[IAMRAINE]

I use the sennheiser hd800s with a schiit lyr amp and no DAC, just plug the RCA cables into a RCA to standard headphone jack converter and that into my laptop.


Now, I'm hoping that the setup sucks and it's no surprise to hear that this 2000 dollar setup sounds only slightly better than my 250 dollar Astros because of how I'm hooking it up. And the hd800 + lyr is actually worse at times because of an added whirring sound the amp produces or picks up, not too sure. Not too sure about any of this really so I'd be thankful for some guidance.

Thanks in advance.

 

[MalVeauX]

Quote:

I use the sennheiser hd800s with a schiit lyr amp and no DAC, just plug the RCA cables into a RCA to standard headphone jack converter and that into my laptop.
Now, I'm hoping that the setup sucks and it's no surprise to hear that this 2000 dollar setup sounds only slightly better than my 250 dollar Astros because of how I'm hooking it up. And the hd800 + lyr is actually worse at times because of an added whirring sound the amp produces or picks up, not too sure. Not too sure about any of this really so I'd be thankful for some guidance.
Thanks in advance.

 
Heya,
 
If you didn't have a DAC, there would be zero audio to be rendered. The DAC is in your laptop, it's the chipset that it uses to convert digital information to an analog sine wave. You simply don't have an audiophile grade dedicated external DAC with a name that everyone can recognize.
 
The noise you're hearing is the hard drive in the laptop transferring some of it's vibration through the rest of the system and it comes over as noise. 
 
Get a simple external USB DAC perhaps. A HRT music streamer II would be a simple way to go, and high quality.
 
Very best,