dont know if i should buy a amp or dac or both

[physiongaming]

i don't know how the dac and amp thing works do i need a dac and amp or just a dac or just an amp and is it really worth it i have 70 dollars left for a dac/amp or just an amp or a dac this is my motherboard https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/Z170A-GAMING-PRO.html#hero-overview and the headphones im going to be using are the sennheiser hd598

 

[americanaudiophile]

You can't use a DAC with headphones unless it has a headphone amp built in.
You can use a headphone amp connected to your mobo audio out but the HD598 are not hard to drive so the advantage will be there but not huge. So you need a outboard DAC/Amp or a good sound card. Don't know which one would work best. It would depend on your application (games vs music). You could ask your question at headfi,org

 

[Rocky Bennett]

This might be a little bit out of your price range but it gets very good reviews and will work for you nicely;

http://www.amazon.com/Audioquest-DragonFly-Preamp-Headphone-Version/dp/B00H00VLZQ

 

[physiongaming]

You can't use a DAC with headphones unless it has a headphone amp built in.
You can use a headphone amp connected to your mobo audio out but the HD598 are not hard to drive so the advantage will be there but not huge. So you need a outboard DAC/Amp or a good sound card. Don't know which one would work best. It would depend on your application (games vs music). You could ask your question at headfi,org

so i cant use a dac with headphones unless it is an amp with an dac built in but does that give me the dac advantage or should i just buy an amp because the built in dac doesnt make an diffrence?

 

[americanaudiophile]

If your budget allows get a USB DAC/headphone amp. There are many. Some look like USB stick some are boxes with their own power supply which is better, The DAC is very important to the quality of sound. In your case the amp not so much. If you are a gamer then a soundcard might have some options to improve sound quality on games that a DAC won't offer since it bypasses the soundcard.

 

[ssddx]

dac = digital to analog converter. this is what converts from the digital signal a pc outputs to an analog format speakers need to power.
amp = amplifier. this greatly powers up the signal out of the dac so that it may push speakers. otherwise you would get hardly any response due to low level signal.

in short... with headphones you would need either a dac+amp, use your pc's onboard audio with an amp or get a soundcard (which is basically a dac+amp+software in one) because they are unpowered so need to have an amplifier to drive them. powered speakers can use just a dac only since they have their own power source and own amplifier built in (headphones do not).

best for $70?
fiio e10k is a good entry level dac+amp more than capable for the hd598. decent quality stereo sound.
the creative z or xonar dx are good soundcard options. they give you virtual surround as an option if you like that. the z has a better amp but the dx has a better dac. i'd likely go with the dx but its your choice

a user managed to get virtual surround working on an external dac+amp when their onboard audio soundcard supported virtual. how i can not say but it might be possible and i can confirm in at least some scenarios it is possible. otherwise, dac+amp solutions are 2.0 only.

 

[physiongaming]

dac = digital to analog converter. this is what converts from the digital signal a pc outputs to an analog format speakers need to power.
amp = amplifier. this greatly powers up the signal out of the dac so that it may push speakers. otherwise you would get hardly any response due to low level signal.

in short... with headphones you would need either a dac+amp, use your pc's onboard audio with an amp or get a soundcard (which is basically a dac+amp+software in one) because they are unpowered so need to have an amplifier to drive them. powered speakers can use just a dac only since they have their own power source and own amplifier built in (headphones do not).

best for $70?
fiio e10k is a good entry level dac+amp more than capable for the hd598. decent quality stereo sound.
the creative z or xonar dx are good soundcard options. they give you virtual surround as an option if you like that. the z has a better amp but the dx has a better dac. i'd likely go with the dx but its your choice

a user managed to get virtual surround working on an external dac+amp when their onboard audio soundcard supported virtual. how i can not say but it might be possible and i can confirm in at least some scenarios it is possible. otherwise, dac+amp solutions are 2.0 only.

ok thanks i think i'll get the
fiio e10k