Look up DACs after finally wanting to improve my audio setup

onboard audio is absolute trash if you own any sound equipment higher quality than some 80 dollar logitech 5.1 kit with integral amp. Nothing remotely serious related to audio ever has analog cables coming out of a PC tower because PCs are electrically noisy as fuck. Production work uses external equipment for analog signals, and if you have any ability to hear in general, and own decent equipment, you'll want some sort of external DAC
>nuh uh my 40 dollar headphones sound fine even cranked up!
no one cares about your nondiscerning tastes and shit hardware. dont bother replying with your worthless input

even some cheapass onkyo AV receiver connected via HDMI to your PC will sound better than any motherboard sound and pretty much all internal sound cards if you have remotely decent equipment lying past the DAC. (this is also probably the cheapest way to get uncompressed surround sound outside the PC) But if you're a poorfag and your speakers/headphones suck, go ahead and stick with the onboard

maybe it depends on the computer

i use an X60S as source for my hifi system and there is zero noise

That one is garbage too.

>Plays All Music Files: MP3 to 24-bit/192kHz
What retarded ass spec sheet is this? How about some actual specs like SNR?

from what, its headphone jack?

A SUCCULENT CHINESE DAC!???

A lot of audio memes here on Jow Forums are spread by can guys and they are the worst people you can meet

> can't play music loud from speakers because of their mum
> autistic enough to care about boutique gear between milliwatts (iems) and tens of watts (speakers)

Get on rutracker and download some 24 bit and first get a collection, then if you can get some good cheap chink IEMS and use your on board audio and learn to EQ - it will cost you like 20 dollars and see if you can see improvement.

On board is the word but not all of us have AC and 500watt power supplies that push DC DC converters that are pushing +\- 24v to OPamps on the output stage. Think ultra books and mobile
Wrong portable daps are good. Search for Zishan z2 z3 its 50 bucks and can to 32/384 and DSD and has a +\- 16v pushing the output drivers
Yeah as Aussie would like to know that to.. It not Alan bond is it ? M

Any way finished my rants. Fight me

T. AV repair guy

>being so poor you complain about $80

Attached: 1503110740415.jpg (540x540, 44K)

I recently bought the sony wh-1000 XM2, They sound pretty good, but they never sound as good as they do in store. I'm already using flac audio files. Would I notice the difference with a DAC?

Paul Charles Dozsa
A professional chess player who was wanted in a few countries for doing runners on expensive restaurant and hotels.
Pretty sure he's dead.

GUNGRIG MULTIBIT OR GTFO FROM MY BOARD

It's only good if you know how to listen to music.

Works on my machine(s).

The external DAC itself is not a meme, but isolated, shining box with da-conversion alone is. If you need a headphone amp and mic pre, consider buying a sound interface, meme properties like 24bit/192kHz alone wont add up to anything

A good DAC is absolutely worth it and anyone who says otherwise is just sour grapesing

i don't even have a particularly good DAC but I can hear the improvement

>onboard audio is absolute trash
correct

not just a matter of volume and interference but detail and musicality

>is just sour grapesing
If someone is getting sour grapes from a DAC they need to re-evaluate their life. DACs are one of the cheapest audio solutions you can buy.

but Jow Forums lives in abject poverty, haven't you read

>DAC
I propose to categorize HighEnd as a mental illness, I believe it belongs somewhere in the schizophrenia area. HighEnd illness is displayed by phonetic halucinations which prevents enjoyment from music for the afflicted. The afflicted individual compulsively and even autistically examines the technical side of recording and music playback. He/She ignores the artistic and atmospheric side of the music.
This afflicted individual is a grateful victim of marketing department belonging to the companies which sell audio equipment. They are supporting further development of demented thoughts in the afflicted individual, who then tries to resolve his/her illnes by buying overpriced equipment, which will never bring him/her satisfaction. The unambiguous top of the polished fart are overpriced tube amplifiers with THD levels in units of percent ingnoring the basic laws of EMC, mains filters (or EMC power supply filter), and gold plated digital audio cables.
Suggested treatment - Audio therapy in the form of visiting live undergound gigs (preferably with bands playing pvre trve cvlt orthodox norwegian black metal) with cheap audio quality and half-deaf sound engineers serving powerful D-class PA systems.

Attached: magor.jpg (700x525, 56K)

Yes they are worth it. If you can't tell the difference maybe stop spending money on midfi headphone gear and invest in a speaker system where you can actually hear the differences. Headphones are okay too I'm guessing, but you need better hearing. Personally I can't much of a tiny difference between dacs when I listen on headphones (I've only ever used hd650) but on my stereo system at home I can absolutely hear differences. Different dac manufactures use different filters and dac chips, you can hear these filters on a a quality stereo system.

Attached: IMG_2321.jpg (4032x3024, 3.96M)

>Pasta for a 30 dollar device
What did he mean by this?

