Building a computer setup

[amias]

Hello all! this is my first post here. I just decided to invest in what I think will be a pretty good setup for computer listening in my dorm room, and apartment next semester. I Just ordered a set of fluance sx6 bookshelf speakers and a dayton 50wpc amp instead of a regular 2.0 computer system, I plan on adding a Polk 10" sub after getting my own place. After the purchases I am pretty broke~ish but I was wondering how much a Benefit I would get from investing in a DAC. My laptops(an alienware m14x) onboard audio is better than most, but I know that it is still lacking. I was just wondering how much of a DAC would add to the sound on my speakers and my headphones(ultrasone hfi 580's) and what type of DAC would be reasonably priced($100 dollars ish) given that I already have an amp to power the speakers and headphones.

Also one last quick thing, I am in the process of building a new music library with all flac files, Would the increase in audio quality of the files be very noticeable on my speakers? I notice a slight difference between mp3 320's on my headphones, but will this difference likely be more pronounced on the speakers? I am asking because it is a significant time investment to rebuild my music library.

tl:dr How much better will a DAC sound than onboard laptop audio? Is spending days building a flac library worth it?

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Hello all! this is my first post here. I just decided to invest in what I think will be a pretty good setup for computer listening in my dorm room, and apartment next semester. I Just ordered a set of fluance sx6 bookshelf speakers and a dayton 50wpc amp instead of a regular 2.0 computer system, I plan on adding a Polk 10" sub after getting my own place. After the purchases I am pretty broke~ish but I was wondering how much a Benefit I would get from investing in a DAC. My laptops(an alienware m14x) onboard audio is better than most, but I know that it is still lacking. I was just wondering how much of a DAC would add to the sound on my speakers and my headphones(ultrasone hfi 580's) and what type of DAC would be reasonably priced($100 dollars ish) given that I already have an amp to power the speakers and headphones.

Also one last quick thing, I am in the process of building a new music library with all flac files, Would the increase in audio quality of the files be very noticeable on my speakers? I notice a slight difference between mp3 320's on my headphones, but will this difference likely be more pronounced on the speakers? I am asking because it is a significant time investment to rebuild my music library.

tl:dr How much better will a DAC sound than onboard laptop audio? Is spending days building a flac library worth it?

I try to keep new files as flac, but honestly flac vs 320mp3 has next to nothing audible difference

First - Congrats on a smart choices!

Getting a dac probably is not good investment right now, in fact you'd be probably better served by a used surround receiver - I can bet you can find a decent used one for about $50-60 ( make sure its fully works , has at least one digital input and supports DTS) This will help you especially since it will help you integrate a Subwoofer. Only con is avr typically big and bulky

 

[Irishman]

Hello all! this is my first post here. I just decided to invest in what I think will be a pretty good setup for computer listening in my dorm room, and apartment next semester. I Just ordered a set of fluance sx6 bookshelf speakers and a dayton 50wpc amp instead of a regular 2.0 computer system, I plan on adding a Polk 10" sub after getting my own place. After the purchases I am pretty broke~ish but I was wondering how much a Benefit I would get from investing in a DAC. My laptops(an alienware m14x) onboard audio is better than most, but I know that it is still lacking. I was just wondering how much of a DAC would add to the sound on my speakers and my headphones(ultrasone hfi 580's) and what type of DAC would be reasonably priced($100 dollars ish) given that I already have an amp to power the speakers and headphones.

Also one last quick thing, I am in the process of building a new music library with all flac files, Would the increase in audio quality of the files be very noticeable on my speakers? I notice a slight difference between mp3 320's on my headphones, but will this difference likely be more pronounced on the speakers? I am asking because it is a significant time investment to rebuild my music library.

tl:dr How much better will a DAC sound than onboard laptop audio? Is spending days building a flac library worth it?

The problem with DACS in the $100 range is that none of them are going to be remarkably better than your laptop's audio. If you could adjust your budget to the $160 - $180 range, you can have some very good sound from either headphones or powered speakers.

Case in point - Audioengine 24Bit DigitaltoAnalog Converter D1 - Best Buy

If you can justify spending $250, you can get the Audioquest Dragonfly, arguably the most exceptional-sounding DAC on the market right now!

 

[sholling]

I try to keep new files as flac, but honestly flac vs 320mp3 has next to nothing audible difference

First - Congrats on a smart choices!

Getting a dac probably is not good investment right now, in fact you'd be probably better served by a used surround receiver - I can bet you can find a decent used one for about $50-60 ( make sure its fully works , has at least one digital input and supports DTS) This will help you especially since it will help you integrate a Subwoofer. Only con is avr typically big and bulky

+1 excellent advice.

 

[amias]

The problem with a surround receiver is size, it has to fit on my desk with my speakers and my laptop. plus I already pulled the trigger on the t amp and the speakers. If I was to add a sub to my setup would speaker level inputs on the sub degrade audio? I thought that a dedicated rca sub output would be a big benefit of a surround receiver but I dont really know because I have never had one to compare.

So basically you guys think that a $100 dollar dac wouldn't be worth the trouble? Eventually I plan on building myself a nice desktop with a dedicated sound card so the dac would have been temporary anyways. I will just stick with what I just ordered i suppose.

Flac To me seems like it would be worth the investment because i plan on upgrading my sound in the future and then the quality would benefit me better. The problem is most of my music is ripped from friends cd libraries and whatnot so I can't just like re rip mine or anything. I think I will just build up my flac library slowly and leave my mp3's as mp3's