Is dac worth it reddit An external DAC is great if your computer introduces a lot of EMI. That's really fascinating! And it's awesome that you're doing independent research and sharing your findings with the headphone community. But it would be nice to go back to having two seperate devices for phone and music. My motherboard has the ALC662, which is in the Realtek HD Audio Codec family, and I haven't been able to push myself to get a USB DAC because it sounds so good already. So, if you're starting from zero, spend $100 or so on a decent DAC/amp combo, and use that to find headphones you love. 500. The reason why I got a Zen DAC for my Philips SHP9600 was because I wanted to know that I was getting good output quality as I was going to buy more headphones anyway. Most people hate the ESS Sabre chips, for instance, but I love them above all others (Wolfson, AKM, Cirrus Logic). imo it's worth it especially if you value sound quality. Today I'll receive my b&w px8s and the Samsung usb c to 3. There are people that buy DAC's with a price tag of $11. BUT YOU HAVE DACs! True. So, if you have a DAC/Amp combo, like the Chord Mojo, you mentioned in your post, it may very well change the sound to be better or worse. 5mm adapter. Eventually I'm going to do a write up on here but buying a DAC is worth it at $1000 if it's something like the RME ADI-2 DAC or PRO for A/D conversion, 4inputs and like 8 outs. It depends and could be subjective. It seems I made the right choice. I use bluetooth DAC/amps a lot using LDAC, its not lossless or hi-res but audio doesn't have to be either of those things to sound great, if the record is good it'll sound good with LDAC or other high speed codecs like LHDC. It depends but I find most DAP's in the 400-600 dollar level do sound better since they are, for all intents and purposes, a smaller desktop DAC/AMP with storage. Laptops also can be pretty bad. As far as gaming is concerned, audio is super important if you are interested in high levels of gaming and you need audio cues and to hear footsteps etc. BUT THEY DONT TEST WELL! If you can't hear a difference, does it matter? BUT. Spend your money on better speakers - you will see a far better return on your money. DACs can sound very, very different based on the processing chip and the analog output section. Depends on the rest of your gear, what speakers you're using etc In your surround system, you're using the Denon's DAC A cheap dongle is a DAC/amp (you need both, you cannot connect headphones to "just" a DAC, sound needs also to be amplified). I was wondering if it's worth the upgrade to have a portable DAC compared to just using your phone. 5mm jack. You can spend a lot more and either notice nothing or a small insignificant difference. That's how i use it at work. ANY time a digital file is being played, it's being converted with a DAC of some kind - on your phone, through regular PC speakers, or through the most advanced speaker External DAC's are further isolated from this so you don't really pick up as much electrical noise if any. And while it's true that DAC IC's or the integrated circuit chip itself should not be discernible from another (in theory), what DOES make all the difference in the world is the analog output of each DAC. If I was to recommend any dongle dac it's definitely the onix alpha. Not only are your paying for a DAC but options for xlr out to monitors, remote, wireless playback possibilities, and a SS headphone AMP built in at that price point. This leads to those DAC's being relatively low on the list. The DAC itself is something that, once you've thrown a little bit of money at it to get something good, anything more than that you're really chasing diminishing returns. If you want to buy any DAC, get a Qudelix 5k. As the other commenter said, it's a Bluetooth DAC, not a DAP. The problem is, you can't just get a DAC, cause the DAC gives you line level out. This leads to high non-linear distortion, but less distortion in other aspects. Whether it is worth it is hard for us to recommend. If your using headphones a $9 USB C Apple Dongle is actually a very competent DAC even by audiophile standards. Unless your headphones are hard to drive or you have really fancy speakers, an external DAC seems like a waste of money. Assuming the on board DAC in your PC is fine, you shouldn't prioritize getting a new DAC or Amp because the improvements are usually marginal. Like for example, my buddy notes that he hears differences in capacitors, op-amps and other components on the board and replaces all of his stuff with more expensive components. I bought a modestly pricey USB DAC because it fit the asthetic of the rest of my system and it supported an optical input as well. It's a 10% gain in quality at very most. A DAC may improve your sound somewhat. Although there are probably better options with a more conventional dac. The very slight increase in brightness and staging is not worth the price. a DAP, such as the Fiio BTR5. Most have a solid DAC chip (or, ships) and a pretty decent AMP. I had the Audioengine D1 DAC/Headphone Amp and couldn't tell the difference at all with my AKG