The best dac for music for 100$ and has a mic female?

[i0880]

I mostly listen to music but some times play FPS with friends so what are your recommendations?

Don't need an AMP BTW

[TrigrH]

10 minutes ago, i0880 said:

I mostly listen to music but some times play FPS with friends so what are your recommendations?

Don't need an AMP BTW

Fulla 3

[i0880]

2 hours ago, TrigrH said:

Fulla 3

I heard the sound isn't great?

 

[rice guru]

What Headphones are you running?

[i0880]

4 hours ago, rice guru said:

What Headphones are you running?

hyperX C 2

[rice guru]

2 minutes ago, i0880 said:

hyperX C 2

A DAC won't make too much of a difference with that Headphone I would upgrade your headphones first

[geo3]

11 hours ago, i0880 said:

I heard the sound isn't great?

 

 

1 hour ago, i0880 said:

hyperX C 2

 If you're a person who's okay with the sound hyperX headphones literally any dac will sound fine to you. 

[i0880]

5 hours ago, rice guru said:

A DAC won't make too much of a difference with that Headphone I would upgrade your headphones first

Why i'm buying a dac is to get red of the buzzing sound and i'm planing to get a new one in the future

[i0880]

3 hours ago, geo3 said:

 

 If you're a person who's okay with the sound hyperX headphones literally any dac will sound fine to you. 

I'm planing to get a new one

[geo3]

For $100 I don't think your going to find anything better that has mic in put. There is a Syba Sonic that  is cheaper and probably sounds worse. If you're concerned about sound quality the the Schiit Hel is a step up and people say it sounds comparable to a Modi/Mangi stack. But it's like $180

 

Since you say you don't need an amp I'm amusing you have one, in which case your could get separate units one for out and one for mic in, but then you're looking at spending more than $100 anyway. You will also have ground loop issues unless your headphone and mic are totally separate units, or at least don't share a ground which you then split to each device.  So like a headphone + mod mic or desktop mic would be okay. But a headphone with integrated mic and 4 poll plug that you feed into a splitter will ground loop.

[i0880]

6 minutes ago, geo3 said:

For $100 I don't think your going to find anything better that has mic in put. There is a Syba Sonic that  is cheaper and probably sounds worse. If you're concerned about sound quality the the Schiit Hel is a step up and people say it sounds comparable to a Modi/Mangi stack. But it's like $180

 

Since you say you don't need an amp I'm amusing you have one, in which case your could get separate units one for out and one for mic in, but then you're looking at spending more than $100 anyway. You will also have ground loop issues unless your headphone and mic are totally separate units, or at least don't share a ground which you then split to each device.  So like a headphone + mod mic or desktop mic would be okay. But a headphone with integrated mic and 4 poll plug that you feed into a splitter will ground loop.

I don't have an AMP cuz the sound is more than loud enough.

If as you say using attached mic woth 4 poll plug will cause ground loop i think i'm getting the modi 3 so the DAC become more quality which is what i want and an average mic for about 20$ and plug it to the PC.

What do you think?

 

[geo3]

2 minutes ago, i0880 said:

I don't have an AMP cuz the sound is more than loud enough.

If as you say using attached mic woth 4 poll plug will cause ground loop i think i'm getting the modi 3 so the DAC become more quality which is what i want and an average mic for about 20$ and plug it to the PC.

What do you think?

 

I would vastly prefer using just a Fulla 3 to config you just mentioned. 

You can't just plug headphones into a pure DAC directly. Well you can with an RCA to 3.5mm adapter but it will suck. An amp isn't just to make it louder. 

 

A 4 poll won't cause ground loop if you plug it into a single device, like the Fulla. It's only when you use a splitter into separate devices that you get ground loop. 

[The Flying Sloth]

If you're looking to upgrade mics in future or care about mic quality upgrading to an audio interface is probably a better option, has DACAMP inbuilt as well as the ability to use studio mics in future should you choose to upgrade. UMC202HD is probably closest to your price range with all the features you want.

[i0880]

6 hours ago, geo3 said:

I would vastly prefer using just a Fulla 3 to config you just mentioned. 

You can't just plug headphones into a pure DAC directly. Well you can with an RCA to 3.5mm adapter but it will suck. An amp isn't just to make it louder. 

 

A 4 poll won't cause ground loop if you plug it into a single device, like the Fulla. It's only when you use a splitter into separate devices that you get ground loop. 

Oh is that right i just read an articale that says AMPs is only to make it louder and if it's loud enogh  you don't need it as this was what i assumed before searching i didn't dig any deeper but i guess i'll just take fulla with a separate mic.

