Headphone amp / dac , for gaming rig.

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lundrog

Member
Oct 9, 2008
68
1
66
I ordered a pair of Polk UltraFocus 8000 Active Noise Canceling Headphones. http://www.polkaudio.com/products/ultrafocus8000 I want to match a headphone amp with them, so I get optimal sound when gaming. I play games like battle field 3, etc.

I have a asrock extreme 4 motherboard. http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z77 Extreme4/?cat=Specifications

I have a little room in my case, but not alot, thats why I was thinking amp/dac

This is a loud case, hence the noise canceling...

Picture of my case. http://photography.rogerlund.net/Ot...-HbfW8PF/0/XL/Photo Jan 11, 3 49 41 PM-XL.jpg

Thoughts?
 
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Maleficus

Maleficus

Diamond Member
May 2, 2001
7,685
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They appear to be pretty normal headphones, don't look like they require anything special in terms of powering them.

I'm a pretty big fan of Schiit, I like their warranty, I like the quality of their products, and I like that they are made in the USA.

They have plenty of good options, pick your price point and order.

www.schiit.com

* Your mobo link doesn't work, assuming it is the Z77 it looks like you have SPDIF, i'd use that if you can swing the price for say the Bifrost. otherwise slap a Magni/Modi combo and call it a day.

I also just looked at your case pic... you have 7 SSDs so I'm going to assume you have too much money, if you need 'higher end' options respond and I'll provide some.
 
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lundrog

Member
Oct 9, 2008
68
1
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Maleficus said:
They appear to be pretty normal headphones, don't look like they require anything special in terms of powering them.

I'm a pretty big fan of Schiit, I like their warranty, I like the quality of their products, and I like that they are made in the USA.

They have plenty of good options, pick your price point and order.

www.schiit.com

* Your mobo link doesn't work, assuming it is the Z77 it looks like you have SPDIF, i'd use that if you can swing the price for say the Bifrost. otherwise slap a Magni/Modi combo and call it a day.

I also just looked at your case pic... you have 7 SSDs so I'm going to assume you have too much money, if you need 'higher end' options respond and I'll provide some.
Click to expand...

I'll look at anything in the 200-400 ish range, per dac / amp.

I see the Magni/Modi only analog, wouldn't i be better off with a digital / optical input?

EDIT: fixed motherboard link, and yes the z77 extreme 4.
 
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uhohs

Diamond Member
Oct 29, 2005
7,658
39
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eh, i'm having a brainfart type of night, but don't noise cancelling headphones already have an amp built into them? using a better external amp isn't gonna improve anything.
 
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lundrog

Member
Oct 9, 2008
68
1
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uhohs said:
eh, i'm having a brainfart type of night, but don't noise cancelling headphones already have an amp built into them? using a better external amp isn't gonna improve anything.
Click to expand...

I see that.

Would I be better off getting a dac from Thoughts on Schiit or JDS Labs /epiphany-acoustics etc?

Kinda was thinking I would want optical / digital input, but then your looking 4x cost, and does it even matter?
 
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darkswordsman17

Lifer
Mar 11, 2004
23,074
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uhohs: They do but it doesn't necessarily impact the signal they're being fed and many you can turn that off. Of course that defeats the point of the noise-cancelling. Frankly, if isolation is a need I'd have said put all the money toward a good custom IEM. It'll offer stellar sound quality and stellar isolation without the noise cancelling stuff. Any good noise cancelling is going to defeat the point of a good quality DAC/amp. There are some headphones that do a better job of isolation without an active circuit.

One of those is a DAC and the other is an amp. I'm not much of a Schiit fan myself but they seem to make ok products and hopefully ones that won't damage/kill your headphones (I believe they added a protection circuit in their newer stuff). That amp seems awfully powerful for your needs. I'm a bit leery of these new mega-output amps as there's often little room left for volume control so just about anything above off can get too loud. Especially with headphones with high sensitivity and low impedance. Some amps also demonstrate channel balance issues low on their volume controls. I can't speak to that specific amp but something you might check out.

There's a lot of products that will offer what you're looking for and you're not going to find a consensus on what to buy. Some might have issues, plenty haven't had much testing, and there's all manner of info to sort through.

