I would never call myself an audiophile, but I know what I like. I told Santa that I wanted a set of the cheap HE-X4 planar headphones for Christmas. I plan to use them for music from my desktop PC. I understand that if my audio card/chip can’t deliver enough power to drive the headphones to a sufficient volume level, I’ll need an amp between the PC and the cans. But being an old “stereo” guy, is there any reason I couldn’t input the PC audio into a home audio receiver/amp and use the headphone output from that to drive the headphones? What advantage, if any, would I get from buying one of these fancy DAC headphone amps? What advantage do more expensive headphone amps have over cheaper headphone amps? At 66 years old, I have no hope of having “golden ears” any longer.
Great choice of headphones! My phone with the Apple dongle wouldn’t drive mine adequately, but the Qudelix 5K with a balanced cable ran them fine. I use them with one of those fancy desktop DAC headphone amps now. I don’t know if your PC --> Stereo amp/recevier–>headphone jack will work well or not, mainly because I don’t know how good or bad your PC sound card is. I would think that the headphone jack on a home stereo amp or receiver would drive them fine, and as long as the signal coming from the PC is clean and clear, it should be fine.
I already run a pair of Magneplanar MMG’s in my home audio system, so I have a good idea of how they sound. I am a progressive rock fan, so you hit that nail on the head.