What do I need to drive 990 pros?

[AzureShadow]

Hey, so I’m getting a pair of Beyerdynamic DT990 Pro 250 OHM headphones. I was wondering if the xtreme audio that comes with the z390 meg godlike motherboard would be enough or if I should shell out a bit more money and buy a sound card like a Sound blaster Z or any recommendation that you guys have.

[minibois]

My own pair of DT990 250 Ohm headset runs perfectly fine on my onboard audio (mid end X370 board). At the moment I am even running it on my monitor's 3.5mm output, which gets its sound from Displayport audio.

The headphones get plenty loud, although I only really listen to YouTube stuff and nothing like Flacs or whatever.

 

Also, when I say it gets plenty loud, I mean it. I don't think I listen to very high volumes, but to give you an idea; my Windows audio is at 30% and YouTube audio is usually between 50-100% and I am perfectly fine with the loudness (and clarity for that matter) of the audio.

[AzureShadow]

2 minutes ago, Minibois said:

My own pair of DT990 250 Ohm headset runs perfectly fine on my onboard audio (mid end X370 board). At the moment I am even running it on my monitor's 3.5mm output, which gets its sound from Displayport audio.

The headphones get plenty loud, although I only really listen to YouTube stuff and nothing like Flacs or whatever.

 

Also, when I say it gets plenty loud, I mean it. I don't think I listen to very high volumes, but to give you an idea; my Windows audio is at 30% and YouTube audio is usually between 50-100% and I am perfectly fine with the loudness (and clarity for that matter) of the audio.

Thanks for the reply! So I’m assuming I probably will be able to run these pretty good as an eyewatering £500 for a z390 board should have very good integrated sound. Seems like a very high quality sound card is for the more audiophiles who are dead serious on what a bullet leaving it’s chamber sounds like.

[minibois]

2 minutes ago, AzureShadow said:

Thanks for the reply! So I’m assuming I probably will be able to run these pretty good as an eyewatering £500 for a z390 board should have very good integrated sound. Seems like a very high quality sound card is for the more audiophiles who are dead serious on what a bullet leaving it’s chamber sounds like.

Some people in the past have said these headphones are quite difficult to 'run' (power), but in more recent times I have seen people say the opposite.

Motherboards in recent years have improved to be able to run headphones which use a design that's at this point quite old (first DT990 came out like ten years ago I believe; which is not a bad thing... Just shows how much confidence they have in the design).

[rice guru]

1 hour ago, AzureShadow said:

Hey, so I’m getting a pair of Beyerdynamic DT990 Pro 250 OHM headphones. I was wondering if the xtreme audio that comes with the z390 meg godlike motherboard would be enough or if I should shell out a bit more money and buy a sound card like a Sound blaster Z or any recommendation that you guys have.

probably enough to run it. on board audio is pretty good these days.  I initially paired mine with a fiio e10k like everyone reccomended but the amp on that unit sorta sucks sounds bad and not enough to be what you call plenty loud on them. I'm now running it on a monolith liquid spark off of a different dac. but yeah if it's not loud enough and you don't wanna spend a lot of money I would say grab a fx audio dac x6. but I would do that after building your pc and and testing sound out

[rice guru]

1 hour ago, Minibois said:

My own pair of DT990 250 Ohm headset runs perfectly fine on my onboard audio (mid end X370 board). At the moment I am even running it on my monitor's 3.5mm output, which gets its sound from Displayport audio.

The headphones get plenty loud, although I only really listen to YouTube stuff and nothing like Flacs or whatever.

 

Also, when I say it gets plenty loud, I mean it. I don't think I listen to very high volumes, but to give you an idea; my Windows audio is at 30% and YouTube audio is usually between 50-100% and I am perfectly fine with the loudness (and clarity for that matter) of the audio.

I find youtube to be louder than any of my audio sources at a 100%

 

[kasugatei]

DT990s are quite easy to drive with anything. I used them with Realtek onboard sound card, Macbook Pro soundcard and had no issues. I also use them with Audient USB interface and Schiit Fulla 2 and indeed they are louder that way, but is that really that you need? Going above noon on Fulla 2 makes listening experience a bit more painful because of the volume.

[rice guru]

From my personal experience. I find that while you can definitely power them from on board or the fiio e10 k  a good amp definitely makes the difference with these headphones. After reading this post and doing some about testing to confirm my claims between my on board a b350 PC mate so a pretty average modern board, my fiio e10k, and my monolith liquid spark. The fiio e10k sounded better than the onboard but they produced the same amount  of power it was cleaner. But the liquid spark produced a better more fun experience as it properly powered all the frequencies. The bass hit harder and tighter, the highs killed my ears less but I hear that's just a characteeristic.of this specific amo., and the soundstage opened up more.