This is 100% correct....i was thinking the 598's had a higher impedance than 50, so my suggestion of a card would be way too much for your setup. Take stoch's advice, find a good EQ program and start there, especially if just for gaming.

HT Omega Claro Halo is what i currently own and i love it.

I had a Xonar Essence STX and was disappointed with it...i took a risk with the Claro since price-wise it seemed to be a lateral move, but it just blows it away. The sound quality in all aspects is better. It also has a built in amp with select-able impedance jumper. I have the Sennheiser pc350's and it drives them with ease, so your HD598's will be fine. You should hear a much more detailed sound with your HD598's when driven properly, and the amp on this card does not disappoint. It also has swap-able op amps (what helps produce amplified electrical signal), so you can even further customize the sound if you are into that sort of thing. Most places sell it for around $180.

Only downside - it's PCI. That being said, if it broke i would instantly buy another one because it's so good.

Wasn't taking anything serious, just didn't want to turn this thread into anything past what it needed to be. It looks like the OP is searching on his own so it's all good.

nevermind, not worth it.

This build would put you between 1100 - 1200 (depending on rebates) and easily run any of those games you mentioned. The 970 video card may be overkill...but its the best value right now and would last you for quite some time. I just did a similar build for my cousin and runs BF4 in ultra, 64 man servers at 70+ fps consistently.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.2141296 - $419 CPU/MOBO combo

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231567 - $66 RAM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811353039 - $90 case (obviously can go cheaper)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA24G28N5500 - $100 power supply

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147248 - $119 SSD (can save money and go with older RPM hard drive)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487088 - $350 Video card

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135247 - $50 blu ray drive

Double Dragon trilogy on steam for 5 bucks...child hood revisited! It has online co-op!

I spent countless quarters on Double Dragon 1 & 2 in the 80's...fuck double dragon 3 in the ass, that game sucked. If anyone wants to play add me!

Is there a code i can enter that can take me straight to washed up?

I was trying to think about the best way of going about it, and so far here's what i got.

I figured the first part of the segment would be getting to know the player. How long they've been around, where they started, what got them into competitive etc. Kind of a personal Q&A to the pro. After that, talk about TF2 specifically - what they like/dislike about the game, what improvements they could see, what can be done to make TF2 taken more serious. I'm not looking to only focus on league issues, though it will definitely be talked about at some point - it's more focusing on TF2 as a whole. Towards then end, i would want to open up Q&A to chat, as well as having some questions on hand that people could give me before hand.

Trust me i will do everything possible to keep drama/trolling to a minimum. I'd like this to be a clean discussion about TF2, simple as that.

Glad to hear some interest! I will reach out to some people, both old and new, to see who i could have join me on this. I'm actually really excited to try to bring in some of the older big name players that have been gone a while - i think it would be awesome to get perspectives from both legends of past and present since it will provide completely different insights onto how the game was portrayed in different time periods. I have 2 or 3 guys in mind already that i know would be a huge surprise if they are willing to participate.

I'll try to get the first stream lined up for the week after Christmas. Anyone who would like to help, spread the word to other TF2 communities, participate, or give some general advice about streaming..please feel free to add me on steam. I'm a complete streaming newb, only have done 2 streams lol.

Extine, definitely add me and let's talk. I wouldn't even mind switching up others as the host from time to time...i'm not looking for any glory out of this, just to get some good TF2 discussions going and hopefully bring some interest into the game.

So with all of the drama and questions lately surrounding competitive TF2, I've been trying to think of a way to get a good discussion going other than the forums. While TFTV forums have and will always be home to NATF2 comp dialogue, threads tend to go on forever and ever and get derailed numerous times. I noticed when most of the serious comp TF2 players chime in, it seems a lot of other voices go unheard. Now i understand that has always happened whether it was here or gotfrag - but i always wanted to take it a step and push a little further. The high level comp players are the few that have made it to the promised land of invite glory. I think the general public having a chance to have some of their questions answered and discussed with these players could be an excellent outlet.

Since i have had some more free time lately i was thinking of doing a weekly or bi-monthly stream to be interactive with the community. My idea is simple: do a stream for maybe an hour with a TF2 legend, and pick their brain. Talk out the questions, suggestions, experiences, and ideas that everyone ask about and turn it into a true discussion. Along the way, we can have some fun, bs, and of course all of this will take place while we're pubbing in a TF2 server. Think of this as Comedians in Cars getting Coffee, but the TF2 version. We can name it something equally stupid like Playing with Professionals in Pubs. I've had the fortunate luck of playing with and against a lot of the biggest names in TF2 over my time, and would love to abuse my friendship with some of them to shamelessly get them to do this with me. It seems like many players have genuine concerns of TF2/Comp TF2 dying, and this could be a good way to talk it out as a community.

Other than the eXtv roundtables (i think?) that happen from time to time, i'm not aware of anything else like this...so if something similar to this exits then please pardon my ignorance.

