fud4ever
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Feb 20, 2012
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Hi all. Sometime in the near future I will be purchasing audio hardware for use with my PC. I need help deciding what path to take.
This purchase is solely for my pair of Ultrasone Pro 900s (which is 40 ohm). I'm trying to decide between an external dac/amp, soundcard/external amp, or soundcard with a built-in amp.
I want to achieve extremely clean sound and be able to EQ that sound as cleanly as possible.
Now for my noob questions:
1. Does the software/driver that comes with soundcards (ie xonar essence) provide a cleaner EQ than say if I were to use foobar's EQ? If not I will shift my focus towards an external dac.
2. I've read that the Asus xonar essence has an output impedance of ~11 ohms. This is too high for clean sound in low impedance headphones ie my pro 900s, correct?
3. If I'm correct with my assumptions, would I be better off buying a high-end soundcard with no built-in amp, and then connecting that via some cable to a desktop amp with an output impedance of less than 1?
What hardware would you recommend in this situation? Budget is not an issue. Thanks for reading.
This purchase is solely for my pair of Ultrasone Pro 900s (which is 40 ohm). I'm trying to decide between an external dac/amp, soundcard/external amp, or soundcard with a built-in amp.
I want to achieve extremely clean sound and be able to EQ that sound as cleanly as possible.
Now for my noob questions:
1. Does the software/driver that comes with soundcards (ie xonar essence) provide a cleaner EQ than say if I were to use foobar's EQ? If not I will shift my focus towards an external dac.
2. I've read that the Asus xonar essence has an output impedance of ~11 ohms. This is too high for clean sound in low impedance headphones ie my pro 900s, correct?
3. If I'm correct with my assumptions, would I be better off buying a high-end soundcard with no built-in amp, and then connecting that via some cable to a desktop amp with an output impedance of less than 1?
What hardware would you recommend in this situation? Budget is not an issue. Thanks for reading.