[cakedotavi]

Hi everyone! Audio retard here.
 
I just bought a pair of Sennheiser HD 598s, and I want to avoid plugging a fairly nice set of headphones directly into my ****ty onboard audio out. I've been doing some reading but there is just so much information, and so many options, out there. Do I want a soundcard? An external amp? A DAC? All of them? Gah!
 
My budget is $150-250; what should I buy to get the most out of the 598s?
 
Thanks, oh wizards of sound!

 

[billybob_jcv]

I would buy a USB DAC/amp. There are many, many good ones. Something like a Fiio E17 would work fine. The JDS Labs O2+ODAC is over your price range, but the JDS Labs C5D+DAC is right at your limit. There's also the IBasso D42, Leckerton Audio UHA-4 and many others.

Plug the USB DAC/Amp into your PC, plug your headphones into the DAC/Amp and enjoy the tunes.

 

[PurpleAngel]

  Hi everyone! Audio retard here.
I just bought a pair of Sennheiser HD 598s, and I want to avoid plugging a fairly nice set of headphones directly into my ****ty on-board audio out. I've been doing some reading but there is just so much information, and so many options, out there. Do I want a sound card? An external amp? A DAC? All of them? Gah!
My budget is $150-250; what should I buy to get the most out of the 598s?
Thanks, oh wizards of sound!

 
Creative Labs Sound Blaster Z sound card ($60-$80) or the FiiO E10K USB/DAC/amp ($75).
Both would be good bang for the buck options.
 
An Asus Xonar Essence STX (used, $130) would be the next step up.
 
Schiit Modi DAC and Schiit Magni amp, combo sells for $198+tax/shipping.
If you want something easy to setup and have a nice volume knob at your finger tips.

 

[cakedotavi]

Hmmm OK thanks for the suggestions guys. I've also spent the moring reading more about my options, and between that and your replies I have a couple more specific questions:
 
- Why would I want to go for an external amp/DAC over a comparably priced internal soundcard with a headphone-out that includes an amp?
- I've heard external USB options like the E10K get poo-pooed a bit for gaming because, (apparently) they do nothing to help your sound processor, and also they support fairly few channels. (Or something? Still a bit confused) Does this hold water, or are people just crazy? Would an amp/DAC that uses a SPDIF connection be any better?

Thanks again for your help guys. There is so much conflicting information about this stuff that it's taking my forever to get my bearings!

 

[PurpleAngel]

  Hmmm OK thanks for the suggestions guys. I've also spent the morning reading more about my options, and between that and your replies I have a couple more specific questions:
- Why would I want to go for an external amp/DAC over a comparably priced internal sound card with a headphone-out that includes an amp?
- I've heard external USB options like the E10K get poo-pooed a bit for gaming because, (apparently) they do nothing to help your sound processor, and also they support fairly few channels. (Or something? Still a bit confused) Does this hold water, or are people just crazy?
Thanks again for your help guys. There is so much conflicting information about this stuff that it's taking my forever to get my bearings!

 
External DACs (& DAC/Amps) offer zero surround sound processing.
USB bypasses the sound card features in the computer.
So USB provide basically stereo audio, which is fine for music or any other audio (movies or games) in 2-channel audio.
Where as with just about any sound card (internal or external) can take a 6-channel (5.1) digital audio stream and convert it into 2-channels of headphone surround sound (headphones are 2-channel, right and left cup).
 
Computer's can have electrical noise generated inside the computer case, which can be picked up by an analog audio signal.
With an external DAC/amp setup, the audio is carried outside (using USB or optical or coaxial) the computer case as a digital audio signal and converted (using a DAC) to an analog audio signal (outside of the computer case).
Usually the ultimate setup is a lower costing ($25-$65) internal sound card connected (using S/PDIF optical or coaxial) to an external DAC/amp, but that setup costs the most.
Sound cards can usually pass the (digital) headphone surround sound out their S/PDIF (optical or coaxial) ports.
 
I think for the price, a sound card like the SB-Z or STX (used) is good enough for a lot of people, I myself used an STX for a few years, finally replaced it with a $300 external DAC/Amp (Audio-GD NFB-15.32).

 

[cakedotavi]

Alright, that makes sense; if I want digital surround and to avoid interference from having an analog signal running inside my PC, I need to daisy-chain a sound card to an external DAC/amp via SPIFD.
 
If I were to pop in a fairly cheap soundcard such as the Asus Xonar DG and wanted to run that to an external amp/DAC via SPIFD, what kind of amp/DAC should I be looking at?
 
I'd been considering the FiiO E10K, but that's a USB connection so (I believe) I'd be stuck at 24bits/96kHz as per this article.

 

[cakedotavi]

Alright, that makes sense; if I want digital surround and to avoid interference from having an analog signal running inside my PC, I need to daisy-chain a sound card to an external DAC/amp via SPIFD.
 
