Looking for a great DAC

[DrDread]

Hello!

 

I ordered a pair of HD700s and just got them yesterday. I absolutely love the headset and I’m waiting on my WA7 Fireflies 2nd Gen to come in some time next week, so, with this, I have everything I need for music listening. Now I’m looking to complete this setup with a DAC for gaming purposes. I was wondering if anyone has a specific DAC that a i could use with the WA7 that would decode in dolby digital virtual 7.1 and have my WA7 still driving the HD700s.

[mattyt1991]

People will come and recommend some schiit products but i really like my dragonfly red dac and very versatile for using with laptops and phones as well.

[EsaT]

Putting binaural sound through distortion of tubes can only degrade accuracy of spatial cues.

More neutral and accurate semiconductor/solid state amps are better for that.

 

And are you playing on consoles because of mentioning Dolby Digital?

Despite of hyped name Dolby Headphone of some devices is very average for gaming with its bass bloat.

So more bass neutral binaural sound simulation/HRTF algorithm is better.

(HD700 is already sub 1kHz emphasizing)

 

As for what binaural sound means, this is standard speaker stereo mix from game:

https://youtu.be/d1_20T8x_OI?t=12m57s

And this binaural sound simulation:

https://youtu.be/d1_20T8x_OI?t=10s

 

[kokakolia]

2 hours ago, mattyt1991 said:

People will come and recommend some schiit products but i really like my dragonfly red dac and very versatile for using with laptops and phones as well.

I have the dragonfly black and I’m not very impressed. It sounds the same as my onboard computer DAC or iPhone dongle.  And the volume is way too loud at 3%. So I leave it at 2% or 1%.

[DrDread]

So I already have both my WA7 and my HD700s. I’m not going to replace my WA7 because it’s awesome for music. I’m fine paying up to around 400 USD for a stand alone DAC that code decode both Atmos for Headphones and virtual 7.1. I messed up when I mentioned Dolby Digital, my bad.

[Reckless95]

13 hours ago, DrDread said:

So I already have both my WA7 and my HD700s. I’m not going to replace my WA7 because it’s awesome for music. I’m fine paying up to around 400 USD for a stand alone DAC that code decode both Atmos for Headphones and virtual 7.1. I messed up when I mentioned Dolby Digital, my bad.

 

Maybe try out True-Fi from Sonarworks. They've got free trials. It honestly makes my Audeze LCD-X's sound much better IMO.

 

https://www.sonarworks.com/truefi

 

[EsaT]

17 hours ago, DrDread said:

So I already have both my WA7 and my HD700s. I’m not going to replace my WA7 because it’s awesome for music. I’m fine paying up to around 400 USD for a stand alone DAC that code decode both Atmos for Headphones and virtual 7.1. I messed up when I mentioned Dolby Digital, my bad.

Games really don't use Dolby Atmos sound format.

Since Microsoft killed DirectSound and HW sound processing we've been stuck with software renderers doing 5.1/7.1, or stereo, depending what's output configuration in Playback settings of Windows.

But that Dolby Atmos for Headphones binaural sound simulation algorithm can be bought for Windows 10.

 

Though myself now waiting for Creative to release their "Super X-Fi" based products.

It has head and ear shape customizable HRTF.

It's that head and ear shape which causes interaural cues brain has learned to decode for positioning sounds.

And humans don't have single standardized head shape, so fixed algorithms require close to average head shape to work best.