Muzika
Head-Fier
- Joined
- May 24, 2013
- Posts
- 82
- Likes
- 13
Hello, Head-Fi'ers,
I’m presently underwhelmed with my headphone listening experience, so I’m hoping for some assistance in finding the (main) bottleneck in my rig and where I should start my upgrade (for maximum gain/money spent). I'm pretty new to all of this, but as my hours spent reading on this matter has notched up, my description and questions have become more-and-more basic. I think I can boil it down to:
Should I replace (bypass) my onboard soundcard with an external DAC? Or should I go for some better headphones?
In addition to this, however, I’ll probably be upgrading my speakers (Behringer MS40’s) soon and may buy some passive speakers, so a desktop amp may be worth keeping in mind too.
After some research, I was considering buying a pair of Sennheiser HD 25-1 II’s but it seems they’re not hugely different from the ATH-M50’s which I have. This led me to think I may want something from the next price bracket. But before I spent my money there, I figured I should consider my other components – mainly my soundcard – and perhaps consider an external DAC first.
As you’ll see, my rig is quite… modest. Besides some semi-decent headphones it’s pretty basic:
My musical taste is quite varied but, for this purpose, you may assume I predominately listen to electronic/ambient music.
So, would an external DAC be a worthwhile investment for my setup? I’d been eyeing the Audioengine D1 – would this improve my sound much? I also quite like the look of the Maverick Audio TubeMagic D1. Beyond this, I would begin looking at the upper mid-range headphones ($300-500). My budget for an external DAC is $250. Headphones... probably $500.
Thanks for any help you might offer. Please let me know if I've left out any relevant information.
I’m presently underwhelmed with my headphone listening experience, so I’m hoping for some assistance in finding the (main) bottleneck in my rig and where I should start my upgrade (for maximum gain/money spent). I'm pretty new to all of this, but as my hours spent reading on this matter has notched up, my description and questions have become more-and-more basic. I think I can boil it down to:
Should I replace (bypass) my onboard soundcard with an external DAC? Or should I go for some better headphones?
In addition to this, however, I’ll probably be upgrading my speakers (Behringer MS40’s) soon and may buy some passive speakers, so a desktop amp may be worth keeping in mind too.
After some research, I was considering buying a pair of Sennheiser HD 25-1 II’s but it seems they’re not hugely different from the ATH-M50’s which I have. This led me to think I may want something from the next price bracket. But before I spent my money there, I figured I should consider my other components – mainly my soundcard – and perhaps consider an external DAC first.
As you’ll see, my rig is quite… modest. Besides some semi-decent headphones it’s pretty basic:
- Source
- Onboard sound on my ASUS P8H77-M motherboard. More specifically, a Realtek® ALC887
- Output
- Audio Technica ATH-M50 (straight into PC via 3.5mm jack)
My musical taste is quite varied but, for this purpose, you may assume I predominately listen to electronic/ambient music.
So, would an external DAC be a worthwhile investment for my setup? I’d been eyeing the Audioengine D1 – would this improve my sound much? I also quite like the look of the Maverick Audio TubeMagic D1. Beyond this, I would begin looking at the upper mid-range headphones ($300-500). My budget for an external DAC is $250. Headphones... probably $500.
Thanks for any help you might offer. Please let me know if I've left out any relevant information.