[Maciek1988]

Since I bought AKG K412Ps I've been planning to buy one of the cheaper USB DACs (two most interesting to me being FiiO e7 and Audinst HUD-MX1) - I thought that since I have headphones that one could call "not bad" (even though they're just portable ones) I now could improve on the sound by replacing my laptop's internal soundcard with equipment like this. But I started to wonder if I actually need it. I listen to my music (YouTube, mp3s, wavs ripped from my CDs) very quietly and I have headphones that are very easy to drive (32ohm as far as I know) anyway so I'm not sure about the headamp. I thought I could use a great DAC (WM8740 is put in the aformentioned USB DACs) but I've been told recently that the chip matters a lot less than the headamp.
What's more I need to equalize the sound, and I don't know if it's the headphones' fault or the soundcard's. I'm not sure if I should buy a high quality DAC just to equalize it like I did using the internal soundcard.
 
So what should I do? Save money for a DAC or for some new headphones? It's not like I'm dissatisfied with the sound I'm getting now (after using the equalizer of course), it's just there's always room for improvement, right?
 
To sum up once again: do I need a DAC if I listen to music from youtube, mp3s and wavs very quietly and use an equalizer that comes with my soundcard's drivers?

 

[MalVeauX]

Quote:

Since I bought AKG K412Ps I've been planning to buy one of the cheaper USB DACs (two most interesting to me being FiiO e7 and Audinst HUD-MX1) - I thought that since I have headphones that one could call "not bad" (even though they're just portable ones) I now could improve on the sound by replacing my laptop's internal soundcard with equipment like this. But I started to wonder if I actually need it. I listen to my music (YouTube, mp3s, wavs ripped from my CDs) very quietly and I have headphones that are very easy to drive (32ohm as far as I know) anyway so I'm not sure about the headamp. I thought I could use a great DAC (WM8740 is put in the aformentioned USB DACs) but I've been told recently that the chip matters a lot less than the headamp.
What's more I need to equalize the sound, and I don't know if it's the headphones' fault or the soundcard's. I'm not sure if I should buy a high quality DAC just to equalize it like I did using the internal soundcard.
 
So what should I do? Save money for a DAC or for some new headphones? It's not like I'm dissatisfied with the sound I'm getting now (after using the equalizer of course), it's just there's always room for improvement, right?
 
To sum up once again: do I need a DAC if I listen to music from youtube, mp3s and wavs very quietly and use an equalizer that comes with my soundcard's drivers?

Heya,
 
Your soundcard is the DAC in your situation. If your soundcard's sound output quality is not acceptable then look for a DAC or better soundcard. You certainly don't need an AMP to listen to music quietly. And if an equalizer software comes with your soundcard and functions the way you need it to, then you're set. Based on your headphones, I don't think you need an expensive soundcard. A lot of onboard sound chips actually are decent DAC's these days even. Personally I like an AMP even with easy to drive headphones because if the volume isn't high enough for me, I want to crank it more--that's just me. For you, unless you just want new headphones for some reason, I don't see that you need anything unless you're unhappy with what you already have.
 
If you want to completely upgrade, you could jump on some audio technica m50's with a decent USB DAC/AMP and call it a day. But again, unless you're unhappy with sound quality on your current headphones, no need to add things to it.
 
Very best,