DAC and AMP Help

[I Hendrycks I]

Hey, so a few years back I grabbed a pair of Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro 250 Ohms and an Asus Xonar Essence STX. I'm wondering if upgrading my Xonar to an external DAC and AMP would improve audio quality? I'm mainly tired of the fact that the Xonar makes it so that my Windows volume always has to be around 2% to 6% maximum. It leaves me no room to maneuver the audio so that if I want a game at a lower volume than a movie I'm watching at the same time is a real pain.

 

Will something like the Schiit Stack sound a lot better than my Xonar does? Will it also fix my audio levels problem? If anyone has other suggestions that'd be great as the Schiit Stack in Canada is about $500 after the US to CAD conversion and customs charges that I'll run into

 

Thanks in advance!

[roctrebira]

7 minutes ago, I Hendrycks I said:

Hey, so a few years back I grabbed a pair of Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro 250 Ohms and an Asus Xonar Essence STX. I'm wondering if upgrading my Xonar to an external DAC and AMP would improve audio quality? I'm mainly tired of the fact that the Xonar makes it so that my Windows volume always has to be around 2% to 6% maximum. It leaves me no room to maneuver the audio so that if I want a game at a lower volume than a movie I'm watching at the same time is a real pain.

 

Will something like the Schiit Stack sound a lot better than my Xonar does? Will it also fix my audio levels problem? If anyone has other suggestions that'd be great as the Schiit Stack in Canada is about $500 after the US to CAD conversion and customs charges that I'll run into

 

Thanks in advance!

You have no need for a amp or dac since your problem your having is from your headphones already being amp plenty. I would just plug your headphones into your motherboard and that might fix your problem of your volume being at 2-6% by lowering how much power is being sent to the headphones.

[I Hendrycks I]

1 minute ago, roctrebira said:

You have no need for a amp or dac since your problem your having is from your headphones already being amp plenty. I would just plug your headphones into your motherboard and that might fix your problem of your volume being at 2-6% by lowering how much power is being sent to the headphones.

On the Xonar program I can change the gain amount. I've always been using the "High Gain (+12dB for 64~300 ohms)" setting as my headphones are 250 ohms. I could lower it to normal gain but will that not make the audio quality suffer?  

[roctrebira]

1 minute ago, I Hendrycks I said:

On the Xonar program I can change the gain amount. I've always been using the "High Gain (+12dB for 64~300 ohms)" setting as my headphones are 250 ohms. I could lower it to normal gain but will that not make the audio quality suffer?  

Nope would just lower the power output and remember ohms are not the full story for how hard headphones are to power.

[SSL]

1 minute ago, I Hendrycks I said:

On the Xonar program I can change the gain amount. I've always been using the "High Gain (+12dB for 64~300 ohms)" setting as my headphones are 250 ohms. I could lower it to normal gain but will that not make the audio quality suffer?  

 

Egads. The whole POINT of gain is to control the maximum volume, and thus the amount of control range. People like you seriously overthink this quality shit; plug in your headphones, turn down the gain, and enjoy the musc.

 

Thank us later.

[I Hendrycks I]

1 hour ago, SSL said:

 

Egads. The whole POINT of gain is to control the maximum volume, and thus the amount of control range. People like you seriously overthink this quality shit; plug in your headphones, turn down the gain, and enjoy the musc.

 

Thank us later.

Man I've seen you post on a few threads and you're always super ignorant. Why post a lot if you're not helpful and just judge people and make them feel shitty? People like you are why I don't like posting on forums in the first place. I bought the 250 Ohms version years ago because I figured why not go for higher Ohms if they cost the same? I don't know what the gain means for the soundcard specifically because it tells me in the brackets (made for 60-300ohms) so with logic I assumed that meant that if my headphones are 250 ohms that I should be in that range. 

[roctrebira]

1 minute ago, I Hendrycks I said:

Man I've seen you post on a few threads and you're always super ignorant. Why post a lot if you're not helpful and just judge people and make them feel shitty? People like you are why I don't like posting on forums in the first place. I bought the 250 Ohms version years ago because I figured why not go for higher Ohms if they cost the same? I don't know what the gain means for the soundcard specifically because it tells me in the brackets (made for 60-300ohms) so with logic I assumed that meant that if my headphones are 250 ohms that I should be in that range. 

I'm not sure why you think SSL is ingorant he does know his stuff and I find he is pretty helpful and I like the way he presents his stuff due to it being a no BS approach and just lets you know whats up.

[SSL]

30 minutes ago, I Hendrycks I said:

Man I've seen you post on a few threads and you're always super ignorant. Why post a lot if you're not helpful and just judge people and make them feel shitty? People like you are why I don't like posting on forums in the first place. I bought the 250 Ohms version years ago because I figured why not go for higher Ohms if they cost the same? I don't know what the gain means for the soundcard specifically because it tells me in the brackets (made for 60-300ohms) so with logic I assumed that meant that if my headphones are 250 ohms that I should be in that range. 

 

Look, I appreciate that the labeling is confusing, even misleading.

