Are there any headphone amps that are compatible with Xbox One and Series X via USB?

Submitted by BladeOfSmoke t3_1031kl6 in headphones

I’m now noticing that console controllers are pretty shitty sources of power for headphones. I always mentally knew they were bad but I’m experiencing it first-hand now (both in terms of impedance and quality of sound). So I’m wondering are there any amps that are actually compatible with Xbox via USB that I can plug my headphones and ModMic into for better quality instead of my controller? I know of the Astro Mixamp but apparently it’s not meant for actual studio headphones. I enjoy listening to music on my Xbox due to the convenience and also wanna start gaming with studio headphones and ditch gaming headsets. So, anyone know of any amps?

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minionhammy t1_j2wxhzs wrote

I ran into similar issues with my Xbox. I ended up doing optical out of my tv to a schiit stack and setting up an iPad with a blue yeti for voice (which does require me to join parties with a second account).

Kinda annoying but it’s better than the modmic/senny 598 combo I used to use. I just dislike having anything connected to the controller.

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kill3rb00ts t1_j2wc9js wrote

The Steel series GameDAC 2 is (if you get the Xbox version) and it's decent. Not sure if they sell it separately, though.

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BladeOfSmoke OP t1_j2wds6b wrote

If they do sell it separately then would it be an upgrade from the controller as the power source?

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kill3rb00ts t1_j2wfc3y wrote

Yes, but it's probably not enough to power, say, planers.

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BladeOfSmoke OP t1_j2wgeko wrote

Thankfully I only plan to use the AKG K371 and the Beyer DT700 Pro X and both are easy to power. I just want an amp that could boost their quality to be a bit nicer vs the controller and also boost the ModMic Uni’s volume cause I’ve heard it can be a bit quiet on consoles.

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kill3rb00ts t1_j2wghgx wrote

You'll need an adapter to plug in the mic as it just uses a single headset jack.

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BladeOfSmoke OP t1_j2whqub wrote

Yep, Antlion has a Y splitter for console users so I plan to get that so I can use both the 700 Pro X and ModMic. It won’t match up against a real USB mic on PC but it’ll beat most of these gaming headsets

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AvailableAdvice2 t1_j2wvzo7 wrote

Any DAC/amp that use UAC 1.0 which which is used for audio, any higher bandwidth DAC won't work , best way is to get hdmi splitter that splits it into hdmi video and the audio into coax or optical based on what Ur DAC /amp accepts. What kind of headphones do you have anyway? Creative have budget stuff that should work and are okay sound, most other devices that use UAC are this budget gaming DACs like SteelSeries or atsro mix that limited to 24/96khz i think due to uac 1.0

If you don't need that much power any portable decide should have decent sound , maybe try https://en.creative.com/p/sound-blaster/sound-blaster-x1

In case you not gonna get hdmi audio extractor

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1trickana t1_j2ykj5q wrote

The Astro MixAmp works great for studio headphones, can power most things perfectly fine outside of planars. I still use mine for console gaming 10 years later

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BladeOfSmoke OP t1_j37bcq1 wrote

But would it increase the audio quality? The pair I wanna use don’t require a lot of power so it’s not an issue for that, I just wanna get more quality out of it. More so than the controller can give anyway.

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Degru t1_j3amk2o wrote

I think the Xbox requires some kind of authentication chip for USB audio devices, which is why there are separate Xbox and Playstation models of many gaming headsets. You'll wanna get one of the gaming-oriented DACs mentioned here that specifically have Xbox support.

The other option is optical out from either TV or HDMI splitter, and then connecting just the microphone to the controller. But apparently that can have issues with in-game voice chat being routed to the controller instead of the HDMI output, not sure if there's a workaround or fix since I don't have an Xbox.

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