Thanks a billion

[i0880]

3 hours ago, The Flying Sloth said:

If you're looking to upgrade mics in future or care about mic quality upgrading to an audio interface is probably a better option, has DACAMP inbuilt as well as the ability to use studio mics in future should you choose to upgrade. UMC202HD is probably closest to your price range with all the features you want.

I actually don't care about a super mic quality i don't record or stream or do any work related thing with them just play with some friends and not a lot of time so i care about what i hear more

[geo3]

4 hours ago, i0880 said:

Oh is that right i just read an articale that says AMPs is only to make it louder and if it's loud enogh 

No. Headphones/speakers don't scale linearly with power vs frequency. An amp is designed in such a way that this matters less. A DACs output doesn't have such considerations built into it because it isn't meant to push a driver. You will lose some frequencies faster than others without enough power. 

 

Trying to drive a normal set of headphones directly off a DAC is like trying to drive 600Ohm headphones off a cheep lowpowerd amp. Yeah you''ll get sound, but it's not going to sound right.

[The Flying Sloth]

3 hours ago, geo3 said:

No. Headphones/speakers don't scale linearly with power vs frequency. An amp is designed in such a way that this matters less. A DACs output doesn't have such considerations built into it because it isn't meant to push a driver. You will lose some frequencies faster than others without enough power. 

 

Trying to drive a normal set of headphones directly off a DAC is like trying to drive 600Ohm headphones off a cheep lowpowerd amp. Yeah you''ll get sound, but it's not going to sound right.

Many DACs have inbuilt amps and there are a tonne of cheap headphone amps more than capable of powering 600 ohm headphones.

[geo3]

9 minutes ago, The Flying Sloth said:

Many DACs have inbuilt amps and there are a tonne of cheap headphone amps more than capable of powering 600 ohm headphones.

Then it's a DAC/AMP. As the Fulla 3 is.

[The Flying Sloth]

6 minutes ago, geo3 said:

Then it's a DAC/AMP. As the Fulla 3 is.

I never understood why people bought those, if you're looking to improve audio quality on both the way in and out you buy an interface, not only do they allow balanced outputs as well as powerful headphone amplification but to purchase a DAC/AMP with 3.5mm or 1/4inch mic in is silly compared to similarly priced (or much cheaper) studio options like the UMC202HD with dedicated drivers and mic connections that will actually allow you to make meaningful upgrades to your input game. 

[geo3]

8 minutes ago, The Flying Sloth said:

I never understood why people bought those, if you're looking to improve audio quality on both the way in and out you buy an interface, not only do they allow balanced outputs as well as powerful headphone amplification but to purchase a DAC/AMP with 3.5mm or 1/4inch mic in is silly compared to similarly priced (or much cheaper) studio options like the UMC202HD with dedicated drivers and mic connections that will actually allow you to make meaningful upgrades to your input game. 

UMC202HD is almost twice as much money and more than twice the space on a desk and most people don't have balanced headphones or XLR and because they wan't something cheep and simple that doesn't sound like shitty onboard that they can plug their existing 3.5mm headphones and integrated mic into and they don't need all that extra shit that will do literally nothing for them. 

[The Flying Sloth]

57 minutes ago, geo3 said:

UMC202HD is almost twice as much money and more than twice the space on a desk and most people don't have balanced headphones or XLR and because they wan't something cheep and simple that doesn't sound like shitty onboard that they can plug their existing 3.5mm headphones and integrated mic into and they don't need all that extra shit that will do literally nothing for them. 

The 202HD is well under the price of the Fulla 3 ($62 vs $99, Amazon prices are jacked due to covid, don't trust them), as for desk space, the 202HD is just over a single centimetre longer and .2 of a centimetre less wide (16.99 x 12.5 x 5 cm vs 15.75 x 12.7 x 5.33 cm), nowhere near double the desk space, I have absolutely no clue where you got that idea from. 

The balanced outputs are for speakers, there is also a 1/4 inch headphone jack on the front with a dedicated headphone amp. You can still plug normal headsets (with a mic) into it extremely easily but the "extra shit" allow them an upgrade path for the future should they choose to add speakers or a decent microphone. Beyond that the 202HD has dedicated ASIO drivers that would allow a user to try their hand at audio production should they decide to in future. That's the reason interfaces are a great purchase, choice, if you decide in future you want to upgrade and add speakers or a nice mic and try your hand at recording yourself (even just for fun) you can, whereas with a standalone system you have to start again from the ground up (or try and find a workaround like you have been). 

