Senn HD 599 & Asus Xonar DX. Should I get an amp?

[Denkis]

I recently got the Sennheiser HD 599's which is my first pair of semi-enthusiast headphones and I've been amazed at how much new detail I can notice when listening to music with them.

On my PC I've got a Xonar DX sound card which I understand has 100 ohm output impedance. Since these headphones have 50 ohm input I understand this is less than ideal. However from what I've read it seems that my sound card at least has a pretty good DAC built in (CS4398). So I was thinking that I might get an amp and connect it to my sound card via the 3.5mm jack.

I feel like the sound is a bit better when listening to music on my iPhone 6 which of course has a much lower output impedance than my sound card. PC sounds a bit more muddled, maybe... a bit hard to tell as it still sounds good to my untrained ears. Maybe card->amp might even sound a wee bit better than my phone though?

I've been looking at the Fiio A3 which goes for about $70 in my country. For a little bit more though I can get a DAC/amp combo instead. But I don't know if there's any point in a DAC if my card already has a decent one. Even disregarding software though, at least on the microphone line on my card I have some serious interference (it's picking up coil whine from GPU when playing games).


1. Do you think an amp would be a worthwhile investment for improving the sound of these headphones together with my Xonar DX?

2. Any point in getting a DAC if I'm not willing to spend enough to get one that's of higher quality than the one in my sound card? In theory, would an external CS4398 type DAC produce a different sound than my sound card (all weird settings off)?


I've been searching around a bit for info and the first question seems to be a bit subjective. But I'd be very thankful if someone could at least help answer my second question.

 

[PurpleAngel]

I'm guessing the Xonar DX is giving the 50-Ohm HD599 a bloated (louder, less detailed) bass.
And causing mid range (like vocals) issue.
My two cents.
I do thing the Xonar DX makes a decent DAC.
Disable the motherboard's onboard audio, in the BIOS.
Install the Unified Xonar Drivers.
http://maxedtech.com/asus-xonar-unified-drivers/
Connect an external headphone amplifier to the line-output (front headphone jack) of the Xonar DX.
FiiO A3 has more than enough power to drive the HD599.
How much for a JDS Atom or Schiit magni amp?

 

[Chris Kaoss]

The Xonar DX is a nice sounding device.
Owned it many years ago in my gaming pc.
Well pairing with higher impedance, bright sounding headphones.

If you want to take the advantage to use your headphones on the go/ on other locations, as @PurpleAngel said, i'd pick such like the Fiio A3 also.
The Atom will be around 119€ with shipping, i guess. Same for Magni.
With this 2 stationary amps, you'll hardly running out of juice with mostly all headphones in the future.

 

[Denkis]

Thanks for the input. I don't understand why sound card manufacturers would put such a high output imedance on these cards. I guess it's to compensate for low amplification ability. I'm a soon to be computer science engineer but electrics and electronics as subjects frighten me and I've managed to avoid them so far in my life. I have the utmost respect for people who comprehend them.

Disable the motherboard's onboard audio, in the BIOS.
Install the Unified Xonar Drivers.
http://maxedtech.com/asus-xonar-unified-drivers/
Connect an external headphone amplifier to the line-output (front headphone jack) of the Xonar DX.
FiiO A3 has more than enough power to drive the HD599.
How much for a JDS Atom or Schiit magni amp?

Yes I've disabled the onboard audio and I have the unified drivers. The JDS Atom I can get for about $180 including shipping, maybe a bit less. The Magni 3+ I can get for about $165.

If you want to take the advantage to use your headphones on the go/ on other locations, as @PurpleAngel said, i'd pick such like the Fiio A3 also.
The Atom will be around 119€ with shipping, i guess. Same for Magni.
With this 2 stationary amps, you'll hardly running out of juice with mostly all headphones in the future.

