So I’m new to audio as a whole, dont really know much about it and I want to upgrade into a proper setup.
I did some research and was recommended the following setup.
DT880 Pros, a Schiit Hel, and a Modmic
The Schiit Hel will be connected directly to my wall with a 5v charger and a 6.6ft micro usb male type to a usb type a male, the Modmic will be connected to the Schiit Hel with a 3.5mm jack.
I want to use this for everyday gaming and listening to music.
My budget is $550, I would love some insight on this build before I make my purchase.
If it helps I have a big ass head and I like to listen to Electronic Music, and play battle royales and first person shooters.
Thanks!
This is a pretty great setup, I don’t really see any issues, the headphones, amp, and mic are solid, and the beyers are great for fps and electronic, and work well with larger heads actually lol.
If there is one thing I would say, would be to get an audio interface and an amp like the liquid spark to tame the treble and also get a better dac/mic interface than the hel, but the hel is the simpler solution (but the other interface + amp would be a similar price)
Anyway you can direct me to a combo that you recommend? The reason why they recommended the hel was because it has a microphone gain nob on it, I heard that modmics have an issue with gain.
So, something like a focusrite scarlett solo or 2i2 + a monolith liquid spark would give you a better quality dac, a better quality mic preamp, and a more synergistic amp with the beyerdynamic imo. This being said you would need a few adapters, one being the antlion xlr audio adapter, and some 1/4 inch ts to rca cables
Is the 2i2 better? And also I have no idea how to plug any of this in lol, would I still need all the stuff I had before like the phone charger, and micro usb to type a cable to connect it all to the wall? And also why would I need a XLR adapter if I’m using a modmic?
No, the scarlett 2i2 is usb bus powered, and comes with a usb cable so you are good there. The phone charger would also not be needed as well.
It would go from pc to usb into the scarlett, the 1/4 inch out on the scarlett to the liquid spark (the spark is powered off a wall plug)
The mic would go from modmic with the xlr adapter into the focusrite
So you would want it to connect the modmic to the scarlett. The xlr adapter takes the 48 volts of phantom power and steps it down to 3-5 volts which is usable for the modmic
This would stretch my budget to around $600 which i’m fine with, so i should have no issues whatsoever playing games and listening to music with this? I just want to get the best beginner friendly audio i can get while also having a decent setup, so the 2i2 > Solo correct?
Yes, but if you can find the solo in stock it will save you some money but a slight hit on features.
This setup would allow you to be really flexible in that you can upgrade to a higher tier standalone mic later on, swap out a higher end amp later on, and also imo is a higher tier of setup than you were considering before
Alright thank you very much! I appreciate your insight, and is sweetwater a legit site to buy audio stuff from? I want to mostly buy my things on amazon but i don’t mind using other websites, i’m definitely going to avoid ebay because i would rather have stuff brand new than used.
Yes sweetwater is very legit, really prominent for studio and music gear
Also just wondering, what impedance is the 880? IMO you would want to grab the 600 ohms, also the premiums or the “editions” might be a bit better as well as they are a tad more comfortable and have a straight cable instead of coiled
I would suggest the 600 ohm 880, imo as the higher impedance beyers are higher preforming, but need a more capable amp, with the liquid spark, it will be able to drive the 600 ohm as well
Alright perfect sounds great, so i should be perfectly fine with all of this? Is there a better mic i can get for around the same price? Or should i stick with the one i linked earlier?
I was looking at this for an upgrade from that other modmic i linked earlier but someone said it’s not even worth it for me to spend the extra $20
I was also asking around on reddit and some people say the scarlett’s bad because it tries to do too many things at once, not sure what that means but i just want to make sure i make a good purchase before i spend close to $600
I mean, personally I would actually suggest going with something like a shure sm48lc and a cheap mic arm, imo an improvement over the modmic and you wouldn’t also need the adapter
Any of the cheaper mic arms with good reviews will work, they are all very similar and do the job. You would want to also grab an xlr cable, something from monoprice or amazon basics
Well, if you are using the headphone out of the scarlett then I would agree, you are bypassing it for the better headphone amp. The dac in there isn’t as high preforming as a topping e30, but I think it is pretty decent for the price, but imo it’s really not that big of a difference in reality. The mic input on the scarlett is a fair bit better than the hel imo. Also I think the dac in the hel is very comparable to the scarlett dac, so with this setup imo you are getting an overall higher quality setup than the hel can offer, not to mention more flexibility in the future.
I think if you wanted to do something different, the topping e30 + an amp like a liquid spark or a magni 3+ would be great for music listening, but might comprise on mic quality
