External sound card for HD598SR (for PC/PS4)

[mayochiki]

Hey, need some help here since the whole thing with sound cards, amps and dacs always drives me crazy.

Short story. I'm planning to buy the Senn HD598SR, but I'm also looking for something to drive them properly. From what I've seen they're easy to drive, so I don't need to spend a fortune. I discarded an amp/dac combo since it'd be overkill and even the cheapest amp is kinda expensive here where I live.

I also considered going for an internal budget sound card such as the Asus Xonar DG or DGX but apparently they're not that big of a jump from my on-board sound (B450 Tomahawk). There's also the fact that I play on PS4 a lot so I thought about killing two birds with one stone and get something that could work on both (I pretty much have no sound on PS4).

With that in mind, what should I get? Is there something like that to begin with? I'm not looking to push these phones to the limit, just want something to justify its purchase and use them on several systems if possible. I also plan on getting a modmic, if that matters.

Anyway, I'd really appreciate some advice here.

 

[Dunlop0078]

What are you looking to spend? Lots of options for external DAC/AMPs. The Fiio E10K is a good option for cheap, the schiit stack (schiit magni and modi) is also very good but more expensive.

I would personally take a good external dac/amp over a sound card any day personally.

 

[mayochiki]

The problem is that DAC/amps are stupidly expensive here where I am. I checked and the Fiio e10k is over 220 dollars (in my country) compared to the 75-ish that should be. That's why I discarded them.

If possible, I wouldn't want to go over 80usd, especially after reading that the 598 are easy to drive. Not looking for an overkill setup, I guess I'm looking for the best bang for the buck.