Senns HD595 & XFi - Upgrade or not?

[Martijn]

I recently got new HD595 cans and I have to say I absolutely love them. However, I bought my soundcard (X-Fi Xtreme Audio) with my PC speakers in mind.

Would it be worth to get a new soundcard (Prelude/Xonar), will I be better off getting a decent amp or am I fine with what I have? I have never heard either the Prelude and the Xonar and just don't know what to expect from them compared to my X-Fi. We do have an amplifier in the living room, but it's only a Sony cheapass B-type amp and it doesn't really sound all that better then my X-Fi so that's no reference either.

[flopper]

asus essence stx as soundcard, built in amp, simply as people say the best for computer headphones.
sell ur current one, and get that.

[Martijn]

asus essence stx as soundcard, built in amp, simply as people say the best for computer headphones.
sell ur current one, and get that.

I know that's the best, but I forgot to mention it needs to be PCI :(. I am getting a second GTX280 soon and that means all my slots will be filled up. I'll only have a PCI slot left.

[SoulsCollective]

The absolute best sounding card I've yet used for general listening and gaming on PCI is the Auzentech Prelude. I'm using a very demanding pair of phones, the Audio Techinca ATH-AD1000s, and the Prelude drives them brilliantly. As the Prelude is powered by the Creative X-Fi chip, you get your hardware processing and X-RAM, but also Dolby Digital and DTS Interactive due to Auzentech licensing, as well as much better components giving a much better sound than any of the X-Fi's I've heard (and from a technical perspective, only the Elite Pro, the most expensive consumer Creative card available, offers similar specs).

If you don't mind software processing, the Xonar D2 is also a fantastic sounding card.

[Mash]

X-Fi Xtreme Audio is just a re-named Audigy SE, so it is a software based card. It has an SE CA106 chip not the X-FI chip. I do not see any point to buy top-level soundcard, but X-fi xtreme gamer, ESI Juli@ or Xonar DX will be a good choice.

[Kondik]

Good day Lad,

I have the same Headphones and I'm using the X-Fi Elite pro , the headphones are connected through the Console with a golden TRS connector and I must say, if you have a good amount of classical FLAC's you'd cry so good does it sound.

[RealTelstar]

Xonar Essence ST (it's the pci version). When will be available.