[frakkel]

Hi, I have asked this question at avsforum.com, and was recommended to ask here. I have been seaching a little but probably not thorough enough.

But anyway here it was want:

I want to have some good stereo sound from my pc and therefor I have been looking into the sennheiser HD650 and a Zero DAC amp combo.

My motherboard has a build in ALC883 High Definition Audio 6 -Channel CODEC with a S/PDIF out (asus M2A-VM HDMI).

My question is if its totally overkill to buy the headset and amp and plug it into the PC or should I at least buy a seperate soundcard?

 

[linuxworks]

the onboard sound chip may or may not be able to playback bit-perfect data. probably it will (most modern ones can) and also I'd check if it can output ac3 and dts bit perfectly (they both need that as 'ac3 passthru').

else, you can always disable it and go with a usb-spdif dongle. turtle beach makes one for $30 or so with opto out that works just fine (cmedia chip inside).

the dac on the zero is supposed to be pretty good. I'd throw more money toward a better amp section (outboard amp) and see if that gets you by. but try the builtin amp on the zero first - that may be enough as it is.

650's are not THAT hard to drive; any modern competant amp (real amp) can drive them.

 

[paaj]

Check if the motherboard does not resample internally to 48khz (as music is at 44.1khz). If it doesn't resample you are good to go, otherwise a cheap Trust pci-card with the right drivers is enough for s/pdif output.

 

[linuxworks]

no need for a pci card anymore, with usable usb/spdif dongles cheap and easy to use.

unless you want 24/96 and then you mostly have to go pci (or usb2.0 proprietary or firewire).

but for 'normal music' at 44.1/16, usb spdif is the best bang for the buck and no taking up pci slots.

 

[frakkel]

So if I buy a zero DAC from ebay
zero dac, Electronics, Computers Networking items on eBay.com
then the usb to digital which is bundled is sufficient for good stereo sound?

 

[linuxworks]

I have a usb to opto dongle similar to that. they SHOULD be ok, I think.

one thing I would slightly worry about is quality control from china made ebay goods. its expensive to ship and some people are having bad units which really negates ALL benefit to buying so-called 'cheap' goods overseas. I know I would be very cautious about chinese made ebay dacs.

 

[frakkel]

Quote:

Originally Posted by paaj /img/forum/go_quote.gif Check if the motherboard does not resample internally to 48khz (as music is at 44.1khz).

After searching at ALC883 I found this Realtek
I guess it means that it can do 44.1 khz sampling

 

[frakkel]

Quote:

Originally Posted by linuxworks /img/forum/go_quote.gif one thing I would slightly worry about is quality control from china made ebay goods. its expensive to ship and some people are having bad units which really negates ALL benefit to buying so-called 'cheap' goods overseas. I know I would be very cautious about chinese made ebay dacs.

The reason to buy zero dac was mainly because of this review
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f5/rev...re-amp-269458/

 

[Sesonic]

Any update on this, I was also looking at getting a pair of sennhesier HD650's and a Zero dac/amp but am hung up on whether the an optical out from the soundcard or a usb spdif on a pc would be a clean enough source to supply the zero and hd 650's. I use all lossless

Another thing i was thinking of was using optical from pc to a AV amp such as an Onkyo AV receiver and using this to drive the sennhesider through the headphone port. Would this be a better solution than using a cheaper zero dac as i could drive surround sound speakers aswell making it a better bang for the buck?

 

[csommers]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sesonic /img/forum/go_quote.gif Any update on this, I was also looking at getting a pair of sennhesier HD650's and a Zero dac/amp but am hung up on whether the an optical out from the soundcard or a usb spdif on a pc would be a clean enough source to supply the zero and hd 650's. I use all lossless Another thing i was thinking of was using optical from pc to a AV amp such as an Onkyo AV receiver and using this to drive the sennhesider through the headphone port. Would this be a better solution than using a cheaper zero dac as i could drive surround sound speakers aswell making it a better bang for the buck?

Optical out or USB is PERFECTLY fine to use, and its really the only way to do it if you are going to use your PC as source.
If you already have the Onkyo, give it a shot. Otherwise try and demo the 650s on one at a store.

 

[Frankie Lee]

I have a Zhaolu 2.5 dac/amp and don't find it to be a huge improvement over the headphone socket in my Arcam AVR250 amp, so I'd certainly be tempted to try your Onkyo before you go spending money. The Zhaolu gives a pretty good sound from my macpro though, so it's handy in that regard.