences in the cards... I dont really know anything about it and Im trying to decide between onboard, the audigy se, and audigy 4.

Like iJeff stated, you'll probably want hardware support for EAX if you're going to game and Creative is the only choice here. The Audigy series have hardware support for up to EAX4 . The new X-fi series has hardware support for up to EAX5. Your onboard most likely only has software support for EAX2. Depending on how much you want to spend, an Audigy 2 or X-fi would probably be a good choice for you. Here's a refurb Audigy 2 ZS off Creative's eBay store for $39.99 + shipping:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Creative-Sound-Blaster-Audigy-2-ZS-THX-Audio-Card_W0QQitemZ6850598193QQcategoryZ44981QQtcZphotoQQcmdZView Item

[AdamW]

Everything will sound better.

Amps are necessary with high-impedence headphones to actually make them loud enough to listen to. They do this by increasing the level of voltage of the signal sent to the headphones. Their other function is to increase the level of current, which can improve the actual sound reproduction of the headphone, more on some models than others. They can also, either intentionally or through poor engineering, distort the signal in some way; people often (for reasons I can never quite fathom) use an amp as an extremely expensive and entirely non-configurable tone control by buying one which is known not to have a flat frequency response.

[strid3r]

Everything will sound better.

Amps are necessary with high-impedence headphones to actually make them loud enough to listen to. They do this by increasing the level of voltage of the signal sent to the headphones. Their other function is to increase the level of current, which can improve the actual sound reproduction of the headphone, more on some models than others. They can also, either intentionally or through poor engineering, distort the signal in some way; people often (for reasons I can never quite fathom) use an amp as an extremely expensive and entirely non-configurable tone control by buying one which is known not to have a flat frequency response.

Good catch! <3 Late-night posting.

[Ehren8879]

Hit up the for sale/ for trade forums and get yourself an Audigy 2 value. It'll give you EAX4.0 support as well as up to 7.1 surround sound. I got one honestly one week ago for $25 off these very forums here. I've bought a lot and sold some here and I can honestly say you can trust them. I paired this thing up an Onkyo 5.1 surround system and couldnt be happier. As for my headphones I say this sound card didnt blow away the onboard 2-channel soundstorm I used before hand. Then again, soundstorm was a very good onboard sound solution. If you dont have soundstorm (old nforce 2 chipset) and you want great 2.0 headphone playback get the audigy 2 value, it really fantastic and it's cheap. Finally get a pair of Sennheisers (headphones) at what ever pricepoint your willing to spend. You wont be dissatisfied. END OF STORY.

PS: If you're hellbent on the getting the audigy 2 zs, that'll do too :D

[jcll2002]

think this will be good for the audigy 4? http://www.circuitcity.com/rpsm/oid/98316/originURLEncoded/http%253A%252F%252Fwww.circuitcity.com%252Frpsm%252FcatOid%2 52F-13041%252FN%252F20012961%2B20013011%2B20013041%252Frpem%252F ccd%252Fcategorylist.do/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do#tabs

Is there any point of going from the audigy se to the audigy 4?

[towert7]

think this will be good for the audigy 4? http://www.circuitcity.com/rpsm/oid/98316/originURLEncoded/http%253A%252F%252Fwww.circuitcity.com%252Frpsm%252FcatOid%2 52F-13041%252FN%252F20012961%2B20013011%2B20013041%252Frpem%252F ccd%252Fcategorylist.do/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do#tabs

Is there any point of going from the audigy se to the audigy 4?
You might want to make your own thread about this in the audio forum. There are some people who can help, but they might not see your unrelated question in this post.