Do My Headphones Need an Amp?

[Awakening]

I just bought a pair of V-MODA M-100s about a month ago as my first high-end headphones and just recently started going back and forth between my cheap USB-powered DAC and then directly from my laptop. I noticed that there's absolutely more detail in the DAC, however, there's something going on with the bass. It's more detailed on the DAC, but I'm hard pressed to actually feel the bass. When I play directly from my laptop I can feel it vibrating my ears and even around the ear cups a bit, but the volume is overall a bit quieter from the laptop than when using my DAC. It just doesn't make sense to me why the laptop would play more quietly but with much more powerful bass while the DAC plays more loudly but with barely any bass vibrations at all. I'm sure the problem for not getting any feeling from the bass is that there's so little power going through it from being USB powered, but I don't understand why it would be overall louder than the laptop if that were the case.

 

Anyways, I'd just like to know if an amp would likely fix this issue. I listen to a lot of EDM so having that feely bass is something I want of it. Right now my choice is either less detail and hard-hitting bass or good detail and barely any bass whatsoever. I'd like to have both and from what I've read up on these headphones they should definitely be capable of hitting hard.

 

If getting an amp would solve my problem, after some research, I came to conclusion that the JDS CMOYBB would be my best option. I want something inexpensive (<$70) and while it doesn't need to double as a portable amp, it would be nice to be able to use on the move with my phone. The DAC I'm using is just a cheap Signstek Mini USB DAC that I modded with better caps which came to a total of about $35 so as you could imagine I don't want to spend much more than that on an amp.

[SeanAngelo]

11 minutes ago, Awakening said:

I just bought a pair of V-MODA M-100s about a month ago as my first high-end headphones and just recently started going back and forth between my cheap USB-powered DAC and then directly from my laptop. I noticed that there's absolutely more detail in the DAC, however, there's something going on with the bass. It's more detailed on the DAC, but I'm hard pressed to actually feel the bass. When I play directly from my laptop I can feel it vibrating my ears and even around the ear cups a bit, but the volume is overall a bit quieter from the laptop than when using my DAC. It just doesn't make sense to me why the laptop would play more quietly but with much more powerful bass while the DAC plays more loudly but with barely any bass vibrations at all. I'm sure the problem for not getting any feeling from the bass is that there's so little power going through it from being USB powered, but I don't understand why it would be overall louder than the laptop if that were the case.

 

Anyways, I'd just like to know if an amp would likely fix this issue. I listen to a lot of EDM so having that feely bass is something I want of it. Right now my choice is either less detail and hard-hitting bass or good detail and barely any bass whatsoever. I'd like to have both and from what I've read up on these headphones they should definitely be capable of hitting hard.

 

If getting an amp would solve my problem, after some research, I came to conclusion that the JDS CMOYBB would be my best option. I want something inexpensive (<$70) and while it doesn't need to double as a portable amp, it would be nice to be able to use on the move with my phone. The DAC I'm using is just a cheap Signstek Mini USB DAC that I modded with better caps which came to a total of about $35 so as you could imagine I don't want to spend much more than that on an amp.

have you read this?

 

[KaminKevCrew]

10 minutes ago, Awakening said:

I just bought a pair of V-MODA M-100s about a month ago as my first high-end headphones and just recently started going back and forth between my cheap USB-powered DAC and then directly from my laptop. I noticed that there's absolutely more detail in the DAC, however, there's something going on with the bass. It's more detailed on the DAC, but I'm hard pressed to actually feel the bass. When I play directly from my laptop I can feel it vibrating my ears and even around the ear cups a bit, but the volume is overall a bit quieter from the laptop than when using my DAC. It just doesn't make sense to me why the laptop would play more quietly but with much more powerful bass while the DAC plays more loudly but with barely any bass vibrations at all. I'm sure the problem for not getting any feeling from the bass is that there's so little power going through it from being USB powered, but I don't understand why it would be overall louder than the laptop if that were the case.

 

Anyways, I'd just like to know if an amp would likely fix this issue. I listen to a lot of EDM so having that feely bass is something I want of it. Right now my choice is either less detail and hard-hitting bass or good detail and barely any bass whatsoever. I'd like to have both and from what I've read up on these headphones they should definitely be capable of hitting hard.

 

If getting an amp would solve my problem, after some research, I came to conclusion that the JDS CMOYBB would be my best option. I want something inexpensive (<$70) and while it doesn't need to double as a portable amp, it would be nice to be able to use on the move with my phone. The DAC I'm using is just a cheap Signstek Mini USB DAC that I modded with better caps which came to a total of about $35 so as you could imagine I don't want to spend much more than that on an amp.

