I need an amp for my 600 ohm DT 990 premiums, looked around and the O2 amp/ODAC combo should do the trick, my only concern is price, should I save the cash and just get the O2 amplifier? My audio source is my computer with this motherboard:
Like how much benefit would getting the ODAC with the O2 amplifier be? I'm thinking right now that the motherboard already has a decent audio solution so just getting the O2 amp would be the most practical choice in terms of audio quality and price but I could be wrong.
I don't know how much better it would sound but I am in he same boat.
I plan to hand build the AMP part for $65 ish and then later add the ODAC module. Cheaper over a long period of time. So that is an option where even later you can have it all.
It's very hard to recommend different models/brands as there's so many now over such a price range. All I really know is the O2 DAC/AMP is highly regarded and is worth the money to me and has worked flawlessly plus being a combo unit it's easy to switch between systems.
I'm not intending to buy another unit after owning this one but will probably try different headphones when my Fostex wear out.
I did buy a pre-built Mayflower unit and luckily my sister brought it back from the US on a visit which helped my decision.
If it's just amp you're getting then make sure the source is line-level, otherwise, get the DAC combo. I doubt your mobo has a line-level output, most likely just a regular 3.5mm output for speakers or headphone. If you connect that directly to the O2 amp, all you're doing is double amping which is counter intuitive to better audio quality.
I recommend the Micca OriGen+ same amount of power that an o2 amp and as clean as an oDAC(oh by the way about $110 for a amp/dac combo). Linked is a great review of it
Pretty much all headphones in that price range (except beats) will benefit from a good DAC as well as an amp that can properly drive them.
Any audiophile/audio-enthusiast will tell you that mobo sound cards are always sh**. They're usually ballooning with features (surroundsound / hardware mixing / dds / etc), but tend to have bad SNR and lack detail that can be found in a good external dac.
That being said, if you're just gaming or casually watching movies, mobo sound card is fine. However, seeing how much you spent on headphones I'm assuming you also like listening to music. If that's the case I recommend the dac+amp.
i might just give the amp a go and get the dac later seperately, because if im satisfied with the sound why get the dac? I always leave those BS features off, it sounds unnatural, i always set it to headphone mode and maybe tweak the eq usually to avoid the harsh treble on the 990's. It sounds great but max 100 volume on windows is low to moderate for the 600 ohm dt 990. Just to confirm a better dac is for better clarity and an amp is used to achieve higher volumes and provide more power to higher resistance headphones?
The Z170-A doesn't have a proper Line-Level output, your wasting your money if all your getting is an amp. You'll actually get better audio on board rather than double amping it with an O2 amp. Getting better amp isn't going to fix audio issue if your source isn't clean in the first place. Double amping means your amplifying the distortion found on the first amp, which is what your planning to do.
Amplifying from a regular headphone out = Is like drinking water straight of another person's mouth. Amplifying from a Line-Level output = Is like drinking water straight out of a fresh cup of water.
What your doing is amplifying from a regular headphone out, not a clean source. Whatever low distortion the on-board amp had will be brought back up from the double-amping. Line-Level output skips the on-board's amp and passes it through your external amp instead, but your mobo doesn't have that.
Without a proper line-out from the mobo just getting an amp is pointless. It's going to sound noisy, peaky, distorted, and will exacerbate EQ problems.
With good DAC+AMP and good headphones, you SHOULD NEVER have a need to EQ.
except even with a clean neutral amp+dac combo like the O2, DT990's are very treble heavy and very simbilant, very harsh for some music, its perfect for gaming and movies though. I will think it out.
The place I get my audio gear in Canada doesnt sell the O2 amp+odac combo but the owner of the store would recommend an audio quest dragonfly to go with the O2 amp. Not sure how i feel about that.
If money is an issue you can always look for a used unit like on head-fi.org. usually people that buy that kind of stuff that care of them so you can get a like new unit for cheaper.
Unless your onboard audio has static or some other anomaly, I personally wouldn't get a dedicated dac. IMHO it isn't worth the extra cost.
According to your motherboard manual, the lime green output is a line out, and I think just hooking that to a simple amp will be good enough.
I have couple desktops with the Realtek ALC892 chipset and although all my cans are pretty efficient, I can't really hear any audible difference between my onboard audio and my dedicated amp/dac(CEntrance DACport Slim [AKM AK4490]) even though the dac chip is supposedly top of the line.
