Hi, i'm in the same exact potision like you : Extremely good overall heaphone for gaming and music with a MODMIC 4.0 on it.
And i end up on the AKG line up that is like good call of duty game made by activision... All good and basicaly the same.
But i end up with the AKG K712.
But if you have for exemple the last "realtek codec", the "ALC1150" coupled with a motherboard that have shield iem protection, apparently it's not worth upgrading to a DAC. (ALC = integrated sound card(chipset) = internal soundcard (asus essence II PCI....)= external soundcard(dac like odac or Modi 2...)).
If you don't hear any wierd noise coming from your system, you basicaly doesn't need a DAC on an ALC1150 chipset. The only thing that you would maybe need is an External AMP (amplifier) to power up your headphone. But again, your motherboard maybe already have an integrated amp (opa#### #=number). Motherboard seller say "Can go up to 600ohm headphone like studio one" but no one, even them know if it's really work or want to say it.
So the only thing you might want is an AMP like the "famous" O2 or Schiit Magni2. If you have an other integrated DAC than the ALC1150, you can go with a DAC like the "odac"(made by the same guy who did the O2) or Modi 2 AND even more importantly if your motherboard doesn't have protection against electronic parasite.
If you are going to upgrade your computer soon (good motherboard), don't buy anything and try out first. If you already have it, try it out first too
But the very tricky thing about it will be this question in your mind "I will never know if with this [ ] it will sound better than this [ ]"... And you will literaly lost your mind if some DAC/AMP sound better with this or this or this microphone.....
I'm in the exact same spot than you. I contacted "
JDS Labs" by mail and they said that about my msi z97 gaming 5, "i don't need DAC but will maybe need an AMP".
And "mayflowerelectronics" by mail said "go for both". I spoke a bit about technical specs comparaison between the two DACs and he said very vaguely "look at these two lines, it's a bit better"... Well, i'm not convinced
I contacted MSI, the manufactur of my motherboard, and they don't know/don't want to say if the traditional o2+odac combo (or schiit stack with modi2/magni2) is better or even than a well integrated ALC1150 codec with shield protection and amp in it...
I gave to them specs of both DAC and the amp AND NOBODY GAVE ME A STRAIGH answere.
I posted on many forums, and listen to many many peoples/videos but you will basicaly NEVER have an answere because
*It's not in the interest to the person to you to know (they are helper and seller at the same time/sponsorship).
*the person never tried and can't bieleve that new real gaming motherboard and not like his crappy laptop or that is old motherboard can be better than his 1k dollars audio stuff.
*Many people will say yes, you need at least one of them.
*Few will say "you don't need any of this if you already have a well integrated ALC1150 with integrated amp in it on a good motherboard".
And the discution doesn't stop at "do i need an amp/dac"... because people will start speaking about "internal soundcard".
But it's more easy on this part. Generaly internalsoundcard have good DAC but bad AMP. So you have to buy and external amp anyway...
And the driver totally suck!! (hello asus).
If you never had good heaphone/set, and you don't want to think about upgrading to an amp/dac and all this infinity useless questions, just buy the sennheiser hd 558, hd 598 or the 558 with an already microphone on it the "G4me one (open design) or G4me zero (close design, cool for lan but not for soundstage and it's bad for footstep).
It will save to you many time.
So my friend, i hope i savec you some time and headicks :X
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Coming back to this post, nobody can say again if the AKG 712 PROhas been downgraded or not. And if the K7XXX is at 99% the same than the AKG712 PRO ?