Sound card, Speakers and Headphones

[jhelsas]

Originally Posted by heymian

I'm curious, where did you read this? Do you have a link? I ask because this doesn't sound right at all and is contrary to information that I've read.

Sorry for the delay in answering, I got a hard time finding this thread because it has been a while since I read it in head-fi.

http://www.head-fi.org/t/475872/asus...-a-basic-guide

post #13, by Shimm

edit:

Because of this I would say to stick with 300 ohms or lower headphone the STX alone, to it would be better in my opinion the beyer's which ever you end up choosing or not in the 250 ohms version, instead of the 600 ohms.

Originally Posted by Denial

Yeah, all those picks are pretty solid. I actually own DT770's but I don't think they are the 600 ohm version, I actually prefer the Denon AH-D2000's to the version I have though. In terms of closed ear headphones, I think the D2000's are the best for the price. That being said, I hate closed ear now and I'm probably going to end up selling my 2000.

True, the only problem is that for a closed headphone, their isolation is pretty nil. They are great in SQ, no doubt, but in this aspect they could use some improvement. The AKG k550 if isolation is important. If only not leaking sound is important, I think that the denon would do the job just right. Also there is the infamous screw problem in the D2000....

@ jeked

Most of the headphones mentioned here are solid choices as already said, but to give a more precise advice, your music tastes should be taken in account, so help us.

[jeked]

I would mostly gaming with these headphones. I would occasionally use them for music (pretty much everything) but normally speakers if listening to music.

Edit: Also im looking now at the DT990-600 as the DT770 isnt in stock anywhere accessible.

[heymian]

Originally Posted by jhelsas

Sorry for the delay in answering, I got a hard time finding this thread because it has been a while since I read it in head-fi.

http://www.head-fi.org/t/475872/asus...-a-basic-guide

post #13, by Shimm

edit:

Because of this I would say to stick with 300 ohms or lower headphone the STX alone, to it would be better in my opinion the beyer's which ever you end up choosing or not in the 250 ohms version, instead of the 600 ohms.

That's interesting. Too bad the chart he referenced is in Russian, I doubt anyone here can read it. I have read other discussions on head-fi about the STX's amp. The last I recall was it being able to drive both high-ohm versions of DT880's without issue. Personally, if it was my decisions, I would go with the 600 ohm version.

[jeked]

Ok so im having trouble sourcing a Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 anywhere in Australia. Now from what i understand, Australia mains power is 230v @ 50hz

Does anyone know if i buy this from UK or USA would i be able to use here in Australia without a Step down transformer and just a plug converter?

[Mr._Murphy]

Why not something like
http://www.techbuy.com.au/p/174078/S...ier/S730-B.asp

[jhelsas]

Originally Posted by Mr._Murphy

Why not something like
http://www.techbuy.com.au/p/174078/S...ier/S730-B.asp

For that price, there are way better options, in my opinion, I wouldn't drop US$ 500 for those speakers.

[Legendary_Agent]

I would recommend Titanium HD over asus xonar essence stx, simply because:
1) stx has been reported that it does not have the filter hardware which the st pci has
2) stx opamps are soldered in which means u need to unsolder and solder then back in everytime you change for a new set
3) stx does not have optical in
And 4) the most importantly, i do not consider any sound card a true soundcard when all the sound is freaking emulated on your cpu, its rather pathetic as it makes me keep thinking im paying for an amplifier rather than a sound card...

Titanium Hd is a true soundcard keeping your cpu usage down to 1% while listening to music as its all processed by its own processor inside, it also is reported to having higher quality components and 1000 times better for gaming.

The only downside which can be considered redudant is that the titanium hd headphone jack only is up to 300ohm while the stx is up to 600ohm, which tbh is not necessary for pretty much any headphone out there only making it necessary for a higher "quality" ones which can be considered audiophile, but then again ppl would probably use a dedicated amplifier for that rather than the soundcard built in amp.

Also if you want some great headphones for 100$ then i suggest Sony MDR-XB700
They are unrivaled in bass quality and can still keep up pretty decent mids and highs which is impressive since is more made for the bass side and yet still be able to sound quite good on the other range aswell, havent found any sennheizer equivalent not even at 500dollars.

So here it is, a viable cheap option to enjoy amazing sound for the price.