 

But the good news is that you probably won't need to spend any money to get things working like you want. If that's not helpful, I don't know what is.

 

Quality audio is a good thing, but agonizing over little details is not going to help you get there. If a lower gain sounds good to year ears, it doesn't really matter if it is technically "lower quality" or not.

[I Hendrycks I]

1 hour ago, SSL said:

 

Look, I appreciate that the labeling is confusing, even misleading.

 

But the good news is that you probably won't need to spend any money to get things working like you want. If that's not helpful, I don't know what is.

 

Quality audio is a good thing, but agonizing over little details is not going to help you get there. If a lower gain sounds good to year ears, it doesn't really matter if it is technically "lower quality" or not.

Ya I just wasn't agonizing over little details is all, I'm simply asking if for the audiophile veterans if I should keep the gain high and adjust the volume or if I can change it. If I can change it then cool, I've now lowered it and it's a little better. I'm still having an issue though that everything is still super damn loud. My Windows Volume is now at 8 and louder than that is blaring. I'm also wondering if a DAC and Amp will sound a lot better or if the soundcard is about as good as it gets without spending a fortune?

[SSL]

1 minute ago, I Hendrycks I said:

Ya I just wasn't agonizing over little details is all, I'm simply asking if for the audiophile veterans if I should keep the gain high and adjust the volume or if I can change it. If I can change it then cool, I've now lowered it and it's a little better. I'm still having an issue though that everything is still super damn loud. My Windows Volume is now at 8 and louder than that is blaring. I'm also wondering if a DAC and Amp will sound a lot better or if the soundcard is about as good as it gets without spending a fortune?

 

Just to double check, do you have all enhancements in the Windows device playback settings turned off?

 

I'd say go for a Magni 2 if there isn't any way to resolve the problem in drivers or software. No need to get a DAC, just run the amp from the soundcard line out.

[I Hendrycks I]

1 minute ago, SSL said:

 

Just to double check, do you have all enhancements in the Windows device playback settings turned off?

 

I'd say go for a Magni 2 if there isn't any way to resolve the problem in drivers or software. No need to get a DAC, just run the amp from the soundcard line out.

There's no enhancements tab on my headphones, I'd just really like to be able to adjust the settings a lot easier. My friend recommended a USB Audio Interface but idk how well that'll help either. Does an amp help with lowering the volume lower than normal?

[SSL]

Just now, I Hendrycks I said:

There's no enhancements tab on my headphones, I'd just really like to be able to adjust the settings a lot easier. My friend recommended a USB Audio Interface but idk how well that'll help either. Does an amp help with lowering the volume lower than normal?

 

It's easier to control the volume with a physical control. I have the DT880 and it isn't bad from the Magni 2U on low gain, which has more output than the Magni 2.

[I Hendrycks I]

22 minutes ago, SSL said:

 

It's easier to control the volume with a physical control. I have the DT880 and it isn't bad from the Magni 2U on low gain, which has more output than the Magni 2.

Nice, I'm worried about having to order in from the US though, are their any good alternatives to it?

[SSL]

1 hour ago, I Hendrycks I said:

Nice, I'm worried about having to order in from the US though, are their any good alternatives to it?

 

In the price range most everything else is a combined DAC/amp. If you don't mind your sound card going to waste, you could get a Fiio E10K, Micca Origen, SMSL SD793-II, or something of that nature.

[I Hendrycks I]

1 hour ago, SSL said:

 

In the price range most everything else is a combined DAC/amp. If you don't mind your sound card going to waste, you could get a Fiio E10K, Micca Origen, SMSL SD793-II, or something of that nature.

Would any of those for sure fix the fact that everything's super loud? With the gain at neutral and all of the extra stuff my soundcard can add being off, I can now get my Windows volume 'cranked' to 30% but even there it's getting pretty damn loud. I just want my headphones to still sound awesome but be able to just set Windows to 100% and lower the volume on the DAC/amp. Thanks for the help so far btw!

[SSL]

3 minutes ago, I Hendrycks I said:

Would any of those for sure fix the fact that everything's super loud? With the gain at neutral and all of the extra stuff my soundcard can add being off, I can now get my Windows volume 'cranked' to 30% but even there it's getting pretty damn loud. I just want my headphones to still sound awesome but be able to just set Windows to 100% and lower the volume on the DAC/amp. Thanks for the help so far btw!

 

Sounds normal. You're not really supposed to be able to max out the volume. E10K would be a good bet, with the low gain. Not sure it's really worth it, though; you'll still probably be at 25-40% on the knob.

[I Hendrycks I]

50 minutes ago, SSL said:

 

Sounds normal. You're not really supposed to be able to max out the volume. E10K would be a good bet, with the low gain. Not sure it's really worth it, though; you'll still probably be at 25-40% on the knob.

So is there some way to easily adjust my audio? Every time I play a new game it's blaring and I have to fiddle around with my chat program's audio (Skype, TeamSpeak, Discord, etc), the game's audio and sometimes my soundcard settings and the various Windows audio settings. It's a huge pain.