Question about DAC's

coffin1 · July 11, 2016

I have been looking for a cheap DAC/AMP and i came across the Fiio e10k, and the soundblasterX g5. Do these cards do the same thing? But with the soundblaster also being surround sound and having a microphone port. And the input on them is both being some form of USB?

StormEye · July 11, 2016

SoundBlaster G5 does have additional features that can be useful if you need to do some signal mixing between different sources.

An example would be playing FF14 on PS4 but you need to use mumble or ventrilo for voice chat.

But besides that, I don't think you should get it since the quality of the DAC/Amp of SoundBlaster portable series is not that great. I have SoundBlaster E5, which is marketed as more serious audio device than G5, but even this has a noticeable hiss (maybe I am too sensitive to this, but it is there).

You will need to decide what you are going to use these devices for, and what your priorities are.

coffin1 · July 11, 2016

i mainly want to get better sound while being able to get some surround sound while gaming.

StormEye · July 11, 2016

8 minutes ago, coffin1 said:

i mainly want to get better sound while being able to get some surround sound while gaming.

In LTT forum, it is generally considered that Surround Sound is nothing more than a gimmick when it comes to headphones. I advise you do some more research about virtual surround for headphones.

July 11, 2016

If you want surround sound, try it, I guess. I'm biased against "virtual" surround, so I don't recommend it. Some people like it and it works for them.

It may or may not provide improved performance over your motherboard. Can't guarantee anything like that.