No unified audio?

[Gat Pelsinger]

From a while now I have been considering to buy new and good quality headphones, but I just realized that just good headphones doesn't mean good audio quality. The sound card is also involved. On my newer laptop, I think the sound is pretty decent (not the speakers, the wired audio), but if I try with the same earphones on my older laptop, I hate the audio quality I get. I adjusted all sound and equalizer settings but they are just inferior to my newer one. So, now I am wondering that if my sound card itself is worse, then there is no point upgrading to a good quality headphone. I just won't be unlocking its full potential. So, is there I way I can get a more unified audio experience such that the whole audio is tied to my headphone or externally something and that it is same across all devices?

[saintlouisbagels]

Laptop can be hit-or-miss with mediocre/decent soundcards.

FYI a soundcard is just layman term for a DAC/amp (among other things - I'm not an expert).

The DAC could be poorly implemented resulting in poor noise and quality. This is common since laptops are compact, noisy environments. Secondly the amplifier could be poor and thus adding more noise to a bad signal. The amplifier brings the signal to an audible level.

 

24 minutes ago, Gat Pelsinger said:

So, is there I way I can get a more unified audio experience such that the whole audio is tied to my headphone or externally something and that it is same across all devices?

You're looking for an external DAC/amp like the $9 Apple USB-C to headphone jack dongle. This isn't a joke - it's an extremely well-made DAC/amp performing better than many products 10x-20x its price.

If you want something better and more endgame without falling deep in the audiophile snake oil rabbit hole, you can look into the JDS Labs DAC and headphone amp options.

[Tigerleon]

8 hours ago, saintlouisbagels said:

If you want something better and more endgame without falling deep in the audiophile snake oil rabbit hole, you can look into the JDS Labs DAC and headphone amp options.

It's not snake oil for DAC/amps worth thousands of dollars they are just super super super carefully made with the highest quality materials with a meager increase in sound quality. Snake oil "audiophile" products would be cables marketed as better sounding only because they have 0.01% cleaner metals or something bs like that. I do think that DACs or amps that are expensive over like 300 dollars would be stupid to buy anyways.

[saintlouisbagels]

4 minutes ago, Tigerleon said:

It's not snake oil for DAC/amps worth thousands of dollars they are just super super super carefully made with the highest quality materials with a meager increase in sound quality. Snake oil "audiophile" products would be cables marketed as better sounding only because they have 0.01% cleaner metals or something bs like that. I do think that DACs or amps that are expensive over like 300 dollars would be stupid to buy anyways.

I just personally consider it snake oil because there's no practical difference, even if literally speaking it may be better. If the improvements are entirely outside of human hearing/perception, does it matter? I mean this in the context of personal listening. Obviously equipment/instruments have their purpose within settings where incredibly accurate performance is required, but people aren't asking for that when they're asking for home audio listening.

[Tigerleon]

2 minutes ago, saintlouisbagels said:

I just personally consider it snake oil because there's no practical difference, even if literally speaking it may be better. If the improvements are entirely outside of human hearing/perception, does it matter? I mean this in the context of personal listening. Obviously equipment/instruments have their purpose within settings where incredibly accurate performance is required, but people aren't asking for that when they're asking for home audio listening.

I agree

[Psittac]

12 hours ago, saintlouisbagels said:

I just personally consider it snake oil because there's no practical difference, even if literally speaking it may be better. If the improvements are entirely outside of human hearing/perception, does it matter? I mean this in the context of personal listening. Obviously equipment/instruments have their purpose within settings where incredibly accurate performance is required, but people aren't asking for that when they're asking for home audio listening.

I can tell you that my $4-500 dac and $4-500 amp do indeed add sound quality, that's the SMSL SU-9 and Topping A70, BUT I can't say it's worth the extra cost to everyone.  The reason I got the dac was I needed something with BT and since I'm getting a standalone I might as well maximize what my funds could get at the time.  Same thing for the amp which I bought several month's later, I just wanted something with enough power to drive every headphone I have, and I have a couple that are very very dificult to drive.  Basically I'm going to have a listening station where I can listen to speakers or headphones while I watch my fishtank.  Now that I'm setting up, I got out my oldish topping dac/amp and along with a power amp I have my desk set up.

 

I can certainly hear a difference when upgrading quality and price, but it's diminishing returns.  Most people are better off just having a competent dac and amp to begin with then improvements can be had with headphones or pads, not dac's and amps.  But this is a hobby for me so it's worth it.

 

21 hours ago, Gat Pelsinger said:

From a while now I have been considering to buy new and good quality headphones, but I just realized that just good headphones doesn't mean good audio quality. The sound card is also involved. On my newer laptop, I think the sound is pretty decent (not the speakers, the wired audio), but if I try with the same earphones on my older laptop, I hate the audio quality I get. I adjusted all sound and equalizer settings but they are just inferior to my newer one. So, now I am wondering that if my sound card itself is worse, then there is no point upgrading to a good quality headphone. I just won't be unlocking its full potential. So, is there I way I can get a more unified audio experience such that the whole audio is tied to my headphone or externally something and that it is same across all devices?

Everything @saintlouisbagels said is correct.  What you need is an external solution, I personally enjoy the schiit Fulla because it is the absolute best bang for the buck, basically for the price of an entry level dac you are getting a competent dac And amp.  They won't drive everything but will blow your laptop out of the water, just don't get difficult to drive headphones and you'll love it.  Also the other recommendations made are good as well.  There is always room to go up, but I wouldn't go down from that in most cases.  The only exception being the sybasonic sd-dac, it's a little better than good onboard audio so I rarely recommend it, but for something with a poor solution like what you have, it's a great solution for a killer price.

 

Also doing audio from both laptops into the same device is pretty difficult, I think it could be done in software but I haven't gone down that rabbit hole.