Soundblaster Z to Schiit Stack?

Xr7

Gawd
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Mar 8, 2008
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I have a SoundBlaster Z and I've been getting into headphones and I'm wonder if it's worth upgrading to a Magni+Modi? Current setup is SoundBlaster to HD6XX or to my Denon receiver and KEF Q150's via optical. I'll be keeping the receiver and speakers but I can hook them up to the stack also.

Didn't even think of this till now, but one other option is just to run the headphones off the receiver. Denon 540
 
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It will.. sound different. It likely won't be as noticeable as new headphones, but it will sound different and probably a little cleaner. But I wouldn't expect a huge difference, so at $300 bux... I wouldn't unless your also going to start investing in some even higher quality headphones. As the SoundBlasterZ's headphone output is pretty good.
 
Nice! Love to hear your impressions, everything I've watched and read says they rock.
 
Nice! Love to hear your impressions, everything I've watched and read says they rock.
Well I don't think I have the knowledge to compare them to anything besides the 6xx so if you have those this may make sense.

Comfort: Both are good but to me the Sundara are just a little bit more comfortable.

Bass: Sundara is much more punchy but neither are bass heavy

Treble: This is the toughest because I like both but the Sundara is brighter and took a little getting used too. The Sundara is much clearer on the high end but for the first 30 minutes I wore them I thought I made a mistake because they seemed to bright.

Mids: HD6xx has better vocals (especially female vocals), that's not to say the Sundara are bad in anyway but this is what I think the HD6XX does the best.
 
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/review-and-measurements-of-sound-blaster-z-card.9127/#:~:text=It kind of worked with Mic but not reliably to measure.&text=The DAC portion of the,is not a good choice.

You only need the Magni. The Modi won't make any difference, because as a DAC, the Soundblaster is already good enough.
The headphone output is quite bad though, so the Magni might help a bit in order to lower the distortion if you like to listen at loud levels of listening.

Don't expect to hear a huge difference, because it will be barely noticable at a normal level of listening. At a higher level, it will sound a bit less muddy, that's pretty much it.
 
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