I don't really have a need for a portable amp but Fiio A3 seemed like a good budget alternative for me. The Atom and Magni are a bit of a step up compared to the A3 right? It's hard to justify spending the same amount on an amp as I paid for the headphones and I don't know how much extra it would benefit my HD 599 to be honest. If the difference is negligible for these headphones I would rather settle for an entry level amp for the time being as I'm a student on a somewhat limited budget. If I ever get more interested in audio I might get better headphones and other equipment to match in the future. But yeah I don't need the amp to be portable. If there's a desktop alternative at a similar price with better quality I'd rather get such an amp.


What about DAC/amp combo? Do you think an external DAC with the same or similar quality chip as my sound card would improve the sound? I wan't to believe I can disregard interference as I want to trust the manufacturers to put proper shielding on the card. However considering the bad state of the microphone input interference I don't know if I can. But disregarding interference, do you know if a sound card or an external DAC for that matter color the sound or have different results even if they have the same chip inside? I guess I might lose the equalizer depending on the model but I probably won't use EQ with these headphones.

 

[PurpleAngel]

Thanks for the input. I don't understand why sound card manufacturers would put such a high output impedance on these cards. I guess it's to compensate for low amplification ability. I'm a soon to be computer science engineer but electrics and electronics as subjects frighten me and I've managed to avoid them so far in my life. I have the utmost respect for people who comprehend them.
Yes I've disabled the onboard audio and I have the unified drivers. The JDS Atom I can get for about $180 including shipping, maybe a bit less. The Magni 3+ I can get for about $165.

The front speaker/headphone jack on the Xonar DX appears to be a line-output jack, that also pretends to be a headphone jack, guess it keeps the manufacturing cost low.
The FiiO A3 appears to be the best choice.

 

[Denkis]

I've gotten a FiiO A3 now after your recommendations. I must say the sound has improved substantially for me. Especially the bass is tighter and now the audio sounds nice across the board.

For anyone else in a similar situation I can recommend this amp.

However the "coil" whine static from my GPU that I mentioned earlier is now being picked up by my headphones. This is a problem with my sound card and not the amp. The static increases with higher GPU load and I think this might pose a big problem for audio in games. It's more noticeable at higher gain (volume knob on amp and L/H gain switch). I need to try moving the card to PCI-E slot further away from the GPU or look into some sort of DYI shielding.

Cheers

 

[PurpleAngel]

This optical DAC will work with the Xonar DX.
Or you could even remove the Xonar DX and connect this DAC directly to the motherboard.
https://hifimediy.com/DACs/ready-made-dacs/SPDIF-9018-DAC?sort=p.price&order=ASC

 

[Chris Kaoss]

Thx for bringing this up.
Nice little gem for special cases.

@Denkis
If you can't effort the $60, take a look at the FiiO TAISHAN-D03K.

I've used this to connect my TV to an headamp a while ago.
No flaws recognized with it.

 

[PurpleAngel]

This optical DAC will work with the Xonar DX.
Or you could even remove the Xonar DX and connect this DAC directly to the motherboard.
https://hifimediy.com/DACs/ready-made-dacs/SPDIF-9018-DAC?sort=p.price&order=ASC

Ok, if you have no need for the sound card features, return the FiiO A3 and get something like the Schiit Fulla 3

 

[Denkis]

Turns out the static is only present when the usb charging cable is plugged into my PC. I didn't think it could travel via usb. Actually the thought to try it had entered my mind but I never did. Just by chance, it was unplugged from trying out the amp with my phone and now I noticed. Funny thing is I had thought about getting a USB microphone before because I always get static when using the card's 3.5mm line but now I think it might be even more contaminated.

Anyway good news is there's absolutely 0 static as long as I don't use it while charging (through the PC at least).

 

[Chris Kaoss]

Turns out the static is only present when the usb charging cable is plugged into my PC. I didn't think it could travel via usb. Actually the thought to try it had entered my mind but I never did. Just by chance, it was unplugged from trying out the amp with my phone and now I noticed. Funny thing is I had thought about getting a USB microphone before because I always get static when using the card's 3.5mm line but now I think it might be even more contaminated.

Anyway good news is there's absolutely 0 static as long as I don't use it while charging (through the PC at least).

Glad that you've faced the problem.
For safety, you can plug the Fiio to a good active USB-hub for charging.
This will eliminate the static noise coming from your pc.