DAC or Audio Interface?

[redalertomega]

Hi everyone! 

 
I need some advice regarding DAC or Audio Interfaces.
 
This is my configuration:
- Alesis Elevate 5 monitors
- Sennheiser HD598 SE headphones
- Windows 7 PC
- TRS balanced cable (I can buy RCA if needed)
 
My HD598 are brand new and sealed, so I still have to try them. I read that they are very easy to drive, so I suppose I don't need an amp.

That said, what do you think is the best solution among the following options?
 
Audio Interfaces:
Focusrite Scarlett 2i2
M-Audio M-Track II Plus
Steinberg UR22
Tascam US-322
 
DAC/Amp:
Nuforce uDac3
Audioengine D1
SMSL M3
Music Fidelity V90-HPA

 

[buke9]

Are you wanting to record stuff?

 

[redalertomega]

Not at the moment. Maybe in the future.
 
Btw, I read in a couple of audiophile sites that a powerful amp (such Objective2) could cause bad distortion and noise on low impedance headphones. Is that right? Cause I don't want to increase SNR to my headphones while using an amp.
 
I have seen people using only the second notch (out of 8) on their amp to obtain maximum volume from HD 598. Isn't that ridiculously useless?

 

[Raketen]

  Not at the moment. Maybe in the future.
 
Btw, I read in a couple of audiophile sites that a powerful amp (such Objective2) could cause bad distortion and noise on low impedance headphones. Is that right? Cause I don't want to increase SNR to my headphones while using an amp.
 
I have seen people using only the second notch (out of 8) on their amp to obtain maximum volume from HD 598. Isn't that ridiculous?

I have never heard that about the O2- could be referring to hiss? (related more to headphone sensitivity and souce noise floor, not so much output power IIRC) - otherwise, the two cases I can think which you'd get distortion would be either from overdriving the headphones by turning the volume too high, or possibly if you were applying excessive pregain- for instance using EQ to boost bass past the amp's max input or max sustainable output or something. Many amps also specify the headphone impedances they can drive with stability.

It's not really ridiculous or even unusual to have the volume so low- where you could run into a problem is with the volume adjustment itself- for isntance with very sensitive headphones some amp's lowest level of output might still be too high (this is why a lot of amps have switchable low/med/high gain settings), or  with digital volume controls the steps might be too large to find the optimal level, or analog volume pots which are known to sometimes have channel imbalances at their very lowest settings.

If you are somewhat technically minded this breaks the basics down pretty well http://blog.jdslabs.com/?p=1285

 

[redalertomega]

Thanks for the explanation Raketen.
 
By the way, the volume wasn't low. It was at maximum level with only 2 notch out of 8! In my humble opinion that is useless. It's like reaching Ferrari top speed with gas pedal only at 1/4 position.
Then I'm not an audiophile, but it's clear that something isn't right when you have to set the volume millimiter by millimiter. It's so inconvenient. The knob was barely moving.
 
Correct me if I'm mistaken but I believe that an audio interface is good enough to easily power the HD598.
So my question now is:
for headphones and monitor speakers, does a DAC/amp significantly improve the audio quality compared to a good audio interface such as Focusrite Scarlett? Since an audio interface is built for professional recording, shouldn't it have great sound quality?
 
Thanks again and sorry for my poor English. 

 

 

[Raketen]

  Thanks for the explanation Raketen.
 
By the way, the volume wasn't low. It was at maximum level with only 2 notch out of 8! In my humble opinion that is useless. It's like reaching Ferrari top speed with gas pedal only at 1/4 position.
Then I'm not an audiophile, but it's clear that something isn't right when you have to set the volume millimiter by millimiter. It's so inconvenient. The knob was barely moving.
 
Correct me if I'm mistaken but I believe that an audio interface is good enough to easily power the HD598.
So my question now is:
for headphones and monitor speakers, does a DAC/amp significantly improve the audio quality compared to a good audio interface such as Focusrite Scarlett? Since an audio interface is built for professional recording, shouldn't it have great sound quality?
 
Thanks again and sorry for my poor English. 

