I got a great deal on the ATH-R70x, only $70 through a bid, and I actually won it. I don’t care about the highest quality audio or audiophile stuff. To be honest, I’ll mostly use them for gaming, YouTube, and work calls.
I want to replace my current Arctis Nova 7 headset, and while researching, I realized that the R70x probably needs an AMP/DAC to work properly. I don’t want to spend much, just want something cheap that works reliably.
After looking around, I landed on the Fosi Audio K5 Pro. It seems like a solid choice, even though I saw it doesn’t fully power the R70x’s 470 ohms but honestly, I don’t think I care too much about that. That said, I’m still a bit confused and dont know if what my opinion above is right. I’ve only been learning about DACs, amps, and ohms for a day, so I’m not sure I’ve understood everything correctly.
Fosi K5 is not bad on a budget. Nothing at all wrong with your choices, especially if you are looking toward gaming. The discontinued Schiit HEL might be an alternative to the Fosi.
It’ll work fine for exactly what you say you plan to use it for.
If you find that you actually want to enter the audiophile rabbit hole, then you’ll spend years figuring out what you like, how much you want to spend, how much your spouse will allow you to spend, how much you will actually spend, and why you want to sell that stuff and upgrade to more expensive stuff.
The 470 Ohms means generally that it takes more power to drive, but there is more to it than that, the R70X has a “sensitivity” of 98db, which indicates that despite the high ohm rating, it is not incredibly hard to drive. The high ohm rating makes it less apt to exhibit some frequency response characteristics that are dependent on your amplifier. And which won’t matter with the Fosi K5.
The difficulty with your use is that you might need the microphone inputs. That’s why you are so limited. If you don’t use the microphone channel on the DAC - like if you use on computer or phone , there there are better choices.
Fosi and Audient are not in the mainstream for higher end audio. The Fosi you mentioned, the K5 has been reviews precisely because it has the microphone capability and not much else does.
The Schiit is a higher quality product (though no longer in production you can find it easily).
If you don’t need the microphone, then Atom, iFi, FII0, and many more choices are open to you in the up to $100 range.
If you want something for music/gaming with mic input, the Schiit Fulla or Gunnr are excellent options and good values. Or the Hel used as already mentioned… The Gunnr looks quite flexible, and replaced the Hel.