What are the benefits of having those small desk amplifier things

What are the benefits of having those small desk amplifier things.

Do they really make some sort of difference?

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I assume it's a DAC and not just an amplifier.

In that case you don't get interference from all the electronics in your case.

Personally I use the DAC that's in my screen, works fine and DisplayPort carries audio anyways.

cleaner, better sound, usually

you don't have to if you don't want to

>In that case you don't get interference from all the electronics in your case.

What do you mean by this?

curious about them. just seeing if they are worthwhile or just audiophile placebo

Audiophile placebo if you have a great dac inside your device.
Anything seperated like my MSI Audio Boost DAC works flawless

Some headphones need an amp. If your headphones sound fine at a comfortable volume you don't need one

>MSI Audio Boost DAC works flawless

what do dac actually do and does it actually make this sound noticeably different?

sometimes your 700 dollar headphones can't get enough energy to drive their high quality sound
so you buy another 700 dollar device and everything sounds the same

They're audiophile non-placebo.

Rule of thumb, you should spend at least half as much on your DAC/AMP as your headphones. So if you have like $50 headphones whatever is built into your pc is good enough.

Digital to analog conversion. They take the bits of your mp3 or whatever and make them into waveforms for your headphones. Interference is when you have stray signals or noise that get into the sound you actually want. Like when you hear buzzing even when the music's stopped.

DAC stands for Digital Analog Converter. You always need a DAC to be able to use speakers/headphones the DAC converts the digital sounds from your computer to analog signals for your headphones/speakers. Your pc will already have a DAC, a sound card is also a DAC and any digital device that outputs sound has one. Getting a high quality external one is only neccesary/beneficial if you have moderate to high end headphones and listen to only flac audio, here you will notice somewhat of a difference, but the biggest difference still lies in what headphones and amp you use. I recommend the Schiit Modi 2 if you are looking for an entry level DAC it should be fine for most headphones you are likely to use

planning on using it more for speakers.

the product I posted had them along side speakers

they are topping pa3

powered speakers?

How much better is that amp in your picture than a Lepai 2020+ amp?

Not him but thanks user.

It's just a realtek you tech illiterate moron. Which is incidentally not a bad DAC, but it's nowhere close to being """flawless""".
Not that it would make any difference with your trashy poorfag gayming headset.
Converts digital to analog. Nothing, DACs are either shit or ok. Some will "color" sound, which is usually not wanted. Only thing that actually matters is how much power can your source output provide. Some dac/amps have fancy features, such as replaceable opamps or lamps.

here is the description of the topping pa3

>Ideal for driving bookshelf speakers, the Topping PA3 is a compact power amplifier equipped with ST’s class-D TDA7498E amp chip. It delivers 80 watts per channel at a 4-ohm load—enough to drive 10-inch speakers—and has a curved, screwless front panel design that looks sleek in any setup. Two LEDs indicate the input status, while an MCU monitors issues like overload, overheating, overvoltage, and low voltage. On the rear panel, you’ll find two RCA inputs, which allow you to connect two devices at a time and easily switch between them on the front panel. Additional components include an ALPS potentiometer, EPCOS film capacitors, a Nichicon hi-fi capacitor, and an OMRON relay.

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those are the speakers I use

It works pretty much like this.
>you think your audio sounds like shit
>you buy DAC
>it sounds the same
>BUT, NOW you THINK it sounds much better

>What do you mean by this?
Electromagnetic interference. Let's say that you have a relatively powerful system under load. All parts will generate some electromagnetic waves which can interfere with the audio signals. Most newer motherboards have isolated audio sections to prevent that but this is the reason why onboard audio has earbbed a bad reputation in the past. It all depends on your configuration.
>just seeing if they are worthwhile or just audiophile placebo
Again, depends on your onboard audio and sound hardware. If you have a cheapo motherboard it might be noticeable but you probably wont notice it if you have an average config.

Swans are poweree. They have amps built into one which shares power with the other. You don't need an amp. Maybe a cheap preamp but honestly you'd probably just be wasting money

If you have extra cash to blow why not I guess. I use a DAC/amp but my mother order is from ~2010 and has shitty audio built in. Plus now I get to use headphones with higher ohm ratings.

Question is whether audio is that important to you. You don't have to label yourself as an audiophile to enjoy some clean music every once and a while or even have a better gayming experience.

They're better for driving higher impedance headphones in the range of 32-64Ω or so. Your standard cheapo headphones/earbuds are usually 8-16Ω. There are some 600Ω headphones floating about, they probably require more specialized amps to drive them but they're pretty rare. You'd know if you had a set of cans like that.

The higher impedance headphones are supposed to have a different frequency response I guess compared to the lower impedance ones, people say it's better, take it with a grain of salt. Impedance is frequency dependent and is the sum of resistance, capacative reactance, and inductive reactance in a circuit (R+2πfL+(1/2πfC)). You can think of it as frequency dependent resistance. So a 56Ω headphone is 56Ω at exactly one particular frequency, I think 1kHz is typical. Beyond it the impedance will increase or decrease slightly. Headphone manufacturers usually try to keep the frequency response as flat as possible. If they can stay between 0 and -3dB over the whole audio frequency range it's okay. They probably do even better than that these days.

Anyway, I got off topic. I got my DAC because my motherboard audio died, and so did the sound card I got as a cheap replacement.

Never heard headphone DACs myself but I'd go with snake oil; internal soundcard is enough.

Small 20$ desktop amps for speakers are perfect though and I'd go as far as to say those little things are the future. When Apple makes one for 1k$ to compete with Yamahas ec. everybody will drool.