 

By low volume I meant the volume setting- having more power than you need is in some ways actually a positive- more troubling is if you need to turn the knob to max which may indicate there is not enough power... it would be more like you have the gas pedal all the way down but the car is stuck in first gear.
 
That is one reason why people can be really picky about their volume dials allowing for very fine adjustment (for instance popular items like the JDS Element or Grace mxx9 with huge volume dials)- I think the solution in this case you mention might be to change to a lower gain setting if possible (some companies that make the O2 like JDS offer custom gain settings).

An audio inteface actually has an internal dac/amp setup, with additional functionality of an ADC and different input/output options for recording and monitoring purposes. Ideally it should provide you with decent quality sound- You would have to look at the individual device specs to determine if it has enough power for your headphones- eyeballing hd598 and 2i2 specs I think you might be ok- 2i2 is not very powerful, but hd598 looks relatively  easy to drive-  though you might ask on the hd598 thread if they benefit from  more powerful sources. In the worst case you can always take the line out from your interface into a headphone amplifier--- and actually your speakers appear to be powered speakers with an internal amp and have a headphone output of their own so you could try your 598's from there as well.

 

[redalertomega]

I am 100% sure that the gain on the Objective 2 Mayflower was setted to the lowest available. And still the maximum volume of HD598 was reached with only two notch. Can't image what would happen if gain was on high level! XD
 
By the way, I think I will buy an audio interface. Is there a way to know if the DAC built in the interface has the same quality of a dedicated DAC? I mean, is there a way to know the name of the integrated chip? I suppose the most common is from Texas Instruments, am I right?
 
 
EDIT: I said Maverick instead of Mayflower. XD

 

[Raketen]

  I am 100% sure that the gain on the Objective 2 Mayflower was setted to the lowest available. And still the maximum volume of HD598 was reached with only two notch. Can't image what would happen if gain was on high level! XD
 
By the way, I think I will buy an audio interface. Is there a way to know if the DAC built in the interface has the same quality of a dedicated DAC? I mean, is there a way to know the name of the integrated chip? I suppose the most common is from Texas Instruments, am I right?
 
 
EDIT: I said Maverick instead of Mayflower. XD

Only if the manufacturer specs list them or if someone has done a teardown of the gear, you can search around (Gearslutz, Hydrogen, Reddit might have more info for recording gear). They likely draw from the same or similar pool of basic DAC chips, OPAMPs etc, as you mention by companies like TI, Cirrus/Wolfson, AKM etc.. - though the need to include an ADC, mic imputs etc... in the interface might suggest they are looking at cheaper components than a dedicated dac/amp of the same cost- but I'm not sure how much of a difference that would make to the end product, especially in the budget price range.

 

[buke9]

I had a eMu 0404 usb that was nice it couldn't drive my Alpha Dogs or HE-400's but was louder than I wanted with my HD-280 Pro's. It can do 24 bit 192 also and the DAC is pretty good also. It can be had on eBay for $40 bucks so you would not be out much to give it a try. Mine had a untimely demise that was unrepairable : ( .

 

[TheDudeManDude]

Hi everyone! 

I need some advice regarding DAC or Audio Interfaces.

This is my configuration:
- Alesis Elevate 5 monitors

- Sennheiser HD598 SE headphones

- Windows 7 PC

- TRS balanced cable (I can buy RCA if needed)

My HD598 are brand new and sealed, so I still have to try them. I read that they are very easy to drive, so I suppose I don't need an amp.


That said, what do you think is the best solution among the following options?

Audio Interfaces:
Focusrite Scarlett 2i2

M-Audio M-Track II Plus

Steinberg UR22

Tascam US-322

DAC/Amp:
Nuforce uDac3

Audioengine D1

SMSL M3

Music Fidelity V90-HPA

did you ebd up deciding? I just got a pair of Audeze LCD-X and now wonder if running trough a dedicated DAC / Amp like the JDS Labs Element will be better than listening through my Edirol FA-66 Audio Interface. Its a fair bit of extra cash to splash of its not nessecary. Any help?