[elkosith]

stx has been reported that it does not have the filter hardware which the st pci has

Which filter hardware and what does it filter?

stx opamps are soldered in which means u need to unsolder and solder then back in everytime you change for a new set

Nope, they are not soldered. I've replaced mine. Where did you get this info from?

the most importantly, i do not consider any sound card a true soundcard when all the sound is freaking emulated on your cpu, its rather pathetic as it makes me keep thinking im paying for an amplifier rather than a sound card...

I heard about win vista and 7 sound processing... but maybe others can explain it better

[Tacoboy]

Originally Posted by Legendary_Agent

I would recommend Titanium HD over asus xonar essence stx, simply because:
1) stx has been reported that it does not have the filter hardware which the st pci has
2) stx opamps are soldered in which means u need to unsolder and solder then back in everytime you change for a new set
3) stx does not have optical in
And 4) the most importantly, i do not consider any sound card a true soundcard when all the sound is freaking emulated on your cpu, its rather pathetic as it makes me keep thinking im paying for an amplifier rather than a sound card...

Titanium Hd is a true soundcard keeping your cpu usage down to 1% while listening to music as its all processed by its own processor inside, it also is reported to having higher quality components and 1000 times better for gaming.

The only downside which can be considered redudant is that the titanium hd headphone jack only is up to 300ohm while the stx is up to 600ohm, which tbh is not necessary for pretty much any headphone out there only making it necessary for a higher "quality" ones which can be considered audiophile, but then again ppl would probably use a dedicated amplifier for that rather than the soundcard built in amp.

Also if you want some great headphones for 100$ then i suggest Sony MDR-XB700
They are unrivaled in bass quality and can still keep up pretty decent mids and highs which is impressive since is more made for the bass side and yet still be able to sound quite good on the other range aswell, havent found any sennheizer equivalent not even at 500dollars.

So here it is, a viable cheap option to enjoy amazing sound for the price.

I've never seen this much cow poo poo ever. your play a joke....right.

[nikavelli]

Originally Posted by Legendary_Agent

I would recommend Titanium HD over asus xonar essence stx, simply because:
1) stx has been reported that it does not have the filter hardware which the st pci has
2) stx opamps are soldered in which means u need to unsolder and solder then back in everytime you change for a new set
3) stx does not have optical in
And 4) the most importantly, i do not consider any sound card a true soundcard when all the sound is freaking emulated on your cpu, its rather pathetic as it makes me keep thinking im paying for an amplifier rather than a sound card...

Titanium Hd is a true soundcard keeping your cpu usage down to 1% while listening to music as its all processed by its own processor inside, it also is reported to having higher quality components and 1000 times better for gaming.

The only downside which can be considered redudant is that the titanium hd headphone jack only is up to 300ohm while the stx is up to 600ohm, which tbh is not necessary for pretty much any headphone out there only making it necessary for a higher "quality" ones which can be considered audiophile, but then again ppl would probably use a dedicated amplifier for that rather than the soundcard built in amp.

Also if you want some great headphones for 100$ then i suggest Sony MDR-XB700
They are unrivaled in bass quality and can still keep up pretty decent mids and highs which is impressive since is more made for the bass side and yet still be able to sound quite good on the other range aswell, havent found any sennheizer equivalent not even at 500dollars.

So here it is, a viable cheap option to enjoy amazing sound for the price.

Please stop posting misinformation.

First off, about "emulated" sound and CPU usage, you have a fundamental misunderstanding. Software has to be programmed in order to utilize the Titanium HD's hardware DSP. Sadly though, many programmers have shyed away from EAX extensions and hardware accelerated sound. So realistically, you're not going to see a difference in CPU usage with either card. If software is not utilizing the EMU processor, the sound will be processed on your CPU. The "reported to have better components" is a bogus statement just like your "1000 times better for gaming". In actuality, the Essence series uses higher quality components.

The ST/STX OPAMPS are not soldered in. If they were, why would ASUS release an OPAMP upgrade kit?



Do you think ASUS expects average users to break out the soldering iron?

The Titanium HD's headphone jack may be "reported" to drive up to 300 Ohms but if you take a look at the actual hardware, you will see there is no IC headphone amplifier.

The Sony MDR-XB700 or "XtraBass" headphones are garbage. Nobody on these forums takes basshead headphones seriously and to imply they are better than $500 Sennheiser equivalents is absurd.

Honestly, one of the dumbest posts I've read on Guru3D. Know what you're talking about before you click the submit reply button.