>Does your current source have any kind of buzzing/clicking/noise?
Buy a DAC / AMP+DAC combo

>Is your current source too quiet?
Buy an AMP+DAC combo

>Are you plugging into something weird and not directly into a good source (Examples: ps4 controller, monitor/TV headphone jack etc)
Consider it, but if you are happy with how it is now then don't bother. Depends on your budget and what you can afford.

I like portable DAC/amp units for the flexibility they provide, with good ones letting me plug almost every headphone in existence into nearly any modern device without having to worry about hissing. I'd still say that expensive dedicated DACs are generally a waste of money, with a lot of meme DACs actually being inferior distortion-spewing garbage compared to onboard output or even cheap smartphone dongles.

external (and aftermarket DACs in general) is useful for physical distance from interference-causing electronics such as cellular radios, and for reducing the noise floor cutoff. Noise floor is typically a non-issue for high-impedance headphones, but for more common headphones you'll often hear hissing during quiet moments like and describe

same dac different branding:
audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/review-and-measurements-of-speaka-usb-dac-and-headphone-amplifier.2423/

takeaway is that it's one of the best usb stick dacs in terms of hard measurements and power output. most headphone listeners wouldn't need anything more

Just get a receiver and plug all your shit into it. I'd have given this same answer in the 80s.

Why are you going to over-complicate it and get all the parts that are already in a receiver separately, buy cables to connect all that shit, and then act like you're some kind of fucking audio genius? It's not going to sound better. Just get a fucking receiver, plug ALL your devices capable of audio output into it, and be amazed as they all work with the same set of speakers! Back in the 90s, my dad had a CD player, a VHS player, a Laserdisc, my SNES, and a tape deck hooked up to the same receiver, and they all fed into the same two speakers, which were almost the size of my fucking refrigerator. And guess what? You can still do the same thing in 2018. Because receivers have HDMI ports now, and some even have USB input.

What's the best way to connect a computer to a receiver with no usb port? A sound card with optical out?

depends on how shitty your setup is. Flac is not going to help you at all if your setup is shitty.

I know, macfag, but I haven't owned a mac laptop that didn't have shitty output from it's headphone jack into ultra low impedance IEMs, so a DAC is absolutely necessary in that scenario.

-Best-
Use a USB DAC (odac) to go from the computer to an analog output, then connect that analog output to your receiver.

-Fine-
Or use a USB sound device with coaxial or optical output to go into the receiver's onboard DAC.

This is assuming your receiver is decent. Most do better at the analog gain stage than they do at digital to analog conversion.

I have an Onkyo Professional PR-SC885. It's not 4k so it is kinda sitting here extra. It's very nice though, even has balanced outputs.

I use a Focusrite Scarlett Solo as DAC, got it for $70 used. Its a huge improvement, but I wouldnt spend more.

You can get a DAC/AMP combo for about 50$

Here OP here's one for $21

Syba SD-DAC63094 USB 2.0 24 bit 96KHz DAC and Headphone Amplifier with 3 Present EQ Standard Packaging amazon.com/dp/B00KGK5I38/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_Twp2AbZNHJF1J

>Onkyo Professional PR-SC885.
The DAC in that is between fine and nice. Get a USB sound device with coax or optical output and go into the Onkyo.

Why are higher end headphones more susciptible to electrical infetterence? On my $50 IEMs and $60 headphones my PC was fine. Then I bought an ATH-M50x and playing games or watching Youtube is annoying sometimes with all the noise.

of course it's a audionigger meme
When you can buy a fully functioning and actually good android phone for $100 but $100 dac is considered "entry level" then you know that you're getting snake oiled.

what actually is musicality?

just ignore him. "musicality" is just audiofag talk for "sounds the way i like" and has nothing to do with how a dac handles audio signal

Isn't that the guy from the gentleman webm

I have an LG V20, whose DAC I love. Anyone know how to use it as an external audio device for the computer? That'd be fucken amazing if that could fucken happen

Thanks

its only worth it if you're recording
a few surveys have been done in which people can't hear any difference between onboard audio dacs and 2000 dollars external dacs -- not through unamplified common headphones, at least

what a balla. you think he wouldn't have been arrested if he was a better chess player?

3.5mm to RCA

I disagree. My receiver is across the room from my computer, and nevermind that it'd be bothersome to run a cable all the way there to plug my headphones in, but it also gobbles a lot more power than my little dac-amp I use for my headphones and a little pair of bookshelf speakers for my PC.
Also, the headphone out on the receiver cuts off the speaker out, the only way around that would be to get up and unplug it.
Never mind that sometimes you might want some music or TV playing softly in the background while also playing a video game or using your PC.

Your solution is fine for some, but not all scenarios.

Good luck getting a straight answer. Audiophiles are basically cuckold fetishists for wasting money

USB Dac with a line out.
Take your shitty fetish to some other thread.

DACs for $80 are usually garbage and worse than onboard sound
Just get a used high-end sound card for 80$

My E10k has been better than majority of the motherboards I've tested.

What's wrong with that user?

Attached: 21.jpg (800x696, 99K)

I like my behringer UMC404. Was like 80 bucks and def ups my shit.

