skace

Any examples of a solution that you'd consider some sort of compromise in this area? A picture seeing one of these mid-range systems when it's fully assembled such as the desktop picture would be nice also. Which I know won't be possible unless you are speaking on behalf of your own system. Also, Grawk, if you have an example of any gaming setups, I'd love to see them too. I shouldn't have assumed what you had in mind.

Oh yea, and the real reason I want to buy this is for those freakin stands. I'm mildly OCD over my desk space and those things are calling to me. Plus the little amps that fit in the stands, my current amp is HUGE. It's like putting a VCR next to your keyboard - size wise.

My fear, in regards to USB, is because when I started researching it, I stumbled across ASIO. I don't know if that ends up being the required sound driver or just the recommended one. It sounded like people were customizing only their foobar, where as I want to make sure what driver ends up driving my sound functions with everything, from foobar to dosbox. I've never had a sound solution where I completely bypassed my sound card, it's a foreign topic to me. I mean, I can understand that the hardware in the sound card could now be part of my audio solution, but I still realize that the OS needs some sort of method of interfacing with that device. That's the thing though. I don't necessarily want a gaming configuration, however I do game. For instance, I gave up on EAX and all the crazy "positional sound" ages ago. By and large, foobar is what is running on my computer 24/7, when I'm awake, when I'm at work and when I'm asleep. For instance, Foobar will usually be my highest source audio, sometimes I will mute games, other times I will just mute the music and lower the effects, and other times I will have ventrilo running also. So I have a large reliance on sounds from various applications but music is by and large the biggest contributor and the real reason I care about my audio at all. In other words, I mention gaming because I don't want to break it, but I also don't want some Logitech 7.1 system and a fatal1ty sound card, I'm not that kind of gamer anymore. And yea, I don't have thin skin, feel free to call me a retarded bastard, it probably shows by now.

Ok, I'm not an audiophile, won't pretend to be either. My main interest is computing but the obsession tends to spread like a virus from high end computers, to desks, chairs, and audio. Many years back, when I wanted a decent computer sound system, I ended up with the reasonable $400 VideoLogic Sirocco Crossfires. These served me well and I've never really had any major complaints with the actual sound, but a few years into them I stopped using the rear speakers and subwoofer all together as I found my needs and tastes changing (the rears are no longer connected, the sub is, but the control for it is turned 95% of the way down). Then somewhere along the line, a great deal came up on here or head-fi or some other site I no longer remember with HD600s being sold at around $300 or so. That was when I got my first taste of high end audio. Even though they were being powered by my lower end VideoLogic amp, I still loved the hell out of them. And I've been using the HD600s for several hours a day ever since. So that brings me to current day. My amp's headphone jack has fallen apart, most likely from being constantly violated by the HD600s, My HD600s have been recabled and the cushy parts have (somewhat) fallen apart. Over all though, I simply just want to upgrade and I feel like I've had absolutely no path for quite some time now. Every time I check the PC speaker market, it looks like it has gone backwards instead of forwards. About 2 weeks ago, I had finally planned that my next move would be from the "pc speaker" world straight into the full home audio world with whatever I needed to acquire, speakers, amps, recievers, etc. I was willing to read and learn whatever needed to occur to make this happen. Then 3 days later I stumbled across the Headroom's desktop package and realized someone may have created exactly what I've been looking for. However, the price was a big jump for someone who was doing ok on $400, to go to $5000... it's not so much that I can't afford it, but the dollar gap in between those products cannot be denied. I guess my problem is that I've never dealt with digital audio. So I got as far as this page and then said "WTF? USB?". I mean, I want high end audio, but I actually want this thing to be compatible with everything my computer can do also. That means games, movies, etc. I realize the setup can allow for other configurations and read a few threads about the subject but did not seem to get the clarity I was looking for. I'm willing to use USB as long as that is 100% perfect compatability if not, I'm willing to buy whatever sound card I need to (short of Creative Labs, may they rot in hell) as long as it will work properly with the desktop configuration. Feel free to tell me to RTF<url> because I'm willing to read any source of info at this point that is actually helpful but I can't promise I'll understand it. Cliffs for those who hate reading: 1. Is headroom's desktop package the right move to make for someone who plays games (old and new), runs Vista64, and listens to music via foobar? 2. What's the deal with USB? Is that the method I want to use? Thanks.