I need a headphone DAC/Amp for my desktop computer. I will use it with Hifi 400i, Senn 598cs and Senn 650.
I don't know much about dacs/amps but on paper SB G6 seems to be a better deal , since owner of FiiO K3 says it doesn't have enough power output for Hifi 400 or Senn 650
They're both powered by USB and Creative doesn't publish the output power specs of the G6. I wouldn't assume it has more power than the K3 since they're both limited by 5V, 500mA power source, unlike the Schiit that has a second USB port just for power to the headphone amplifier stage.
FiiO K3 has a balanced output too, do I need it with my headphones?
Considering you get 200mW at 32ohms from the balanced output, then sure...
but you might as well get a headphone amp that can spit out 512mW at 32ohms and ~256mW at 300ohms instead of buying a balanced cable for the HE400i and HD650 just to not get that much out of the K3.
Price is very similar , so shall I go with SB G6 or am I missing something?
G6 has a DSP so if you need it for gaming and not all your games have headphone surround audio encoding then that's going to process surround sound from the games and movies into 2ch stereo but with reverb and crossfeed that would make it sound less like pure stereo signals coming out of two physical drivers.
And AFAIK G6 line out is fixed level (double check that though) so you can use a headphone amp with it later on if you want to upgrade for listening to music. Note the emphasis since with games, as long as the amp circuit isn't clipping or the noise isn't bad, you'd be dealing with a lot of other stimuli to notice that that explosion sounds kind off vs listening to music where the perspective from where you're listening isn't dynamic so those with good ears can tell if that note sounds off without having to worry about how their POV camera is relative to the source of that explosion (ie distance from the explosion and where your in-game head turns will alter how you hear the SFX, especially with surround/surround simulation).
If you don't need the DSP for games, but since you're using the HE400i and HD650 anyway, might as well save up instead of getting the K3 either. I have a similar output power portable unit and I use it at work. At home it stays with the laptop but there I just use the line out to feed my desktop speakers a cleaner signal.
