Best "budget" headphone amp that you would recommend?

[SinisterHumanoid]

What headphone amp would you guys recommend? Or even a separate soundcard

 

Just like listening to my music and such and just don't wanna spend too much budget of.. around a $100 for an amp, and probably $150 for soundcard(Convenience of being in the computer and not on my desk)

 

Edit: Yes I red the stickied post, my motherboard is pittiful and the onboard is probably horrendous but I don't plan on using this computer much longer so I'd rather just get a soundcard/amp for it, rather than upgrading all of my computer, for something to just be used for media at a later date.

[givingtnt]

probably ?
like you never tried it ?

first : do that

then see if its any good.

then realise if its really worth it since you will change your pc soon and might get a nice soundcard on-board.

answer : no

[SinisterHumanoid]

2 minutes ago, givingtnt said:

probably ?
like you never tried it ?

first : do that

then see if its any good.

then realise if its really worth it since you will change your pc soon and might get a nice soundcard on-board.

answer : no

Well. This computer is gonna be put in the living room for movies and youtube and music and such, once I build a PC sometime next year.

 

And by test you mean.. Just use the motherboard jacks, which I do, I just ment horrible in comparison to what I could have if I just spent $100 on a souncard.

 

https://www.amazon.com/MSI-CrossFireX-Motherboard-760GMA-P34-FX/dp/B00EASJ2JI?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0

 

That's what I have, just what was in this prebuilt I got a few years ago

[SinisterHumanoid]

1 minute ago, huilun02 said:

Might want to read up on amps vs dacs

So your mobo has bad onboard audio, you sure an amp is what you need?

And if its a living room system, you sure its worth bothering at all?

What speaker setup you going to be using?

You sure what you buying will bring about a noticeable improvement?

The living room already has 5.1 surround speaker system installed, ceiling mounted. 

And I'm sure it will be noticable since it would be going from Reciever+Optical cable to bad onboard PC

[Dackzy]

1 hour ago, SinisterHumanoid said:

The living room already has 5.1 surround speaker system installed, ceiling mounted. 

And I'm sure it will be noticable since it would be going from Reciever+Optical cable to bad onboard PC

and the onboard will not matter it will just send a digital signal out to the receiver, so it is the receiver that makes the signal analog and therefore a DAC or sound card will be useless.

amp=amplifier

DAC= digital to analog converter

Did you read my post about amps and dacs if not maybe give it a read, I have it linked in my signature.

[SinisterHumanoid]

12 minutes ago, Dackzy said:

and the onboard will not matter it will just send a digital signal out to the receiver, so it is the receiver that makes the signal analog and therefore a DAC or sound card will be useless.

amp=amplifier

DAC= digital to analog converter

Did you read my post about amps and dacs if not maybe give it a read, I have it linked in my signature.

No that's what the set up in the living room. TWC Reciever to TV and sound system. With the media set up it would be PC to TV and sound system.

[Dackzy]

3 minutes ago, SinisterHumanoid said:

No that's what the set up in the living room. TWC Reciever to TV and sound system. With the media set up it would be PC to TV and sound system.

wait why do you connect the sound to the tv? It would be much easier and better just to hook the PC up to the sound system or use HDMI with the PC and TV, that way you send a digital video and sound signal to the tv and the tv sends the digital sound signal out to the sound system.

[vanished]

If you can run a digital signal like optical or HDMI from your computer into the receiver, the quality of your onboard audio is irrelevant since it doesn't come into the picture - 100% of what would affect the quality would be handled by the receiver in that situation.  I would recommend this setup if you can do it.