Soundcard "Bottleneck?"

Lukiose · February 21, 2013

Hello~! :D

After some recommendations (And local testing at a shop), i've decided to save up for a ATH-m50, however i do NOT have a dedicated sound card in my system. Will i lose much sound quality if i buy such a high-end headphone? Or is it actually fine?

System specifications are in my signature, onboard sound.

Chipset · February 21, 2013

You'll be fine.

People who are all "onboard sound is the WORST EVAR" are idiot audiophiles who know shit about audio. Onboard sound is gonna be fine and it'll sound fine and you probably wont have any problems. If you do take great pleasure in music and want something better, get an http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/JDSLabs/O2_ODAC/ O2 amp + ODAC combo and never worry about the source ever again. The O2 amp + ODAC combo is completely transparent sound, it outperforms all headphone amps on the market under $1000 and is accurate to the point where only precision measurments can detect faults in it, no human ears can. People who tell you otherwise are lying shitbags who don't know audio. Basically get that and you won't have to get a new headphone amp or dac in a very, very, very long time.

Aphexx · February 21, 2013

I have a tonne of mp3's from the napster days that I played the hell out of and loved. since I got my headphones I can't stand them, I've piled them all in one folder and don't play them anymore.

I find badly encoded files more of an annoyance than the lack of a soundcard.

watch out for fake m50's I think there's a thread on headfi about spotting the fakes. most notably the flipped and facing eachother audio technica logo on the earcups

t0wer · February 21, 2013

You'd be fine, but I'd recommend an upgrade.

h264 · February 28, 2013

IMHO, The order of operations is:

-Source (e.g. Flac instead of mp3.)

-Headphones

-Digital to Analog Convertors (If it can do 24 bits at 96khz sampling, output 2VRMS, and be relatively distortion and noise free, your doing good with, oh, 99.999% of all music today)

-Amplifiers

-Cables (no, they don't make a difference. Even if they did, it still wouldn't make a difference. The length is all that really matters.)

-Power conditioning (If your amplifier is being affected by your wall socket, I suggest you call your electrician immediately!)

-Vibration dampening (if you have neither CDs nor LPs, you have no legs to stand on. get it?)

-rocks, pebbles, CD demagnetizers, green markers, usb cables (the $500+ variety)

-other snake oil I haven't heard of yet.