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Help me choose a DAC and AMP + Microphone Recommendations

Hadeze
Go to solution Solved by Ahoy Hoy,

The sound card will not benefit a USB mic at all nor will a USB mic benefit from a sound card.

Your spending a lot of money on the sound card and its just not worth that much money for the quality.

Could just get a high quality audio interface with good audio outputs for half the price.





Using your previous items you interested in I used a budget around £300

Im going to make this easy the RODE Complete Studio Kit £219 $350

Contains;

Rode AI audio interface, single microphone input, headphone output and two jack speaker output. The speakers are muted while a headphone is pluged in, so to switch to speaker you just unplug the headphone. The interface has a good mic input, very low noise which is what you want. It also has a very good headphone amp and a good audio DAC.

Rode NT1 Microphone. Its a high quality microphone. Also comes with the high end mounting bracket to reduce vibrations and noises from desks etc.
It comes with a XLR cable as well.

The other things you need to buy to for the kit is a mic stand. either of your choices are high end choice a bit pricey but perfectly good.
And a stereo jack to RCA cable to connect the speakers

 

Could someone help me to get this sorted.

 

So I am gonna get these and please help me on the amp/dac and the mic thing sorted for my PC. I wanna have have the best quality audio and a good Mic as well.

 

Massdrop X Sennheiserr HD 6XX Headphones

AudioEngine A5+ Bluetooth Bookshelf Speakers

 

These two are the two ways I am gonna have. I need other stuff sorted. I don't know whether I am right or wrong. Correct me if I am wrong.
 

Creative Sound Blaster AE-9 Sound Card  ( I think this covers both DAC and AMP in it, and a port for XLR for the mic too ? )

Mogami Gold Studio XLR Cable 6 Ft 

Blue Compass Boom Arm Or Rode PSA 1 

Behringer b1 or a Blue Ember or something 

 

Can you connect USB type mics to the AE 9 ? Is there a better AMP/DAC solution better then the AE 9

 

Could you recommend me some options for these.

 

Thanks and Regards !

 

Good Day.

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45 minutes ago, Hadeze said:

Creative Sound Blaster AE-9 Sound Card  ( I think this covers both DAC and AMP in it, and a port for XLR for the mic too

I have this one. Amazing sound card for any headphone or speaker. It has great XLR input as well.

PM or DM me if you have any questions about audio.

My PC specs & audio gear

CPU > Intel core i7 14700K, GPU > RTX 4070 ProArt, RAM > Corsair Vengeance DDR5 2x16gb 5600mhz, Motherboard > Asus ROG Strix B760-F, Storage > 1TB M.2  & 500GB M.2 Kingston, Cooling > H150i Elite, PSU > MSI A850GL

🎧Current Audio Setup🎧

Beyerdynamic Tygr 300 R as daily driver

Soundblaster AE-9 Soundcard

AKG P420 Mic

Other peripherals

Keyboard > SteelSeries Apex Pro

Mouse > Steelseries Aerox 3 wired

Mousepad > Pulsar ParaSpeed XXL

VR > Valve index kit

Read this post if you want a "gaming" headset ;)

 

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The sound card will not benefit a USB mic at all nor will a USB mic benefit from a sound card.

Your spending a lot of money on the sound card and its just not worth that much money for the quality.

Could just get a high quality audio interface with good audio outputs for half the price.





Using your previous items you interested in I used a budget around £300

Im going to make this easy the RODE Complete Studio Kit £219 $350

Contains;

Rode AI audio interface, single microphone input, headphone output and two jack speaker output. The speakers are muted while a headphone is pluged in, so to switch to speaker you just unplug the headphone. The interface has a good mic input, very low noise which is what you want. It also has a very good headphone amp and a good audio DAC.

Rode NT1 Microphone. Its a high quality microphone. Also comes with the high end mounting bracket to reduce vibrations and noises from desks etc.
It comes with a XLR cable as well.

The other things you need to buy to for the kit is a mic stand. either of your choices are high end choice a bit pricey but perfectly good.
And a stereo jack to RCA cable to connect the speakers

 

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Within the "not stupid" price range, the MOTU M2 is pretty hard to beat, and the M4 is even better. It's not a Lynx or a Metric Halo, but it also isn't a Behringer. The 3rd generation Focusrite 2i2 isn't a bad interface either. I have a 2nd gen Scarlett and am not real impressed with the build quality- pots on it don't feel like they're of great quality, though I've also used a 3rd gen and it seemed considerably better.


Creative doesn't have much of a presence (or much trust) in the pro world. As such, I've never actually seen one of their newer cards. There are a few things that make me hesitant, though the specs listed on their website *look* impressive. Clearly this thing is designed for the same crowd as the Nu Audio. The whole "op-amp rolling" thing drives me insane. It's stupid. Tube rolling *may* have some merit, since the individual characteristics of tubes can vary a fair bit. Swapping op-amps, unless you really know what you're doing, is a good way to build yourself an RF signal generator. 

 

One thing that irks me about the Creative is that it's a $300+ card that doesn't have balanced outputs. Come on guys... the added cost is minimal. A lot of people are going to come out and say that "it doesn't matter that much", but it's a really nice thing to have. Furthermore, with balanced outputs you get rid of the RCA connector, which is a horrific (and rather stupid from an engineering point of view) connector design. Not that TRS (the usual choice for interfaces) is perfect, it's a step above RCA. Rant over.

 

I'm going to refrain from making a microphone recommendation until I know what this is being used for.  An ultimate budget would be nice to know as well. 

 

 

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Should have noticed that in the OP. A USB microphone has its AD converter built in, so it can't (and doesn't need to) connect to a sound card.

 

At the prices we're looking at here though, look at an analog microphone. I'm going to assume this is for podcasting / streaming. The NT1 mentioned above is a good choice, and I'll throw in the Audio Technica AT4040 as another good one, and they'd probably be my first recommendation for most people.

 

I've also had good success using small diaphragm condensers like the AT4041, but you absolutely need a windscreen and careful placement for it to sound good. It's not what I would recommend most people use. I only mention it because occasionally you can find these for dirt cheap on the used market if you know where to look. If you want the best bang / buck, the Shure SM57 (make sure to buy a windscreen for it) sounds perfectly good on vocals. I've bought used SM57s in good condition for about $50 on occasion, so that's another option for you.

 

Two more dynamic microphones you may consider are the Shure SM7 and the Electrovoice RE20, but both of these are pretty expensive.

 

Probably the best thing, particularly if there are room issues, would be a DPA headset microphone, but the prices on those start at about $700 and go up.

 

The active monitors the OP mentioned also have analog inputs. They will perform better using them with a good interface as opposed to the digital inputs since a good interface will use a better DA converter.

Edited by H713
Added some more details.
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OP, check out the link in my signature, it's a basic guide on what gear you need to use a real microphone with your PC. Should help you understand the terminology a bit better before thinking up another gear list so that were not mixing sound cards with USB mics and Bluetooth speakers that will not benefit at all from one. 

 

Now, having said that, the best value new interface/mic combo is by far the UMC202HD with the Behringer C2 microphone from my experience and you should be able to use most headphones just fine with it. 

 

If you're looking for a higher budget setup I go through those options as well in that link so you can see what's available.

Sloth's the name, audio gear is the game
I'll do my best to lend a hand to anyone with audio questions, studio gear and value for money are my primary focus.

Click here for my Microphone and Interface guide, tips and recommendations
 

For advice I rely on The Brains Trust :
@rice guru
- Headphones, Earphones and personal audio for any budget 
@Derkoli- High end specialist and allround knowledgeable bloke

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