Is Dac/Amp better than Sound blaster Z? (Around $150)

[EpicSurvivor]

I was wondering if a Dac/Amp for my Logitech Speakers would sound better than the Sound Blaster Z that I currently have. Is surround sound a big difference from stereo? I plan on using it for just Youtube/Music and gaming.

Thanks

 

[darkswordsman17]

The short answer is, really depends. Honestly, I kinda doubt it'll make a huge difference unless there's something coloring the sound. Its possible you could have some setting on the SoundBlaster that will make it sound worse than it could. The other thing that could make it seem like it sounds "better" is if the DAC/amp is outputting a higher volume (which studies have shown that people will often claim "louder" as being better when doing stuff like comparison tests - think it holds up under double blind as well).

As for surround sound, well that depends too. I personally don't find it that enthralling but it can be fun. I personally prefer to spend on fewer higher quality components. Which you can build a surround setup over time (so you'd say buy the high quality stereo stuff to start, then add the rest later). Things get really quirky there quick though, as it'll depend on what you're playing back. You could actually be better off buying a surround sound capable card and doing analog output to say a receiver that servers just as the amp (letting you focus on quality of the receiver, and so you could buy an older higher end receiver since you wouldn't need the newest decode or processing capabilities). But if you need say Dolby Atmos or other processing (I think some games are capable of it, although not sure if that gets translated over to PC or not), you're kinda stuck on receivers being the best value. But remember that the DACs in them tend to not be stellar (as in cheaper sound cards paired with older receivers could offer better sound quality for the price).

 

[thesmokingman]

The opamps in the SB suck. I went thru stages where I upgraded the amps and stuff. But then I was never into multi channel audio so that lost its charm. Plus the fact that the higher end opamps are huge and so you have to run the ZXR bare. After a while I tossed the whole setup and went with a mid level DAC/head amp in the Fiio K5 Pro and mated that with a Micca Origain amp feeding a AJ Pioneer sub and Polk sats. It sounds damn good, and no more messing with opamps. But really it comes down to how much you enjoy the tunes? For me, I'm never going back to a soundcard again.

Review and Measurements of Fiio K5 Pro

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Fiio K5 Pro DAC and headphone amplifier. It was kindly sent to me by the company. The K5 Pro is a budget product, costing US $150 on Amazon with free shipping. The Fiio K5 looks decent and sports a nice, large volume knob which I appreciated...

www.audiosciencereview.com