It's likely that your laptop has some sort of bass boost function going on with its onboard that isn't happening on your external DAC/amp (It's a USB powered DAC/amp, not just a DAC, otherwise you wouldn't really be able to hear the volume.)

 

You could get the cmoy amp, but I would advise against using it with your current DAC/amp combo, unless it has a line out mode, as you're double amping otherwise, which isn't really a good thing to do. 

 

I would suggest trying to find some sort of EQ for your USB thingy, and boosting the bass through that.

[Awakening]

23 minutes ago, KaminKevCrew said:

It's likely that your laptop has some sort of bass boost function going on with its onboard that isn't happening on your external DAC/amp (It's a USB powered DAC/amp, not just a DAC, otherwise you wouldn't really be able to hear the volume.)

 

You could get the cmoy amp, but I would advise against using it with your current DAC/amp combo, unless it has a line out mode, as you're double amping otherwise, which isn't really a good thing to do. 

 

I would suggest trying to find some sort of EQ for your USB thingy, and boosting the bass through that.

 

I tried upping the 60Hz in VLC, but I can't get an adequate amount of bass without it completely overpowering everything else 

[anothertom]

In the interest of finding where the difference is, listen to the same song from different sources (I.e. phone, PC, laptop) with and without the DAC where possible. They won't sound identical, but should sound more similar than different.

 

I agree with @KaminKevCrew, it seems the laptop has some 'enhancement' enabled. Does it have branded audio which comes with it (beats)? If yes, disable it.

 

Alternatively,

48 minutes ago, Awakening said:

The DAC I'm using is just a cheap Signstek Mini USB DAC that I modded with better caps...

I'm not massive on hobby electronics, but that would be one sure way to change performance if you didn't get exactly the right spec capacitors.

[Awakening]

2 minutes ago, anothertom said:

In the interest of finding where the difference is, listen to the same song from different sources (I.e. phone, PC, laptop) with and without the DAC where possible. They won't sound identical, but should sound more similar than different.

 

I agree with @KaminKevCrew, it seems the laptop has some 'enhancement' enabled. Does it have branded audio which comes with it (beats)? If yes, disable it.

 

Alternatively,

I'm not massive on hobby electronics, but that would be one sure way to change performance if you didn't get exactly the right spec capacitors.

 

 

 

 

It's a Lenovo L440 with Dolby® Advanced Audio™ and I'm using Realtek HD Audio drivers. I have the Dolby Digital Plus Advanced Audio software disabled so that shouldn't be doing anything. I don't see anything in the Realtek HD Audio software that might be doing that.

 

This is the guide I followed for modding the DAC and all of the cap values remained the same. The DAC didn't have any bass before the mod either.

[Awakening]

1 hour ago, Awakening said:

It's a Lenovo L440 with Dolby® Advanced Audio™ and I'm using Realtek HD Audio drivers. I have the Dolby Digital Plus Advanced Audio software disabled so that shouldn't be doing anything. I don't see anything in the Realtek HD Audio software that might be doing that.

 

This is the guide I followed for modding the DAC and all of the cap values remained the same. The DAC didn't have any bass before the mod either.

 

Fucking hell.. I just followed Z's setup tutorial for Fubar2000 and the improvements are dramatic! I think what made the most difference is that I changed the output settings to force 16-bit output straight to the DAC and avoid going through anything with Realtek or Dolby. It kinda breaks all other programs when trying to play audio through them, but I'm sure I can fix that. I'm just happy I the bass came through and on top of that everything generally sounds better too. I'm so happy I don't have to buy an amp 

 

[KaminKevCrew]

6 hours ago, Awakening said:

Fucking hell.. I just followed Z's setup tutorial for Fubar2000 and the improvements are dramatic! I think what made the most difference is that I changed the output settings to force 16-bit output straight to the DAC and avoid going through anything with Realtek or Dolby. It kinda breaks all other programs when trying to play audio through them, but I'm sure I can fix that. I'm just happy I the bass came through and on top of that everything generally sounds better too. I'm so happy I don't have to buy an amp 

 

You're likely using WASAPI if that's the case. If you don't want other programs to break after a listening session, you'll have to hit the stop button instead of the pause button.

[Awakening]

21 minutes ago, KaminKevCrew said:

You're likely using WASAPI if that's the case. If you don't want other programs to break after a listening session, you'll have to hit the stop button instead of the pause button.

 

 

Yeah, that's what I'm using and I did figure that out. Kind of annoying to have to stop it and refresh web pages, but oh well, it's worth the better sound quality. I'm sure I'll get used to doing it.