I recently got this headset, and wow is it good. My only issue is when certain people talk on discord, I can hear a really high pitched ringing. I fiddled with a bunch of settings, computer audio and discord, and nothing seems to solve the issue. It is primarily if not all in my right ear only. Is there something wrong with my headset, or was that ringing always there I can just hear it cause the headset is THAT good? I haven't had any issues with any other application, though I have yet to test if I can hear the ringing on a different version of discord, say on my xbox instead of my pc. Only other issue I've had is occasional static, but I can't tell if it's from the headset or the show/game/etc.
Apr 24, 2024
It already has a built-in headphone amp, but it requires I use the software volume, which I'm less than thrilled about, but it isn't a big deal.
Would there be a significant difference or should I just stick with using the built-in amp? My main headphones are the DT 880s (600 Ω).
The specifications given between the two don't line up as there are things missing from either of them that the other one tells you about. Makes it hard for novices like me to do a comparison.
But think of all the money you'll save if you don't buy an amp!
But in theory, suppose you could run your Essence STX outside of your computer case, it could actually be better than the O2. But it would also drive up costs because it would need its own power supply, enclosure etc.
There's also differences between amplifiers, differences can be earth shattering (ymmv!) but I'll get into that another time.
I've never noticed much of a problem with noise, but wouldn't the line-out send the noise right along to an external amp anyways?
I also realized that I would also need to check if gaming mode would still work with the line-out, as I do more than just listen to music with it.
So I actually need to give this a bit more thought before I decide what to do.
Yes, noise can certainly be transferred via the RCA output from your Essence, but perhaps not all the different types of noise which your computer generates. For example, if the DAC and amp sections of your Essence gets 1 unit of interference each, going to an external amp would mean you only get half of that. More or less.
I always recommend people to go all the way and get an external DAC along with amp, but if you're on a budget that's not always possible.
And in regards to noise, it's not always going to be obvious. Well there are obvious noise that you can hear, particularly grounding issues. But most noise, are not audible, but they affect the sound in an indirect way - smaller soundstage, muddy imaging, lack of slam, poor transparency etc.