[mralexosborn]

I used to use a Shure SE110. They sounded fine with my phone and slightly better with my PC (onboard Realtek). 
Now I have the UE SuperFi 5vi. They sound good with my phone but TERRIBLE on my PC. For example in the song "Sex on Fire" by Kings of Leon, the bass guitar just sounds like muddy boomy noise, while on my phone it sounds fine.
Can you explain why this is?
If I get a DAC for my PC (uDac2) will it sound better with my PC (no muddiness)?

 

[violinvirtuoso]

This is probably because you have a bad onboard sound card. I would get a uDac(2) and try it out with your computer. If you don't like it, you can return it. But with the uDac, it will probably sound better than your phone.

 

[beamthegreat]

maybe its just the software, try using a different music player and see if it gets better. If not then try investing on a new dac.

 

[violinvirtuoso]

If you can, try Foobar 2000.

 

[mralexosborn]

I use VLC. I love it. Don't take it away.

 

[paaj]

How can you love VLC, other than because it plays everything? 
What is the format of your files? If crappy lossy, this could be the source of your problem.
Try better lossy (256+) or lossless, and try foobar (in search for bit-perfect output). If that does not help I think getting a DAC/amp could be worth it.

 

[mralexosborn]

Not lossy half my collection is lossless. The half that I listen to is lossless. It sounded fine with my SE110 but not my SuperFi 5vi. How could this be?

 

[jr41]

I've been very pleased with the extra detail retrieval, improved sound stage and instrument separation the uDac has brought to my PC listening setup over on-board sound.

 

[Danz03]

Maybe the 5vi's showed up all the nasty details that the SE110 couldn't. And if you use lossless, your soundcard must be a very bad one!
 
Quote:

Not lossy half my collection is lossless. The half that I listen to is lossless. It sounded fine with my SE110 but not my SuperFi 5vi. How could this be?

 

[mralexosborn]

It is lossless. The only genres that are bearable is hiphop/rap and metal. Classical sound dull compared to the Shure's. Rock (if it has any bass) sounds muffled. Although with the Droid it has that "underpowered" sound, the bass is not muddy.
 
Once again, will a DAC fix my problem?

 

[Danz03]

It's hard to say but I think very likely. Although I've never heard the SE110s or the 5vi's myself, I bought a pair of SE220s for my gf before and I didn't like them at all, so in theory, the 5vi's couldn't be worse sounding than the SE110s.
I don't really know how much a good sound card would cost but an inexpensive solution would be to get a Fiio E7 and use that as a DAC and headphone amp, they sound quite good, or just take your laptop to the shop to try it out there before buying.
Quote:

It is lossless. The only genres that are bearable is hiphop/rap and metal. Classical sound dull compared to the Shure's. Rock (if it has any bass) sounds muffled. Although with the Droid it has that "underpowered" sound, the bass is not muddy.
 
Once again, will a DAC fix my problem?

 

[killz23]

Quote:

How can you love VLC, other than because it plays everything? 
What is the format of your files? If crappy lossy, this could be the source of your problem.
Try better lossy (256+) or lossless, and try foobar (in search for bit-perfect output). If that does not help I think getting a DAC/amp could be worth it.

VLC does play everything isn't it? You have to love it for what it is -- a universal player. But the lack of a music management system is simply a deal breaker for me..
 
A software can make music sound better? That's new info for me!

 
Quote:

maybe its just the software, try using a different music player and see if it gets better. If not then try investing on a new dac.

Is there any other software other than iTunes that can be used on a Mac?

 

[drapoel]

I got no good impression when using uDAC1, no idea about uDAC2 since the uDAC2 boasts TOCOS volume control.
 
PC? Why don't you find a PCI or PCI Express sound card that has integrated headphones amplifier?

 

[Danz03]

Just downloaded this player called Vox, been using it to play FLAC files, sounds good to me.
Mind you, iTunes or Quicktime can play aiff files anyway, and the quality really depends on the files, if they are 24bit/96kHz, of course they'd be better than MP3s at 128kbps.
 
Quote:

VLC does play everything isn't it? You have to love it for what it is -- a universal player. But the lack of a music management system is simply a deal breaker for me..
 
A software can make music sound better? That's new info for me!

 

Is there any other software other than iTunes that can be used on a Mac?

 

[paaj]

 
Quote:

Originally Posted by killz23 /img/forum/go_quote.gif
[...]
VLC does play everything isn't it? You have to love it for what it is -- a universal player. But the lack of a music management system is simply a deal breaker for me..
 
A software can make music sound better? That's new info for me!
 
Is there any other software other than iTunes that can be used on a Mac?

I only use VLC to play one file at a time, mostly movies/series. It does have a sort of library function but it is crap.

Software can not make it sound better, but it can make it sound worse . On Windows there is (used to be?) a problem with resampling (kmixer) that distorts the sound, resampling even when not needed. Foobar2K can bypass this and output a perfect signal to external amps, and has decent plugins for music management and customization. 
On a Mac there is no such problem, and iTunes is easily the best music player (tried others but didn't like them). FLAC support can be added with a plugin, or transcode the FLAC to ALAC using XLD.
 
--
but to get back on topic, I think a DAC may solve the problem. The better conversion will certainly help, and you'll need some sort of amp (integrated in the DAC or external) that could give a cleaner output to your phones.