External Amp/ Sound card worth it? and suggestions for upgrade?

[frogs114]

Hi!
I have some money to put into my computer, and I was really wondering if buying a sound card / amp is worth it. I have the DT-990 250 ohm headphones, which sound freaking amazing and my motherboard has up to a 500 ohm resistance built in. My question is it worth it to buy a soundcard/amp ? Will the audio difference be worth it? I play a lot of games as well as listen to music. And if you have any upgrade suggestions in general please let me know!
-Alex



PC SPECS:
CPU: Intel Quad Core i5-4690K Devil's Canyon@3.5GHz
MOBO: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-SLI ATX
RAM: HyperX FURY 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3 1866
GPU: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V (Gaming 4G)
SSD: Sandisk SSD PLUS 240GB
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB
PSU: EVGA 220 80 PLUS GOLD 550W FM
Monitor: ASUS 3D VG248QE 24" 144Hz, 1ms
Headphones: Berodynamic DT-990 Professional Edition
Keyboard: Logitech G710
Mouse: Logitech G502 Proteus Core
Case: Phantom 410 White Edition
OS: Windows 10 OEM 64-bit

 

[frogs114]

MERGED QUESTION
Question from frogs114 : "External Amp/ Sound card worth it? and suggestions for upgrade?"

Hi!
I have some money to put into my computer, and I was really wondering if buying a sound card / amp is worth it. I have the DT-990 250 ohm headphones, which sound freaking amazing and my motherboard has up to a 500 ohm resistance built in. My question is it worth it to buy a soundcard/amp ? Will the audio difference be worth it? I play a lot of games as well as listen to music. And if you have any upgrade suggestions in general please let me know!
-Alex



PC SPECS:
CPU: Intel Quad Core i5-4690K Devil's Canyon@3.5GHz
MOBO: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-SLI ATX
RAM: HyperX FURY 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3 1866
GPU: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V (Gaming 4G)
SSD: Sandisk SSD PLUS 240GB
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB
PSU: EVGA 220 80 PLUS GOLD 550W FM
Monitor: ASUS 3D VG248QE 24" 144Hz, 1ms
Headphones: Berodynamic DT-990 Professional Edition
Keyboard: Logitech G710
Mouse: Logitech G502 Proteus Core
Case: Phantom 410 White Edition
OS: Windows 10 OEM 64-bit

 

[Lutfij]

Soundcard, perhaps...but to fully understand if you need one or not, you need to first gauge the quality of audio coming from your current setup. Once you've established that you're not satisfied with your current audio output, then try and visit a friend with a dedicated sound card on his system and gauge the quality of audio using your headphones.

IMHO, the content you listen to affects the quality/experience of the audio output. The ALC1150 is the highest end audio codec by Realtek to date and has been well received by the community. Regardless you can take a look at HT|Omega's soundcards and Asus' Xonar's range.

A budget would help use narrow down a sound card but first you'd need to do some leg work and see if your headset benefits from a higher priced soundcard because sound can be as subjective as design since I may or may not be able to pick up layers within music while others would have no clue what I'm talking about.