My phone has a quad-DAC and my music sounds incredibly clear and better sound stage with it; even my mp3s.

A quad DAC eh? It converts it into Analog 4 times?

androidauthority.com/lg-v20-quad-dac-explained-713587/

that's the problem with buying good equipment... it usually reveals how shitty your other equipment is.

Bullshit. You are a liar and a fool and brain damaged as well

You have to not be autistic to understand. It's when music sounds like the threnodies of heaven and not like getting earfucked by soulless demon machines. You absolute satanic idiot.

Pretty much in the same boat as OP. After some reading I find that what I want is the Schiit Fulla 2, and behold it's out of stock absolutely everywhere in the world.

you get what you pay for, I've tried to cheap out in the past, and got a blown capacitor and a brick for my trouble, luckily it didn't fuck up the tv I had plugged into it

>$100 or is it just an audiophile meme?

the real meme is the fact that if they were cheaper, no one would buy them because people would assume they're shit.

the actual cost of a decent DAC in materials and assembly is ~$5

It's a meme.

Attached: coherent_audio_room.jpg (1198x655, 386K)

>Onboard audio
>Good
If you enjoy shit

Op if you want decent dac you will want to get this
psaudio.com/directstream-dac/

m50x are not "higher end". they are shit.

Right? $80 is pretty cheap for what you can get compared to just a few years ago. I make like 20k a year in the US. I can fucking save up $80 pretty easy.

only get a dac of you need extra inputs

Only reason I have an external dac is because I bought a budget amp/dac combo. been fine with what I run.

I have the 80$ 5.1 Logitech kit user is talking about. Notice some buzzing / humming on speakers but not too bad. Would a DAC amp solve that or is it really pointless with low tier speakers anyway?

>look for speaker thread on Jow Forums
>this is all there is
Only audiophool threads on weekends, huh?

>if they were cheaper, no one would buy them

Lol this. This is why newspapers charge you 50 cents or whatever even though they make money by giving it to you through ads. Audio DAC is a mature technology and uses commodity components that cost pennies. We're talking about 96kS/s audio reproduction not 2GS/s direct digital synthesis.

>tfw make 25k and can't save anything

god damn it

Admittedly, I'm currently in a situation where I don't pay many bills. That will be changing when I move and buy a house near the end of the year. I'll be taking a pay cut, so it's going to get a lot harder to save anything.

GET YOUR HAND OFF MY PENIS!

Very true. Although I'm in manufacturing and would say something like your average "high end" DAC would probably be more like $25-40 to build and ship to the US, rather than $5. $40 being a very lavish and heavy one. That's China prices too. I don't know the component costs, but I do know the labor and shipping costs pretty well. I imagine the components are in the 10 buck range.

I'm going through that change now too. The house buying process is a bit scary. And now I'm in budget, but, fuck it sucks not having all that money just flow into my bank account.

The integrated analog 5.1ch output of today is not the same as back in 2006. Also, high end motherboards tend to have either quite high quality DACs or better custom implementations with decent to good software bonuses.

Though with most integrated units you likely won't get native channel mixing, the ability to transform stereo into simulated 7ch surround, or outputting stereo into a "7 ch stereo" signal. This means you'd likely use a software implementation such as Windows' sound options, which uses up some CPU time.

With that said, I pass audio through HDMI to a very good receiver with a ridiculous amount of tuning options.

>Jow ForumsENTLEMEN

>AND YOU SIR, ARE YOU WAITING TO RECEIVE MY LIMP PENIS?

Jow Forums Gadsen flag except it's his face and that quote

What's that thing on the right side Canadian user?

I'd wager a power conditioner

*out of nowhere salty rant* "don't bother replying p-please"

What's happening is even with motherboards with so called high quality audio, there's still so much going on on the motherboard that you'll get some very high noise floor and ground problems.

Everybody who want's to enjoy noise free and good quality audio will get an external usb audio interface (and good cables). Can be pretty cheap under 200$ and give you a mic preamp or 2 (usually very decent and neutral), 2 symmetrical outputs for your Speakers and a good headphone amp.

"DACs" are kind of a meme, a lot of it is marketing with made up terms that mean nothing. Any decent and cheap audio interface has very neutral DACs and ADCs integrated and you don't hear about them because they figured out how to make close to perfect DACs for cheap 20 years ago.

Cheap "pro audio" USB soundcards are jack-of-all-trades devices that are also full of marketing memes and questionable quality. Cheap Focusrite shit gets recommended a lot, but it has like 95dB of SNR, that's kinda bad (just like their ASIO drivers). Plus you get shitty pots that mess up the R/L balance and so on.
You're paying $200 for a bunch of features you don't need and they're all half-assed. I'm not familiar with the headphone market, but I'm pretty sure if you only need a headphone out you can get something for under $50 that will sound better.

Actual respectable "pro audio" stuff is rarely anything over USB. It's either PCIe or TB nowadays.
I'd trust RME to make good USB drivers, but the rest can more or less fuck off.