I'm so new to this. I was just planning to hook this up to my Surface Pro and listen with my IEM (Brainwavz S5). Would buying the ODAC drop be overkill?
ScipioOk, your response with the impedance gave me a clue. Unless I have a higher impedance headphones (not sure at what minimum, 150ohm or greater?) I won't need these with my headphones. Now would it be worth getting the DAC? Thanks for your response, btw.
dae1It kind of depends on the headphone itself whether it 'needs' one. The AKG K7xx for example, are 62ohm headphones, but are really hungry for power. However, you could say as a general rule lower ohm headphones don't require amps as much.
The DAC might be a worthy upgrade, however I cannot say for sure. I'd first check if the Surface Pro supports these kind of things. (Since it's a Windows tablet, I think it would).
Do note however, if you buy a DAC, you need to have a amp after it. You cannot run audio gear directly of a DAC. (There are DAC/AMP combo's as well, such as the FIIO E10K, and tomorrow there will be a ODAC / O2 combo drop. That might be an interesting one).