theuprising
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Dec 11, 2013
- Posts
- 285
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- 30
Hey, I have a Takstar Pro 80, ATH-A900x, and a JVC s680 and even though they are all pretty efficient, I hear you can get notably better sound out of them with a proper DAC + amp.
However, there have been plenty of threads stating how modern Realtek HD cards are better than some dedicated DACs. There was even someone who said that there was barely any difference in SQ going from Realtek ALC889 to a Fiio E10! Given my card is older than the ALC88x class, its an ALC663 and I couldn't find any information on it, other than 1 person claiming the E7 was an enormous upgrade. Also, I'm sure you guys have seen this already, but here is some "research" done by tomshardware.com stating that a 2 dollar ALC889 card was equivalent to a 2000 dollar DAC!:
http://www.head-fi.org/t/724961/2-realtek-audio-chip-2000-dac
Though I'm not sure if my card stacks up against the ALC889, because right off the bat I can tell my laptop slightly sounds worse than everyone else's in my family. If my Realtek DAC is fine, I guess I'd be fine with just a Fiio E6 since my current headphones probably won't need too much juice. For some reference, my laptop sounds significantly better than my iphone 4S, its like night and day.
Is an E7 worth the investment, and is the E07k worth the added price comparatively? Thanks ahead of time!
However, there have been plenty of threads stating how modern Realtek HD cards are better than some dedicated DACs. There was even someone who said that there was barely any difference in SQ going from Realtek ALC889 to a Fiio E10! Given my card is older than the ALC88x class, its an ALC663 and I couldn't find any information on it, other than 1 person claiming the E7 was an enormous upgrade. Also, I'm sure you guys have seen this already, but here is some "research" done by tomshardware.com stating that a 2 dollar ALC889 card was equivalent to a 2000 dollar DAC!:
http://www.head-fi.org/t/724961/2-realtek-audio-chip-2000-dac
Though I'm not sure if my card stacks up against the ALC889, because right off the bat I can tell my laptop slightly sounds worse than everyone else's in my family. If my Realtek DAC is fine, I guess I'd be fine with just a Fiio E6 since my current headphones probably won't need too much juice. For some reference, my laptop sounds significantly better than my iphone 4S, its like night and day.
Is an E7 worth the investment, and is the E07k worth the added price comparatively? Thanks ahead of time!