I want to soak you up

I'll be honest. I haven't lurked here. I have no idea who you are. And I just came from ASR. Good start, eh?

Next, another admission. I know nothing about audio. Like, I can just about find where my ears are if you let me phone a friend. I can maybe manage to plug in some headphones causing only moderate internal bleeding in the process.

What is my problem, then?

Well, I want to come to the realisation that I haven't heard good audio yet. I sincerely hope I haven't. I want there to be more out there. But it should also be really cheap, because who do you think I am, Jeff Bezos? Hugh Hefner?

I have used for many, many years some KSC-75s, which are comfy as a kitten purring and licking my earlobes. And they sound decent. I then picked up some Senn 599s in the Black November sale thing. They sound a wee bit better but I'm sure they make my tinnitus worse. (How is that even possible? Clamping force is only moderate and they're open phones.)

Anyway the source is invariably PC (YouTube) and the thing between the PC and the phones is some el cheapo Sabrent USB soundcard. Here, if you're curious (Sabrent USB Aluminum External Stereo Sound Adapter | Silver (AU-EMAC) | AU-EMAC).

I've come to the conclusion, via the age-old, tried-and-tested process of pulling stuff from my rear, that I could probably "improve the sound" by having such a things as a DAC and an AMP. They are somewhat mystical things that the shaman of sound keep showing me in visions.

OK, so first I go into this knowing full well that I might just be burning my money and not have the ear sophistication needed to tell any difference between what I've got right now and anything better.

Next, my budget is going to be £200/$200 ish. Thanks to Brexit they're basically the same amount. (For future reference, employing a (former?) pig molester as your chief politician doesn't seem to be a good idea. I hope we learn from that.)

Spending that amount I hope - hope - that I can notice some (beneficial) improvement.

ASR likes... no, actually you *know* what ASR likes. I have lurked a *little*.

Atom AMP + D10s? Anyone groaning? No?

Or how about a nice all-in-one? USB bus powered? So I don't have to plug stuff in and endanger myself in the process? People (who aren't ASR) like the Schiit Hel... I think?

Yeah, so this is me name dropping Schiit I have literally no experience of and trying not to sound too douchey whilst understanding precisely NOTHING I am talking about Go me.

What does I does? I am not going to make audio my #1 hobby, I'm just going to be honest about that right now.

I want something that is widely acknowledged to be good, and then hopefully I can convince myself it sounds better than what I had. Is that too much to ask? What am I asking exactly? **** knows. Maybe you can make some sense of this stream-of-consciousness. I never said I was a poet.

 

Your questions would be better posted in this thread: https://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/the-all-purpose-advice-thread.19/