I think the hardest part of achieving high quality audio is not the equipment, but rather all the artists that distribute with 320kbps bitrates. It can be such a pain to find quality audio sometimes.

What.cd is the number one place for high quality and lossless music, though its a bit of a mix between the illuminati and the russian mafia.

most of the artists I listen to I'm able to get .FLAC's from. I'm just not able to fully appreciate them with poor audio quality

Nowadays I'd recommend a DAC over a dedicated Sound Card. For about 199$ you can get a Schiit Stack (Magni+Modi) or for 279, if I'm not mistaken, an ODAC + O2 combo. Both are DAC's + AMP, which should power just about any headphone you throw at them.

If you only need to power something relatively easy to drive like the HD598 (that only has a peak in impedance in the low end), you should be fine with just the DAC component of what I reccomended above. What is the sound signature that you like?

Also regarding source material, most music nowadays is garbage, even if 320 kbps. So much compression totally ruins the songs, and this is clearly noticeable when you go back to amazingly recorded jazz songs from the 70's or 80's

For a sound card your best option would probably be an external usb DAC/AMP

Something with great attack. Most of the music I listen to has a lot of low/mids. Obviously want every note to be defined, but I definitely have a preference on the low end.

Doing more reading I now realize the HD598's are probably not the best option for me.

Yeah that why I asked, the HD598 are quite tame. They're a good all rounder, but really laid back and relaxed. Right now I have some Beyer DT990 Pro and I really enjoy their low end, even tho they are more of a V sound signature, with really nice bass and highs, but the mids are not their strong point.

What I'd recommend would be something along the lines of an HD650 (for something more refined, but still dark) or Fidelio X2 (for something just more fun and plug'n'play).

Do you think it's worth investing $110 more in the 650's rather than the 600's? And because Canada is a 3rd world country I can't get the X2's without paying crazy international fees so I'm just going to write that badboy off.

Probably gunna end up with magni2+modi2

Spend most or all of your budget on the headphones. With your budget you can get a very high-end one from the top brands. If you stick to 300Ohms or less, any headphone should be drivable from the onboard soundcard. On-board audio is amazing these days, so unless you get noise or low output from that, don't spend any money on DACs and amps.

You could spend some money on a (USB) soundcard with Dolby Headphone support (Asus U7 for example), that will get you good surround sound from a stereo headphone. Don't believe that's possible? Listen to the virtual barbershop with headphones.

Don't bother with hi-res audio (you're not a bat and you can't hear a mosquito next to a jackhammer) and lossless audio (except for archiving purposes), it's mastering that makes a lot of modern music sound atrocious. Find well mastered music, enjoy it on your high-end headphones fed through a $2 sound chip.

After breaking my last pair of headphones (Audiotechnica ATH-AD700's) and my front audio port in a moving accident, I decided to upgrade some of my audio equipment as well. I am by no means an audiophile, and I'm sure I could have done a lot more research and saved myself some money, but I am happy with what I have now and I see it lasting me for 5+ more years.

My new gear:
Headphones: Audiotechnica ATH-AD2000X
Amp/DAC: JDS Labs O2 + ODAC RevB (You can also customize one on their website)

I am not a fan of pounding bass so this set up works perfectly for me. Music sounds pretty amazing, every detail is audible. Just after getting the AD2000X's, I was experiencing a light hiss in my headphones which was completely eliminated when run through the Amp/ODAC. I am also still using a USB soundcard for my ModMic 4.0 and it really helps to eliminate background noise. While I was waiting for my Amp to arrive I was also plugging my headphones into the USB soundcard and it honestly sounded pretty damn good besides the hissing, so that might just be the best place to start because its such a small investment and could potentially meet your needs.

AMP / DAC : I will follow up on b4nny recommendation with the AMP / DAC combo of : JDS Labs o2 / ODAC.
I will recommend to order directly from their website. Their company is really really solid on customer service.
Here : https://www.jdslabs.com/products/48/o2-odac-combo-revb/

You could offer 240$ canadian to this guy... shipped.

http://www.canuckaudiomart.com/details/649206076-jds-labs-o2odac-headphone-amplifier/

Headphones :

i would get a used pair of Sennheiser HD-650 or HD-600 with it. (You should be able to get it for 300$)
If you cant find any, get the 598, but you would enjoy more the AMP and DAC on 600-650.
impossible to be disapointed, trust me i have research a lot those kind of things.
280$ for HD-600 with custom Cardas cable here :
http://app.audiogon.com/listings/over-ear-sennheiser-hd600-w-cardas-15ft-cable-2015-06-17-headphones-85295-gilbert-az

I would not recommend investing on a sound card at all. If you change your computer in the future, an external AMP/DAC combo will follow you. (Even if you go in a trip and you have a portable computer, you can bring that, for a weekend or what ever)

ive been told grado labs sr325 are really good for the price

So what youre saying is I could invest in higher quality headphones and skip $200-300 worth of DACs and amps? Sounds nice!