[Legendary_Agent]

Originally Posted by elkosith

Which filter hardware and what does it filter?


Nope, they are not soldered. I've replaced mine. Where did you get this info from?


I heard about win vista and 7 sound processing... but maybe others can explain it better

Windows processing is an expensive word for emulated software sound processing, and emulated software usually is emulated by the main general task processor, aka cpu, there has been numerous experienced reviews in other than audiophile sections doing a comparison between cpu usage running xonar stx and creative titanium hd, i have a dual core core2duo cpu and its running at 0-1% when playing 320kbs music.

Im talking about asus xonar stx, by no means im talking about asus xonar st, the hardware filter presented in asus xonar st that i was talking about is the following:
http://www.head-fi.org/t/461715/the-...t-vs-xonar-stx

Now are you 100% your card is asus xonar STX?

[Legendary_Agent]

Originally Posted by nikavelli

Please stop posting misinformation.

First off, about "emulated" sound and CPU usage, you have a fundamental misunderstanding. Software has to be programmed in order to utilize the Titanium HD's hardware DSP. Sadly though, many programmers have shyed away from EAX extensions and hardware accelerated sound. So realistically, you're not going to see a difference in CPU usage with either card. If software is not utilizing the EMU processor, the sound will be processed on your CPU. The "reported to have better components" is a bogus statement just like your "1000 times better for gaming". In actuality, the Essence series uses higher quality components.

The ST/STX OPAMPS are not soldered in. If they were, why would ASUS release an OPAMP upgrade kit?



Do you think ASUS expects average users to break out the soldering iron?

The Titanium HD's headphone jack may be "reported" to drive up to 300 Ohms but if you take a look at the actual hardware, you will see there is no IC headphone amplifier.

The Sony MDR-XB700 or "XtraBass" headphones are garbage. Nobody on these forums takes basshead headphones seriously and to imply they are better than $500 Sennheiser equivalents is absurd.

Honestly, one of the dumbest posts I've read on Guru3D. Know what you're talking about before you click the submit reply button.

As ive said before, thats what i tought as that was the info i scavenged around the net about the asus xonar stx, personally i was interested into the xonar st as it has been reported to make the stx bite the dust in sound quality untill... ive found out its such a processor hog its not even a real soundcard, its like a higher end creative reckon3d card, which again its a joke for a dedicated sound card.
Personally i would only waste money for dedicated sound cards which werent similar to a freaking emulator...

As for the Sony MDR-XB700 im pretty sorry to tell you that i do own them and theres no equivalent made by sennheizer at any price range, and please, dont come with the small talk about studio headphones from 25-70000hz range, you would be comparing formula ones to jeeps.

Oh and btw, i do not expect ASUS caring about their costumers, any serious ASUS costumer who ran into their costumer care multiple times be it with gfx cards, motherboards, laptops and so on knows that they are trully disgusting both on the forums and via phone service (phone service only compared in Portugal), on top of that buying top of the line motherboards or laptops and not having drivers released for a newer windows version is also quite common and expected from ASUS and those too are also personally checked.

And on a final note about the MDR-XB700, you calling them garbage which is as a bold statement as saying "youre not going to see cpu usage difference between xonar stx and titanium hd cause most games have no EAX" rofl... i would like you to show me a sennheizer which can do better, you either have bass which sounds like your hand hitting a cardboard or everything sound like the tone as low as it can be...
3-28000hz, beat that please the difference between lows, mids and highs are freaking incredible for a pair of bass headphones and im pretty sure u have not really tought things trough when calling them garbage, let me guess ure one of those who thinks the best sounding headphones are the ones with incredible highs and trash lows, that can be true when you are in a studio trying to tell every sound from eachother, thats incredibly stupid when we are talking about trying to use them for entertainment for most of todays musics like rap, hiphop, trance, dance, techno and everything that is based on rythm and has bass, as for instrumental musics like guitar and piano type of songs, these will do fine enough even for audiophiles with proper graphic equalizer.

[Legendary_Agent]

To the OP if you really want some decent sound card i strongly suggest titanium HD over any Xonar, I would Suggest Creative GigaWorks T3 for speakers or Logitech Z-623, for headphones (If you want the best bass youve ever heard from headphones and still have pretty decent mids and highs) the Sony MDR-XB700 (you wont find anything as boomy as those at any price range, at least i couldnt).

