Amp or usb soundcard

[JoeniiChan]

I have 558s, and was wondering which would be superior, and which ones in particular would you guys recommend.

[seabass9990]

amp, soundcards do nothing if you have good HD audio on your motherboard already

[JoeniiChan]

That's the thing, my audio port is fucked, so there's no chance in that happening. 

[ImBleu]

I have 558s, and was wondering which would be superior, and which ones in particular would you guys recommend.

 

Mayflower Objective2 for the AMP/DAC, most popular one among the reviewers atm.

 

And with Sound cards, pick a budget and buy the Asus one that fits it, It's been like that for a while now. No one else comes close.

[JoeniiChan]

Which would provide a better sound quality, I'm assuming an amp. 

 

I just want something that'll be better than my onboard audio, which is Realtek® ALC898.

[Lauen]

Which would provide a better sound quality, I'm assuming an amp. 

 

I just want something that'll be better than my onboard audio, which is Realtek® ALC898.

an amp alone won't do anything, you need a dac of some sort in front. If your onboard is genuinely broken, look at the Fiio E10K, it's a great USB dac and amp. If you want something better, Schiit Magni + Modi is nice, and the O2 and ODAC combo is excellent.

[JoeniiChan]

I ordered a Asus Xonar U7, was curious, people say AIOS uses a lot of CPU usage, is this true?

[Lauen]

I ordered a Asus Xonar U7, was curious, people say AIOS uses a lot of CPU usage, is this true?

wat

 

oh you mean ASIO? I don't think so? besides, unless you have a Pentium 2, it shouldn't be an issue.

 

 

also the U7 isn't very good. I'm pretty sure it has a high output impedance, which makes it bad for low impedance headphones, such as your 558's. I would return it and get a Fiio E10K or a Schiit Fulla, or maybe even the Syba DAC (you can find it on ebay and amazon at least). there is also no guarantee that it will actually sound better than your onboard, in fact unless your onboard is broken, there is a good chance it sounds just as good as any "fancy soundcards" or external dac + amp setups. I can at least confirm the soundcard situation myself, I have in fact broken a pair of IEM's because I plugged them into my soundcard, and with the 10 ohm output impedance, it actually ruined the drivers. Keep in mind those were 16 ohm IEM's though, they are more fragile and don't handle as much power, but still.

[LaoJr]

Get a amp, you could kind of say that a sound card is just a eq since you will have to download some software and drivers for it whereas a USB amp just plug it in the computer and plug your headphones in.