advent children was a great movie. the spirits within wasnt terrible but wasnt great either. i happen to own both.
sorry but off the top of my head i cant really give you a set ohm resitance. basically what it comes down to is if you use a headphone too high of a resistance for your amp the volume will be very low (or just a whisper in the case of plugging a 300ohm into a normal pc headphone jack). i would just keep this in mind but not let it swerve you from your decisions.
again, i personally do like my m50s but there are certainly other choices out there. i would look at some hifi or audiophile forums (just google best headphones under $200, best under $300, best under $400 and see what pops up. normally a few posts on audiophile hifi forums show up and you can read through some recommendations.
as for your dac question... no, you can not drive bookshelf speakers directly from a dac (since it has no amp). as for dac models which have an amplifier then it depends on the amplifier however i would have to say that this isnt something that you will likely do unless its a pretty beefy set.
i cannot answer about going PC->DAC (without amp)->RECIEVER and any possible benefits but can say that you wouldnt want to use a DAC (with amp) in that lineup since you would be doubleamping which could distort the signal more. now... that would mean you would need a seperate amplifier to connect to the dac if you used it for headphones. more cost. also the receiver is already a dac + amp + tuner + alot of other things in one box. in other words: i wouldnt bother.
now, heres another wrench thrown into the mess: you CAN use a receiver to power your studio headphones. in fact, thats how i use my headphones when i connect up to my home system (photos in my signature link).
now there are people on audiophile websites who say that it sounds like crap when compared with a decent amplifier and decent dac however often the equipment they recommend is high priced and illogical for budget shoppers. of course there are others who have 600ohm high end headphones who use only old stereo amp/receivers they have laying around and are perfectly content. audiophiles are a very picky lot and have opinions abound they throw around like fact. beware :lol:
how do things sound to me when connected up in this way? a bit better than when on portable sources. so perfectly fine to my ears anyways.
i'm not sure if razer virtual surround (or other surround software) will work properly over a receiver or external dac though. if you care about that it might bare some though and additional research into the matter.
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the way i see it you have 3 options.
-use your onboard sound (or get a slot or external soundcard if you wish) and power the headphones that way. this results in zero or limited extra cost. when you hook up a real home theater system you will likely use hdmi out of your video card (bypassing your soundcard) so its a bit of a waste of cash to do too much. you would need to get a cheap headset for your xb1 though.
-use an external dac amp to power the headphones. this would work with your pc and xb1 however you might not get virtual surround on your pc with software (cant say for sure) and when you go to buy speakers and a receiver in the future you wont need this piece for those speakers. you still could use it for headphone sound for your xb1 and pc though so its not a total loss.
-use a receiver to power your headphones. this accepts multi-source as well just like the dac would so it would work with your xb1 and pc. again virtual surround on pc might not work (cant say for sure) however this will be able to be used for your speakers when you buy them. however there are a few risks associated with buying a receiver now instead of when you get your speakers.
*tech could become outdated. for example new video modes could come out, hdmi2 or some other new cable could become the standard, or new sound modes may be released. if you plan on getting speakers in 6 months its fine however if you plan on getting speakers in 1-2 years or more than its not worthwhile to buy a receiver now.
*the amplifier outputs (ohm/watts) need to be sized correctly for your speakers. for example a receiver may output something like 150w at 4ohm, 120w at 6ohm and 85w at 8ohm. speakers are also rated in ohm resistance and maximum wattage. for example if you bought a speaker which needed 80w to drive at 8ohm it would be fine on this receiver however if you bought big tower speakers which required 100-200w at 8ohm you might have trouble. generally bookshelf speakers are 8ohm and around 100w. the polk ones you were looking at are 8ohm at a recommended 20-120w so would play on the receiver however if you wanted more volume i'd suggest something with a beefier amp (something rated at 100w @ 8ohm or a bit more). also to take into account is peaker sensitivity (another thing listed on the speaker spec sheets). basically the higher the sensitivity the power needed to drive them. i know its a bit confusing.
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personally i'd say just go with your onboard soundcard if you buy a relatively low resistance pair of headphones (like the m50s) or use a dac+amp (or sometimes some soundcards have a 1/4" jack and support high end headphone dont forget ... look at asus) if you buy some rather high ohm rated headphones.
depends on what you buy.
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