Need help choosing amplifier for 6.0 sound system

[KulaGGin]

Hey guys! Greeting from a new member. I ran into Anandtech forums while I was trying to find amplifier for my system.
And I have to say you've got awesome forum here , so I thought I'd sign up and ask for help because I can't find a proper amp by myself.

Here's short version:
I need stereo-amplifier for dynamics with these parameters:

• Frequency response: 20~20.000Hz
• Max. SPL at 1kHz: 115±3dB
• Max. input power: 50 mW
• Drive diameter: 40mm
• Driver unit material: Neodymium magnet Impedance: 32Ω

If you know good amplifier for these speakers, suggest it please. I'd really appreciate it.









Read long version below:

Lately I've been thinking of making my own true 6.0 headset because I couldn't find any good 5.1+ headsets on the market.

But now I really need your advice before I will be able to make the next step.

Originally I had Roccat Kave 5.1:
http://www.roccat.org/en-UA/Products/Gaming-Sound/Kave-Series/Kave-XTD-5-1-Analog/

As you can see from the picture this isn't real 5.1 because it lacks one more speaker per earphone and center channel is just transfered to front speakers.

Tech characteristics of speakers:

• CENTER/FRONT/REAR DRIVER UNITS
• Frequency response: 20~20.000Hz
• Max. SPL at 1kHz: 115±3dB
• Max. input power: 50 mW
• Drive diameter: 40mm
• Driver unit material: Neodymium
• magnet Impedance: 32Ω
• VIBRATION DRIVER UNITS
• Frequency response: 20~100Hz
• Max. input power: 300 mW
• Drive diameter: 30mm

This headset's got built-in amplifier powering from USB:

Few weeks ago mic, center and sub channels stopped working(wires torn apart). I also noticed that after amplifier sounds from left channel was transfered to the right channel but they was a lot more quite. For example, when I was testing my speakers in control panel:

When I was pressing on the left speaker I could barely hear sounds coming from right speaker(normally when you press on left speaker in control panel you shouldn't hear anything coming from right speaker of your headphones). I tested it to make sure: I kept right earphone on my right ear, took off my left earphone of my left ear, pressed on left speaker in control panel and I still could hear sounds coming from right earphone. It wasn't short circuit or something. It is a feature of this headset. Roccat thought it would be better for positional audio... But it isn't.

Considering you can't turn that feature off, altogether with broken mic, sub and center channels and the fact that center channel is transfered to front speakers, I decided to took my headset apart.

I am a gamer and I am mainly using this headset to play FPS multiplayer games. Positioning is the the most important thing to me in audio system. I understand that most of the games don't support 4.0, 5.1, 6.0 and 7.1 systems. But games I play do actually support 4.0-7.1 systems. I was playing with sub and center channels turned off, anyway, even when they was working properly because physical and virtual positions of center and sub channels don't match:

So I decided to make 6.0 headset out of my 5.1 Roccat Kave. I bought one more broken Kave for $15 on local online flea market, took speakers out of it and now my Kave is 6.0 instead of 5.1:

Here's where I need your advice guys. I soldered my 6.0 headset without built-in amplifier(because of the problem with sounds transfered from left channel to the right and vise versa) and now this headset sounds weak without amplifier. I need 3 stereo amplifiers or one 7.1 amplifier. I think three ~200mW stereo amplifier for 32Ω headphones should do just fine.

I am using built-in sound card in my PC. Since I gone wild with my audio system I could really use some high quality sound card or a DAC. I've heard and read a lot on the topic and people say that I should buy Creative sound card if I play video games a lot. I am thinking of buying Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro or something from that series. What would you suggest guys? I don't have favorite manufacturers etc and if you think I should buy some external DAC instead of gaming sound card I am up for this.

If you can suggest a good combination of sound card(DAC) and amplifier for my system I will be grateful forever.

Any other thoughts and suggestions on the topic is also appreciated.

Thanks in advance for your suggesstions.

 

[Exterous]

Thats pretty cool. I don't have much insight to offer other than when I decided to upgrade my headphones I went through the same debate about sound card vs external amp+DAC. I found a lot of good information at Head-FI regarding the options out there

http://www.head-fi.org/f/

 

[KulaGGin]

Thats pretty cool. I don't have much insight to offer other than when I decided to upgrade my headphones I went through the same debate about sound card vs external amp+DAC. I found a lot of good information at Head-FI regarding the options out there

http://www.head-fi.org/f/

Thanks! I've created similar thread on that forum(and on many others), too. But looks like people are getting scared of what I did with my headset, so I get very small amount of answers. Maybe I ask my questions in the wrong way or something

I think I will only have to buy a proper PCIe sound card. I'm thinking of buying Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium SB0880.

Could you maybe recommend some other forums where I could ask this question? I've created similar threads on Guru3D, Overclock.net, tomsguide.com, head-fi.org.