[rjoseph]

I was wondering if I could solicit your views on what would work best for me. I'm a noob to headphones and headphone amps. Maybe these questions were asked before but I implore your patience.

Here is where I'm at. I first bought an ATH-m50 and love it. Use it out of my 2nd gen iTouch and it works great. With the greed to add on more, though in small increments, I bought a Fiio E5 hoping it would somehow make a difference. After using it I find it is better to use the m50 straight out of the itouch than using in conjunction with the E5. Maybe the built-in itouch amp is powerful by itself.

Next, on an impulse I bid for and bought a K501 on ebay. When I tried it though, it sounded weak straight out of the itouch and the computer. Expected since it needs a good amp to drive it. My problem statement is that I dont want to invest in another DAC/amp unless I really need to. Can I get away with a viable solution from one among the equipments I have listed below?

My questions are:

1. My computer's sound card says its a 'Realtek High Definition Audio' card. The link to it is here. It site seems to suggest that the card has a DAC built into it. My comp also has a digital line out. Does this really mean I can use the audio out as a DAC and I do need a dedicated one? Granted the sound seems good but does not do anything to the K501.

2. I had long back bought a creative xdock to wirelessly hook up my ipod to my denon receiver. Link here. Thought it has a mini usb slot, it is not directly recognized by the computer. I plug in the speaker out and am able to use it on the computer. Using the K501 with this setup does make the volume a tab bit louder but nowhere as close to what it does with the m50. Can the xdock be used as a substitute to an amp?

3. I also have a denon home theater system. The Denon 488ba listed here. When i plug the K501 or the m50 to the headphone jack of the receiver the sound out is very faint. Sound to the regular speakers are fantastic. I was hoping to capitalize on this setup. But I read in one of the threads that receivers made after the 1990s sound weak when connected to a headphone.

I really do not want to spend more than I need to. And going by the reviews I am devloping a soft corner for the denon ah-d2000/5000. Will any of my existing equipments help me overcome the amp dilemma? If inevitable, which dac/amp doe you think will work best for me based on the cans that I have and intend to buy?

Looking to your feedback/suggestions. Thanks.

 

[Morph]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rjoseph /img/forum/go_quote.gif 1. My computer's sound card says its a 'Realtek High Definition Audio' card. The link to it is here. It site seems to suggest that the card has a DAC built into it. My comp also has a digital line out. Does this really mean I can use the audio out as a DAC and I do need a dedicated one? Granted the sound seems good but does not do anything to the K501.

These chips are good, but not THAT good. I have similar chip, it worked OK with HD 555 (amped and unamped) but it simply couldn't give enough power to make my Sonys shine. Don't know what your budget would be, but V-DAC is a decent option for a reasonable price.

 

[rjoseph]

Any options please? anybody?

 

[moonboy403]

If mids are your thing, then the K501 is hard to beat for just around $150 and you definitely won't be satisfied by D2000's mids as they're slightly recessed while K501's mids are pure magic. Both of those cans deserves a solid dac and amp, it pretty much goes for all cans over $100 so to speak.

I recommend you to start with a budget, then look through the FS forum and find an amp and a dac that's within your budget and research from there. Buying used gear will save you tons of money.

Note: If you're

 

[Ashirgo]

And, unless you are an orthodox audiophile, do consider "improving" the bass a little (but not further than to 55Hz) with such an equalizer (I am not a paid advertiser - it is free and works well): AiXcoustic Creations: Electri-Q - posihfopit . And by no more than 8 dB at 20 Hz and 3 at 55 Hz. Anyway, to your liking. The difference will be immediate and adjustable. Using a proper equalisation will save you all the money necessary to purchase the most suitable amps for that headphone

An amp is still a must, though, to have a nice bass extension, timing and control, otherwise you will get a muddy bass.

 

[brn80]

The alternate route would be getting an amp to drive those K501s. You don't really need a seperate DAC at this point, your immediate issue is getting something to drive those K501's well. When you use the line-out/headphone-out on your computer, the Realtek is acting as your DAC. If you use the digital out, you can output the digital signal to a seperate DAC, thus having the external unit doing the processing. Now there's more involved (bitrate, upsampling etc. from the Realtek end) but that's basically the gist of it.

If you want to keep your budget down and keep your current setup, check out the TBAAM (Turtle beach audio advantage micro) It's basically a USB sound card that I've found drives certain hard-to-drive headphones reasonably well. I picked mine up from fleabay a while ago for like below $15 shipped. You can do a search on here, there's an old thread somewhere. Simple little thing that has standard 1/8" out and a optical out adapter. I've driven a K701 with it, and it's reasonable, much better than straight computer/line out. I see it's around $31 shipped on Amazon, that's a bit on the pricier side, for a bit more you can probably get a reasonable entry leavel amp.

 

[gameprey]

Doesn't every sound card have a DAC built in? It has to convert digital signals from the computer into an analog output. It's just that onboard sound card DACs aren't very good quality.