Headphone dac/amp, I think.

[Armadillo]

Ok, so I currently have a set of Akg k92 headphones. They don't have a volume control, I've been using the volume control of windows, which generally is fine, but a few problems do crop up doing it this way (shadowplay for example has a bug that rears it's head in some versions where it won't record game sound at a good level unless capture server is at 100%, which means headphones are and it's too loud). I'd also like to get the headphones off onboard because of the stupid realtek power saving pop.

I've had inline volume controls before, but they add more length to the already long cable and have all been a bit crap really.

On top of that, I have an old pair of speakers that I use if I'm showing someone something, so a seperate audio device would let me have speakers always plugged in and just switch between onboard and headphones with the windows control.

From looking, seems like a usb dac/headphone amp combo with volume contro would solve all my issues, but I'm not sure. I know creative and asus both do external soundcards which would probably do, but both of them have shoddy drivers for their pcie cards & do nothing to fix it, so I'm not throwing more money at them.

Don't really have a budget in mind, as I have no idea what's out there, or even if I'm going down the right path. Lets say £100?, no idea if that's resonable.

Thanks.

 

[Armadillo]

If you'd rather not have a sound card (internal or external) because of possible driver issues, then a DAC/headphone amp is what you need. Unless of course you want positional sound for your headphones when gaming; in which case, you'll need a sound card; whether it be internal or external.

If you're not bothered about positional effect stuff then, SMSL SD793II or M3 are good choices; as is FiiO E10K.

Thanks, not bothered about positional effects, standard stereo is fine. I'll take a look at those.

VX1 was a good choice for passive speakers, but I think it's been replaced with the VX2. In any case, neither it or its replacement has line out, which the OP needs for connecting powered speakers.

I've got two Topping products (one of which is a DAC/headphone amp with line out), but looking on their site, I can't see that they currently have such a product to suit the OP's needs.

I don't think I need a line out for speakers. Looking now, I don't think original post was too clear. I was planning to leave the crappy pc speakers plugged into the motherboard and then just switch between the usb dac/amp and onboard audio using the playback device switch in windows on the rare occasions I need to use the speakers.

So I don't think I need a line out in that case.

 

[Armadillo]

Picked up a Schiit Fulla 2 this week, love it!

at that budget the Schiit Fulla 2 would be top of my list

From looking, seems like it's perfect for my needs.

Seeing a few QC issues at least on early ones. People complaining about the unit needed to be unplugged/plugged back after removing headphones, the volume control not being level and on some, being scratchy.

Any idea if those are still issues or is it the usual case of only those with problems complain and most are fine. Thanks .