Do I REALLY need a DAC with my PC?

The World's Highest Resolution Headphones!

Socials: @abyssheadphones

[jamesfoo]

"usually" - "probably" - "maybe" - "I guess". This is just a pub conversation between friends. There's no science here or anything reasonably objective. It depends entirely on the motherboard audio tech, if there's even any interference (or precisely that the listener can hear it), what headphones you have, and what music you listen to.
I'm not being crappy to you it's an interesting conversation, but anyone already with this knowledge won't be helped, and anyone looking for advice will (should) just be more confused with their decision from all the ambiguity.
"Just plugging it into a motherboard, anything would be better". You could buy an external DAC for anything from £70 or less and it quite literally be no better quality than what modern motherboards provide, in terms of build quality and final sound quality.

[jeremyquiros]

I'm sad to say that the Abyss headphones are far out of my budget, but I still enjoy listening to these discussions. Thanks, fellas.

[TheGodEmperorOfMankind_]

If you can afford 5k headphones, you can and probably should get a dac/amp

[MrZgui]

Onboard audio is fine but an external DAC /audio interface is nice

[jonathanliu]

Let's say I have $150 IEM I using for my PC which I am not planning to replace. What would be the better choice for a $150 budget on something extra? 1) Get a dedicated sound card for the PC. 2) Get Amp/Dac.

[vinayakchoudhary]

I think you guys should try to provide abyss headphone listening facility or kind of sort of like that to consumers (at least one centre in each country)so that they can experience what music supposed to be like because most of us are not in position to buy these headphones. Plus your product reach will be more to the end users and hence will benefit your brand to become more popular among people. The point is if you will earn more than maybe you guys can work on how to make the product more cheaper and accessible to users. Please think about it(love from India) 🙏.

[norbzlopez]

Nice input and feedback gentlemen. I'm a person who likes messing around with Equalizer, I know unholy in many circles. As of recent I started to try and mess around with PEQ. So I was wondering as a topic of discussion it be kinda educational to talk about roll offs high and low, and all the some of the entriquet detail eq/PEQing bring to the table. When to EQ and all that jazz. Anyways thanks for the great content.

[stormk-]

To be honest, i dont think some one need a dac, i think the audio in most of the motherboards its great.

[zntix]

Some mid-range and most of high-end motherboards today could drive 250 Ohm headphone or headset. But never use frontpanel jacks. If you have the money for it, go for a AMP/DAC or Combo. This will give you better sound than the internal soundcard on the motheboard. I have been using high-end gaming headphones from Sennheiser before I switched over to headphones from Beyerdynamics, and JDS Labs EL II Stack. Never regret the choice :D

[Vulkanodox]

for me the output on my motherboard and case was fine. Not much static.
But the input had insane static noise so I had to buy an Audio Interface (DAC and AMP for Microphone).
The problem is people never ever listens to how their recording sounds so it is usually very bad and I guess manufacturers don't pay it much attention either.

[dannybos]

I always say: if you can afford it and you're not losing anything, go for it.

[Sanjarih]

I sincerely hope that you guys make the DAC Tier list soon. :)

[_han.soso_]

the cut switching the speaker is so dazzling. ...

[chethammer]

My "soundcard" right now is a Dragonfly Black 1.5 USB. It is miles better than my motherboard audio. If push comes to shove I could use my FIIO BTR5.

[Pirxel]

I have an smsl m500 external dac, and the thing is amazing, but for a lot of games I get plenty of crackling, even if I reduce the output to 24bits/44.1kHZ, so it is generally an upgrade, but plenty of games have some kind of shitty audio implementation that causes problems that I doubt you'd get with onboard audio. For a more casual approach for people that really don't want to bother but still want an upgrade I'd sugges staying on the headphone->headphone amp upgrade and just plug that to the of the pc.

[DarkFire]

Agree 100% with this video. I moved from on-board audio to an external creative labs X7 DAC/amp combo and it made the world of difference listening on my Beyer MMX300's. If you want better audio going external with the DAC & amp is a great improvement.

[aceofspades]

Maybe you guys could talk about the benefit of a pre-amp in a HP chain. for a 2 channel it seems pretty straight forward when using a power amp or monos you need the pre-amp for volume control and then also have an opportunity to add in tubes. For a HP chain all amps have volume control built in so adding a pre-amp seems to be redundant and the benefit statement/value prop seems to be limited.

[kurtrosenthal]

I’ve never had spectrum, but they call me a lot apologizing that the internet is down again.

[allansh]

is it a good idea to use PC, instead of dedicated transport?

[dannybos]

Hey, I have an idea for a future TOTL video; how about the three or four of you talk about other headphone brands, such as Sennheiser, Beyerdynamic, AKG, ZMF, Hifiman, etc. and give your verdict about some of the products they make? I think that’d be really interesting and I’d love to know your opinions on these brands. Which have good products and which have bad products? What would you do differently? And so on and soforth.

Good luck!