Lateralus
More [H]uman than Human
- Joined
- Aug 7, 2004
- Messages
- 18,503
I've been thinking about going to an external amp/DAC for a while and stumbled across this little jewel today:
https://www.massdrop.com/buy/monoprice-desktop-amp-dac
Monoprice page
I currently use a Xonar STX and have been thrilled with it. I know a lot of people talk about moving your audio processing out of the PC to eliminate noise, etc., but this thing must be shielded very well because I've never noticed anything like that. I'm pretty picky so if I had, I would have done something about it by now.
But there are other advantages to an external DAC/amp that are attractive to me, such as moving the headphone connection from the back of my PC to my desk, and having an easily accessible volume knob. So I had planned on going with a Schiit stack for around $600, but probably not until moving to a m-ITX PC build because I wouldn't be able to use my STX in that scenario.
However, seeing this thing for under $100 and the reviews it's getting, I'm tempted to try it. My question to you guys is this: do you know how it would compare to my STX in terms of sound quality? I don't know who "StormsABrewin" on Reddit is, but he's replacing his Schiit stack with one of these which makes me seriously wonder if I should spend extra money on that Schiit. Also, one of the reviews on Monoprice says that "it sounds exactly like an O2/ODAC that I have laying around" which, coincidentally, is the other amp/DAC combination that I was looking at.
I'm not necessarily asking if this thing is a giant-killer, but how would it compare to my STX and do you think it really would rival the Schiit stack and O2 + ODAC combo?
https://www.massdrop.com/buy/monoprice-desktop-amp-dac
Monoprice page
I currently use a Xonar STX and have been thrilled with it. I know a lot of people talk about moving your audio processing out of the PC to eliminate noise, etc., but this thing must be shielded very well because I've never noticed anything like that. I'm pretty picky so if I had, I would have done something about it by now.
But there are other advantages to an external DAC/amp that are attractive to me, such as moving the headphone connection from the back of my PC to my desk, and having an easily accessible volume knob. So I had planned on going with a Schiit stack for around $600, but probably not until moving to a m-ITX PC build because I wouldn't be able to use my STX in that scenario.
However, seeing this thing for under $100 and the reviews it's getting, I'm tempted to try it. My question to you guys is this: do you know how it would compare to my STX in terms of sound quality? I don't know who "StormsABrewin" on Reddit is, but he's replacing his Schiit stack with one of these which makes me seriously wonder if I should spend extra money on that Schiit. Also, one of the reviews on Monoprice says that "it sounds exactly like an O2/ODAC that I have laying around" which, coincidentally, is the other amp/DAC combination that I was looking at.
I'm not necessarily asking if this thing is a giant-killer, but how would it compare to my STX and do you think it really would rival the Schiit stack and O2 + ODAC combo?