New Gaming Headset-USB/Analogue?

[Slightly Quarky]

Onboard sound can vary in quality. These days, it's usually not bad. Though a decent sound card will improve on it.

You could get one of these:
Hi-Fi Audio DAC SD-192 Optical / Coaxial Decoder 24BIT/192Khz RCA & 3.5MM Output | eBay
MUSE Mini 24Bit 192Khz Coaxial Optical USB Input DAC Headphone Out,Black | eBay
and use optical out from your motherboard

These external DACs, are they sort of like external sound cards?

 

[Apokalipse]

These external DACs, are they sort of like external sound cards?

Yes, basically.

A sound card usually has a processing stage, and a DAC stage.

In the processing stage, it combines all the sounds, applies the surround and environmental effects, etc..
Creative's X-Fi sound cards do the processing stage very well. Although many of the features are a gimmick and don't actually do what they suggest.
EAX and hardware acceleration are the worthwhile features of the X-Fi. Except they have to use a workaround in Windows Vista/7/8 for EAX to actually work properly, since DirectX 10 removed support for audio hardware acceleration.

The DAC converts the digital output after the processing stage into an analogue sound wave. This is where your sound quality comes from. A better DAC means lower distortion, higher snr.
Historically, Creative have made DAC more of an afterthought. Although some of their more recent X-Fi's are not too bad here. But Recon3D's are a step back in DAC quality.

With an optical or coaxial connection from the motherboard, the motherboard's onboard sound card is doing the processing stage, but then the motherboard's DAC isn't used. It just sends the digital signal to the external DAC.

 

[steve10765]

just my 2 cents
I have used true a true surround sound headset for a week(friend lent it to me)or so(4 speakers per ear) they were expensive and very good qualit, and I have my own 7.1 virtual surround sound headset(isnt as good but is good)
All i can say is my $50 2.1 speakers sound better than lots of headsets, its so much nicer to feel the ground chake a little and to hear nice base. you really should get real speakers, i cant stress this enough, if you baught speakers in the upper tier of your pricew range you wouldnt regret it. trust me, i have heard my other friend $199 5.1 setup and it is better than a headset
also its not as bad for your ears

was in a rush typing this

 

[Apokalipse]

Headphones tend to give you better sound quality for the money than speakers do.

All i can say is my $50 2.1 speakers sound better than lots of headsets

There's the issue. Almost all headsets on the market aren't actually very good compared to similarly priced headphones from good brands.

That's why I suggested the zalman clipon microphone instead.

 

[Slightly Quarky]

just my 2 cents
I have used true a true surround sound headset for a week(friend lent it to me)or so(4 speakers per ear) they were expensive and very good qualit, and I have my own 7.1 virtual surround sound headset(isnt as good but is good)
All i can say is my $50 2.1 speakers sound better than lots of headsets, its so much nicer to feel the ground chake a little and to hear nice base. you really should get real speakers, i cant stress this enough, if you baught speakers in the upper tier of your pricew range you wouldnt regret it. trust me, i have heard my other friend $199 5.1 setup and it is better than a headset
also its not as bad for your ears

was in a rush typing this

I do have my own 2.1 speakers, and the audio from them is quite nice, but as Apokalipse said, headsets, microphone AND headphone combinations, are not as good quality as headPHONES, which are just purely for listening.
And I want headphones because I like the privacy of what I'm listening to, also so that my parents don't hear loud explosions rumbling from my speakers all the time.

Headphones tend to give you better sound quality for the money than speakers do.
There's the issue. Almost all headsets on the market aren't actually very good compared to similarly priced headphones from good brands.

That's why I suggested the zalman clipon microphone instead.

Apokalipse, when looking for external DACs, are there any things to look (out) for? I was just taking some looks at DACs on Amazon, and saw this: Amazon.com: FiiO D3 (D03K) Digital to Analog Audio Converter With Micca 6ft Optical Toslink Cable - 192kHz/24bit Optical and Coaxial DAC: Electronics
Was highly rated, and it comes with an optical cable too. Opinions?

 

[Apokalipse]

Basic measures of sound quality are Total Harmonic Distortion (THD, lower is better) and Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR, higher is better)

Lower THD means the output sound wave resembles the source more closely than a higher THD

SNR is the ratio of the actual sound you want vs unwanted background noise.
SNR is also measured in a logarithmic scale. 100dB SNR is not 10% better than 90dB; it's actually ten times better.

The E3 is pretty basic as far as DAC's go. It's not bad for $30, but not great.

Then there's output resolution, like 44.1khz/48khz/96khz/192khz
Basically, higher resolution means more detail. But whether you notice the difference between say 96khz and 192khz is another matter. And a lot of music is recorded at low resolutions anyway.
You might notice a difference if you play from FLAC's or high bitrate MP3's/AAC's and you have good equipment. But it won't jump out at you. It'll just be in little details.

Audio Technica AD series headphones do tend to produce details well though.
The AD700's and AD900's bass isn't as loud as other headphones relative to mids and highs, but it is good sounding bass. And you can always use an equalizer anyway.

 

[Slightly Quarky]

I may just end up buying a soundcard now, as it's proving rather difficult to find a good external DAC.
I'm looking at Asus' Xonar line, but have a hard time deciding which one, as they're all rather similar, the ones under $100 anyways.

 

[Apokalipse]

If your budget is ~$100, this is pretty good:
ZERO 24 BIT/192KHz DAC/Headphone Amp/Pre-Amp Sounds great!! | eBay

As far as Asus cards go, the Xonar DX is pretty good

Or you could look for an Auzentech X-Fi Forte

 

[Slightly Quarky]

Alright, so unless there's any glaring problems, I'm going for the Audio Technica AD-700s, with the Zalman Zm-Mic1 microphone, with the Asus Xonar DX sound card.
Thanks for all the help.