I feel like a fool.

Hello gurus,
Got my Sharkoon DAC Gaming Pro S V.2, bought to substitute the on board sound chip of the Asrock X300 Deskmini.
Well, call me a noob, but I never thought much about USB DACs as being something important.
Well, I was most surprised to connect it to the HTPC and waw.
Sound was so much better.
First, loudness without distortions.
Second, sound was richer, voice and mids so much clearer. Unbelievable how poor the sound provided from onboard was.
My Edifier speakers sound much better now, now I start to understand why some are so into sound gear and stuff.
This is my first dedicated sound gear, apart from the Edifier speakers. And it is entry level dedicated USB DAC.
This is a new territory for me, and may bring more excitement in as I use hardware.
So yeah, nothing new under the Sun, but for me it was.
For someone outhere, the Sharkoon DAC Gaming S Pro V.2 works in Linux, without any configuration needed. It showed up in ALSA mixer and even had advanced settings tab. So now you know.
Cheers!

 

Congratulations!
I went into that rabbit hole long time ago... Now all my rigs have external DAC-AMP. At one time I even had a portable amp for portable player.

 

Now that you said it, I want to try the USB C DAC from Sharkoon for my smartphone. . Inexpensive, I want to hear the difference.

 

this has nothing to do with "usb" and everything to do with "dac"

 

i prefer using a high quality sound card to your budget..i ve been using high tech sound cards seperately in each of my systems for the past 20 years with high tech sound setups... i see nobody cares sound but only graphs graphs graphs...
graphs + sound = True System True Entartainment

 

I hear you, and you're right.
It s about wording.

 

it's more about board using very cheap audio solutions
even alc1150 is gonna make a world of difference

 

Once I learned the shortcomings of onboard audio designs and specs, which also apply to consumer soundcards, I decided to abandon all of them and move onto dedicated external audio hardware. The PC spec of 1V RMS is a nice way to undermine the performance of your amps. Headphones like planars love good voltage levels, and starting off with this is lolwtf. (RCA standard is 2V RMS, and good DACs do 2V or more)

How 1V RMS became a standard is disturbing.

 

Hi anticupidon,

Congratulations! Man happy owner here of a Sound BlasterX G6 + a pair of Edifier S350DB

 

Depends on what type of sound you want to improve on and which equipment you use against it.
Most users don't care about high voltage levels either since they don't use high impedance headphones, so 1V is more than enough headromm for the majority.
Quite some of the external Hi-Fi stuff is not the best either, seen a larger test between different headphone amps some of the glorified valve/tube amps har their shortcommings, but I agree, still better than the best onboard solutions.
There are some stereo soundcards for studio machines which are really good, but they do cost a small fortune and won't offer as much as the better USB units.

 

It also feels like a cleansing never having to worry about drivers and OS updates again.

 

@anticupidon
Btw, if integrated sound cards have easier times on Linux there is alternative to USB external cards - cards with optic input (TOSLINK). I use such one myself.

 

Thanks @mbk1969
Ordered today a used Asus Xonar DX 7.1 in mint condition for merely 25€.
Old model , I know, but here me out.
It will be used in a retro gaming rig with an Q6600 on a LGA775 motherboard with very basic sound.
So, yeah, I am getting my feet wet in sound gear world.

 

Once you start looking at stuff like this, you know your wallet is doomed

https://www.schiit-europe.com/product-categorie/gaming-dac-amps/

 

Yep, my last soundcard (DAC) cost me over £5K !
It crept back to life so sneakily bought some £6.5K speakers lol.
Its now starting to feel better again but I intend on killing it stone dead with multiple subwoofers
Worth it though, amazing sound.

 

Apartment living keeps me humble, so I invest in headphones. Pretty much done tweaking the M1070 set, and wow, what a bargain at $239. If you never tried planar magnetics before, and you don't already have electrostats, you should consider a set.

 

Officially, I am terrorized how deep the rabbit hole goes regarding sound and whatnot.
What a nerdy, geeky world to step in.
My wallet says NO, my mind/ears are singing a totally different tune.
I am so screwed.

 

Don't your Edifier speakers have optical input? Just use that, lol. That way you use the DAC of the speakers and completely bypass the DAC of the PC's integrated audio.

 

Yes, there is a TOS Link input.

 

Wait till you discover multi-ch audio thru HDMI with AV receiver. Immersion unbeatable with 5.1 or 7.1 (Hi-fi not PC speaker) setup.