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I want to upgrade my Xonar DG to either a Xonar SE, Fiio K3 or Fiio F5 Pro Please help

john5220

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Hi there I am using a Sennheiser HD 58X and I found that it has 0 difference between this 58X jubilee and my old HD 555. Someone told me this is because my Xonar DG sound card isn't up to par and it doesn't amp the 150 ohm Jubilee properly.

There is the Xonar SE which is best for my budget and it claims to have a 300 ohm Headphone amp.

There is the K3 which I understand won't show much improvement unless the balance port is used which I need expensive cable to do or it will blow the amp or something to that extent

Then there is the K5 Pro Fiio which is absurdly expensive for me but I heard its going to make a big difference. hmmmmm

What do you guys think do I have to go K5 Pro? when the Xonar SE has a Realtek 1220 DAC and 116db SNR and 300 ohm Amp? the Xonar SE is only $39 new on Amazon and it is what I really wanted based on the specs. However I really wanna know what will I be missing out on if I don't go with the K5 Pro? is there going to be a big difference or a difference that I found near 0%?

For what its worth I once had a SMSL DAC / AMP for $60 on Amazon with Ti Burr Brown DAC and it made 0 difference to my Xonar DG.

BTW the most perfect DAC I ever heard was that in the Xonar DX from long ago I wish I had kept that thing.... Hoping the Xonar SE will be like that DX from long ago

What do you guys think about this card?

https://www.asus.com/us/Sound-Cards/Xonar-SE/

Do you think it is good compared to the K5 Pro Fiio?
 

bravomail

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Amir reviewed some card not long ago, it was not cheap at 250, but it got "some" power. If you really want to save some money and get "the taste" of what HiFi sound can be - nothing beats FX Audio X6 for $50. But if you really want even better sound - get a good external DAC (Magni3, Topping D30) and a separate amp (Schiit Magni 3, JDS Atom). These two will cost around $200. No matter how much more you will spend - you won't likely to improve your sound any further.
 
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john5220

Active Member
Joined
Nov 4, 2019
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Amir reviewed some card not long ago, it was not cheap at 250, but it got "some" power. If you really want to save some money and get "the taste" of what HiFi sound can be - nothing beats FX Audio X6 for $50. But if you really want even better sound - get a good external DAC (Magni3, Topping D30) and a separate amp (Schiit Magni 3, JDS Atom). These two will cost around $200. No matter how much more you will spend - you won't likely to improve your sound any further.

Wow thanks I will just get the fx audio s6 then

Can you tell me how that fx x6 compares to higher end setups like the fiio K5 Pro?

Is it a huge difference or just tiny to the point of wasting money? Because with my xonar dg I notice near 0 difference between my hd 555 and hd 58x

In my life experience most of these stuff in the audiophile world has been largely audio fool marketing gimmicks where you spend absurd amounts of money for tiny increases in quality and that is something I am trying to avoid.

What I know is I love cirrus logic DAC and the best I heard was the xonar Dx many years ago. But I know for sure my xonar dg was a noticable downgrade from the xonar dx by about 20%

If you agree I should get the x6 fx instead of the k5 pro then Iwill follow your advice, i hope the x6 fx is close to the fiio k3 or k5 pro and i hope the fx x6 is at the same time a big upgrade from my xonar dg cause I can tell I again my old xonar dx was a somewhat big upgrade to the xonar dg

Do you think the x6 will give me a 20 to 30% increase in audio quality over my current xonar dg? And do you think the K5 pro fiio or schiit stuff will give a 50 to 70% improvement in quality compared to the xonar dg?

Any help is very appreciated cause massdrop has a sale on the x6 right now for $45 and I wanna order it if you say it will be a big enough upgrade to go with my hd 58x jubilee
 

bravomail

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Wow thanks I will just get the fx audio s6 then

Can you tell me how that fx x6 compares to higher end setups like the fiio K5 Pro?

Is it a huge difference or just tiny to the point of wasting money? Because with my xonar dg I notice near 0 difference between my hd 555 and hd 58x

In my life experience most of these stuff in the audiophile world has been largely audio fool marketing gimmicks where you spend absurd amounts of money for tiny increases in quality and that is something I am trying to avoid.

What I know is I love cirrus logic DAC and the best I heard was the xonar Dx many years ago. But I know for sure my xonar dg was a noticable downgrade from the xonar dx by about 20%

If you agree I should get the x6 fx instead of the k5 pro then Iwill follow your advice, i hope the x6 fx is close to the fiio k3 or k5 pro and i hope the fx x6 is at the same time a big upgrade from my xonar dg cause I can tell I again my old xonar dx was a somewhat big upgrade to the xonar dg

Do you think the x6 will give me a 20 to 30% increase in audio quality over my current xonar dg? And do you think the K5 pro fiio or schiit stuff will give a 50 to 70% improvement in quality compared to the xonar dg?

Any help is very appreciated cause massdrop has a sale on the x6 right now for $45 and I wanna order it if you say it will be a big enough upgrade to go with my hd 58x jubilee

I don't wanna give u a bad advice. So. Recently I tried Apple USB-C adapter, and it was really good. It only cost 7-10 dollars off Amazon. Try that one. It will work with 58x headphones. I hope your PC has USB-C ports. If not - you will need USB-A to USB-C adapter.
 
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