Remember that a serious audiophile knows that what you get from your average personal computer is a joke compared to a proper studio, i dont have a studio and even i know that, so instead of wasting time and money trying to make one from a personal computer, you should decide if you wouldnt rather have a proper "studio" instead and not just some wannabe hardware which will fail in comparison to the real thing.
And that is why the setup i have recommended you is a better solution for entertainment.
Also please avoid reckon3d its reported to be a freaking fail card, its similar to asus xonar (pretty much everything emulated) but with worse sound quality...

So thats my advice, ignore essence st/x and the reckon3d, they are fail cards for gaming and go with titanium HD, for gaming purposes i cant think of a better sound card.

EDIT: i have read some reviews about essence stx and its true they all say its removable opamps, so im sorry for that mistake, the "audio clock thingie" is still true, ST is better in sound than STX.

[killer_939]

Originally Posted by Legendary_Agent

Titanium Hd is a true soundcard keeping your cpu usage down to 1% while listening to music as its all processed by its own processor inside, it also is reported to having higher quality components and 1000 times better for gaming.

http://img839.imageshack.us/img839/6696/10643863.jpg

You have just stated the STX uses less CPU power to play music.

Edit: I love my STX for gaming!

[Legendary_Agent]

Originally Posted by killer_939

http://img839.imageshack.us/img839/6696/10643863.jpg

You have just stated the STX uses less CPU power to play music.

Edit: I love my STX for gaming!

you forgot your windows update open to make it look more legit nice try though.
And no, im pretty sure ive said it used alot more cpu.

[killer_939]

Originally Posted by Legendary_Agent

you forgot your windows update open to make it look more legit nice try though.

I don't get it? Windows update doesn't use CPU power when its just letting me know there are more updates i can install.

[Legendary_Agent]

Originally Posted by killer_939

I don't get it? Windows update doesn't use CPU power when its just letting me know there are more updates i can install.

Ya right, ill buy that... maybe, take a look below:

http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/a...le_soundcard/5

Funny... it semms that the settings on the first cpu usage test is exactly the same as yours, 16bit 44.1k thats pretty good cd player uve got there!

EDIT: on a 3.0ghz core2duo, im going to test it on 24&192 and will report back, try the same on a 320kb bitrate track, remember you have double the cpu cores that i do.

[Legendary_Agent]

Originally Posted by Legendary_Agent

Ya right, ill buy that... maybe, take a look below:

http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/a...le_soundcard/5

Funny... it semms that the settings on the first cpu usage test is exactly the same as yours, 16bit 44.1k thats pretty good cd player uve got there!

EDIT: on a 3.0ghz core2duo, im going to test it on 24&192 and will report back, try the same on a 320kb bitrate track, remember you have double the cpu cores that i do.

24bits 192hz playing a 320kb bitrate music, with dwm.exe enabled (windows aero process) 0-1% (checked that 1% is most of the times caused by the aero process) song played with windows media player.

How about your result?

[killer_939]

Originally Posted by Legendary_Agent

Ya right, ill buy that... maybe, take a look below:

http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/a...le_soundcard/5

Funny... it semms that the settings on the first cpu usage test is exactly the same as yours, 16bit 44.1k thats pretty good cd player uve got there!

EDIT: on a 3.0ghz core2duo, im going to test it on 24&192 and will report back, try the same on a 320kb bitrate track, remember you have double the cpu cores that i do.

I have it set to 24/96 up-sample in windows. I wasn't using ASIO. Also those CPU utilization tests are a completely different thing then playing music on your computer.

Almost anything can sit at 0% CPU usage on music btw.
http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/4825/46871248.jpg
spikes before it are opening windows.

edit: Enough OT posts now.

[Anarion]

Originally Posted by Legendary_Agent

you forgot your windows update open to make it look more legit nice try though.
And no, im pretty sure ive said it used alot more cpu.

Sorry, but and sound card doesn't do any offloading when playing music in Windows 7 and Vista (no direct sound hardware acceleration in Vista and 7). Only OpenAL acceleration is supported and in this case it means nothing. If you seriously think that playing music makes you CPU usage sky-rocket, then I don't know... Are we still in 90's?

[Legendary_Agent]

Originally Posted by Anarion

Sorry, but a sound card doesn't do any offloading when playing music in Windows 7 and Vista (no direct sound hardware acceleration in Vista and 7). Only OpenAL acceleration is supported and in this case it means nothing. If you seriously think that playing music makes your CPU usage sky-rocket, then I don't know... Are we still in 90's?

