Focal Utopia 2022 version DAC/AMP recommendations

[lillieNB]

I did not find quite the right thread for my problem so, I decided to open a new one.
Owning a focal utopia 2022 headphone pair, I want to know whether I need a DAC/AMP on my current setup.
Currently I am driving this headphones with a ESS ES9118 DAC onboard chip (Realtek® ALC1220-VB CODEC) on a Aorus X670E Xtreme motherboard.
My operating system in use is FreeBSD with native OSS(v4) so, a DAC/AMP combination which works with that OS would be great.
I mainly listen to 16bit/44100Hz s16 2ch, 24bit/48kHz s32 2ch, 24bit/96kHz s32 2ch flacs.

My questions are:
Is my onboard chipset enough to drive this headphones since I read mixed reviews ?
The problem I encounter each time is, I have some sort of pop in or crackling in some 24bit/96kHz flacs always at the same position in the file.
Does this problem occur due to being an onboard chipset with eventually bad quality build?

Do I need an equalizer for this headphones or is bitperfect mode with the right DAC/AMP enough to have clear non crackling or popping sound ?
If I need an equalizer, I would preferably want to use a 10band one in which I could enter these recommended parameters.

Is a software equalizer or a built in hardware equalizer the preferred way?

 

[Doodski]

Do I need an equalizer for this headphones

Pretty much all headphones benefit from PEQ. If you want Mac or Windows PEQ ask and we'll recommend something that works well.

EQ Software for Windows, Linux, macOS, iOS/iPadOS and Android.

Any suggestions are welcome. Post suggestions here. I will gather the details and add them. Thanks. :D This will be organized as results come in. @sweetchaos made a guide for PEQ filter data input and operation. For crossover software go here. Windows: AutoEQ four easy steps to make your...

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