astros a50 or roccat kave xtd?

[garretts43]

Stuck between the two. I like the bluetooth idea for roccat, but i also like the wireless for the a50.

 

[Pinhedd]

Stuck between the two. I like the bluetooth idea for roccat, but i also like the wireless for the a50.

I was eyeballing the Roccat Kave (base analogue) as a replacement for my busted Sharkoon X-Tactic. I wasn't super sold on the leathery earpieces on the Kave, they don't look like they'd be very comfortable during long sessions and probably wouldn't hold up as well as the Sharkoon X-Tactic's felt covered earpieces.

If the X-Tactic Pro was available in Canada I'd buy another one in a heartbeat.

 

[garretts43]

So no on the roccat xtd?

 

[Pinhedd]

So no on the roccat xtd?

I avoid anything BlueTooth or Wireless like the plague. Analogue ftw.

 

[garretts43]

The roccat is usb, it just has bluetooth for phone calls. But stay away from usb as well?

 

[Pinhedd]

The roccat is usb, it just has bluetooth for phone calls. But stay away from usb as well?

Yes, definitely stay away from USB if you value audio quality and performance.

 

[Zarow]

Actually I'd disagree...analogue will cause a worse signal due to an analogue signal rather than a digital one. Digital signals can be restored and are (at a the mid and top end) higher quality with much higher sampling frequency and therefore quality(obviously depends on the headset). Digital signals basically stream 0s and 1s at however many bit they can which means that at 100Hz with a 4bit connection you will get 400 "digits" of sound but with an analogue signal it just sends a voltage and it therefore tends to "linger" with sub £100/150 headsets(I'm from the UK but you can easily check pricing) Look for 20MHz at a maximum output at least (with audio that provides a minimum needed so that no issues arise with the sound transmission at higher pitches) and you should be ok. I know this is late but at least you'll know for your next headset

 

[Pinhedd]

Actually I'd disagree...analogue will cause a worse signal due to an analogue signal rather than a digital one. Digital signals can be restored and are (at a the mid and top end) higher quality with much higher sampling frequency and therefore quality(obviously depends on the headset). Digital signals basically stream 0s and 1s at however many bit they can which means that at 100Hz with a 4bit connection you will get 400 "digits" of sound but with an analogue signal it just sends a voltage and it therefore tends to "linger" with sub £100/150 headsets(I'm from the UK but you can easily check pricing) Look for 20MHz at a maximum output at least (with audio that provides a minimum needed so that no issues arise with the sound transmission at higher pitches) and you should be ok. I know this is late but at least you'll know for your next headset

All speakers a driven by analogue signals. The question is when the signal is converted to analogue and how well it is converted. Discrete PCI and PCIe sound cards are the absolute best at this.

Furthermore, PCM is a lossless digital format, but it's also enormously expensive in terms of storage. Dolby Digital and DTS are both lossy format, so when a Dolby Digital decoder on a digital headset decodes an AC3 bitstream back to PCM, the restored PCM channels are of degraded quality compared to the original.

 

[Zarow]

Agreed. While speakers are driven by analogue as they're a voltage the quality of a digital signal can be just as good in some cases. Furthermore I feel like any sound card isn't going to be worth it once you have a good mobo(like your Rampage IV Extreme). I'd say a bad motherboard(w/o sound card) will be the weaker link in the chain than USB over 3.5mm.

 

[Pinhedd]

Agreed. While speakers are driven by analogue as they're a voltage the quality of a digital signal can be just as good in some cases. Furthermore I feel like any sound card isn't going to be worth it once you have a good mobo(like your Rampage IV Extreme). I'd say a bad motherboard(w/o sound card) will be the weaker link in the chain than USB over 3.5mm.

You may be right about that, but I use a discrete sound card. Specifically I have a Creative Labs X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional. That thing absolutely destroys any onboard audio.