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
Does anyone here have any experience with driving the 6XX's on a Ryzen motherboard (specifically the X370 chipset's ubiquitous Realtek ALC 1150)? I have a Crosshair VI, and ASUS claims that the motherboard's components adapt to impedance on the fly and can drive high high-end headphones. Also, if an amp is recommended for driving the cans (already looking at an O2), is a dac also recommended, or is spending the extra $125 or so hitting the point of heavy diminishing returns?
As a reference, I'm currently just using my California Headphones Silverados (32 Ohm I think) directly plugged into the rear 3.5mm jack; the motherboard seems solid enough, with no audible noise floor.
Your onboard audio will drive them pretty easily, but the increased clarity means you will hear everything you PC is doing. I mean EVERYTHING (if you can hear higher frequencies, that is). Drive access and network access are the big ones, but fans throttling and any device with varying voltage needs (eg - RGB stuff) will probably be audible during quieter pieces. I have yet to find an onboard audio solution that is good - they're all shades of between bad and meh.
I wish I had a clear recommendation, but I do have a few suggestions. I would get an external DAC and AMP simply to have more control over noise sources (keep anything analog away from that box of EMI chaos). From there it becomes a matter of taste and budget. I've auditioned a handful of DAC/AMP setups ranging from $100-$5000 and I would never spend more than $1000. Extremely diminishing returns. I would hesitate at $500 if there weren't some special features or a crazy nice aesthetic factor. I've bought a few sub-$250 amps on whims, mostly Fiio, and they've been fine for improving portable device sound quality by ~15-20%. I think the sweet spot for most folks is around $400 for music and movies. For gaming, I wouldn't bother with hardware and spend some time tweaking equalizer settings. 'Gaming' focus amps tend to focus on the low end to get rumbling explosions, but you actually want very narrow frequency ranges for sound localization.
The last thing I wanted to add was that I'm planning to pull an old Yamaha receiver from the basement to see how that sounds. It might be worth considering that kind of solution, since the specialty industry loves to price gouge.
Good luck, and enjoy them Senns.
Also if you get an external dac, you need to get an amp too, personally I'd say in range of how much each piece affects sounds it'd be Headphones > Amps > DACs (The ones around the $1~200 mark anyway). the 6XX is 300 ohms, so it's likely nothing like any of the cans you've been driving before this.