Hi All,
Looking for a bit of advice from those in the know.
So, long story short: Last week I bought myself a Audioquest DragonFly Red, Audioquest Jitterbug and a pair of Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro 250 Ohms. They arrived on the weekend.
I then proceeded to short my PC's CPU / Mobo in an unrelated activity so had to order in replacements (I'm glossing over the sheer amount of pain that statement right there entailed), by which I elected for an Asus Z170 ROG Maximus III Formula, which I installed yesterday.
The issue is that the Audioquest Dragonfly Red is built around an ESS 9016 DAC, but the new motherboard has a built in ESS 9023 DAC. I haven't had either DAC or these
headphones long enough (or burnt in) at the moment to 'really' be able to identify which one is better in the long run, but basically I'm trying to decide if I should return the Dragonfly Red & Jitterbug in favour of the built in (shielded) ESS 9023, and thus reclaim £200 of my somewhat impromptu spending over the weekend, or whether the ESS 9016 is significantly better than the 9023 that it's worth keeping.
Looking forward to getting some opinions from you fine people!
I should probably add, my intent is for general listening (note, streamed, not audiophile), gaming (primarily, and looking to achieve something as engrossing as possible) etc. I also have a Focusrite 2i2 & Sennheiser HD25-ii's which I've used for a time, but find the bass muddies out and gets somewhat flabby on the low end, further the Senny's have (obviously) quite a narrow soundstage. Closed back is required due to environment, unfortunately.
Kind regards,
WryZed