Help with upgrade - Is it worth it?

Gaming Audio Competitive
1

I’m thinking of getting the DT 900 Pro X and I also currently have the active speakers Eris Presonus 3.5. (I currently use them hooked up to my motherboard via RCA (speaker) - 3.5mm (motherboard).)

I was wondering since I was going to update the headphones and although I’ve heard the DT 900 are easy to drive, would I benefit at all with a dac/amp where I would hook up my speakers too?

I was looking into the Fiio e10k or the K7.

What I’m thinking is… if I can improve both the headphones and the speakers the investment is worth it but if it’s only the headphones then it’s pointless as they can probably run fine connected to the motherboard.

Budget: amp and DAC let’s say around 300€.

I’m going to be using it mostly for gaming, films and music (but MOSTLY gaming - Apex Legends).
I do use discord so if the dac/amp had a mic input it would be great otherwise I’m just gonna look for a mic that I can connect directly to the PC save me the trouble.

I ws told by a wise man in another forum that the change in sound would be impossible to tell but he also told me to double check everything he told me in that post. (wise indeed)

Thanks in advance for your help.

2

I’ve had the DT900 a couple of times and they aren’t hard to drive. I’d try them first and see if they get loud enough and you should be set. Most onboard motherboard DAC’s are pretty good if you turn off Windows enhancements, it’s usually the power that’s lacking. If anything, I’d recommend the Soundblaster X1 which I have, and the 7.1 is great for gaming, and drives most things. It adjusts up to 2.4volts at over 150 ohm, and even powers the DT880 600ohm, though it’s at max volume to get loud, sounds good. Just don’t use the SuperXFI mode, it’s a waste of time (press the button for it and you’ll hear right away why I say that).

3

Thanks for the feedback.

What I am mostly trying to understand is if the speakers would also benefit.
But I guess not.
I will probably just get the headphones and then take it from there.

4

It really depends on the motherboard and the sound chip that it uses.

I tried my HE400SE when I first bought it and thought that the volume was OK. Not amazing, but probably good enough. However, I then tried a Sabre dongle DAC that I had lying around (happened to have one that I used with my Samsung smartphone) and realized that the sound quality was objectively better. Like night and day.

So, my advice would be to try with a dongle DAC first. You can get the Apple one for less than $10. If it sounds better, THEN look into the DAC/Amps you mentioned. I started with the K7 after that, and it’s great.

I don’t know about speakers, however… you might be able to drive speakers from the K7, but I think you might have to set it to the pre amp setting and then run it through a cheap speaker amp.

The real issue here is the sound quality, though. Try with a cheap dongle first, and then decide what you want to do with the amplification. You may find, as I did, that your onboard sound doesn’t hold a candle to even an inexpensive DAC, but you won’t know without the side by side. If you already have a headphone adapter for an Android phone, that might work. Or, if you have an adapter for an iPhone, try that first on your phone with your music app set to highest quality. If you can tell that it sounds better than your PC in a side-by-side comparison, then you probably have your answer about benefiting from an DAC/amp.

To summarize, trust your own ears over what you read in these forums. I don’t know what you’ve tried so far, so apologies if none of this is really helpful, and good luck finding the sound you’re looking for!

Edit- the speakers you use are amplified already, so yes, you could send the signal from the DAC (like the K7) to the speakers and benefit from the improvement, if a DAC is an upgrade to your motherboard sound. If you get something like the ZEN DAC V2, you could even run balanced to those speakers with an adapter (probably unnecessary, but it’s nice to have options, and most people love the ZEN DAC for the same price as the Fiio).