[ael00]

Hello!
 
So I am looking to buy 2 headphones, one for desktop use and one for mobile. For the desktop use I am 90% settled on the ath m50x. What I am afraid though is that my PC wont be able to drive them well and clear. I have an asus z170a motherboard, and when I plug in my CX-300-IIs I can clearly hear some static. My presumption is that the onboard sound of this board is not very good, my phone gives me better sq - an xperia z3.
 
After poking around I found the solution of getting an amp/dac combo, but I am not sure what I need exactly. I want to drive these well but not go overboard on something crazy that I cant use to its full pottential. If possible, I would like to use this with my phone aswell to give me a larger option of headhphones down the line but this is not a priority (not sure if possible at all). Right now im looking at stuff like the CKR-9s but those will have to wait a bit as im satisfied with the senn's for now.
 
Also a friend told me that I also need a sound card as the dac simply picks up on the bad output of the moterboard, is this true ?

 

[k4rstar]

Hi, welcome to Head-Fi.
 
First off if the M50x is what you want; they are pretty efficient and should be fine from an onboard audio solution in terms of power. That being said if you experience static from your motherboard on other equipment what you'll need is an external DAC or internal sound card. Unless you anticipate getting more difficult to drive headphones in the future a sound card is a more elegant and usually cheaper solution to eliminating signal noise.
 
Most external DACs will connect to your computer via USB, so it won't pick up the bad output of the motherboard, no.
 
Hope this helps.

 

[MalcolmReynolds]

Hey Ael00,
 
So I have this mobo http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132127 (mine wasn't DOA, so i am of the 5 egg opinion of it), but it has the updated chipset to my mobo, and my ATH-M50X's work great with the product. I have never had any static problems and are a pretty solid purchase. Past that I don't have much for you, just that the M50X's are a great buy for the money and I have nothing but praise for them.

 

[ael00]

Thank you very much for the replies.
 
Can you recomend me a starting point for an external dac and a sound card maybe ? I really do not know if I should be looking at 20$ or 200$ stuff.

 

[MalcolmReynolds]

What are you looking to do with the sound card first off? Are you looking to listen to .wav music on your computer, or are you going to be gaming?

 

[ael00]

What are you looking to do with the sound card first off? Are you looking to listen to .wav music on your computer, or are you going to be gaming?

Mostly listening to music while working, mix of flacs and 320kbs stuff if I cant find losless files. I do some gaming on the rig but not really looking for Sq in my games. Sorry I should have mentioned this already!

 

[Music Alchemist]

I'm using a Creative Sound Blaster E1 right now. Got it for barely over $20 used. It's about $50 new. I also used to own the Schiit Fulla, which is $79 new. I haven't been able to compare them directly, but the E1 is pretty darn good for the price. Both of them are USB-powered, so not ideal for portable use. I don't use portable systems anymore, so I will leave that side of the equation to someone else. Anyway, as others have stated, the M50x is easy to drive, so you don't need much.

 

[BambiV]

I don't think you need a D/A because it will sound good directly through your PC and not a lot of improvement on D/A so I don't think it worth to get a desktop device just for it.

 

[cel4145]

Schiit Fulla or Fiio E10K are good entry level DAC/amps for use with a computer.

Suggesting USB DAC/amps that work with phones is tricky as compatibility can be different between different phone models.