[mjperk]

I have a pretty hefty home built computer, but do not have an add-on sound card. Historically I have used the on board audio, which from what I understand is pretty good as far as on board goes. My motherboard is an ASRock X79 Extreme 6, which uses the Realtek 898 audio codec. From what I can find, this supports 24 bit output resolution with a Max sampling rate of 192 kHz. The output SNR is 110 dB. Compare this to the T1 MK2, which has an output SNR of >120 dB and 24 bit resolution, so it looks slightly better on paper as least as far as SNR is concerned. I'm not sure SNR matters in terms of DACs (isn't that more of an amplifier thing?). I'm pretty ignorant on DACs, but I understand the T1 MK2 is sort of an upper low-end DAC. Do you think I'll get better sound from the on board DAC or from the T1 MK2?

 

[billybob_jcv]

IMHO, I doubt changing the DAC will make a difference you are able to hear. If there is a difference, it is probably due to the amp not the DAC. What headphones are you driving?