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Do I need a DAC?

post #1 of 5
5/27/10 at 4:59pm
Thread Starter 

I'm going to be purchasing in the next few days the AKG K702s, an Audio-GD C2-C (or C2, I have yet to have the difference explained to me though) and possibly a DAC. However, I'm not quite sure if I need one. I believe I have a DAC integrated with my soundcard, and I was curious if a dedicated DAC is a neccesity to have these headphones sound the way they are supposed to. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

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post #2 of 5
5/27/10 at 5:11pm

Necessary no, could it possibly be an improvement over your soundcard, maybe. You already havean amp which is important for the k702. A dac can make adiffrence depending on the price range of the dac compared to the quality of the soundcard. A dac would probably make a difference over a stock laptop soundcard. The macs are pretty decent so it might not make much of a difference. It would probably depend on the level of a dac you would be looking to buy.

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post #3 of 5
5/27/10 at 5:15pm
Thread Starter 

Okay, this makes me feel a bit better. I have a Barracuda AC-1 from Razer, and it's served me well so far. Decent card.

 

Anyway, I was looking at an Audio GD DAC 19DF. I'd prefer not to spend the extra $400+ but, I dont want to waste my money on an amp and headphones and not get a neccessary component. If this isn't neccessary, I'd probably skip it until I got new equipment or felt the urge to splurge, so to speak.

 

EDIT:

To clarify, below is a link to the DAC that is in my soundcard, I'm not sure how to read much of this information.

 

http://www.asahi-kasei.co.jp/akm/en/product/ak4396/ak4396.html


Edited by Zafsk - 5/27/10 at 5:29pm
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post #4 of 5
5/30/10 at 4:49am

For the K701, I would definitely recommend a good DAC, as they are known to be very detailed and you don't want to be feeding your amp a crappy signal  The DAC-19 is supposed to be a very good DAC, especially for the price. I am still planning on buying one. 

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post #5 of 5
5/30/10 at 5:08am

why don't you try out the k702 + c-2c or c2 + soundcard first? if the sound appeals to you, you could put off getting a dac and save until you can purchase a mid-high end desktop dac at the 600-1000 usd range? 

 

to best your soundcard you might require a more robust dac to appreciate a significant difference...

 

i have a c-2c and the person whom i brought it from used the k701 with the c-2c to good effect. hope you will enjoy the combination too :)

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