Dac and amp help?

dwang040 · January 2, 2018

I currently just bought a uDac 3 since at I was mainly going to use it for usb audio. I think I have terrible shielding on my motherboard. Now, I am interested in the sennheiser 6XX. A udac3 will not be able to power it properly. Any solutions?

Someone recommended that I keep the uDac and buy a schiit Magni 3 amp. But can I use the uDac 3 as a dac only? I believe the uDac amp will be on no matter what. Or does it not matter if I have the amp from the udac and the amp from the magni on at the same time?

Or should I just sell the uDac 3 and buy a modi/ modi Uber? I mean... Who would even buy a uDac 3? Doesn't seem very popular.

Thank you

GamerDude · January 2, 2018

I have the uDAC 3 from NuForce, it's a nifty little DAC combo, I'd suggest you try it with the HD6XX first to see if you can power the can to loud enough level for you before committing more cash and time to acquire the Schiit stack. Yes, the uDAC3 can be used as a dedicated DAC as it has a pair or analog (L/R) outputs at the back. It's capable of 24bit/96 kHz which qualifies it as HiRes (according to Sony). I don't use the uDAC 3 much as it's more of a laptop DAC combo for me....full sized desktop audio gear is where I'm at!

One thing though, the HD6XX scales well with higher end audio gear, so getting a Schiit stack (or other higher quality combos or stacks) might reap some appreciable audio benefits with the HD6XX.

dwang040 · January 2, 2018

Okay, I'll definitely give it a try. I was just thinking of the numbers in my head, and doubted that a USB port could provide enough power. I do believe I can provide more voltage through the bios (gigabytes usb dac-up stuff) but at the same time, don't want to fry anything.

And if that doesn't work out, I can use the uDac as a dac only and just get a Magni 3 for now and find a better dac sometime in the future.

I just want to clarify, the amp portion for the uDac is only working for that 3.5mm jack up front? Coaxial would just be preamp, and the analogies would be preamp and dac? Just trying to understand how all this works.