Will AMP & DAC improve Audio of 48Ohms (100 dB SPL (1mW/500Hz) )??

[Brik]

Hey, I'm sure this gets asked all the time..but audio is kind of a major blind-spot for me..I just recently bought a pair of headphones and i'm wondering if I should pull the trigger on a desktop dac & amp.

 

I've read a few reddit post that 48Ohms doesn't require one which answers that part of my question but I'm wondering if getting one would give me a noticable difference in audio quality compared to just plugging my headphones directly into my PC..

 

I spent a good bit on these headphones so I don't mind spending a little bit more if it means I'll get more out of them. 

Edited November 30, 2021 by Brik
typo

[creesch]

Well it sort of depends on a few things 

 

• How sensitive you are to audio differences. At a certain threshold most people will not really notice the differences.
• The sort of headphones you bought. If they are fairly cheap headphones with a limited range you are not likely to notice a difference, if they are much higher quality headphones you might notice a difference. I know you said you spent a good bit, but that doesn't tell a whole lot.
• The onboard audio of your PC. Generally speaking the onboard audio chips you find on my motherboards you find these days are of fairly good quality and output a very decent quality audio. However depending on a variety of factors there can be a degradation of audio quality for example when your PC is not plugged into a grounded socket properly and a few other factors. However if you are not experiencing noise right now where it should be silent then it is fairly safe to say that you will likely not hear a difference. 

 

There is one simple exception to all of the above, sometimes the onboard audio volume doesn't do it for headphones regardless of their impedance. In those cases you simply benefit from an AMP because it will allow you to output at a higher volume. 

[Brik]

8 minutes ago, creesch said:

Well it sort of depends on a few things 

 

• How sensitive you are to audio differences. At a certain threshold most people will not really notice the differences.
• The sort of headphones you bought. If they are fairly cheap headphones with a limited range you are not likely to notice a difference, if they are much higher quality headphones you might notice a difference. I know you said you spent a good bit, but that doesn't tell a whole lot.
• The onboard audio of your PC. Generally speaking the onboard audio chips you find on my motherboards you find these days are of fairly good quality and output a very decent quality audio. However depending on a variety of factors there can be a degradation of audio quality for example when your PC is not plugged into a grounded socket properly and a few other factors. However if you are not experiencing noise right now where it should be silent then it is fairly safe to say that you will likely not hear a difference. 

 

There is one simple exception to all of the above, sometimes the onboard audio volume doesn't do it for headphones regardless of their impedance. In those cases you simply benefit from an AMP because it will allow you to output at a higher volume. 

thanks, I appreciate the response..the headphones I bought were the beyerdynamic DT-900-Pro X, and I have a x570 Aorous Master motherboard..I don't have any issues with interference with my current wired headphones that I have connected to my USB mic..

 

so you're leaning with it probably not being worth it?

[creesch]

5 minutes ago, Brik said:

thanks, I appreciate the response..the headphones I bought were the beyerdynamic DT-900-Pro X, and I have a x570 Aorous Master motherboard..I don't have any issues with interference with my current wired headphones that I have connected to my USB mic..

 

so you're leaning with it probably not being worth it?

 

Pretty much yeah, you might get some improvement (which could even be placebo) in audio improvement but it would be minimal compared to the amount you'd spend on a decent dac+amp. 

[creesch]

1 hour ago, Brik said:

I have connected to my USB mic..

 I completely overlooked this part. In that case you are already running an external dac+amp in the form of that mic  

[Spuriae]

Onboard is usually decent in terms of noise floor and distortion. Where it tends to fail is interference (usually GPU power transients leaking into the audio section's power/ground) and output impedance (75Ω typical for most motherboards produces a slight upper-bass boost in the "muddiness" region).

 

If you can't hear the difference between your onboard and the USB microphone (and your phone/dongles) and the volume already gets loud enough for you, there's not much point in upgrading to an amplifier. If you can hear a difference but it's only interference, the microphone's headphone output is probably sufficient. If you can hear other differences then it might be worth considering whether additional improvements, likely an order of magnitude smaller than the differences between the motherboard and the other devices, are worth spending more money chasing.