Of course there's the Objective 2/ODAC combo. Its closer to $300 but has been pretty well tested. JDS Labs you can buy separate or all in one. Its not the most feature packed either and I'm not the fondest of aesthetics and input/outputs myself.
I know there's quite a following for Audio-GD stuff.
iBasso had some interesting stuff.
Ditto to Fiio. Their E17 is popular and their stuff is ok and has generally tested decently.
ASUS I believe has a DAC/amp too.
There's a bunch of others I can't even remember (Yulong comes to mind, they seem to be a big "knockoff" brand that makes compelling products for the price).
There's also some good pro-audio gear that would fit in your price range (Cambridge DACMagic comes to mind, a bunch of others too).
Surely Headamp has something. They (well he really) always struck me as someone that knew what they were doing, made some nice stuff, and only problems that arose is when he got swamped with sales.

Sorry I know I probably am just giving you info overload. There's frankly too many DAC/amps in the $100-400 range. There's quite a few pretty decent ones, just have to figure out what exactly you want. Personally, I've started to lean more towards ones that can provide some testing results and have a history of good customer service should any issue arise.
 
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lundrog

Member
Oct 9, 2008
68
1
66
Right , I can start the process of searching . I guess the big question is with a headphone like this, would I be better off with a sound card?

Since it is really the DAC that im looking for over the amp?


Roger
 
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darkswordsman17

Lifer
Mar 11, 2004
23,074
5,557
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Um, well sound cards function as amps as well. I'm not sure about the output impedance of most of them (its not a common spec that gets listed) so you might be better of with an amp that you know that spec for. Those Polk's are pretty low impedance and getting an amp that has a very low output impedance will prevent impedance mismatch issues (which can lead to changes in frequency response).

So it just depends what features you're looking for. I like my X-Fi Titanium HD, and there's a few other good headphones, but an external DAC/amp might work better (I prefer an analog volume knob versus managing the volume in Windows).
 
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hans030390

Diamond Member
Feb 3, 2005
7,326
2
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ODAC + O2 (combo unit from JDS Labs), Leckerton Audio UHA-6S MkII, Schiit Magni + Modi...

Those are probably your best options, but I don't think you really need anything for the headphones you got.

TBH, if you're actually looking for truly good, accurate sound in that price range, check out the Mad Dog from Mr. Speakers (silly name, but whatever). They're a well modded Fostex T50RP (very popular). Pair that with one of the amp/DACs I mentioned, and you'll be good to go. I think noise cancelling is a waste in most situations. Having a decent pair of closed headphones is good enough, IMO. Plus, you'll get much better sound quality, which I think is more complementary to gaming (soundstage and imaging especially) than noise cancelling.
 
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gus6464

Golden Member
Nov 10, 2005
1,848
32
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Why does everyone keep recommending amps when an active NC headphone does not gain anything from an amp? By definition an active can already contains an amp.
 
biostud

biostud

Lifer
Feb 27, 2003
18,246
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I would thought that DAC's are for audiophile music listening and not specialists in 3D positioning etc.
 
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hans030390

Diamond Member
Feb 3, 2005
7,326
2
76
biostud said:
I would thought that DAC's are for audiophile music listening and not specialists in 3D positioning etc.
Click to expand...

Audio is audio. While the DAC plays a comparatively smaller role in overall sound quality, any improvement in sound quality could directly translate to better sound staging and imaging.
 
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gus6464

Golden Member
Nov 10, 2005
1,848
32
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Exploder87 said:
Excellent choice my friend. I have the STX coupled with AKG Q701 headphones and the combo is pure win! Night and day compared to my old Siberia/integrated soundcard combo :;D
Click to expand...

But his cans do not have a passive bypass so the touted feature of the of STX (amp) is not being used at all. $200 could have bought a 7.1 headphone processor and he could have gotten a lot more out of his gaming.
 
Exploder87

Exploder87

Member
Apr 26, 2012
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gus6464 said:
But his cans do not have a passive bypass so the touted feature of the of STX (amp) is not being used at all. $200 could have bought a 7.1 headphone processor and he could have gotten a lot more out of his gaming.
Click to expand...

Ouch, I missed that part.

He'll still make use of the much superior DAC though, should still make a good difference compared to his old integrated setup.
 
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lundrog

Member
Oct 9, 2008
68
1
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Alright, i'm looking at returning the STX. I bought a new motherboard, a Asus P8Z77 WS. I am putting in four Video cards in SLI. Therefore, I will not have any pcie slots to put the card in.

So, I am looking at options again.

For the record, you can REALLY hear the difference without the sound card. The headphones drivers vibrate on your ears with the Xonar STX, I'm talking about base so loud it moves the headphones. without it, even having volume at 100% with loudness on, and bass boost enabled; you can barely hear the base.,
 
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