DAC/AMP needed - help a noob

[geordiejc]

I have a msi g45 z87 motherboard but the on-board dac isn't good enough to drive some good headphones

I think I need a dac & amp to drive a vmooda boom pro mic and some high end headphones.

I'm pretty much clueless about this...

I'm not an audiophile but I like good sounds. My senhieser 363d broke and I want to buy some good headphones and seperate mic

What dac/AMP should I look for ? Ideally spending less than £100 For the dac/AMP

Does he wire for the mic plugs into my headphones and then into the dac/amp through the supplied y cable? Then a wire from the dac/amp into the back of the aux port on the motherboard ??

Confused !

All help appreciated

 

[The_Arbiter]

Not entirely sure what you're after. That mic isn't compatible with many headphones, any that i'm familiar with, but the compatibility list is on their site.

Dac wise, the majority come with built in amps suitable for most that you'll be interested in.

I saw in the headphone thread the AKG K702 are going for around £80 new, which is really good performance for the price, and any decent dac at £100 will power just fine.

But am unsure on if you have a budget for headphones...?

Also, depends if use them for music and not just gaming.

 

[geordiejc]

Thanks for the reply. I'm mainly gaming.

Headphones i've considered are;

Philips GSP9500 (overpriced and discontinued?) - these have 3.5mm jack
Audio-Technica ATH-M50 are 2.5mm - no good.
beyerdynamic DT 990 have fixed cables so i cant add a mic.

I ideally want an open headset with bang for the buck for ~£120
DAC/AMP to suit a good pair or headphones
Quality Add on mic.

It's either that or settle for some Sennheiser 500's (wired) or the Corsair Virtuoso (non SE) and accept the average mic quality.

I'm annoyed i cant get a wireless headset with a brilliant mic.

Any suggestions you have would be superb.

Hope this helps?

 

[Choimaloy75]

Dt990pro with modmic add on mic is an excellent combination.

 

[The_Arbiter]

Seen that mentioned above a lot over the years. Open HP + modmic.

For me, i just use a cheapo clip on mic, then attached to headphones with a bicycle spoke. No quality complaints from people i play with. But understand streaming or recording may be different demands.

For gaming, the dac will play a big part. If it's stereo sound dac, then competitive FPS games will suck. You'll need a surround sound decoder for that. Soundblaster have a fair range on offer for that. Imo, that would be best middle ground. As top competitive gaming you'd want closed back headphone with surround decoder. The gaming headsets tend to do just that. For RPGs etc, stereo will be fine, there's plenty of very good dacs available for less than £100 also. But, if not using for music much at all, the surround option would be nicer. Ofcourse you can get an all in one, but that wants a bit more money.

As for wireless, quality, and cheap. Sorry, pick 2.

 

[Marsman]

Phlips Fidelio X2 are good headphones for gaming that are also some of the easiest to use a V-Moda boom mic with.

Creative G6 is a good choice for external sound card. Has a decent DAC and headphone amp.

 

[EsaT]

I think I need a dac & amp to drive a vmooda boom pro mic and some high end headphones.


What dac/AMP should I look for ? Ideally spending less than £100 For the dac/AMP

V-Moda can be attached to only very few headphones without having separate wire for it and headphone.
There used to be one adapter for using it with detachable cable AKGs, but that was multiple years ago.
And even that adapter was somewhat longish making it harder to get mic reach near mouth.
ModMic is only one which can be attached easily to pretty much any headphone.

Those fashionable (less functionality than sound cards) DACs really aren't good for use with microphones, because as single purpose devices they tend to lack inputs and ADC needed for turning analog signals into digital signal.
Or you would need to get microphone with its own ADC/sound card.

 

[EsaT]

Headphones i've considered are;

Philips GSP9500 (overpriced and discontinued?) - these have 3.5mm jack
Audio-Technica ATH-M50 are 2.5mm - no good.
beyerdynamic DT 990 have fixed cables so i cant add a mic.

I ideally want an open headset with bang for the buck for ~£120

ATH-M50 is closed design.
And very heavily bass emphasizing and no good for gaming with binaural sound to get good sound positioning.
It simply isn't good at handling different frequencies simultaneous, like that 300Hz square wave shows:
https://www.innerfidelity.com/images/AudioTechnicaATHM50x.pdf
(after initial overshoot overal shape of half wave should be flat)

With open design DT990 is lot better in balancing some above neutral bass punch for "fun factor" and rest for gaming.
Also Beyerdynamic's design is one of the easiest for DIY mic modding without mod mic:
https://imgur.com/gallery/bKU4H
(out of closed headphones Beyerdynamic DT770 would be better)
There are at least some 3.5mm plug boom mics available rather cheaply in that widely known forest.


Though for distinguishing details AKG K702 is step above being tuned for very analytical neutral sound.
(of course at the expense of average fun factor especially with Creative's bass neutral HRTF)
But it would be harder DIY mic mod (without paying for ModMic) and comfort isn't up to Beyer's level and "automatically adjusting" headband has its challenges...
Really for any head shape/size, because my head certainly isn't big and pressure is somewhat highish, while feel is still that it barely stays on its place.
DT990 Edition is at step better level of comfort than that AKG's design.