Buddha8888

I got a Syba Sonic SD-DAC6305. Can confirm it's a good sound card/audio jack replacement. Not the BEST sound quality but great value for what you get. I use a pair of ATH-M50x's with it and it sounds great. Even has a little switch for bass or treble boost (or Direct for neither).

Ok, so I've had my Syba Sonic SD-DAC63057 and Audio-Technica ATH-M50x for about a week now. I'm writing this as a review because i'm considering posting it as it's own post for others. Please forgive my overuse of parenthesis. >_< As for the M50x's: They fit nicely, clamping pressure is a tiny bit much and hurt my jaw near my ear a little bit but i'm basically used to it now and/or they have stretched out some. The ear cups fit my ears fine (and keep the sound in pretty well too), however people with really big ears this might not be the right fit for you. The headband is padded but I wish there was a bit more. The circular design of the ear cups keep the sound in well and provide pretty good noise cancellation around you. If someone is talking while you're listening to music, you probably won't hear them unless they yell. The box was packaged well, it came with 3 different cables AND a 6.5mm adapter (that my Syba amp/DAC supports and I use, mostly just for reassurance it wont bend or break if it falls on the floor). Instructions were pretty clear on usage and what things did/were. Aesthetically the M50x's have a nice black color to them, all matte finish, no gloss and no fingerprints! That said there are a few color options AND DBrand makes skins for them so you can make them look how you want even if you don't like the way they look! Now, as for the sound, I cannot in any way claim to be any kind of audiophile so take it with a big chunk of salt. Plugged into my cell phone (Samsung Note 4), they played pretty good, not too bass-y or treble-y at all, volume was totally fine (35 Ohm impedance), songs from multiple genres sounded as they did with my previous headphones (some crappy Bose AE2's) but a little better "soundstaged". I really like the M50x's all around. As for the M50x's with my Syba Sonic SD-DAC63057: My audio jack on the laptop being broken this is the product I was mainly shopping for to replace it. I expected not much more than a USB-to-3.5mm adapter that sounded as good as the laptop's crappy sound card out of this thing. The "Soundstaging" on these are even better like this compared to a cell phone. Songs that have sound for left and right ear cups sound really cool in these*. The Syba amp/DAC has multiple inputs and outputs. Outputs: Line in, Microphone, 3.5mm headphone, and 6.5mm headphone. Inputs: mini-USB (this was the only output I have actually tried admittedly), Coaxial, Optical, and Right and Left Line Out for RCA cables (that were included with the unit). The unit is a bit bigger than my palm (I have relatively small hands for a guy) so I don't think i would call this a portable unit but it is small enough that it will pack away easily. I honestly cannot tell if the unit is made from a plastic-y metal or a metal-y plastic which I think is probably a good thing because it's a perfect medium between the two, it's pretty durable and cheaper to manufacture (I would hope). In addition to those inputs the unit has a little metal lever switch on the left front to switch between Direct (source audio as it is), Treble boost, and Bass boost. These boosts are subtle but enough to hear an obvious difference. The M50x's aren't very bass-y headphones as it is, so I'm glad the Syba unit has this option because some songs could use one but not the other to "adjust to taste". It's like a Salt and Pepper switch! The volume knob is smooth and not "notched" and gets plenty loud enough for me and my M50x's but for a higher Ohm headphone such as the Beyerdynamic DT-770 250 Ohm headphone I would probably look for a product with more power than this because I think it has a limit of 150 Ohms. It has a slight hiss at higher volumes (not bad at all) but switching into different modes seems to help sometimes. The product page says "24bit 96KHz" and I have zero idea what that means mechanically lol. The unit has lights on it to indicate which KHz range it is currently working in (44.1, 48 or 96). Again, zero idea what it means but someone else seeing this review might. All in all, soundwise, I would say the Syba Sonic SD-DAC63057 is a great laptop sound card/audio jack replacement for the $37 I paid for it. if you have higher end headphones, especially ones with a higher Ohm impedance, you will likely need something better and thus more expensive. If there's anything else anyone wants to know about these, respond here or message me and i'll try to get back to you

If you do, post back in this thread how you think it turned out lol I almost got one as well to use as a comparison vs the Syba

I think the thing is my "you get what you pay for" senses go off about the $6 adapter/external sound card thing lol. If the Syba Amp/DAC would work I think I'm going with that not just for the price but because it has an amp with it. I checked their other products and they make a few other similar things ranging from an adapter piece like you said to more expensive stuff, so it seems like a decent company. If it doesn't work out I'll return it or re-sell it and try one of the adapter pieces or the MPOW because I do like the idea certainly. I ordered it late last night with a pair of ATH-M50x's (tough pick between them and Sennheiser HD 380 Pro's lol) When I get it I'll report back my findings as best I can and let everybody know if the Syba Amp/DAC is garbage or not Thanks for all the guidance though man I really appreciate it. More or less my first real LTT forum post lol

Got any recommendations for a good DAC or Amp/DAC combo in the $20-$40 range? This seems like a good one but I don't know what any of the numbers for things on stuff like this really means lol I wanna save money but I don't wanna skimp too hard you know? lol Like I said as long as it's as good as it WAS from my audio jack before with no amp or DAC just some meh Bose headphones lol

I also emailed MPOW to ask whether either the one you linked or the "newer model" Amazon says there is (which from what I can tell the only difference is it can transmit and receive Bluetooth signals, and a smaller body) supports APTX. I spoke with Audio-tecchnica yesterday on the phone and the CS guy said APTX support is really important for using bluetooth for audio devices like headphones.

