What I want to know is: will the Bithead's onboard sound card provide better sound quality for listening to music than an Audigy 2?
You can see my current gear in my sig. I have no dedicated headphone amp and my source is an Audigy 2. I have been looking at the bithead for months now because I primarily listen to my headphones while using my computer. I use the computer for both games and music. I want to upgrade my source AND get an amp, and the Bitheads just seems like it could kill 2 birds with one stone. However, at its price I just wonder if it can do both of those jobs really well (jack of all trades?) or if I should go the other route and get a seperate source upgrade and a seperate amplifier. I initially wanted a Chaintech AV-710 but now I think if I upgraded my source, I'd go straight to an EMU 0404 or 1212M. I am still undecided on an amp...I just can't make up my mind. I'm considering anything from something like a Headsave Ultra to a Gilmore Lite and a Corda HA-1. However, I'm reading mixed opinions on amps--some say upgrading amps makes a huge difference and others say it's a very minor difference and that all that really matters is that the signal is amped, period.
So here are my questions for now:
1 - Would the Bithead's onboard sound card be superior to my Audigy 2 (for
music; I realize the Audigy will be superior in games)
2 - Would the Bithead's amplification be enough to drive both my SR-80's and HD-580's adequately? I'm just not sure it's got enough "oomph" to drive the high-impedance Sennheisers but I could be wrong; I didn't design the thing.
3 - Would a dedicated amp like a Headsave Ultra or Corda HA-1 be light years ahead of the Bithead's amplification, or would it be a subtle difference? I know that battery-powered amps (cmoy, pimeta, Airhead, Bithead, etc.) are typically considered inferior in sound quality to AC/DC powered amps, but if the difference would be very minor then I see no reason to spend several hundred dollars on the Corda or Gilmore Lite when I could just get the Bithead and receive the benefits of the amplifier AND the sound card in it (not to mention the small size).