My motherboard carries a Realtek ALC898 so I'm assuming that's even better than the one discussed on tom's hardware. I do believe the sennheisers provide 1/4" to 3.5mm cords so if that's really the case then that would be cool.

I guess the best option would be to just get an expensive pair and then get a DAC/AMP if I want to pursue the issue further.

So I guess I should ask the question of headphones then. Are the HD650's great enough to warrant a $110 price difference? I have heard nothing of the Audiotechnica ATH-AD2000X's, but it seems that it's another headphone that will cost me a good $70 for shipping because canada.

As others have said, great headphones on a crappy sound card is much better than ok headphones on a pricy audio interface. (EDIT: I am recommending you get an external interface, just reassuring your focus on headphones)

Here's my constant headphones recommendation. If you want a flat response, not increased low end, extra attack, or whatever, these will blow pretty much all competition out of the water for the price. I've had a pair for about 3 years, still in great condition after heavy use and travel. Even had a mastering engineer ask me about what headphones I had, after telling him of miniscule distortion in the mids that weren't audible in studio monitors/his hifi gear.
http://www.amazon.com/Sennheiser-Collapsible-Headphones-380-Pro/dp/B001UE6I0G

In general, I'd always suggest going with headphones designed for monitoring purposes, rather than "high quality listening". good luck

I'm gonna go against the grain here and put in a recommendation for the least expensive integrated USB DAC/headphone amp I would spend good money on: The Schiit Fulla at $79. Yes, most integrated audio chips are decent, but usually they are chock full of noise because manufacturers run analog audio traces halfway across the board and they pick up EMF noise from your GPU (among other things). I have a $200 stack of Schiit myself, but only because I use it to run planar magnetic headphones, which in general require more power than your average mid-range Sennheiser dynamic headphones. I think a good rule of thumb for dac/amp purchases is to never spend more than 50% as much as your headphones cost.

So after a little homework I decided to go with the Sennheiser HD650's as headphones. Fidelio X2's and Audiotechnica ATH-AD2000X's were promising, but weren't an option because they weren't available in Canada and I don't want to pay $70 shipping.

The grado labs sr235 look pretty flimsy and on-ear as well as costing more than the 650's. I was looking at the 380Pro's and really liked the idea, but I did feel like I should get something more high end just in case, and that the reviews said they can be uncomfortable after many hours.

I'm undecided on the DAC/AMP situation. Just scrounging for deals everywhere on either schiit magni+modi or o2+odac. Might be persuaded to not even get one if the headphones blow me away.

I read many criticisms of cheap dac/amps especially those from schiit.

Thanks to everyone that helped! c:

won't regret! enjoy those beauties

I'd recommend akg q/k7xx over the sennheisers. They probably suit your needs better too.

Saw those around too. Supposed to be a contender to the 650's and other expensive headphones for a pretty cheap price, although i read that they do require great source quality and a good dac/amp, plus again theyre not easy to come by in Canada.

Definitely plan on trying out new headphones when I can, during travel and things. If I do however find better ones I can always surprise my dad with a birthday/xmas gift. He's too cheap to buy anything good :p

grados are really nice but they have a very distinct sound to them, they have a wierd frequency response and can sound really good to some people but really bad to others. Some people love the grado sound but some people hate it so keep that in mind as well. I personally have a pair of 225is (the cheaper model of the 325s) and I enjoy listening to them and I don't mind the fact that they have so little bass. I don't know enough about headphones to describe the sound accurately but it is definitely not a neutral response, it's a kind of warm sound that can be shrill but sounds great for guitars and vocals. I would not recommend them for somebody looking at stuff like the hd 650s as they are completely different classes of headphones. The headband and ear cushions can be uncomfortable but I got used to them after a little while and don't mind it at all now.

http://i.imgur.com/yNkcjcY.jpg

These are really good. The sound quality is REALLY good, and a lot of people use them as well. I think b4nny uses them, if you want a brief review by someone MUCH more qualified just ask him on stream. ATH-AD700's sell for $250 a piece, unless you find a sale somewhere. They're also open eared

I've had mine for 3 years, here's my thoughts

Pros

• Very clear sound
  
• Footsteps are easy to pinpoint in videogames
  
• Comfy
  
• Can hear irl noises very well due to open ear design
  
• Lightweight
  
• I've never overheated wearing these. I don't know why, but I never get sweat around my ears like I do with most headphones.
  
