[samplatt]

The HD58X uses 150-ohm drivers. These can be used without an amplifier just fine, but detail will be lost and they'll be quieter. My general rule is anything 80ohm and over will want an amp... You DEFINITELY want an external DAC+amp for those 58X's.

The DAC chip in a monitor will be the absolute cheapest one they can source, and is probably receiving a lot of noise from the monitor itself as well. The good news is that you don't need to break the bank to get something decent; a budget of ~$100 will get you something a million times better than a screen could ever deliver.

[sumedh]

Which DAC do you recommend?

[samplatt]

I'm going to confine myself to DAC+ Amp devices here. The main trick to suss out audiophile-snakeoil is checking the specs to see what the Total Harmonic Distortion is when the volume is maxed out (ie, before the signal starts clipping). THD is easy to have low (<0.01) when there's little load. With amplifiers of all kinds, quality is determined by how low the THD is when it's turned up. If it's >1% then it's poo, if it's ~0.1% then it's okay, if it's 0.01% or less then it's pretty good.

The $400 Element II [1] from JDS Labs (makers of the legendary Objective-2, a DAC+Amp that was designed to give top-end performance at bottom-end prices) is very literally as good as it gets without snakeoil entering the equation. THD when under a 150-ohm load is 0.0008%. That's very good. This is what I'll be upgrading to if my setup at work ever dies.

My work rig is an Aune T1 [2] which retails for $250 but Massdrop does them for $100-$150 sometimes. Yeah it's a "tube" but that doesn't matter as much as myth would have you; today's tubes are pretty transparent unless you deliberately get something that isn't. THD is good however nowhere near JDS Labs-level of perfection.

The Fiio Q2 mk2 [3] can be found for as little as $100 and it's a solid performer, though I haven't personally used it, Fiio's reputation is impeccable.

[1] https://jdslabs.com/product/element-ii/

[2] https://www.amazon.com/Aune-Second-Generation-Amplifier-Deco...

[3] https://fiio.com/newsinfo/53025.html?templateId=1133604

[maxwelldone]

When I was in the mark for a decent DAC last year, I settled on JDS Atom DAC. Cost $100 I believe and seems like their support is good. Though I don't have anything else to compare, it seems good so far.

[samplatt]

JDS Labs are the very definition of bullshit-free top-tier stuff. You chose well.