No we are not in the 90's we are in the era where everyone thinks that wasting cpu processing power in small ammounts is Ok, and then... we end up with games like Crysis 2 or GTA4 or other crappy ports cause we aint in the 90's

Most of users who owned both knows that asus xonar beying better doesnt hold much water, especially for gaming, in that area its just a pointless soundcard in comparison, that includes many threads and posts already made in this forum aswell with users having both and reporting favour torwards titanium hd, both in gaming(quite obviously) and music playing, alot lesser cpu usage and proper hardware acceleration by openal.
Asus Xonar was the only decent choice at the time when Creative soundcards were annihilated by microsoft vista and 7, + the fact that 64 bits support was unexistant as the windows xp 64bits was quite crappy, now its a different story.

[nikavelli]

Legendary_Agent, you are the worst poster that's every graced this section of the forums. I don't even know where to begin with you, debating if it's really worth the effort. First off, you have no idea what you're talking about. Second off, I don't know where you get your information but it's false. Third, you don't need to make three posts back to back. Learn how to copy+paste/edit.

Your argument about "emulated software" (nice terminology), you simply do not understand how the EMU chip works on the Titanium HD. It does not magically process all sound. Programs have to be specifically coded in order to take advantage of the chip's hardware routines. And like I said, fewer and fewer of those programs exist. You can call it a bold statement but it's universally accepted. As of now, EAX and hardware accelerated sound is all but dead. I heard things might change in Windows 8, we will see.

Your claims about STX's high CPU usage, you are askewing the facts. Of course EAX enabled software will use less CPU usage on a Titanium HD. But the important fact you're overlooking is, where is the software? Again, hardly any games use EAX anymore, if at all. Same goes for any iteration of hardware accelerated sound. It's something software programmers abandoned long ago.

The "hardware filter" on the ST is a precision clock tuning unit, which reduces jitter. Sound quality is improved over the STX but does not "blow it out of the water". That's just an exageration on your part.

The Essence series are "real sound cards". Xonar's are some of the best card's on the market and have won hundreds of awards. They may not have a hardware DSP but that isn't a big loss these days. They make up for it with exceptional components, an actual headphone amplifier (unlikes the Titanium HD), and Dolby technologies.

[Legendary_Agent]

Originally Posted by nikavelli

Legendary_Agent, you are the worst poster that's every graced this section of the forums. I don't even know where to begin with you, debating if it's really worth the effort. First off, you have no idea what you're talking about. Second off, I don't know where you get your information but it's false. Third, you don't need to make three posts back to back. Learn how to copy+paste/edit.

Your argument about "emulated software" (nice terminology), you simply do not understand how the EMU chip works on the Titanium HD. It does not magically process all sound. Programs have to be specifically coded in order to take advantage of the chip's hardware routines. And like I said, fewer and fewer of those programs exist. You can call it a bold statement but it's universally accepted. As of now, EAX and hardware accelerated sound is all but dead. I heard things might change in Windows 8, we will see.

Your claims about STX's high CPU usage, you are askewing the facts. Of course EAX enabled software will use less CPU usage on a Titanium HD. But the important fact you're overlooking is, where is the software? Again, hardly any games use EAX anymore, if at all. Same goes for any iteration of hardware accelerated sound. It's something software programmers abandoned long ago.

The "hardware filter" on the ST is a precision clock tuning unit, which reduces jitter. Sound quality is improved over the STX but does not "blow it out of the water". That's just an exageration on your part.

The Essence series are "real sound cards". Xonar's are some of the best card's on the market and have won hundreds of awards. They may not have a hardware DSP but that isn't a big loss these days. They make up for it with exceptional components, an actual headphone amplifier (unlikes the Titanium HD), and Dolby technologies.

Very nice reading, so since you have nothing special to say against my posts, you just keep with the insults and talk to me about EAX beying dead and hardware acceleration no longer used for current games, race driver grid, DiRT games, unreal tournament, battlefield, bioshock, DDO and quite possibly many others which i dont know of use Hardware Acceleration.

