[Prevtzer]

Hello,
I am looking for best possible external sound card to support my AKG K181DJ headphones.

I am currently lurking between Native Instruments Audio 2 DJ and Sound Blaster X-Fi USB 5.1

Please help me decide.

 

[Sherlock19]

might be worth it to double your budget and get the 0404 usb heard nothing but good things.

 

[Prevtzer]

Sadly that's not really an option at the moment. If you had to choose between Sound Blaster and Native Instruments which one would it be?

Thanks

 

[Sherlock19]

wish i could tell you, but sorry i have no expierence with either of these pieces of hardware/

 

[miloxo]

Take a look at the Musiland SVDAC06, I cant compare it to something else in this price range, but it was a nice improvement above my $15 soundcard

esp. bass sounds 'flabby' on my soundcard compared to the Musiland (Using AD700s)

 

[Armaegis]

I don't know about the Native Instruments, but I've read the X-Fi USB is good except it does eat up a lot of system resources (not a big deal if you have a decent rig). Turtle Beach and Steelseries makes a bunch of portable sound cards as well. I own the Turtle Beach Micro and am happy with it. It's not quite the same as pushing music out through a dedicated dac, but it's also only $30.

 

[fenixdown110]

Why not get a USB DAC Amp? It will bypass your current soundcard and outperforms any xfi sound card imo. I'm sure many others would agree. You can pick some decent priced ones. The Headroom Total Bithead and Zero DAC are pretty good choices.

 

[Prevtzer]

Any decent ones for under 100€ perhaps?
Thank you!

 

[Prevtzer]

Is Headroom Total AirHead any good?

 

[Armaegis]

The stuff from Headroom is generally well regarded. Note that the Airhead is their cheapest amp and does not contain a DAC.

 

[fenixdown110]

You'll want to step it up one and get the Total Bithead to include a DAC, but for that price, there are some similarly priced DAC amps that do much more.