... Therefore, I acquired some goodies:
- Schitt Audio Magni 2 UBER Amplifier
- AKG K712 PRO
...
Excellent response and better than I could have said. Will you be getting the Schiit Audio Modi MultiBit in the future?Even though they are 62 OHM, the K712 Pros require the additional power to be driven properly. People often refer to the K712 Pros as being "power hungry" and I was quite surprised by the difference between the listening experience at Low vs High gain. With the Magni 2 UBER, I couldn't get the k712 Pros loud enough with Low gain (stuck at 6/10 volume ceiling) so I run them at High and their is still little to no noise floor depending on the mastery of the audio. High is just perfect for gaming, which is my primary purpose.
Without the AMP, the sound coming directly from my ALC1150 sounded like it was being slightly hampered (usable but missing "oomph". The Astro Mixamp that I had helped a little bit but it probably would have sounded better if I was using optical instead of USB but I was far too quick to cast it aside in favor of a real AMP.
Overall, I would venture to guess that the clarity of the audio moving from the Astro A40's+MixAMP to the AKG 712's+Magni2 UBER was about a 30% gain. Comparing the cost, it wasn't really a purchase I would justify but at least it makes me feel better inside. Maybe one day when spatial audio improves beyond what's currently offered by FMOD and WWISE, it will provide me with a definitive gameplay advantage.
As for sound card delivery, it depends heavily on the quality of the built-in sound card and how the board manufacturer decide to compliment it. Some of the high-end ASRock boards can handle 600OHM headsets when the $400 Asus boards (my personal favorites) wouldn't be able to.
That being said, most of the enthusiast grade motherboards come equipped with the Realtek ALC1150 which delivers an already superb sound signal, in fact, most would even consider it overkill. The ALC892 is more than up to the task and people are extremely hard pressed to tell the difference between the two. When comparing Realtek Audio to the quality of a $200+ soundcard, the difference would be something like 5%.
I would say that the main advantage that dedicated sound cards provide would be the ability to change the OP Amps to match your preferred sound delivery (classical, acoustic, etc etc). This is a rather costly rabbit hole that can easily add $100-$200+ to the cost of the sound card (BursonAudio, SparkosLabs).
The problem this has created is that most sound card manufacturers have cut back on quality because the marketing team does a better job selling the products than the sum of all parts. Then the problem is compounded because none of the sound card manufactures bother to include premium components.
Long story short, high-end built-in audio from Realtek is more than enough for most audiophiles.
When you find yourself paying over $1000 for 6' cables made of oxygen free braided silver with rhodium jacks to get that extra 5% improvement, maybe then could you justify extra 5% gain with $400 in sound card mods, haha.
Even though they are 62 OHM, the K712 Pros require the additional power to be driven properly. People often refer to the K712 Pros as being "power hungry" and I was quite surprised by the difference between the listening experience at Low vs High gain. With the Magni 2 UBER, I couldn't get the k712 Pros loud enough with Low gain (stuck at 6/10 volume ceiling) so I run them at High and their is still little to no noise floor depending on the mastery of the audio. High is just perfect for gaming, which is my primary purpose.
Without the AMP, the sound coming directly from my ALC1150 sounded like it was being slightly hampered (usable but missing that "oomph"). The Astro Mixamp that I had helped a bit but it probably would have sounded even better if I had been using optical instead of USB... but I was far too quick to cast it aside in favor of a real AMP.
Overall, I would venture to guess that the clarity of the audio moving from the Astro A40's+MixAMP to the AKG 712's+Magni2 UBER was about a 30% gain. Comparing the cost, it wasn't really a purchase I would justify but at least it makes me feel better inside. Maybe one day when spatial audio improves beyond what's currently offered by FMOD and WWISE, it will provide me with a definitive gameplay advantage.
As for sound card delivery, it depends heavily on the quality of the built-in sound card and how the board manufacturer decide to compliment it. Some of the high-end ASRock boards can handle 600OHM headsets when the $400 Asus boards (my personal favorites) wouldn't be able to.
That being said, most of the enthusiast grade motherboards come equipped with the Realtek ALC1150 which delivers an already superb sound signal, in fact, most would even consider it overkill. The ALC892 is more than up to the task and people are extremely hard pressed to tell the difference between the two. When comparing Realtek Audio to the quality of a $200+ soundcard, the difference would be something like 5%.
I would say that the main advantage that dedicated sound cards provide would be the ability to change the OP Amps to match your preferred sound delivery (classical, acoustic, etc etc). This is a rather costly rabbit hole that can easily add $100-$200+ to the cost of the sound card (BursonAudio, SparkosLabs).
The problem this has created is that most sound card manufacturers have cut back on quality because the marketing team does a better job selling the products than the sum of all parts. Then the problem is compounded because none of the sound card manufactures bother to include premium components because their competitors aren't.
Long story short, high-end built-in audio from Realtek is more than enough for most audiophiles.
When you find yourself paying over $1000 for 6' cables made of oxygen free braided silver with rhodium jacks to get that extra 5% improvement, maybe then could you justify the extra 5% gain with $400 in sound card mods, haha.
Got a Xiaomi Air Purifier 2
The styling is supposedly ripped off of a Japanese brand, but i think the Japanese one is much much more expensive.