My question to you all, is do you think this is something worth doing? I would do my best to make this as interactive with the chat as possible. Also any ideas to go along or improve on this would be welcome.

I went straight into competitive from TFC, however the first pub community i was apart of was iO gaming. A few regulars on the dustobowl/gravelpit server in the early days were me, wombat, rocketsurgeon (aka hong) and bravE. Those were such fun times

I was pointing out the differences as to why CS GO is exciting to watch at the end of my original post. I brought up the dreamhack matches, no where was in my original post did i try to compare 4G to NiP. You are the one that brought up NIP.

Not denying that, but those teams didn't have the same stranglehold. Upsets could actually happen (season 6 LAN!). There were enough different teams and players at the time, that many people still had a chance to grow and challenge. Watching b4nny vs plat for the past 3 years has lost it's thunder.

I never said that's the sole reason the game is declining. Re-read my first post.

Comparing 4G to NIP is a bit of a stretch. This was a team that dominated dozens of teams all over the world. People watched because they wanted to see someone beat them, or at least challenge them because there were a ton of capable teams. NiP drew crowds for winning whatever tournament they'd attend world wide, and how ever many teams they needed to get through. 4G for the most part has had mixup, elevate, and epsilon. Playing the same 2 teams over and over in ESEA , and epsilon once a year doesn't compare. Even though 4G is what i would consider a TF2 superteam, it's still apples to oranges, the biggest of which there is no real draw to watch competitive TF2.

slin, to say the mixup that showed up is the mixup from the past several seasons would be stretching the truth...you and i both know that. I'm not saying elevate didn't have a great season...they had a great season before that as well. But the end result of the LAN was the same. I honestly believe that 4G in it's current form will not be beaten unless they literally stop playing. I'm sorry but the best TF2 team running a spy to mid, and wiping the 2nd best team is not cool to see.

Let me be clear, my post was not to be intended as negative. I love this game as much as anyone, I've been around from the beginning and will stay around as along as i can in one form or another. It's simply a game that will not have a competitive draw. Will competitive TF2 still be around? Absolutely! Me and about 30 other people run an IRC channel for TFC 8v8 pickups...and that game is 15 years old. As long as there is a player base that enjoys playing competitively, it will exist in one form or another.

Now the big question: Will it ever be bigger than it is now?? No. This is where what lange is saying comes into play - when you see a developer put all their investment into building another one of their games competitive side (CS GO), and for years blatantly ignore the requests of thousands of players that have come and gone to build it competitively (TF2), you eventually need to be realistic and accept the facts.

I agree, when TF2 /FF released, the official death of 8v8 occured...but in all fairness, the true competitive side of TFC was on the decline starting in 2003. TFC, as a competitive game, stuck around because people loved the competition. Most of us (TDA) and other oldschool players were burnt out on the game since had already been playing it for so long, however there was no true replacement for that style of play. The only redeeming factor is that the TFC community continually formed new teams, with new players. Players that got better, stuck together on the same teams and became contenders. This is what kept leagues alive for almost 9 years.

TF2 doesn't have that, and faces a similar problem with declining competitive interest, with the major problem being no new teams forming...or at least teams forming that could actually make an impact. You get people burnt out from invite consistently not reaching LAN..then joining open. IM teams dying mid way through and only half the rosters going elsewhere, and open rosters just disappearing. In TFC, pubbers truly looked up competitive teams and had aspirations to play in leagues...they made that happen. In TF2, the average pubber just wants to have fun with unlocks, hats, trade servers, and A/D maps. Valve doesn't care about competitive TF2 because 90% of the people that play the game don't care about competitive TF2. I mean, there's "competitive" pub servers all over the place with HLSTATS pages...people truly enjoy that being their "competitive" tf2. That's just the reality. TF2 is their cash cow "F2P" game. The game isn't really taken serious as a competitive shooter, as much as that hurts to hear it's true. It will never be a quake, cs, CoD etc in terms of popularity or money.

In order to draw a crowd, you need the publicity, the draw of big name players and intense/competitive matches. TF2 doesn't have that. With the exception of a the 4 or so invite players that stream, i bet the standard pub player would have no idea who is even in invite. To be perfectly honest, i didn't even bother watching more than 1 or 2 matches this LAN. It's not fun for me to watch whatever team b4nny's on dunk on everyone else with little to no effort. I respect that he has put that much time into being the best player in the game, and gather the best players in their respective classes.....but there is no excitement anymore when you constantly know the end result. From a spectator perspective, i wish their would be some roster shakeups. Hell even if a "super team" formed, i doubt they would be any real challenge because in all honesty 4G in their current incarnation is the true super team. It's impressive from one side, and depressing on another. Now compare CS:Go matches...for example Dreamhack. Every one of the higher seeded matches were insane. Constant back and forth in some...huge comebacks in others. Games like this bring excitement to watch. TF2 needs that desperately.