Dac/amp combo question

Lightning · August 18, 2022

I am not a huge audiophile by any means. But I have a pair of senheisser HD 598 and an antlion uni and using mobo built in sound.
I am interested in upgrading my sound set up though for gaming mainly. My choices are the Schiit Hel 2 (for the also built in microphone jack) or the FiiO E10K (which would also require me to get a wireless antlion mic because I don't want wires going all over the place).

What should I do? I am leaning towards the hel 2 because of the mic jack and I can reuse my old antlion mic.

johnt · August 19, 2022

I don't think you can make a wrong choice here. Go for it.

Psittac · August 19, 2022

I have a dac and two dac/amps with several amps, all of them use my onboard for my antlion modmic.

I can say though that even the Schiit Fulla is rather competent and will drive your HD598 very well. I just compared the dac's on both the fulla and hel from their website and they're identical. It looks like the only raw stat the hel offers over the fulla is power delivery. The Hel appears to use the 12v rail vs the 5v rail on the fulla.

My point being that on your headphones the improvement for $90 will be minimal if anything at all.

Now if you want to future proof and get the option to run more demanding headphones the price difference would be worth it.

I'm unfamiliar with the Fiio E10k but was terribly dissapointed to learn of the k3's power capabilities. I would look into that further when deciding what to get. Ok nvm I just googled it and the thing put's out barely any power. 200mw at 32ohm is nothing, might not even power your 50ohm headphones? Unless I'm missing something