[ChristianM]

Hello everyone. recently I've got a Sennheiser Momentum Over-Ear headphones to use with my PC which have Realtek ALC1150 and I am not very impressed with the sound quality of it, so I need your help to find a decent internal or external device to improve the sound, mainly for MUSIC. I don't game much and I don't care about surround sound, just purely for music.
my budget is around $80. gonna buy from Aamzon warehouse in "used-like new" condition.
so which one is good for my purpose?
Sound Blaster Z or Fiio "E10K, E07K, E11K" or Asus Xonar U7.
I don't know much about these things, kindly suggest any other brand/device also.
Thank you for reading my post.

 

[AnttiVahtera]

If you want to improve sound quality (and apparently you do ) then be sure the device you are buying is DAC, not just an amplifier. With just an amplifier, your Realtek will still do the conversion from digital to analog and you won't get much SQ improvement, if any. Of those devices, at least the FiiO E11k is only an amp, not an amp/DAC, so be sure to scratch that off from your list. The E07k, however would be an excellent choice (in my opinion). It's both an AMP and a DAC and on top of that is portable and considered by many to be decent quality. (also, in my opinion, it looks cool )

I'd go for the E07k if you can find it at that price. So would E10k for that matter. I don't think there's much difference between the E07k and E10k.

Personally, I wouldn't get any Sound Blaster card that's newer than the (most excellent) X-Fi Titanium series. I detest what Creative did to SB with the Z series. (CMSS was *good*, probably the best "headphone surround" technology out there. THX Panel was Great and you could setup your system just the way you wanted. Z series' SBX is concentrated bullcrap.)

 

[ChristianM]

Thanks for the reply and suggestion, both E07K & E10K is within my budget, yeah E07K looks cool. i think Xi Fi cards are out of my budget.
is there any other AMP/DAC device available in this budget? 
thanks

 

[ChristianM]

Hi again, before I place an order I need your final thoughts.
In term of sound quality, is there any difference between E07K and E10K? the E10K is specifically for desktop so I was wondering there must be a difference, although I like E07K much for it's features like Bass & treble adjustments etc.
or should I get Sound Blaster Z if it's better than the both Fiio for music listening.
 
thank you.  

 

[billybob_jcv]

The E10K does NOT have a battery. It is powered by the USB port ONLY and must have power on the USB port to function.