What's the best $60-100 I can spend to improve the Sennheiser HD 598?
Feb 14, 2015 at 6:16 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 8
Samufugu

Samufugu

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I have the Sennheiser HD 598 on the way right now, and I've been lurking on here trying to find the best dac/amp for $100 or under, but I'm still not sure enough to drop money on anything yet. The one brand I've seen more than others is Schiit, but it's always a mani and modi combo which goes higher than my budget. Primary usage is gaming and watching shows / movies, so would that change how necessary an amp is?
 
Feb 14, 2015 at 6:27 PM Post #2 of 8
I would say the HD598 are pretty easy to drive. Try them with your existing sources before you spend a cent on amp or DAC or anything. IF you find something lacking with your headphones, even after 200-300 hours of listening, then come back and tell us what you find lacking, and we can recommend an amp for your problems.
 
Feb 14, 2015 at 9:34 PM Post #3 of 8
If you are using a computer to listen to your headphones, a FiiO E10K is a very affordable DAC/amp that would work well with them.

However, it is a USB DAC. If you are using a sound card on your computer with virtual surround for video gaming, a USB DAC would bypass that.

If you have a PC that can take an internal sound card, a Soundblaster Z would generally be an improvement over most motherboard audio AND it provides virtual surround for gaming.
 
Feb 14, 2015 at 10:03 PM Post #4 of 8
What are you plugging into (er plan on plugging into when you get them)?
Are your music files highly compressed... are they high enough quality to reveal sonic differences?
 
Thats one of the easiest headphones to drive.  It is highly sensitive and moderately low impedance so it really doesn't need much by way of amplification to reach a very high performance level.  A battery powered cmoy I think would be an excellent start.  But wether or not its beneficial would depend on the two points above... amped versus non-amped?
 
Some computers, soundcards and tablets have optical / coax digital outputs.  If yours does then that will open up more options to you, beyond the USB-only DACs.
 
Feb 15, 2015 at 3:06 AM Post #6 of 8
kramer5150 said:
  What are you plugging into (er plan on plugging into when you get them)?
Are your music files highly compressed... are they high enough quality to reveal sonic differences?
 
Thats one of the easiest headphones to drive.  It is highly sensitive and moderately low impedance so it really doesn't need much by way of amplification to reach a very high performance level.  A battery powered cmoy I think would be an excellent start.  But wether or not its beneficial would depend on the two points above... amped versus non-amped?
 
Some computers, soundcards and tablets have optical / coax digital outputs.  If yours does then that will open up more options to you, beyond the USB-only DACs.
Click to expand...

They'll be plugged in to my PC 90% of the time with only Realtek ALC892 chipset onboard audio, and I really only listen to 320KBPS mp3s so I can't imagine a huge improvement until I move to FLAC.
 
I originally didn't plan on looking into anything to improve my experience with the 598s, but there seems to be a divide between people saying that it's a great pair of headphones that work perfectly on their own, and those that say it's great and needs an amp/dac. I'm hoping they'll be good enough on their own, and will probably feel they will be, but there will be that little bit in the back of my head nagging me to buy something else because of the possibility of there being a noticeable difference.
 
Feb 16, 2015 at 12:15 AM Post #8 of 8
samufugu said:
  They'll be plugged in to my PC 90% of the time with only Realtek ALC892 chipset onboard audio, and I really only listen to 320KBPS mp3s so I can't imagine a huge improvement until I move to FLAC.
 
I originally didn't plan on looking into anything to improve my experience with the 598s, but there seems to be a divide between people saying that it's a great pair of headphones that work perfectly on their own, and those that say it's great and needs an amp/dac. I'm hoping they'll be good enough on their own, and will probably feel they will be, but there will be that little bit in the back of my head nagging me to buy something else because of the possibility of there being a noticeable difference.
Click to expand...

They will get better with a decent DAC, but not much. Not enough to justify even $50. If you got a decent phone (iphone, flagship androids...), plug them in and see if there's a huge difference with your PC. Realtek often means bad sound quality, but how bad is another matter. 
 
Also, unless you've a decent DAC, you won't hear any difference between 320kps mp3 and FLAC.
 
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