Confused how a DAC would work on a computer.

[lifeonbicycles]

Pardon my confusion, I am only 15 and have been interested into high end audio for about a year now 

. I am split between getting a usb DAC or USB sound card. There are not many USB sound cards, But there are many USB DACs. Would a DAC act as a "sound card"? My idea is that there would be no point to get the sound card because the dac acts the same- The data is sent to the dac and then it processes it into a analog signal that can be sent to the headphones, not interacting with the onboard sound card at all. Is this true? I have always found my laptop on-board audio lacking with my Sony MDR-V6 headphones. 

 

[Sonic Defender]

That is correct, the USB DAC in effect takes over the role your sound card previously did. You need to have a player such as JRiver or Foobar2000 which are capable of sending bitperfect signals to your amp, but then your done. If you are just starting out and only want to invest a small sum you should consider trying the Schiit Maji and Magni stack (not sure I spelled the names correctly). My friend purchased them and I put them through my Denon D7000 (using JRiver Media Center) and I was quite surprised how good the music sounded. At $99 for each component if your looking for a very simple, yet nice introduction to using a seperate headphone amp and DAC then you can't go wrong.

 

[Fred Bob]

Answer to your question is: yes.  Although, understand, you need an amplifier and volume control after that digital signal is processed to analog to push your headphones.  
 
And, nice set of headphones for a kid.  
 
My advice: don't bother with some sort of soundcard, just get a used DAC with headphone amp and volume.  You can get a good one on the cheap and be in audio bliss in no time.  Connect it to your laptop with a USB or firewire cable.  Select it as your audio output with computer settings and viola, you'll have a small system that can best decent cd players.  This will sound infinitely better in comparison to headphone jack from your computer.  There's a million DACs with headphone amps + volume out there to chose from. Check classifieds on Head-Fi as well , audiogon, ebay, etc.  
 
Good luck.  

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

Pardon my confusion, I am only 15 and have been interested into high end audio for about a year now 

. I am split between getting a usb DAC or USB sound card. There are not many USB sound cards, But there are many USB DACs. Would a DAC act as a "sound card"? My idea is that there would be no point to get the sound card because the dac acts the same- The data is sent to the dac and then it processes it into a analog signal that can be sent to the headphones, not interacting with the onboard sound card at all. Is this true? I have always found my laptop on-board audio lacking with my Sony MDR-V6 headphones. 

An external USB DAC is fine for 2-channel stereo audio, like for music.
A sound card (internal or external) would help for Headphone Surround Sound for games & movies.
You can get the Fiio E10, USB-DAC-Amp, $60, it is an external USB DAC and also comes with a headphone amplifier with a very low output impedance
I would say not to spend more then $60 (for a DAC/amp) for headphones like the MDR-V6.

 

[lifeonbicycles]

Quote:

An external USB DAC is fine for 2-channel stereo audio, like for music.
A sound card (internal or external) would help for Headphone Surround Sound for games & movies.
You can get the Fiio E10, USB-DAC-Amp, $60, it is an external USB DAC and also comes with a headphone amplifier with a very low output impedance
I would say not to spend more then $60 (for a DAC/amp) for headphones like the MDR-V6.

do you know of any slightly higher end models under 120? I will probably be upgrading these headphones within the next 2 years.
 
Quote:

Answer to your question is: yes.  Although, understand, you need an amplifier and volume control after that digital signal is processed to analog to push your headphones.  
 
And, nice set of headphones for a kid.  
 
My advice: don't bother with some sort of soundcard, just get a used DAC with headphone amp and volume.  You can get a good one on the cheap and be in audio bliss in no time.  Connect it to your laptop with a USB or firewire cable.  Select it as your audio output with computer settings and viola, you'll have a small system that can best decent cd players.  This will sound infinitely better in comparison to headphone jack from your computer.  There's a million DACs with headphone amps + volume out there to chose from. Check classifieds on Head-Fi as well , audiogon, ebay, etc.  
 
Good luck.  

