Dac/amp for headset

[Bob the Bob]

Hello , Not rly familiar with sound stuff  , i had a sound blaster z for  a few years which did a pretty good job sound wise the only down side was it was picking up coil whine through the headset and mic which started to get pretty annoying and i was looking of buying a dac/amp to get rid of it any recommendations ? was looking at , Creative Sound Card External USB Sound Blaster X3 7.1 Channel which it says they output the same db which im assuming is how loud they ll sound , unless i can get rid of the coil whine which after some research doesnt rly look possible , thanks

[The Torrent]

What headphones u using? Can u consider just using onboard?

[Tigerleon]

13 minutes ago, Bob the Bob said:

Hello , Not rly familiar with sound stuff  , i had a sound blaster z for  a few years which did a pretty good job sound wise the only down side was it was picking up coil whine through the headset and mic which started to get pretty annoying and i was looking of buying a dac/amp to get rid of it any recommendations ? was looking at , Creative Sound Card External USB Sound Blaster X3 7.1 Channel which it says they output the same db which im assuming is how loud they ll sound , unless i can get rid of the coil whine which after some research doesnt rly look possible , thanks

The X3 is external, which will definitely get rid of the coil whine you're hearing. It'll sound better than your Sound Blaster Z I can guarantee.

[Bob the Bob]

the motherboard sound is just plain ass thats why i bought the sound card , i got the game one's sennheiser

[Bob the Bob]

22 minutes ago, The Torrent said:

What headphones u using? Can u consider just using onboard?

game ones

[Bob the Bob]

9 minutes ago, Tigerleon said:

The X3 is external, which will definitely get rid of the coil whine you're hearing. It'll sound better than your Sound Blaster Z I can guarantee.

sounds good enough for me then its kinda the cheapest option for me anyway , and i was pretty satisfied with my sound b z ,

[The Torrent]

1 hour ago, Bob the Bob said:

sounds good enough for me then its kinda the cheapest option for me anyway , and i was pretty satisfied with my sound b z ,

Just saying i use £400 and £600 headphones with my onboard audio (asus b450f) and i find it good enough.

 

So be careful theres a lot of snakeoil in this audio world.

 

Also, if ur using below lets say 100ohm headphones, just buy an apple dongle im not joking. Its better than a lot of £300+ dacamps.

[Bob the Bob]

4 minutes ago, The Torrent said:

Just saying i use £400 and £600 headphones with my onboard audio (asus b450f) and i find it good enough.

 

So be careful theres a lot of snakeoil in this audio world.

 

Also, if ur using below lets say 100ohm headphones, just buy an apple dongle im not joking. Its better than a lot of £300+ dacamps.

i mean that doesnt amplify the sound does it , coz onboard audio is barely audible

[Bob the Bob]

and as far as i understand dacs with just headphone jack dont work with mics

[Tigerleon]

26 minutes ago, The Torrent said:

Just saying i use £400 and £600 headphones with my onboard audio (asus b450f) and i find it good enough.

 

So be careful theres a lot of snakeoil in this audio world.

 

Also, if ur using below lets say 100ohm headphones, just buy an apple dongle im not joking. Its better than a lot of £300+ dacamps.

Eerm. Not true. You do know that headphone sensitivity is a thing. Ohm's don't really matter that much. They do add resistance. But barely. If the headphones are inefficient to drive. Such as the DT 770 pro 80ohm. They do require and amp. You can't just say that the audio world there's a lot of snakeoil. What are the 400 to 600 £ headphones you're using? Please tell me so you don't miss out on anything.

[Tigerleon]

22 minutes ago, Bob the Bob said:

and as far as i understand dacs with just headphone jack dont work with mics

True, Although the X3 has both headphone out and mic input.

[The Torrent]

1 hour ago, Tigerleon said:

True, Although the X3 has both headphone out and mic input.

i'd be suprised if your onboard doesn't have a mic input.

[The Torrent]

1 hour ago, Tigerleon said:

Eerm. Not true. You do know that headphone sensitivity is a thing. Ohm's don't really matter that much. They do add resistance. But barely. If the headphones are inefficient to drive. Such as the DT 770 pro 80ohm. They do require and amp. You can't just say that the audio world there's a lot of snakeoil. What are the 400 to 600 £ headphones you're using? Please tell me so you don't miss out on anything.

an apple dongle/onboard should be fine for senheiser game ones.

 

I'm fine.

[Tigerleon]

6 minutes ago, The Torrent said:

i'd be suprised if your onboard doesn't have a mic input.

If you can't properly read. I qouted @Bob the Bob

5 minutes ago, The Torrent said:

an apple dongle/onboard should be fine for senheiser game ones.

 

I'm fine.

Why are you spreading misinformation then? Stop trying to convince someone that higher end audio gear and DAC/amps don't matter because they do.

[The Torrent]

1 minute ago, Tigerleon said:

If you can't properly read. I qouted @Bob the Bob

Why are you spreading misinformation then? Stop trying to convince someone that higher end audio gear and DAC/amps don't matter because they do.

no dac amps dont matter unless u wanna spend £500+

 

Schiit stack compares almost identical (costing at like £250 probably more now due to demand) to an apple dongle (costing a fiver). Senheiser game ones aren't really considered hard to drive.