• Wide sound stage

Cons

• The things that rest on your head are kinda flimsy if you're clumsy enough to drop the headphones
  
• Pretty big
  
• Bass isn't overwhelming
  
• With the pros of open headphones come the cons, mostly having others hear whatever you're listening to if you listen at high volume

Edit: oops, didn't see op's decision or b4nny's earlier post

Yeah I used them for years until I just broke them. I believe they are discontinued which makes them much more expensive (when I originally bought them they were like $80), but luckily were replaced by the ATH-AD700X, which should be basically the same headphones but with a bit of an updated design. I ended up getting a ATH-AD2000X just because I got a bit carried away, honestly I would probably been happy getting an ATH-AD700X, ATH-AD500X, ATH-AD900X, or ATH-AD1000X just as well. You have options with Audiotechnica based on your budget, and you should be receiving the same overall quality for whichever you choose.

You wont enjoy Sennheiser HD-650 if they are not runned under a dedicated amplifier.

It looks like I came late into the thread and you already made your headphone decision, but let me paste in one of my replies related to amp/dacs to give you a better idea of the flow of audio from computer to ears. Below it is my thoughts for your situation.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Soundcards are a two device component a DAC and an Amp. A DAC turns the digital information (the 1s and 0s) of your harddrive into something physical that can be played by speakers, headphones, etc. If you are listening to something that comes from a computer (ipod, phone, computer, etc.) then it must pass through a DAC for you to hear it. What qualifies a better dac is both the accuracy of converting these 1s and 0s to electricity and the amount of noise created from the process. Technology has advanced enough that the noise generated from the DAC is almost negligible, but other currents running in close proximity to the DAC can add their own noise. This is why a DAC should be as far away from all other electricity as possible (and why people recommend that you use an external DAC for best sound quality).

An amp on the other hand, boosts the strength of the electric signal so that it can power whatever device it is being sent to. If not enough electricity is the signal, then defects can be heard in the sound. An amp is qualified by one major factor, how much extra noise is added to the process of amplifying the signal.

Now as for real world stuff. Most low end to lower mid end headphones are actually efficient enough to run off the built in amp of most electronics (and definitely your motherboard). The hd598 fall into this category, purchasing a better amp really isn't going to do much in the grand scheme of things. The DAC on the other hand, is dependent on what you hear. Do you hear pops and cracks in otherwise silence? Is there a slight hissing in the music that you hear? These are signs that your current DAC really isn't doing your audio justice. Honestly, most motherboards these days have pretty good DACs in them that are shielded decently well.

However, you are using an XDG, an upgrade to whatever motherboard sound you have. An xdg has sufficient amping for almost everything in the mid tier range except headphones like the akg k70x and the hifiman he-400. Buying a better amp really is only going to be for future proofing yourself in case you upgrade your headphones later down the line. As for the DAC, the xdg also has a pretty decent DAC in it as well. If there is any noise that you hear it is probably from being inside of your case rather than the DAC itself. This means that buying another pci card isn't going to help. You are going to need an external DAC for the job if the noise is a problem.

Honestly, spending significant cash on an internal soundcard is pretty silly when it is just going to have as many problems as one that is significantly cheaper.

jwso
- I want to have great sounds in video juegos like CS:GO
Video games have pretty crappy sound. The biggest thing that really matters for (competitive) gaming is having a good soundstage, something that is impossible to do with a soundcard (unless your headphones are severely underamped.

jwso
- Not really looking to get a headphone amp (I rarely use high volume)
Volume has nothing to do with amping. There are volume knobs on amps for a reason. Outside of not introducing errors, providing headphones with extra power than it needs gives you extra headroom to prevent clipping and makes silence even quieter.

jwso
- Budget: around $200 (don't mind if it's a bit cheaper than that)
This is a great budget. The low end products from Schiit as well as the O2+ODAC are great products.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So this reply was for somebody looking at better sound cards for low-mid headphones but for your case it is a bit different.

