Shub-Niggurath
Head-Fier
- Joined
- Aug 13, 2004
- Posts
- 74
- Likes
- 12
Hello friends,
So, I've had this internal sound card for several years, with Beyerdynamic DT990 600 ohms and Sennheiser HD 650 headphones. I got a Magni amp in 2013 to run the headphones, and have been running this setup for all those years. Nothing is wrong with it, it sounds great and meets my needs.
At this point, I'd like to remove the Sound Blaster for a few reasons:
- Downsize my PC tower (so getting rid of a PCIe card will save me space inside)
- Don't want to be at the mercy of Creative Labs support for drivers (they do have Windows 10 drivers for this card but I don't know what'll happen in the future)
- Back in the day, I felt like I needed the EAX 5.0 support, but that tech is dead and I know I won't miss it
- Try to get rid of a noise issue that I've noticed lately (low staticky noise that I can hear when nothing is playing through the headphones and I crank up the volume)
I'm thinking an external DAC will serve my needs well with the added bonus of improving the portability of the setup somewhat -- I won't mind that since I also have a laptop. So I'm thinking of getting a Schiit Modi 3 since I already have a Magni. I have a 1st-gen Modi and Vali at work and have been happy with that setup.
So I had a few questions that I wanted to bounce off you nice folks:
1. Am I overlooking something and losing the sound card would have a negative side-effect?
2. The current 1st-gen Magni works well and I'm not getting different headphones -- is there a reason to upgrade to a Magni 3? I'm thinking no, but just double checking. Not gonna use the preamp output or the gain switch in the foreseeable future, so from what I've read, the differences would be greater output power (which I don't need with the headphones I own) and no left/right balance issue at low volumes (which I've gotten around by lowering the sound card volume and increasing the Magni volume).
3. My options for connecting the DAC will be USB or TOSLINK. I'm leaning toward the latter, but what would you recommend? I'll probably buy a good quality TOSLINK cable and run comparisons anyway.
4. My primary uses are music and PC gaming. The Modi Multibit tempts me instead of the Modi 3 (yes I've read up on the objective measurements/subjective listening debate), but I've read that the multibit DAC can introduce noticeable latency in sound playback. I don't really play games competitively anymore but I still feel that could be bothersome. Any opinions on that?
Thanks for your time!
So, I've had this internal sound card for several years, with Beyerdynamic DT990 600 ohms and Sennheiser HD 650 headphones. I got a Magni amp in 2013 to run the headphones, and have been running this setup for all those years. Nothing is wrong with it, it sounds great and meets my needs.
At this point, I'd like to remove the Sound Blaster for a few reasons:
- Downsize my PC tower (so getting rid of a PCIe card will save me space inside)
- Don't want to be at the mercy of Creative Labs support for drivers (they do have Windows 10 drivers for this card but I don't know what'll happen in the future)
- Back in the day, I felt like I needed the EAX 5.0 support, but that tech is dead and I know I won't miss it
- Try to get rid of a noise issue that I've noticed lately (low staticky noise that I can hear when nothing is playing through the headphones and I crank up the volume)
I'm thinking an external DAC will serve my needs well with the added bonus of improving the portability of the setup somewhat -- I won't mind that since I also have a laptop. So I'm thinking of getting a Schiit Modi 3 since I already have a Magni. I have a 1st-gen Modi and Vali at work and have been happy with that setup.
So I had a few questions that I wanted to bounce off you nice folks:
1. Am I overlooking something and losing the sound card would have a negative side-effect?
2. The current 1st-gen Magni works well and I'm not getting different headphones -- is there a reason to upgrade to a Magni 3? I'm thinking no, but just double checking. Not gonna use the preamp output or the gain switch in the foreseeable future, so from what I've read, the differences would be greater output power (which I don't need with the headphones I own) and no left/right balance issue at low volumes (which I've gotten around by lowering the sound card volume and increasing the Magni volume).
3. My options for connecting the DAC will be USB or TOSLINK. I'm leaning toward the latter, but what would you recommend? I'll probably buy a good quality TOSLINK cable and run comparisons anyway.
4. My primary uses are music and PC gaming. The Modi Multibit tempts me instead of the Modi 3 (yes I've read up on the objective measurements/subjective listening debate), but I've read that the multibit DAC can introduce noticeable latency in sound playback. I don't really play games competitively anymore but I still feel that could be bothersome. Any opinions on that?
Thanks for your time!