Thommohawk
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- May 13, 2010
- Posts
- 420
- Likes
- 45
So basically the DAC element of the soundcard is top notch especially for the price - I've got that already, but what about the amp ? I gather so far that the amp that comes with the Essence is fairly basic ? That being said, to purchase an equivalent performing standalone DAC (spec wise) would cost twice as much as the whole soundcard - but what about the amp ? To what standalone equivalent would the Xonar Essence's integrated amp match and how much would that cost ?
More simplified, I'm thinking of purchasing a separate standalone amp (Firestone Audio's Fubar CuteCurve or Fubar CuteBeyond) and using the Xonar Essence as a high quality DAC mainly and feeding it to the Fubar - would this be a waste of money in terms of quality ? Or is the Essence amp better ? Because judging from the prices I very much doubt it.
Cheers.
More simplified, I'm thinking of purchasing a separate standalone amp (Firestone Audio's Fubar CuteCurve or Fubar CuteBeyond) and using the Xonar Essence as a high quality DAC mainly and feeding it to the Fubar - would this be a waste of money in terms of quality ? Or is the Essence amp better ? Because judging from the prices I very much doubt it.
Cheers.