      Yeah, The MDR-V6 is a great day to day headphone. Mine have well over 1,500 hours on them and are still going strong. I also checked Ebay- Tons of used DACs.
 
Quote:

That is correct, the USB DAC in effect takes over the role your sound card previously did. You need to have a player such as JRiver or Foobar2000 which are capable of sending bitperfect signals to your amp, but then your done. If you are just starting out and only want to invest a small sum you should consider trying the Schiit Maji and Magni stack (not sure I spelled the names correctly). My friend purchased them and I put them through my Denon D7000 (using JRiver Media Center) and I was quite surprised how good the music sounded. At $99 for each component if your looking for a very simple, yet nice introduction to using a seperate headphone amp and DAC then you can't go wrong.

So does this mean I can't use it for everything on my computer, Such as skype and youtube, and games? I'm not interested in spending $200, but those seem like nice choices when I upgrade in the future.

 

[Sonic Defender]

Quote:

do you know of any slightly higher end models under 120? I will probably be upgrading these headphones within the next 2 years.
 
      Yeah, The MDR-V6 is a great day to day headphone. Mine have well over 1,500 hours on them and are still going strong. I also checked Ebay- Tons of used DACs.
 
So does this mean I can't use it for everything on my computer, Such as skype and youtube, and games? I'm not interested in spending $200, but those seem like nice choices when I upgrade in the future.

 
Not sure about how you port Skype, but your output from the computer will be the channel into the DAC and amp (whichever way you go). I have heard the FiiO E17 is a great performer for a very reasonable sum (I have the E11 and like it quite a bit). I'm sure you will find a great solution to your needs, let us know which way you go.

 

[elwappo99]

Quote:

Quote:

That is correct, the USB DAC in effect takes over the role your sound card previously did. You need to have a player such as JRiver or Foobar2000 which are capable of sending bitperfect signals to your amp, but then your done. If you are just starting out and only want to invest a small sum you should consider trying the Schiit Maji and Magni stack (not sure I spelled the names correctly). My friend purchased them and I put them through my Denon D7000 (using JRiver Media Center) and I was quite surprised how good the music sounded. At $99 for each component if your looking for a very simple, yet nice introduction to using a seperate headphone amp and DAC then you can't go wrong.

So does this mean I can't use it for everything on my computer, Such as skype and youtube, and games? I'm not interested in spending $200, but those seem like nice choices when I upgrade in the future.

 
You can use a USB DAC for everything your sound card does. I think Sonic Defender might have confused you by throwing out "bitperfect". "Bitperfect" is a specific streaming signal that the computer sends. You really don't need to worry about things like that unless you're getting into much higher end audio. 
 
It seems like you still might be a little confused on how a "USB DAC" would function compared to a traditional "sound card". I definitely remember being in a similar position. The USB DAC will identically replace your built in sound or sound card. It functions the same way. As long as you set it to the default sound device in windows (assuming you're on windows) most software will automatically use it, and if not you can easily make a one time change the settings. It'll look like this.
 

 

[elwappo99]

Based on your budget, Fiio is really going to be your overall go to. There aren't a lot of manufacturers that will have something to offer based on your budget. With the Sony V6 you really won't need too much amplification power, so just about any unit they have will suit you well. Keep in mind, they offer some "amplifiers" and some "DAC and amplifiers" so make sure you look for a unit that has both.
 
http://www.fiio.com.cn/

 

[Sonic Defender]

Quote:

 
You can use a USB DAC for everything your sound card does. I think Sonic Defender might have confused you by throwing out "bitperfect". "Bitperfect" is a specific streaming signal that the computer sends. You really don't need to worry about things like that unless you're getting into much higher end audio. 
 
It seems like you still might be a little confused on how a "USB DAC" would function compared to a traditional "sound card". I definitely remember being in a similar position. The USB DAC will identically replace your built in sound or sound card. It functions the same way. As long as you set it to the default sound device in windows (assuming you're on windows) most software will automatically use it, and if not you can easily make a one time change the settings. It'll look like this.
 

