My English is not good, sorry about that.
Prepare to laugh. Today i got my XS and i thought i was gonna be surprised by the sound quality. But i can’t hear ANY difference between them. Same weak soundstage, same harsh treble, bass is almost non-existent.
I think the problem is because I don’t have a dac/amp, so they are plugged directly into my pc (alc1220-vb). I use them on 100% volume but most of the time it’s not loud enough. 990s were good at 70%. Do i really need an amp like Fiio K7 with balanced cable to make them sound at least better than the 990s…? Or all this will just make them louder? Please help :(
Don’t have to run them balanced, but yes you 100% need a better DAC/amp than an on-board pc source.
And depending on what version of the 990 you have, you need a DAC/amp for that too…
Just because it’s loud enough, doesn’t mean it’s being driven well.