If I were to pop in a fairly cheap soundcard such as the Asus Xonar DG and wanted to run that to an external amp/DAC via SPIFD, what kind of amp/DAC should I be looking at?
 
I'd been considering the FiiO E10K, but that's a USB connection so (I believe, since I'm on on Windows PC with no special 3rd party USB audio drivers) I'd be stuck at 24bits/96kHz. Any suggestions for something comparable that supports direct SPIDF from something like the Xonar DG instead?

Yay learning! I know so much more about PC audio than I did when I woke up today

EDIT: However, here's a question: My motherboard has a SPIFD out on it already. What advantage does a dedicated soundcard offer over just using my onboard SPIFD-out, and sending that to an external DAC/amp?

 

[PurpleAngel]

  Alright, that makes sense; if I want digital surround and to avoid interference from having an analog signal running inside my PC, I need to daisy-chain a sound card to an external DAC/amp via SPIFD.
If I were to pop in a fairly cheap sound card such as the Asus Xonar DG and wanted to run that to an external amp/DAC via SPIFD, what kind of amp/DAC should I be looking at?
I'd been considering the FiiO E10K, but that's a USB connection so (I believe, since I'm on on Windows PC with no special 3rd party USB audio drivers) I'd be stuck at 24bits/96kHz. Any suggestions for something comparable that supports direct SPIDF from something like the Xonar DG instead?
Yay learning! I know so much more about PC audio than I did when I woke up today
EDIT: However, here's a question: My motherboard has a S/PDIF out on it already. What advantage does a dedicated sound card offer over just using my on-board SPIFD-out, and sending that to an external DAC/amp?

 
The Xonar DG comes with Dolby Headphone, so if your fine using Dolby headphone, your covered there.
Audio-CDs and most FLAC music files are 16-bit/44.1, DVD movies 24-bit/48K, so would be surprised if you really have any need for higher then the DG's 24-bit/96K
For connecting S/PDIF wise to an external DAC/Amp, I really doubt you would notice a difference between the DG and STX.
I would assume a fair amount of the Dolby processing is pasted on to the main CPU anyway.
 
For S/PDIF 2-channel audio, an add-on sound card and your motherboard's on-board audio would be equal.
I would think an add-on sound card would make the biggest difference for FPS gaming, but not so much for other games.
Some really modern and high cost ($250-$300) motherboards come with sound features equal to a SB-Z, even use the modern Creative audio processor (SoundCore3D)
Even the $150+ motherboards have fairly decent on-board audio (Realtek ALC1150).
Do you know the make and model of your motherboard?

 

[cakedotavi]

   
The Xonar DG comes with Dolby Headphone, so if your fine using Dolby headphone, your covered there.
Audio-CDs and most FLAC music files are 16-bit/44.1, DVD movies 24-bit/48K, so would be surprised if you really have any need for higher then the DG's 24-bit/96K
For connecting S/PDIF wise to an external DAC/Amp, I really doubt you would notice a difference between the DG and STX.
I would assume a fair amount of the Dolby processing is pasted on to the main CPU anyway.
 
For S/PDIF 2-channel audio, an add-on sound card and your motherboard's on-board audio would be equal.
I would think an add-on sound card would make the biggest difference for FPS gaming, but not so much for other games.
Some really modern and high cost ($250-$300) motherboards come with sound features equal to a SB-Z, even use the modern Creative audio processor (SoundCore3D)
Even the $150+ motherboards have fairly decent on-board audio (Realtek ALC1150).
Do you know the make and model of your motherboard?

 
You have been very helpful PurpleAngel; thank you very much for your assistance thus far.

Regarding your Dolby comment, forgive my ignorance but what is "Dolby Headphone?" I'll do a bit of reading on this myself as well to learn a bit more. (EDIT: OK, did some reading and it seems it's just remixing middleware to simulate surround. It seems to be no better or worse received than most of its competitors like CMSS-3D. Is this fair to say?)

Regarding my mobo, it's an MSI P67-GD55. It has a Realtek ALC892 audio chipset.

I do play quite a few FPS', so things like positional audio are important to me. This is why I'm leery of a USB amp/DAC; from what I understand I would lose positional audio if I went with USB. This makes me lean towards wanting an external  amp/DAC that I can run an S/PDIF to. 

 

[PurpleAngel]

   
You have been very helpful PurpleAngel; thank you very much for your assistance thus far.
Regarding your Dolby comment, forgive my ignorance but what is "Dolby Headphone?" I'll do a bit of reading on this myself as well to learn a bit more. (EDIT: OK, did some reading and it seems it's just remixing middleware to simulate surround. It seems to be no better or worse received than most of its competitors like CMSS-3D. Is this fair to say?)
Regarding my mobo, it's an MSI P67-GD55. It has a Realtek ALC892 audio chipset.
I do play quite a few FPS', so things like positional audio are important to me. This is why I'm leery of a USB amp/DAC; from what I understand I would lose positional audio if I went with USB. This makes me lean towards wanting an external  amp/DAC that I can run an S/PDIF to. 

