Are you serious? This is a PC tech site which is of interest to people who build their own gaming PCs, and also related peripherals. This is NOT Daily Audiophile or some such website. When I read a product review here I expect it to be related to what this website is about. So if I click on a link to a DAC/Amp review, then yes, I'd expect the device's interface to include either phono input/outputs or a USB connection because *every* wired gaming headset comes out with either phono plugs or a USB plug.
I'm not an audio purist and this is techpowerup. I built a PC, play a few FPS games, and listen to music/podcasts from youtube/spotify. I only need decent quality audio, but delivered with excellent spatial accuracy. The phono plugs in the photo are from a Beyerdynamic mmx 300 ( (gen 2) gaming headset which is far from being the most rubbish headset around. I just don't get enough volume from it when connected to my Asus Rampage V Extreme mobo, especially from the mic. I'm using EqualizerAPO atm to boost the sound. I was going to buy a Schiit Hel 2E directly from the company. Nobody else had any. Going through that outfit I would have had to pay an extra $86(USD) delivery fee to New Zealand. Screw Schitt. Perhaps a soundcard will suffice.
This is sort of insane and you should know why as a PC "gamer".
First if your headset has a USB interface that's where the DAC/AMP or soundcare is right there. You do not need an external one and you do not plug it into a DAC. These headsets have taken over the market. Which anybody with even a passing grasp of PC gaming would understand.
The second is that a DAC is a digital analoge converter in a raw sense. You would not plug phono, ie analogue, connections into it because you do not need to convert them. What you're asking about is an AMP. Which again, is something a passing PC gamer would understand.
Next spatial accuracy is rubbish and bullshit. Which is why if you look at all the top gamers nobody uses that virtual 7.1 crap and everyone just goes with really high quality stereo and swears by it. This has been the case since Quake. Again, any even medicore gamer would know this. It's also why even stupidly high end headsets for gamers, which if you really cared about games you'd already be using, focus on audio quality. Nobody is buying Steelseries Artctis Pros and turning on all the silly effects unless it's strictly for a single player game that encoded in Dolby. If you go to a top event you'll rapidly realize that people are using IEMs (not known for spatial) under those headsets and the headsets they are just paid to use. It serves as an ad and an extra soundblocker, that's it.
Next if you did give one sold hoot about "spatial accuracy" you wouldn't be using closed back headsets. Closed back and sound stage are very much against each other. This is why you will find a lot of PC gamers use an Audiophile grade DAC/AMP to power higher end open backed dynamics and planars (which aren't going to come with their own shitty USB interface and are not going to be run off that 3.5mm joke of a jack) and then slam in a USB based mic for their communications. Said mics are 50-300 bucks for what you'd want. If you look at any streamer they are using a dedicated mic. Again, a PC "gamer" would know this. Back in the day we had ye old logitech mic on the desk with a 3.5mm jack.
For schitt, you obvious didn't bother to research who and what they are. The are a US based company that sells to the US. They do not go through distributors, they do not have sales, and they are very much direct sales from Americans to Americans. They have a cult following because this business strategy rips out all the cost inflation and Americans like supporting "made in America" products. Their products are also good and have a very industrial design people kinda dig. So "screw schitt" is just petty. There are UK companies I can't get products from as well as Japan. Oh fucking well! They are selling their products locally and at good rates and more power to them.
Next anyone remotely associated with gaming audio knows Sennheiser and their history the the point where the HD280 PRO (which I will point out does not have a mic) is the most favorably reviewed item on Newegg bar none and almost all of it is gamers. Sennheiser spun off their headset division to EPOS but EPOS still makes the GSX1000 which has been the defacto best "external soundcard" since it's release. They sell globally. You can buy it right here
https://www.eposaudio.com/en/us/gaming/products/gsx-1000-2nd-edition-gaming-amplifier-1001150 ! They make a cheaper one as well that they sip globaly,
https://www.eposaudio.com/en/us/gaming/products/gsx-300-snow-edition-gaming-soundcard-1000307 imagine that! Again anybody remotely associated with PC "gaming" would already have these on their short list and generally not bother after. Of note same company also sells a stand alone desktop high end mic for streaming. So even they aren't pretending their headsets stack up to input quality. They are open about it.
Lastly anybody even remotely adjacent to PC gaming would know of this
https://antlionaudio.com/ which has long been "don't buy a headset get this" which not only will let you clobber any headset into the ground but they will sell you a fucking USB soundcard and an XLR connector in case you went with a USB audio interface. Rendering shitty wannabe audiophile headsets, like yours!!!!! null and void on any real value level.
I still play PC games and while your assumptions here are downright hilarious as to PC enthusiasts being just gamers and not people who use their PC for more (me scowls at NAS full of 8k videos and bluray audio rips and remembers to reboot all my VMs today, go go go linux! vms! Redhat and fedora please none of that ubuntu shit.) they are also fucking insulting to someone who plays PC games. Where one can go get a Sennheiser/EPOS soundcard and call it a day or get something like an Arctis pro and be done with it. Some people want a bit more though. Some people are fine using headphones and a mic. Some of them even play games with them.
All typed on a PC with an Arctis Pro + GameDac, apex keyboard, rival mouse, and QcK mousepad. None of that audiophile stuff here. Now if I move to my other desk.....................
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