[Inzane71]

Hello all! I recently had most of my cheap/low quality headphones/headsets break, got frustrated and started looking for an upgrade. I had seen Head-FI when looking for some in ear headphones. After a little bit of research I ended picking up a pair of Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pros 250ohm (for only $100 dollars new thanks to a sale) and was blown away in the difference in sound quality and am looking to dive into this new world of sound. However I only had a laptop at the time and while it worked well I know that I wasn't getting the best out of my headphones. I recently completed a enthusiast level PC and spent a little bit extra on my MOBO due to its advertised on board system (CS4398). I am a computer engineering student and am aware of most of the advertising lies thanks to having a little bit of basic circuit knowledge. I was slightly disappointed in the difference but wasn't surprised to find that the mobo couldn't drive cans with higher than 150ohms impedance any better than my laptop (which makes me curious to know what is in my laptop.) 

I am looking to add and improve my setup with some studio monitors of which the Yamaha HS8 seems to have a good reputation for being good quality without breaking the bank. I started looking for a good quality dac/amp with XLR outputs for when I eventually purchase the monitors. I did do a quick search through the existing threads and found that most of the people asking for help with the dt 990's where only interested in the mobile headphone amps and didn't care about the XLR outputs.

I did find a couple suggestions from other threads:
Cambridge Audio DacMagic Plus
Parasound Zdac v2
Yulong D200 DSD

But I am looking for other suggestions from users who have done more research. I do not have ready access to any high end audio stores where I live so unfortunately I am not able to go test drive anything locally. I would prefer to keep the cost of the DAC under $500 but am aware that this may not be reasonable price limitation. 

Wishlist: 
XLR outputs (I don't see a need for balanced necessarily) 
Ability to mute outputs based on headphones 
Reasonable size - I don't really want a VCR player on my desk 
$500 or less 

I appreciate your time and welcome all advice! 

 

[cel4145]

I would prefer to keep the cost of the DAC under $500 but am aware that this may not be reasonable price limitation. 

You should be able to get a good quality setup that improves over mother board audio for lower than $500.

Consider an Audio-GD NFB-15 or a Schiit Modi 2 DAC and Magni 2 headphone amp.

 

[Inzane71]

I prefer the NFB-15 over the Schiit combo. Is there any reason for getting NFB-11 over the 15? Also as the NFB has RCA outputs to connect the two Hs8's would I need to buy a dual 1/4 to RCA cable? Also what are, if any, the benefits of using optical from my mobo to the dac vs the USB interface? 

 

[cel4145]

The NFB-11 has a higher rated DAC chip. Otherwise, the headphone amp and the pre-amp is the same.

 

[PurpleAngel]

  I prefer the NFB-15 over the Schiit combo. Is there any reason for getting NFB-11 over the 15? Also as the NFB has RCA outputs to connect the two Hs8's would I need to buy a dual 1/4 to RCA cable? Also what are, if any, the benefits of using optical from my mobo to the dac vs the USB interface? 

 
You can use an RCA to 1/4" mono plug, to connect the NFB-11 or NFB-15's RCA output to the unbalanced input on the Yamaha HS8.
 
USB bypasses sound card features, but is easier to hook up, mostly.
The Audio-GD DACs come with VIA 32-bit/384K USB connection, drivers are sometimes a little tricky to get to work.
Where as S/PDIF (optical or coaxial) will work with sound card features, but you have to go into windows settings (or sound card control panel) to select S/PDIF output.
Default USB connect is slightly cleaner connection, then default S/PDIF.
Personally i just use optical, with my NFB-15.32 (slightly older revision of the NFB-15).

 

[Inzane71]

Allow me to facepalm for a moment for not thinking about the adapter in the first place. I have a box of them sitting on my desk at work. I am not afraid of dealing with drivers but will most likely grab an optical cable and mess around with both to see what I like and to get the experience. Thank you all for the info! I won't be buying anything for probably a couple months but this has been very helpful!