[draterrojam]

Been looking around here and can't find a good answer. Right now in my rig I have a recond3d pcie fatality. I am looking to upgrade to a q701 pair of cans. Would this be enough to get enough out of the headphones? Should I get another dac? I am looking at the audioengine d1 which says it has a headphone amp in it. Or should I just get a fiio E9? Any other suggestions would be awesome. 
Thanks.

 

[Communism]

Hi, yes I'm wondering the same thing since I'm currently using the Asus STX.
Not too sure if I will benefit more by changing it to an external DAC or purchasing another amp to line out from the soundcard.

 

[stv014]

Quote:

Been looking around here and can't find a good answer. Right now in my rig I have a recond3d pcie fatality. I am looking to upgrade to a q701 pair of cans. Would this be enough to get enough out of the headphones? Should I get another dac? I am looking at the audioengine d1 which says it has a headphone amp in it. Or should I just get a fiio E9? Any other suggestions would be awesome. 

You may benefit from an amplifier, since the K701/Q701 is one of the hardest to drive dynamic headphones that are still in production. But if it is loud enough with some headroom to spare with no audible distortion, then the potential for improvement is not necessarily huge. The Recon3D sound card seems to have an entry level DAC (other, reasonably priced sound cards have better specs), but it might still be good enough not to be a real bottleneck.
 

 

[stv014]

Quote:

Hi, yes I'm wondering the same thing since I'm currently using the Asus STX.
Not too sure if I will benefit more by changing it to an external DAC or purchasing another amp to line out from the soundcard.

The DAC on the STX is very good (comparable to more expensive external products), so there is not much benefit from upgrading it, unless there are audible computer interference problems. A headphone amplifier may or may not make a difference, depending on what headphones you have, but the TPA6120A2 amplifier on the Xonar STX is not bad for many full size models.