Will an external DAC improve music audio quality for me?

[ecwl]

I realized @Gamboge might think the question is simple but it’s actually quite complicated.

 

First, Magni+ is not an external DAC. It is a headphone preamp/amp.

I’m not familiar with the Schiit line of products. But I think you can buy the regular Magni and then add an internal DAC but that is over double the price of the Magni+

 

If you’re using the motherboard ALC4080 to drive your Aria IEMs, when you connect the Magni+ to the ALC4080, you will get more power to your IEM. The issues though can be that there is too much power and you might get noise to the IEM through the amp or that the impedance matching of the IEM is better with ALC4080 instead of with the Magni+. Or even if the impedance matching is better with Magni+ than ALC4080, you might simply prefer the frequency response of the ALC4080 with Aria IEMs. This is why @The Computer Audiophile says that you need to try the product to know whether your Aria IEMs sound better with the product. There is science behind audio but you can’t guess based on the science whether you’re going to like the product.

 

Similarly, in theory, if you’re spending money on a well-built DAC+amp product from Schiit that costs significantly more than ALC4080 (which is probably a <$10 part and possibly a <$1 part), you would expect the spec and power output to be better with the Schiit than the ALC4080. But once again, whether you like the sound when paired with the Aria IEMs is less predictable. 

[ecwl]

6 hours ago, Gamboge said:

I have an aorus b650i. Can't find much discussion on its audio quality.

Don't know how I missed that. Guess the Schiit Modi 3E is what I meant. Not sure how that would affect the "impedance matching" though with the built-in amp. What I'm getting from this is the only way to know is to actually try it?

Schiit Modi has no amp or volume control so you won’t be able to connect your IEM to it.

 

To replace ALC4080, you need a DAC and an amp. ALC4080 is actually DAC+amp.

I think @bogi has some great suggestions of products in your price range.

 

And yes, I think you’re hearing from all of us that the only way is to try a DAC+amp product and see if it sounds better to you compared to the ALC4080. It probably will. Personally, I suspect I have 70-80% confidence that an external DAC+amp would sound better to you with your Aria IEMs.

 

[ecwl]

1 hour ago, PeterG said:

I hate to disagree with our fearless leader, but it is an absolute no-brainer to buy an external DAC.  You, your wife, and even your philistine friends will all notice a difference.  The Schiit you mention is a great choice, and you can return it for a small restocking fee if I'm wrong.  The Audioquest Dragonfly line is also worth a look for a minimalist approach.  Probably not as good as the Schiit, but probably returnable with zero risk from Best Buy or Amazon.

So the reason I agree with @The Computer Audiophile’s reservations is that @Gamboge is using IEMs. I used to have more wired IEMs and I’ve driven them from my desktop or laptop or iPhone or iPad built in DACs and compared them to my Chord Mojo. Depending on the IEM and how easy or hard it is to drive, I have to admit, the amp portion of Chord isn’t really doing much so you’re essentially just hearing the DAC section and while I can hear an improvement, it is definitely not as dramatic an improvement I get from listening through full sized headphones which require more power to drive. So given the price range @Gamboge is thinking of, I would have some reservations to strongly recommend buying blind.  

[ecwl]

4 minutes ago, Gamboge said:

So no sound would come out if I don't also have an amp? Is that because I'm using iems, or because I'm using a desktop? Or will sound come out, but it'll be of low quality? I tried looking this up, but I've found conflicting info.

I am not an expert on Schiit product line. When I look at the website, Modi has no headphone jack so it doesn’t have an amp. And I didn’t see an option to add a headphone jack/amp. 

 

Magni+ on the other hand is amp only with no options to add a DAC. Magni has the option to add a DAC.

 

ALC4080 is not just a DAC. It’s actually a DAC with a low powered amp to feed your headphones. So to replace the ALC4080 you need a DAC and amp.

 

@PeterG’s suggestion of the Audioquest Dragonfly is another good one because they’re DAC+amp. 
 

Getting into the weeds, some DACs have enough power that they can directly drive headphones as if they have an amp built inside. That’s probably where you’re getting conflicting info. But hey, if someone told you Schiit Modi can drive your Aria, go for it. If it works, let us know. If it doesn’t work, get your refund from the person who gave the advice.