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Creative Sound Blaster X7 - Detailed Review & Impressions
Aug 17, 2022 at 1:06 PM Post #3,572 of 3,608
I am looking for a good amp to pair with my X7. I purchased the 8XX's while on sale earlier this year and amp on the X7 is lacking. I am looking for an amp with a wide sound stage and clean reproduction. I do not want a warmer sounding amp as I use my setup only for gaming.
Thanks
 
Aug 17, 2022 at 4:21 PM Post #3,573 of 3,608
Tatertots said:
I am looking for a good amp to pair with my X7. I purchased the 8XX's while on sale earlier this year and amp on the X7 is lacking. I am looking for an amp with a wide sound stage and clean reproduction. I do not want a warmer sounding amp as I use my setup only for gaming.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Have you thought about trying a full set of Sparkos op-amps?
 
Aug 17, 2022 at 4:54 PM Post #3,575 of 3,608
Mine as well. With that being said, I also have HD800s. Upgrading the op-amps really brought some life to the sound. The nice thing about going that route, is there is one less device on your desk.
 
Last edited:
Aug 17, 2022 at 5:23 PM Post #3,576 of 3,608
TeeReQs said:
Mine as well. With that being said, I also have HD800s. Upgrading the op-amps really brought some life to the sound. The nice thing about going that route, is there is one less device on your desk.
Click to expand...
I understand. You don't feel like you need any more power for you 800s? I am not getting the sound stage I thought I would be with my new head phones.
 
Aug 20, 2022 at 3:28 AM Post #3,577 of 3,608
Tatertots said:
I am looking for a good amp to pair with my X7. I purchased the 8XX's while on sale earlier this year and amp on the X7 is lacking. I am looking for an amp with a wide sound stage and clean reproduction. I do not want a warmer sounding amp as I use my setup only for gaming.
Thanks
Click to expand...
I love my Monoprice THX AAA 887. Balanced out to my HD800S, clean power, and affordable. This thing has power for days, even gets my Hifiman HE6se loud which is a feat. (Some people use speaker amps to power these cans...)

I have not tried it with my X7 (retired it a bit ago), but power and neutrality wise this amp will give you good clean volume.
 
Aug 22, 2022 at 1:42 PM Post #3,578 of 3,608
illram said:
I love my Monoprice THX AAA 887. Balanced out to my HD800S, clean power, and affordable. This thing has power for days, even gets my Hifiman HE6se loud which is a feat. (Some people use speaker amps to power these cans...)

I have not tried it with my X7 (retired it a bit ago), but power and neutrality wise this amp will give you good clean volume.
Click to expand...
I was looking at that amp as a solution. Lucky for me they have it for sale for $199.00 today so I ordered one. I want to use the X7 as my dac so I just need to plug rca cables to out on the back of the x7 to the input on the 887? Thanks for the suggestion.
 
Oct 3, 2022 at 11:44 AM Post #3,580 of 3,608
Tatertots said:
I understand. You don't feel like you need any more power for you 800s? I am not getting the sound stage I thought I would be with my new head phones.
Click to expand...
Well, the X7 certainly has enough power for the HD 800, and all these years later I haven’t found an All-in-one that improves on or even can match the features offered by the X7. Mixing multiple streams of audio (USB, optical, Bluetooth, RCA), performing surround and EQ DSP, having a DAC fairly comparable to a Schiit Bifrost Uber (probably closer to the current Gen Modi now), and yes a powerful headphone and speaker amp is part of the total package. The better soundstage comes from a lower noise floor (black background) among other things. I’ve only heard good things about the Sparkos opamp upgrade, but I personally had a good experience adding Burson opamps. The upgrade definitely improved the fidelity and sense of “holographic” sound, but I can also understand wanting to add a dedicated headphone amp in case the X7 was going to be removed from your setup.

I wouldn’t have chosen the THX 887 for the HD 800, but are you finding the HD 8xx’s laid back upper mids are helping with the synergy?
 
Nov 18, 2022 at 10:32 PM Post #3,581 of 3,608
Evshrug said:
Well, the X7 certainly has enough power for the HD 800, and all these years later I haven’t found an All-in-one that improves on or even can match the features offered by the X7. Mixing multiple streams of audio (USB, optical, Bluetooth, RCA), performing surround and EQ DSP, having a DAC fairly comparable to a Schiit Bifrost Uber (probably closer to the current Gen Modi now), and yes a powerful headphone and speaker amp is part of the total package. The better soundstage comes from a lower noise floor (black background) among other things. I’ve only heard good things about the Sparkos opamp upgrade, but I personally had a good experience adding Burson opamps. The upgrade definitely improved the fidelity and sense of “holographic” sound, but I can also understand wanting to add a dedicated headphone amp in case the X7 was going to be removed from your setup.

I wouldn’t have chosen the THX 887 for the HD 800, but are you finding the HD 8xx’s laid back upper mids are helping with the synergy?
Click to expand...
I am sorry for the late response to your message. Havent checked in on the site in a while. the THX 887 sounds great with my headphones. I have the X7 plugged in my THX to use as a dac. I am not that familiar with a lot of headphone sounds as I only use them for gaming. I started off with turtle beach, astro, hd 650 and now the 8xx. by far the 8xx blows away the rest. I am really enjoying the combo and I dont feel like I am wanting for more like I did when using the 650s.
 
Dec 26, 2022 at 12:25 AM Post #3,582 of 3,608
Hi all,

If I wanted to use my setup as such USB from PC->X7->optical out->Schiit bifrost->Schiit Valhalla 2 that would work right without any audio degradation? I am looking to basically use the mixer and microphone functionality of the x7 only as no other device offers the ability to use your own dac and amp while offering a mic input and mixing 2 audio streams at once into one. Also with this setup the op amps do nothing right and there is no need to play with them?
 
Dec 27, 2022 at 3:13 AM Post #3,583 of 3,608
slayer6288 said:
Hi all,

If I wanted to use my setup as such USB from PC->X7->optical out->Schiit bifrost->Schiit Valhalla 2 that would work right without any audio degradation? I am looking to basically use the mixer and microphone functionality of the x7 only as no other device offers the ability to use your own dac and amp while offering a mic input and mixing 2 audio streams at once into one. Also with this setup the op amps do nothing right and there is no need to play with them?
Click to expand...
Yes and yes
 
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