Quote:
Originally Posted by Igotnothing
GranteedEV, thanks for the breakdown in more laymans terms. What you said had been percolating and making sense but this further helped me understand. Thanks for taking the time to write that up.
I have noticed the sound coming out of the onboard is pretty solid. However, I don't have any volume control and I need a cable extension. Also, I like getting tech for the sake of tech so I'll likely ditch the onboard for one of the options discussed in this thread so far.
So I guess my final question is regarding the JDS's. I really like the look of those and they seem like they are what I'm looking for. Not buckwild expensive but still very serviceable. I don't think I have sensitive enough ears that I'd really notice the difference between the Atom's and something 2 or 3 times more expensive. But when I look at the Astro Gaming mixamp it seems to have 'settings' that the JDS's lack on it's right hand dial. While I get the overall gist of what you're saying I don't have enough knowledge of the finer details to fully understand them.
Basically, I want the JDS's and I'm looking for an excuse to get them, but would still be happy with the Astro amp.
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For some of the sound, it also depends on the volume you like listening to stuff at. If you listen louder, you might notice more than if you prefer listening quieter. That being said, your DT990 would likely sit on the "lower volume" end of the spectrum rather than something that is easily powered to the point you hear all sorts of problematic sounds.
The Astro gaming amp is a weird situation. It has the ability to control the headphones with the left dial and the mic with the right dial if there is a mic built in. However, even with the absence of a mic, some audio sounds are affected and filtered out if you play with the mic dial. The equalizer settings are the buttons in the middle. The headphone button also does this weird surround sound sort of thing. I occasionally tinker with it because sometimes it's just completely bizarre sound and really bad and other times it creates a cool 8D music type effect that's kinda neat. I grew up playing the violin in an orchestra and also played in school band, so I'm very capable of picking out/am sensitive to sounds in terms of accuracy, sound stage etc. But I'm cool without those levels of reproduction accuracy.
If you want, I can test playing with the mic dial with the DT990 plugged into my A40 to see what the effects are with a headphone with no mic. I don't recall what happens with the sound exactly, but I do recall there was a specific "balancing" I would have to do on the dial. IIRC with the HD555 I currently have plugged into them, layers of the sound are stripped away until certain frequencies are muted. Let me know what you'd like me to test and I'll give it a try when I get a chance in the next few days.
This is why I said it was confusing. You basically almost have to break down the pros and cons of each individual unit via:
- DAC features/how it is powered
- Pre-amp features/performance
- Power amp features/performance
- Other features (ie: Gaming mic, portable amp, EQ etc.)
... and then seemingly aggregate a score. There are pros and cons for a gaming amp for gaming/music and pros and cons for a dedicated JDS styled amp for gaming/music.
Pre amp and power amp are also a bit difficult to differentiate at times, especially when looking at tech specs. It's almost like constantly having to figuring out the combination of bus speed vs raw processing power in a computer processor chip. It's not super straight forward and kinda confusing.
Then if you have the ability to play with an EQ, it creates a sort of safety net in the sense you the ability to play with sound profiles in completely different ways that might be more preferable to you.
This is kinda what happened to me when I went down the rabbit hole.
The JDS/Schiit were a good base line and I kinda concluded for your gaming and music at the computer, it should be very good. Portability wise, not applicable. I think this stuff is also more niche, so if you didn't want it any more, you'd take a huge discount selling this if you upgraded or whatever.
Then I got to the Astro mixing amp. For gaming it should still be very good to excellent purely based on the base amp and EQ + pseudo surround sound. This would be more interesting to experiment with for movies and gaming, but might be a mixed bag with music. Additionally, with the potential flexibility to easily nab a lower resistance gaming headset with a built in mic for $100-250 ish for premium (ie: Sennheiser, ATH, JBL etc. depending on sales) and like $50-80 for pretty good (ie: Astro, Turtle beach, gaming brand, used etc.), it could borderline excellent+ in ways none of the other base products could come close to if you wanted the ability to use a mic. Heck, mic feature can also bridge into improving video calls in general and not only to clearly scream your point across to some kid on the other side. Again, no portability, but this type of amp seems to be the most specialized of all of them. Worst case scenario, I think you'd have a wider audience to sell it to for near the cost you purchased it at. I nabbed an A40 AMP plus headphones for less than $100 many years ago and I think $120 regular price. The amp and headphone combos easily go for over $300 regular price now, $250 on sale. This is probably the only amp that would retain its value or seemingly be guaranteed to get a bit of love (audiophile or not) if you were to sell or gift it to someone younger. I'm pretty sure this wasn't a consideration of yours (exit/upgrade plan) and I don't know if you suddenly might think that you want it to be, especially if you buy the whole kit for $250 and leave the headset pristine for the next buyer.
https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/product...p=seo-13490095
Review Astro A40:
https://www.rtings.com/headphones/re...ixamp-pro-2019
Review Turtle beach:
https://www.rtings.com/headphones/re...pro-2-superamp
https://www.gamestop.ca/Xbox%20One/Games/752789
Things seemed interesting, but then I got to the Sennheiser gaming amp, and somehow unlike the Astro amp it just felt like I went full circle and it just started look like performance wise to the JDS/Schiit amps it was only on par. But it also felt like the cost on the full circle kept accumulating so you were paying up to 2x more than the JDS/Schiit amps for near the same performance. It felt like a gimmick. I don't know if it's because I was mistaken on the performance on that Sennheiser gaming amp or if I was mistaken on its capabilities vs something like the higher end Fiio amps... but it suddenly felt like I was completely in the wrong range for a product to suggest to you. It was so weird to go from the $180 amp and feeling like it was a solid suggestion to a $300 gaming amp and feeling like a snake oil salesman. That was strangely bizarre to me.
It kinda felt like you were asking for a car and the JDS/Schiit was a fully loaded sedan (Accord) that would work great for you to replace your portable thingy (like a subcompact EV or something). But then the Astro felt like a fully loaded van/truck that might work miles better for your specific needs... and then the Sennheiser felt like falling off the map by suggesting an overpriced convertible you had no use for or something... It was truly weird.
Good luck with your decision. I can understand your confusion. I thought I was clarifying the issue (for myself) and then I suddenly ended up right back at square one.