post #1 of 1
11/4/11 at 10:17am
Thread Starter 

Hello,

I'll try to keep this short as I know you've all seen this before.  I've searched extensively and read considerable material but felt I'd like to post a new thread anyway.

The situation:
- We (fiance and I) own the Sennheiser HD-650s and are very happy
- Neither of us is an audiophile but like good sound
- Currently we play a mixture of FLACs and MP3s, FLACs where possible, via PC headphone-out
- Read considerable material suggesting these headphones would benefit from an external DAC + AMP or DAC/AMP combo.
- Considering purchase of e.g. the nuforce Icon HDP.

More background / setup:
I just ran these tests http://www.eminent-tech.com/music/multimediatest.html.  I can hear audible distortion in the 50 and 100hz tones.  Other harmonics are evident.  This is the first time I've heard a test that suggests to me "these HD-650s would benefit from a better DAC/AMP."  I played it via the integrated RealTek sound on my desktop machine fed to some ~$100 Logitech speakers that have a headphone jack.  (cheap RealTek line out --> speakers with headphone out --> HD-650).

The question:
Would you say it's "likely" that these audio anomalies would vanish if I purchased, e.g., the nuforce icon HDP and used it as a DAC/AMP instead of the onboard sound with external (low-end) amplification?

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