Those are very nice products but a bit pricey since i'm not looking for a great audiophile experience, just as good or better than what my laptop did natively. I was looking at http://www.amazon.com/Sound-Blaster-Portable-Headphone-Amplifier/dp/B00J79KNPM. $35, amp but no DAC. that should be ok right? Since I don't think it actually overrides the laptop's sound card? or maybe is actually better if it does? Edit: I also found this http://www.amazon.com/Syba-SD-DAC63057-Stereo-Headphone-Amplifier/dp/B009WN7QT4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1454548981&sr=8-1&keywords=Syba+SD-DAC63057. it's an Amp AND a DAC and works via USB.

Ok so that will be Option 1 for solutions then, seems like that would work out pretty well. Now, how does the sound quality compare to using a natively Bluetooth headphone (such as the WS99BT) and going that route? Or the external sound card (or maybe a DAC/Amp combo that connects via USB with headphone outputs, I assume some decent ones exist somewhere that aren't super expensive?) option to go with regular wired headphones such as ATH-M50x's? it's worth noting i'm using Audio-technica headphones as my examples but that's only because it's what i've researched the most so far, i'm open to other good brands in the $200ish and lower range. Just needs to be: Over ear, closed back, as comfortable for longer listening sessions as possible, not super heavy, portability is not a concern really. It's also worth noting that yesterday, the headphones I DID have, the right earphone stopped working suddenly so I'm in need of headphones as it is and I wanted to replace them anyway, they were just some Bose AE2's that lived for about 3 years lol

Ok so with the MPOW I can plug the headphones into it's audio jack but where is the audio source then? And it connects to the audio source (laptop) via Bluetooth? What connection? Because USB is all I got since my audio jack on the laptop itself is busted lol So Bluetooth via dongle or new wifi card, connect headphones via audio jack to the MPOW, pair the MPOW with the laptop's Bluetooth and it works like that? If that's how then how is that different than just getting a pair of Bluetooth headphones like the Audio-Technica ATH-WS99BT? I'm sorry if this goes over my head and these are dumb questions, audio tech isn't my best field of knowledge lol

Only reason I said Best Buy is because it's near me and I prefer to buy things in-store if I can to avoid shipping etc (no Prime subscription or anything like that), just preference but yea $7 is better than $20 certainly. I'm not exactly confident enough in my repair skills to try to open this laptop and do anything to it myself like changing the wifi card(as for range, it just need to reach from laptop at this little table it stays at to my head and maybe in the kitchen like 10 feet away to get a drink maybe), especially with a good ol' Proprietary HP parts system (the guys at the repair shop were eye rolling pretty hard about the headphone jack being such an annoying thing to fix on this laptop, i'm certainly inclined to agree lol). I've never built even a desktop YET (need the $$ first haha) so I don't think i'm experienced enough to jump into laptop repairs yet. I'm a little confused on what the MPOW unit does exactly. It connects to the headphone jack (which in my case is busted) to connect with Bluetooth headphones? If that's the case i'm not sure what is different about that vs a regular USB Bluetooth dongle?

Ok, so LTT audio community lend me your wisdom in this if you please because I feel way over my head in all this. A few months ago I accidentally broke my laptop's (http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c03394757) headphone jack by the headphones plugged in getting sucked up by the vacuum cleaner on accident and yanking the cord out. It was relatively functional until I took it to a repair shop whose poking and prodding has made it totally non-functional. They said it will be a $400 repair because the jack is soldered onto the motherboard some special way that you'd basically have to buy a whole new motherboard to fix it and I could buy a whole new (admittedly crappy) laptop for that kind of money, so I'm less inclined to have it fixed rather than use a workaround because the rest of the laptop works wonderful for my use. This leaves me with the decision of do I get a USB Bluetooth adapter (like $20 at Best Buy) and some Bluetooth headphones such as the Audio Technica ATH-S700BT (http://www.amazon.com/Audio-Technica-ATH-S700BT-SonicFuel-Bluetooth-Headphones/dp/B015N52XDI) OR do I get what they're calling an "external sound card" such as these: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00IRVQ0F8/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1454463005&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=external+usb+sound+card&dpPl=1&dpID=51FLiQuh7EL&ref=plSrch http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B000N35A0Y/ref=mp_s_a_1_8?qid=1454463024&sr=8-8&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=external+usb+sound+card&dpPl=1&dpID=315YCtwvgfL&ref=plSrch And get a pair of ATH-M50x's (no link needed really, you all know these lol). I have 0 idea of sound quality these options offer and I hope you guys can help me make my decision. Of course if your solution isn't one of these and you have a better idea, that is welcome as well.

Not so sure I really want an SSD badly enough honestly. The games I play don't benefit much from the loading time. Other than boot-up speed not much use to me *shrug* As for the OS, Windows 10 will be out by the time I get enough money to build this so ignore that pretty much since we don't know prices for Windows 10 lol. As for the processor, if an i5 can do all that I may consider a 4690k. Thanks guys!

http://pcpartpicker.com/user/Buddha8888/saved/4sRFf7 I basically just want a "common sense" check on this. Are there any parts on here that someone with more perspective on the current market would say "Why would you get X when Y is available?" That kind of thing. The goal of the build is like a "Bang For The Buck" thing. My "goal" would be kind of a multitasking rig (that's why I chose an i7 over an i5). Run WoW or Diablo 3 while having Youtube, Spotify and several browser tabs open at the same time without lag or overheating issues. I'm in the US, I have one monitor that I'll re-use from an older HP pre-built I got (for now) but I *might* get a 2nd monitor one day and use the old one as a secondary but that would be on my splurging list for adding that lol, don't need mice and keyboard, I have a Razer DeathAdder and a Razer Anansi. Any opinion is helpful just go easy on me!