Yah I should have taken a few moments to explain bitperfect, but a 15 year old these days will discover what it means in like 5 seconds. Why would you ever not bother doing bitperfect, it only takes a few moments to configure with either JRiver or Foobar and regardless of your listening setup/preference, bitperfect gives the best performance with no real issues. Just my opinion, nothing more.

 

[elwappo99]

Quote:

Yah I should have taken a few moments to explain bitperfect, but a 15 year old these days will discover what it means in like 5 seconds. Why would you ever not bother doing bitperfect, it only takes a few moments to configure with either JRiver or Foobar and regardless of your listening setup/preference, bitperfect gives the best performance with no real issues. Just my opinion, nothing more.

 
Certainly a fair point to make about configuration within the software. That's certainly something Bicycle could play with and figure out with a USB dac, and something to consider in purchasing one. However, I thought bicycle was a little more concerned about "If I get this, will it work with skype, my games, etc. OR will I have to constantly switch my headphones to the laptop headphone out if I want to move from music to those applications". I only thought this because way back when, I was concerned about things like that too.

 

[lifeonbicycles]

Quote:

 
Certainly a fair point to make about configuration within the software. That's certainly something Bicycle could play with and figure out with a USB dac, and something to consider in purchasing one. However, I thought bicycle was a little more concerned about "If I get this, will it work with skype, my games, etc. OR will I have to constantly switch my headphones to the laptop headphone out if I want to move from music to those applications". I only thought this because way back when, I was concerned about things like that too.

That is Exactly what I was thinking! I researched more about bitperfect and such, And now I get how everything works. 
 
       Thank you everyone for the fantastic supplies and wealth of knowledge in this category 

 It makes buying choices a lot easier! Especially Sonic Defender, who showed exactly what I was wondering about. I didn't know these DACs would show as an audio device in windows. I am going to get a Fiio E10 off of Amazon tomorrow morning. Cheers!

 

[Sonic Defender]

Glad we were able to help you out, but don't thank us so quickly as I promise you once you get hooked your wallet will not be so happy! It is a great hobby and truthfully you don't need to spend an arm and a leg to get really decent sound out of a modest system. As I said when my buddy brought his $200 Schiit stack over I thought plugging in fairly expensive headphones like the D7000s might be really underwhelming but I was really surprised just how good things sounded, quite good overall I thought. The E10 should be a great entry point and provide you with some killer sessions of musical enjoyment. Don't forget to post your impressions in this thread so people know how it turns out. Cheers.

 

[themarkness]

What I hate about the Fiio's is the synchronous USB constantly screwing up, especially with higher sample rate audio.  Also Youtube screws up a lot and pausing something and coming back later will a lot of the times cause static, broken audio that is fixed by refreshing or stopping a file and replaying a file.  I upgraded from a Fiio solely for that reason.  I have not had any problems yet with a Schiit Modi.  I don't know why people don't make a bigger deal about it when recommending the Fiios.  It's pretty damn annoying.  Though people talking about equipment they've not extensively used before without prefacing is pretty endemic on this site.

 

[lifeonbicycles]

Quote:

Glad we were able to help you out, but don't thank us so quickly as I promise you once you get hooked your wallet will not be so happy! It is a great hobby and truthfully you don't need to spend an arm and a leg to get really decent sound out of a modest system. As I said when my buddy brought his $200 Schiit stack over I thought plugging in fairly expensive headphones like the D7000s might be really underwhelming but I was really surprised just how good things sounded, quite good overall I thought. The E10 should be a great entry point and provide you with some killer sessions of musical enjoyment. Don't forget to post your impressions in this thread so people know how it turns out. Cheers.

I was just about to buy it yesterday until I heard about Unicomp keyboards. Now I have to choose between the amp or the keyboard 

. I will probably decide once I get my new desk on sunday that is replacing my 19 year old Staples desk- That is called getting your moneys worth when it was bought for 100 dollars at the time!