 

They have literally been made to be plugged into xbox controllers for gods sake.

[Tigerleon]

2 minutes ago, The Torrent said:

no dac amps dont matter unless u wanna spend £500+

 

Schiit stack compares almost identical (costing at like £250 probably more now due to demand) to an apple dongle (costing a fiver). Senheiser game ones aren't really considered hard to drive.

 

They have literally been made to be plugged into xbox controllers for gods sake.

For the game ones maybe. Still, you'll get out a higher quality sound with less interference with a proper DAC/amp combo/stack. But you said in general that it doesn't make a difference. Also you said that the apple dongle will be better. How!? How can the sound fidelity and power be better on the apple dongle. Also the build quality, features. So what you are basically telling me is that I can't hear a difference with for example, the DT 770 pros 80ohm on my onboard vs my soundcard? These are harder to drive, yes. But you still get a much better output with a higher quality device.

[The Torrent]

1 minute ago, Tigerleon said:

For the game ones maybe. Still, you'll get out a higher quality sound with less interference with a proper DAC/amp combo/stack. But you said in general that it doesn't make a difference. Also you said that the apple dongle will be better. How!? How can the sound fidelity and power be better on the apple dongle. Also the build quality, features. So what you are basically telling me is that I can't hear a difference with for example, the DT 770 pros 80ohm on my onboard vs my soundcard? These are harder to drive, yes. But you still get a much better output with a higher quality device.

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/review-apple-vs-google-usb-c-headphone-adapters.5541/

 

Reddit Discussion:

 

And a lot of times built in dacs are a lot better, for certian my b450f has hardly any noticable difference from an apple dongle, however a 2015 macbook pro is waaaay better than an apple dongle (so by extend hundreds of pounds of dacamps cant outperform apple onboard).

 

Audio chips have developed waay more than u think in the last decade.

 

[Tigerleon]

3 minutes ago, The Torrent said:

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/review-apple-vs-google-usb-c-headphone-adapters.5541/

 

Reddit Discussion:

 

And a lot of times built in dacs are a lot better, for certian my b450f has hardly any noticable difference from an apple dongle, however a 2015 macbook pro is waaaay better than an apple dongle (so by extend hundreds of pounds of dacamps cant outperform apple onboard).

If this is the case^ Can all headphones be driven and sound like they intend on these? I don't think so.

4 minutes ago, The Torrent said:

Audio chips have developed waay more than u think in the last decade.

Of course they have. Still. There are a lot of bad quality control and these are more prone to interference compared to desktop DAC/amps or soundcards. No audio chip on the market can drive my DT 990 pros the way they should sound. Same goes for sennheiser's higher end headphones. 

Also I've been there myself. Defending realtek's audio chips and that I don't need a DAC/amp for my headphones. Well turned out it changed my whole fcking opinion 180 degrees. You can call it whatever you want, snake oil in the audio world and that it doesn't make a difference. Well, to the majority reading this will most likely agree with my statements.

[weez]

Just adding to the discussion. Yes the $9 apple dongle has a good dac. But it lacks power. Sure it can power headphones but it lacks enough power to drive some headphones to their full potential. Amps are often overlooked but are very important. 

[Bob the Bob]

15 hours ago, The Torrent said:

an apple dongle/onboard should be fine for senheiser game ones.

 

I'm fine.

i mean already stated like twice that onboard audio is not loud enough for my headset and u keep insisting on it , compared to my sound blaster z is night and day and u keep mentioning apple products like smh

[The Torrent]

2 hours ago, Bob the Bob said:

i mean already stated like twice that onboard audio is not loud enough for my headset and u keep insisting on it , compared to my sound blaster z is night and day and u keep mentioning apple products like smh

Apple dongle an option?

[The Torrent]

12 hours ago, weez said:

Just adding to the discussion. Yes the $9 apple dongle has a good dac. But it lacks power. Sure it can power headphones but it lacks enough power to drive some headphones to their full potential. Amps are often overlooked but are very important. 

Was talking about specific in this case. For game ones it should be fine.

 

Apple dongle + schiit magni or any amp near that would be 99x better than soundblaster imo

[Ahoy Hoy]

14 hours ago, weez said:

Just adding to the discussion. Yes the $9 apple dongle has a good dac. But it lacks power. Sure it can power headphones but it lacks enough power to drive some headphones to their full potential. Amps are often overlooked but are very important. 

It actually is around 3mW at 300ohms which is way more power then a headphone needs.

Given that headphones like the DT990s at 1mW produce over 90 dB and with 3 are over 100dB so if you require your headphones to be that loud you have hearing problems.

[Tigerleon]

6 hours ago, The Torrent said:

 

Apple dongle + schiit magni or any amp near that would be 99x better than soundblaster imo

In your opinion. Yeah your opinion is invalid since you haven't tried the sound blaster it seems. 

[The Flying Sloth]

Everyone chill

 

@Tigerleonwe know you like sound blaster

@Ahoy HoyAMP quality matters too

@The TorrentThe apple dongle isn't panacea