The performance difference is there, both ingame and when playing music, Asus Xonar while you believe that they are one of the best cards on the market who won hundreds of awards because it has dolby technology (lol) and a headphone amp (which is quite poor compared to a proper headphone amplifier) as reported numerous times around the forums the Titanium HD Has:
Optical Cable input, output, Dolby Digital Live, DTS, better tuned opamps, proper sound processing rather than cpu emulation which again helps you with better sound quality ingames and better performance aswell, proper 3D effects which you can easelly tell if the sound is happening on your back or at your forward with 2.0/1 speakers or stereo headphones.

Having said all these:
Your last and only valid comment that the stx has an audiophile headphone amp sends me back to my original message:
You either buy a proper sound card, or you buy an amp disguised as a soundcard which fails to be any match for any proper dedicated amp.


Finally:
As ive said before, people on these forums which own/ed both soundcards reported favor in sound quality torwards titanium hd (stock vs stock).
Asus Xonar Essence ST/X were a great and only choice in high sound quality few years ago, but things have changed and we are slowly getting back to the original purpose of soundcards.

[robert1990]

I'd recommend Asus Xonar Essence STX, been using it for 2 yrs, pretty much it can cope with everything I threw at it (musics various genres, gaming session, and movie watching). I could say I'm a Sennheiser fan (coz it's the first brand that I ran into when starting my new hobby ). HD650 is a bargain: Very wide soundstage, natural sound output, and you can get it for around $AU500.

I can confirm that headphone amp on STX is capable to drive HD650. For a reference, I set the headphone amp output to the max setting (Extra High Gain (+18dB for 300Ohm - 600Ohm)), and I set the master volume to 7, and it's loud enough for me. More than that I'll be deaf for sure

Regarding closed or open-back headphones, suit your purpose. Open-back headphone leaks some of the sound (which can annoys someone next to you), but the sound output will be more natural, while closed-back is suitable if you don't want to annoy people next to you, a slightly better bass (more impact than open-back), but it makes you ears sweat faster in general.

Those beyerdynamic headphones mentioned before are pretty good too, many people recommend them, but I haven't heard them personally, so can't comment on that.

Try to have a listen on those headphones first before you buy, so you can decide which sound signature suits your taste

[DirkHardpeck]

OP: I currently roll with an X-Fi Titanium HD, Sennheiser HD558 (+Zalman mic), and Klipsch ProMedia THX 2.1 as my main gaming setup. There's other soundcards, speakers, and cans lying around here for sure, but these are what I end up using. The T-HD does very good surround emulation through headphone, and I use the stereo Klipsch speakers for music listening. If I wanted to use the headphones for music more, I would probably have gone for HD600 but as it is, I couldn't justify the cost. For about ~500USD, this setup sounds pretty great.

Initially you were interested in surround gaming, but were turned away from that idea by the audiophiles here. Don't forget, if you're going 99% gaming, having a surround speaker if you have the room is still pretty incredible. If you listen to alot of FLAC music and such, then you'd be better served with some great stereo speakers or even the Klipsch ProMedia's (make sure it's the THX!) IMO. And like I said, the headphone surround emulation is pretty good on Creative's cards (can't speak for Asus's dolby tech but it's also well regarded around here). But there's no shame in picking up this and something like this. Just playing devil's advocate here. I do prefer surround where it belongs, in my living room with floorstanders and huge ****in satellites that make the wife puke. The problem for me with PC surround speakers is finding some decent ones that will go straight to your soundcard. Most of them are garbage, and going with a reciever negates the soundcard completely, besides it processing DTS-Connect or Dolby Digital Live, as most motherboards won't send surround game audio over optical...but anyway, if you can score some decent 5.1 PC speakers, you can always give it a shot.

I have a Recon3d somewhere around here, it sounds ok, but that's not what you pay $150 for

Finally, your headphone choices look very good, but a note on open back headphones. Try not to shy away from those as a whole, you are really limiting yourself. Firstly, I've heard closed backs that leak more than some open! Secondly, and this is pretty general, but the open back design tends to allow a more "open" or spacious sound, widening the soundstage....this is desirable for gaming when running a surround emulation from your soundcard (CMSS-3D, TruStudio, Dolby Headphone). Secondly, I feel like they *tend* to not warm my ears up as bad during long sessions. Lastly, they lend to better hearing preservation. Not saying you need to get open, but if you're using them in your house, the sound leakage is maybe not as bad as you are thinking with all models. Your best option is to listen to as many mid-high end headphones as you can manage, and get what sounds best to you.

Best of luck to you!

p.s. How about this trollololol.... sounds like he knows just enough to hurt himself