 
Dolby is a feature you would have on your A/V receiver, for decoding movie audio for your 5.1 speaker setup (Dolby was used on the old VHS taps for 4.0 speaker audio)
Dolby was the standard for audio tracks on DVD movies, with Blu-ray disks, the disk can come with Dolby audio tracks or DTS audio tracks or both audio tracks.
Dolby add their own headphone surround sound technology to the mix, take in 6-channels (5.1) audio tracks and convert to 2-channel headphone surround sound, for watching movies using headphones.
Creative labs came up with their own headphone surround sound technology (CMSS-3D, THX, SBX) mainly for PC gaming, people liked it.
Other sound card maker need to something to compete with Creative Labs, so they started paying Dolby a royalty so they could include Dolby Headphone surround sound on their sound cards.
 
I would say to just get a Sound Blaster Z sound card ($60-$80), should be good enough for now.
The SB-Z's nice sound and SBX Headphone surround sound should keep you happy for awhile.
CMSS-3D is Creative's old headphone surround sound, THX was OK, SBX is Creative's newest Headphone surround sound.
Microsoft setup some middleware between the OS/games and the sound card software, Creative tries to get around that middleware.
(disable the motherboard's on-board audio, in the BIOS, when you install an add-on sound card)
Later on when you get the urge you can spend maybe $200-$400 for an external DAC/Amp to connect to the sound card, maybe also buy some $300-$400 headphones.

 

[derekw]

   
Schiit Modi DAC and Schiit Magni amp, combo sells for $198+tax/shipping.
If you want something easy to setup and have a nice volume knob at your finger tips.

 
Had the same question as this guy, and these sound really interesting.
 
Do you have adjustable bass/treble etc with them?

Probably a dumb question, but, wasn't seeing it elsewhere.

 

[PurpleAngel]

  Had the same question as this guy, and these sound really interesting.
Do you have adjustable bass/treble etc with them?
Probably a dumb question, but, wasn't seeing it elsewhere.

 
No bass/treble controls on the Schiit stuff.
I think they like to keep the audio stream simple and clean.
But if you get a Schiit DAC with a S/PDIF optical (and maybe coaxial) connection, you can hook it you to your current sound card (add-on or built in) and use what features (like bass/treble controls) that come with it.

 

[cakedotavi]

  I would say to just get a Sound Blaster Z sound card ($60-$80), should be good enough for now.
The SB-Z's nice sound and SBX Headphone surround sound should keep you happy for awhile.
CMSS-3D is Creative's old headphone surround sound, THX was OK, SBX is Creative's newest Headphone surround sound.
Microsoft setup some middleware between the OS/games and the sound card software, Creative tries to get around that middleware.
(disable the motherboard's on-board audio, in the BIOS, when you install an add-on sound card)
Later on when you get the urge you can spend maybe $200-$400 for an external DAC/Amp to connect to the sound card, maybe also buy some $300-$400 headphones.

 
Hm, yeah that seems like a good approach; I think I'll do that.
 
Can you suggest anything else comparable to the Z? It seems like a good fit for me, but appears to be discontinued. (Or at least very rare in my area; can't find it in-stock anywhere) The STX is a bit more than I'd like to spend on just a soundcard.

 

[PurpleAngel]

  Hm, yeah that seems like a good approach; I think I'll do that.
Can you suggest anything else comparable to the Z? It seems like a good fit for me, but appears to be discontinued. (Or at least very rare in my area; can't find it in-stock anywhere) The STX is a bit more than I'd like to spend on just a sound card.

 
What area do you live in?
What are the prices of the Z and STX, in your area?
Can you order stuff off eBay?

 

[cakedotavi]

   
What area do you live in?
What are the prices of the Z and STX, in your area?
Can you order stuff off eBay?

Ah, you know what, just found a Z in-stock on newegg so I've ordered that.

I live in Vancouver BC, and the price of the Z seems to be around $120, (though the one I ordered was only $80 for black Friday, luckily) and the STX seems to be $220-260 on the 4 or 5 sites I checked. eBay is an option, but I tend to avoid it when buying things I don't fully understand; "serious" audio hardware is pretty new territory for me. 

All good now though! Very happy with an $80 soundblaster Z shipped to my door, and should I ever choose to go further with it I'll probably use that card to daisy chain an external amp and DAC from Schiit. 

Thanks once again for all your help PurgpleAngel  You taught me quite a bit today!