I just picked up a pair of AKG K712 Pro’s for £75 as an upgrade to my Superlux HD668b (mostly used for gaming, both competitive and casual, and music listening). I had been running my 668b off of either my motherboard audio or an ES100, but I don’t think that’ll be good enough for the K712.
What do people recommend for a reasonable price (in the UK)? I’ve been looking at the Fiio K5 Pro (£150), Topping DX3 (£190) (although that’s harder to get here), and maybe the Schiit Modi/Magni (£125+£115), although that is the absolute most I can spend. There is also the Element 2 here for £299, but I can’t really justify that honestly.
Whatever I choose will be plugged into my pc motherboard, which is the x570 Aorus Master, which I’m pretty sure has sdpif out. Not sure if the inbuilt DAC/amp is any good (almost definitely not)
Any advice/help is greatly appreciated, as I gotta make a decision quickly before stock and time runs out!
So imo here is what I would do, I would get a magni heresy and run it from your motherboard line out for the time being, and get a dac like the topping d10 or smsl m100 later on. Also 75 is a pretty great deal for a 712 pro
The heresy is out of stock in the UK, the Magni 3+ is available. Amazon do not sell Schiit products here So the DAC built into my motherboard will be good enough?
The topping d10 is like £64 here on Amazon UK, and soon in stock. You rate that over the Modi 3?
And yeah, when I saw someone put them up for £75 on Facebook, I rushed to get them, they’re £185 new here
IMO yes, the modi is old and still has issues associated with older schiit products that personally I am not a fan of. There are some issues with topping fakes at the moment, so be careful, you want to make sure you are getting topping and not aimpre or something, if you end up with an aimpre I would suggest returning it. So the d10 is pretty great for the price, would pair nicely
That would also be a great choice imo
For the time being until you can get a proper dac yes imo. If you have the budget for a stand alone dac and are willing I would go for it, but if not, the motherboard audio would be most likely just fine until you can get something a bit more proper
I can’t risk it being fake and having to return it. It’s likely even stricter measures will be put in place to deal with the human malware going around right now (at least in the UK), and so good luck going to the post office.
What cables would I need? RCA and that’s it, right?
So I managed to get ahold of a Magni Heresy (They’ve been releasing a little stock each day on Schiit Audio UK, and I grabbed one asap), and I’ve been listening to music, gaming etc all day. All I say so far is that, while the K712 Pro have a decent soundstage, it just feels a bit muddy and veiled (I guess that’s the correct language?). Like, I can tell what direction sounds are coming from, but not exactly how far away they are. It’s like all sounds fall into the categories of close, far and incredibly far. Funnily enough, I’ve found no real issues with music or VOIP, only gaming.
It’s likely as someone who is used to the HD668b and Tin T2, that I prefer a brighter sound, and I’ve always been very averse to bass, which I assumed was because I’d only owned bad headphones (I do have a pair of Status CB-1, and have to eq the bass way down for it not to sound like I’m in a club)
Do you think a DAC like the D10 will clean up this issue of lack of clarity? If not, any other headphones recs? I see dt880 600ohm recced a lot, but I’m wondering how that compares
Yes but IMO it won’t be extremely large for a difference. If you wanted something with great imaging and staging for the price and a more neutral bright signature might be the dt880 600 ohm, seems up your alley and checks your boxes. But I would just wait and use the k712 pro on the heresy and see if anything changes for you in the next few days. Also set the heresy to high gain, and what are you currently using to feed the heresy?
So I do have the heresy set to high gain, at about 1 o’clock, connected to my motherboard with a 3.5mm to RCA cable. I guess the only way to describe the issue is that it’s like I’m in a club and everything is swamped. Definitely significantly less clear than the superlux hd668b (Which people say are treble cannons, but I’ve never had an issue)
I’ve got to give it a couple of days anyway, as I wait for the topping d10 to come back in stock here in the UK, which I’m going to get regardless. At this point, it’s becoming more of a discussion about headphones than DAC’s, so I’ll ask in the appropriate section after a couple of days of use
your lucky to get such a good deal on the 712 .the dt 880 has much more precise imaging withing it’s sound stage. what games are you trying to play cause I find the k712 to be pretty good soudnd stage and imaging wise. not as good as a dt 880 or 990 but definitely above average.
Yeah, I’m not sure how I managed to get them at that price, so I’m not too upset about it, just more concerned there’s something wrong with my hearing (apart from the tinnitus ahaha )
I’ve been testing them with Overwatch, CS:GO and LoL for competitive games, and then with casual games like Assassin’s Creed, GTA V etc for a couple of days. The only games I’ve noticed the have the issue with ‘clarity’ are FPS games, especially Overwatch
So the DAC built into my motherboard will be good enough?
