Hi long time lurker here with a question involving powering my ATH-A900 cans. My current living situation has changed due to a nasty motorcycle accident and I am having to put my dolby atmos speakers away while i recover which could take a year or so. I am currently using my gaming pc to output via hdmi to my marantz sr 7010 and power my cans which to me sound really good most of the time. I tried the onboard audio of my asus crosshair vi vs my avr because the mobo had a lot of marketing terms saying how good it was at powering headphones for gaming. It took all of 2 seconds to see thru that. I was wondering if my avr is a good headphone solution or would a separate dac/amp be superior for gaming and movies.
Several things to note here:
1. Marantz uses a dedicated headphone driver chip that, while not using the output stage for the speakers to drive headphones, have decent enough power delivery and lower output impedance to preserve what damping factor that driver circuit has. That Philips driver chip is so good that Fiio used practically the same chip (just a later version) as the Marantz CDxx and PMxx series from the early 1990s on their E9 amplifier, except compared to the CDxx, it's got a simpler power supply whose disadvantage in power is offset by not having to spin a CD transport and run a DAC chip and output stage.
2. Motherboards can have decent circuits, but the power isn't exactly there. However, compared to a Marantz CDP, it will have a fair bit more. The problem is very likely the output impedance. As much as Fiio had to design the circuit to lower the output impedance on these Philips driver chips (especially the newest iteration of these chips with the 0.5ohm output impedance on the K5), which means that in all likelihood they would normally have comparable output impedance figures, that's not where it ends. Even the exact same output imedance figure does not guarantee the exact same result. Some circuits will make some headphones sound like tin cans but make other headphones have a bloated bottom end. Case in point: my NAD 304 makes everything sound like a tin can (this one does not use anything like the Philips driver chip, but has a cheap op amp in there), even the 300ohm HD600; same deal with my Marantz CD60 (but at least it didn't make the HD600 sound like a tin can; vs my Meier Cantate, it just had less impact on hard, sudden bass notes); but then there's my Little Dot Mk2 that can make the AKG K701 sound like a tin can (vs being driven by my Meier Cantate) and the Grado SR225 have boosted though not necessarily bloated in the sense that it had little to start with and was easy enough to drive that the amp's low current wasn't a problem (vs the Cantate.2).
In short you're starting off with a pretty decent driver circuit in the Marantz, and if anything, it could be that they're both introducing distortion, but not the same kind of distortion. it might not just be the motherboard's output impedance going one way (I assume it's making the sound thinner) but also the Marantz going the opposite direction (ie giving a slight boost to the bottom end, just not as much as some OTL tube amps might).
Also with regard to motherboards...that's a Crosshair VI. That's from the time when marketing was more predominant than engineering, until you get to the really low end motherboards like my old H77MA-G43 (which has a high noise floor). Some motherboards are better now, and more to the point, there's the Creative AE-5 which has a circuit with output power and output impedance specs comparable to a Magni. Even with a review for the on board audio on a specific board however I'd still base my purchase decision on other things, like price or VRM design, since outboard solutions are available for audio but not a VRM that can maintain 5.0ghz on all eight cores.
I am currently using windows 10 to output in atmos for headphones and really enjoy it for the couple games that support it(but it does not compare at all to the binaural audio of
Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice). I don't listen to a lot of music so im not going down that road. Thanks for any advice for my situation.
If you already like using the Marantz with the computer and you don't have a problem keeping it there (I'm assuming you're putting it away from the living room where the speakers are and are using it next to the computer) then you might as well save your money and just use the Marantz.
If it's too bulky for you there then getting an external audio solution is an option.
Just take note though that if the Marantz' output impedance is indeed adding distortion, using a DAC-HPamp with very low output impedance will not take it close to the Marantz, but somewhere between the Marantz and the Asus motherboard in terms of overall tonal balance. You might get an increased kick in the bass due to the power, but that's not in overall for the bass, just a harder thump; but then again you're not going to be listening to music.
If your problem isn't so much the tone but the output level, are you sure you have the settings on the Asus motherboard dialed in? You might want to try setting it to High Gain mode first...or as Gaming Marketing calls it, it would be along the lines of "Pro G4M3R Maximum P4wNaGe Mode" or something ridiculous that in no way states what it really does. My Xonar U3 has "Pro Gamer - for >64ohm headsets." Which is also problematic since it isn't impedance but sensitivity that is the main problem.
has a good DAC, and a good headphone amplifier.