K7xx headphones on a Macbook Pro. Only having 1 discrete dac, i ran the signal through the Bose and Q5S, sounded a bit different, more airy, bloomy bass, less pin point accuracy on the bose, the Q5S had more vocal intimacy, pin point imaging, took the top off the highs and generated tighter bass. Overly-expensive DAC's usually include crap you don't need. It's debateable by how much. But with my Mezze headphones on my computer with my topping dac, it is so so much better than plugging in the to the 3. Oct 16, 2024 · I'm new to this and getting my things in order. The DAC in your receiver is probably fine, but you aren't using it by plugging into the 3. Some other DAC's use a non-oversampling architecture or a R-2R ladder DAC. 5mm jack on the computer. Interesting. But it will be the amp doing that, not the DAC. The question is, will an external DAC give you an improvement vs the internal DAC built into your PC. There are also R2R and FPGA implementations that are rated highly. Wireless headphone's have DAC's built in, which in the chain of transmission is the last place before it hits your ears. Speakers need analog inputs - think of your classic speaker wire, coming from an amplifier. The onboard DAC's on desktop mobs often have very noisy and weak sound due to being surrounded by so many components and circuitry. The fact is, for budget audiophiles, the DAC in your modern amp/receiver, phone or computer is probably good enough. I understand the more storage and the incredible customization that can be done, but it seems many portable DAC's don't always use platforms such as spotify. You speaking about better and pricier DAC/amps. I used to have a work computer where you could hear the mouse scrolling in your headphones. Samsung claims this 10 dollar adapter is capable of 24/196. For reference i have the S12, although i use it at home for movies and music listening, with a normal dongle dac. They are generally more powerful, and even if you don't need that power, it's still more headroom so the sound is "cleaner" at normal listening levels. But remember that audio isn't just the DAC be it dedicated or built in. Good audio is always worth having IMO. DAC / AMP isn't necessary for (cheaper) IEM's. It has no amplification and no volume control. The main reason why I consider buying the BTR5‘s is because I would get a better DAC and could push my music further, as I want to get the best sound I could from these IEM‘s without destroying my budget. You would need to connect your source with optical or coax, which I assume your sources don't have. However, that would not account for the huge discrepancy in price. Sep 20, 2024 · If you go from a good internal dac to a good external dac there will probably be no difference. If this is the case, what would be the advantage of using an expensive DAC? Would it be just for the EQ and fine tuning? I've already purchased UAPP with the MQA add-on. A DAC does not boost power, you're thinking of an amp You have to have a DAC to listen to digital music. What are the upsides and downsides of either option? It doesn't make sense to use it with wireless headphones. The biggest selling point for me is the i/o and ability to switch between a headset and stereo receiver. You can use it with bluetooth with LDAC or as a desktop DAC. I use it mostly for all the music I have accumulated over the years. Overall an external dac will give you a cleaner sound. Is an expensive DAC worth it over a cheaper or on-board solution. Has anyone with a Realtek HD Audio Codec bought a separate DAC and noticed a difference? Yep CDAC is worth it, it's not the certificate that has importance but the placement opportunities which you are given. So even if you had a DAC that theoretically could work wirelessly, it would just get convert the signal again with the built in DAC in the headphones. Put the other way around, if you have crappy headphones or are listening on the train or something, LDAC isn't worth paying extra for. I'm listening with ATH-AD700X's. . With these headphones, would you say it's worth it to buy a DAC and/or amp? Given the 900$ price of the LCD-GX, about how much would be reasonable to spend on the DAC and amp? Should the sound connection go from PC to DAC or TV to DAC? I've seen separate DACs and amps as well as DAC/amp combos. Sources were FLAC files and Spotify Extreme. And if you're listening to files that are lower than CD quality anyway, it doesn't add anything, it's just a "bigger tube" so to speak. The soundblaster does have some iffy software, speaking from personal experience. A DAC converts digital inputs into analog - this can be USB, Optical, Bluetooth, etc. Normally, these big companies have rigorous criteria but due to cdac it gives you an opportunity to sit in their interviews. I concede that its not always a value buy. I've also a/b/s compared $100, $300 and $1000 dacs and the differences were sooo minor, and none were noticeably better, just tiny tiny differences in the upper treble with certain tracks, a difference not worth $5 let alone $900. hnmg jkdt xvtwrzey nqhv oquf zjlt jhpsi zax udga lao wrc xfk ofes qgmglr fazqlxb