The 650s are a bit inefficient and really do not sound their best when connected straight to the line out port of your computer (unamped). Now depending on your ear you may not notice the problems associated with underamping (muddier, sloppy low-end, constricted soundstage) and you can't harm your headphones by not amping them, so if you are near your budget limit (<$100 left) just try using the headphones for a week and if the sound defects are really noticeable get an amp. Otherwise just plan to get one when you get more disposable income for another audio purchase.

As for an amp recommendation since the HD650s are not electrostatics (which require a special amp) nor orthodynamic (which are extremely inefficient and require huge amounts of power to run properly, the HE-6 from HiFiMan needs like 5W @50Ohms which is pretty much equivalent to speaker amplifiers) you can get by with any well built amp out there. In addition, sennheisers also sound really good with tube amps, though they tend to cost more.

With that said, assuming you want the best bang for your buck look at either the Schiit Magni ($100 usd probably a billion canadian since they are a usa company) or the O2 amp design from NwAvGuy. Because this amp design is open source there are many different manufacturers that make the amp, the most popular being JDSLabs but since you are from canada they probably aren't the cheapest source for an O2. A quick google search found a mayflower electronics listing on ncix for $130 cad which might be the cheapest option. If you wanna try a tube amp, the two reasonably cheap options are the Bottlehead Crack (a DIY amp though prebuilt for around $300), the Schiit Valhalla ($350), and the Little Dot amps (~$300).

As for dacs, as I said in my quoted post unless you hear pops and cracks during audio playback and your silence (play a track with literally no sound) isn't actually silent don't bother with one for now.

The chain of audio improvement generally looks like this:

audio above 128kbps > headphones under $500 > audio above 256kbps > headphones > a dac if there is audible noise and other nasties from your current audio chain > an amp to power the headphone to its full potential >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> amps that are "better" than the minimal amp >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> dacs when you can't hear anything wrong with your audio

Here's a nice test on your ability to recognize high-quality audio from compressed audio: www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2015/06/02/411473508/how-well-can-you-hear-audio-quality

The npr test is garbage, truly testing audio quality should come from an abx test where switching between the two sources is seemless and using songs that weren't actually used as benchmarking tests for the mp3 encoding algorithm. The best online site I've come across for real testing is http://abx.digitalfeed.net/ though all songs and genres are different and it would be best to do the testing yourself (use foobar with the abx plugin) to see if you can tell the different with your own music.

#5
While I agree for the most part, for the love of god, don't try to run headphones directly off of the ODAC. 500 Ohms output impedance will fuck you up badly. Especially with something like the HD598 that go from 50 to 300 Ohms the frequency response will get messed up completely.

Also about compression: There's a difference between dynamic range and data compression.
Compressing data is completely normal and acceptable. Even FLAC is compressed, uncompressed would be wav for example. There's very few people who actually have the hearing to tell the most significant difference between mp3 (lossy compression) and lossless: the low pass filter. And guess what, CBR 320kbit or VBR V0 don't use a lowpass filter. Before anyone starts whining "it's lossy compression, there is a difference and I can tell", no you can't. 90% of the pictures you've looked at a jpg and lossy. Any digital video you've ever seen has been through lossy encoding. So there's no need to worry about mp3, 320k or V0 is as good as it gets. The only advantage that lossless (FLAC, ALAC, wav) has is that you can transcode it to lossy if you need to save space on a mobile device.

And then there's dynamic range compression.
Generally speaking there's 3 types:
-boosting quieter instruments is acceptable, maybe even desirable if you want them to be heard in a low dynamic range listening environment (e.g. public transport).
-boosting intruments/voices during quieter parts to keep the sound pressure roughly constant. You'll notice everything else suddenly getting slightly quieter when a new instrument/voice comes in. It sounds weird as fuck and you should try to find better source material.
-turning up the volume and then simply clipping the waveform. This is eeeeeeevil. Worst case this could actually damage tweeters. If you find someone doing this, burn him at the stake.

#17
Have you thought about the HD600 vs HD650?

http://i.imgur.com/sXKYbGc.jpg

O HAI

http://i.imgur.com/e9BaLcE.jpg