From your comments about onboard audio it's fairly clear to me that your opinions are less objective and leaning precariously into the territory of confirmation bias, onboard audio is good enough for the vast majority of users, hell, some regulars on here used onboard audio to power 250ohm beyers until they purchased a decent amplifier but the reason it made such a big difference was that onboard amps don't have enough power for 250 ohm beyers, they certainly have enough power for the HyperX Cloud 2.......

[kasugatei]

2 hours ago, The Flying Sloth said:

I never understood why people bought those, if you're looking to improve audio quality on both the way in and out you buy an interface

While I agree that interfaces like Behringer are better buy these days, let me explain why I have both Fulla 2 and Audient interface. 
My interface is connected to the desktop PC and it is my primary audio device there. I use it for all audio output purposes and for some audio production stuff. I am doing it currently just as a hobby and it fits bill just fine. I agree that interfaces like those are more versatile than any Fulla and that is a fact. 
 

I bought Fulla primarily to use it with my laptops. My laptops are only used for listening music and the audio level on the integrated interface is way too low for all my headphones. It is small and that is the beauty of it for that use case. Interfaces, even the smallest ones are just way too clunky for carrying them around just for music listening. I also carry my Fulla on board the plane to use it as an amp with my headphones because I can’t hear a shit with the given headphones or my headphones plugged straight in the audio output jack. 
 

Lastly I believe that 99$ is ok price for device like Fulla. It is produced in the USA in smaller quantities so it is unreasonable to expect lower price. Quality is good and they sound great IMHO. It is not produced in mega factory where they can produce thousands of units per day. Is it best buy? No it isn’t. Interfaces would be better value for the money. 
 

And one last comment in general. Lots of people here are completely unaware of technology in audio and they are looking only into buzz words. If interface, DAC, sound card etc. has dedicated headphones jack, it has headphone amp. Is it done by op-amps, integrated chip etc. doesn’t change the fact that there is one. You don’t need separate units to act as headphone amps it’s not that headphones that 99.9% of all people here have are power hungry devices. For interfaces, like probably all of modern ones, tldr in buzzword language would be:

-they are DACs

-they are ADCs

-they are headphone amps 

(and more)

[geo3]

6 hours ago, The Flying Sloth said:

as for desk space, the 202HD is just over a single centimetre longer and .2 of a centimetre less wide (16.99 x 12.5 x 5 cm vs 15.75 x 12.7 x 5.33 cm), nowhere near double the desk space, I have absolutely no clue where you got that idea from. 

The fulla is 8.9 x 6.4 x 3.5 cm ,so actually much less than half the size. 

 

6 hours ago, The Flying Sloth said:

The balanced outputs are for speakers, there is also a 1/4 inch headphone jack on the front with a dedicated headphone amp. You can still plug normal headsets (with a mic) into it extremely easily but the "extra shit" allow them an upgrade path for the future should they choose to add speakers or a decent microphone. Beyond that the 202HD has dedicated ASIO drivers that would allow a user to try their hand at audio production should they decide to in future. That's the reason interfaces are a great purchase, choice, if you decide in future you want to upgrade and add speakers or a nice mic and try your hand at recording yourself (even just for fun) you can, whereas with a standalone system you have to start again from the ground up (or try and find a workaround like you have been). 

And my point, which you entirely missed, is the vast majority of people don't care and will never use most of that. 

[The Flying Sloth]

4 hours ago, geo3 said:

And my point, which you entirely missed, is the vast majority of people don't care and will never use most of that. 

Apologies, Amazon must have incorrect sizing listed, anyway, my argument stands regarding price and everything else. Interfaces just do more for less money, it doesn't matter if you won't use the stuff that it does more, it's an option for the future and it's less money.

 

And it seems you completely missed that last point, let me reiterate, it doesn't matter if you won't use some features, it allows you options and your other thread proves that those options are very important.

 

8 hours ago, Niksa said:

-snip-

You make an important point, using it as a headphone amplifier while travelling due to the size is a reasonable use. While I might be tempted to just bring lower powered headphones or put up with the bulk of the interface I understand that others are much pickier than I when it comes to sound quality.

 

But this post is about purchasing a primary device, and it seems we both agree that interfaces are much better value as a primary audio device.

[rice guru]

because its such a niche product in the sound depart mendt of what you hear the best thing you can get for a $100 is a fulla . although It doesnt sound as good as other $100 amps or $100 amp dacs its a  capable little device that can run a  modmic or a boom pro.  but the best thing you can get for a $100 for how the mic sounds is a interface. due to the xlr connection and being able to provide enough power to the mics.