External sound cards (DACs) are not only gaining popularity in the HiFi community. They are also popular with gamers who want better sound on gaming forums. Because a DAC (English for digital-to-analog converter) offers a quick and inexpensive upgrade for bad mainboard sound.
In this article we focus on gaming DACs. Their detailed sound should make it easier for players to locate opponents’ footsteps. Thanks to the crisp bass, they should also be able to follow individual sound effects on the game card: from the click of a drawn hand grenade pin to a bullet whizzing by.
We verify the promises by testing six gaming DACs: Creative Sound Blaster Play! 4, Creative Sound Blaster GC7, Fosi Audio K5 Pro Gaming, Schiit Fulla E, Sennheiser EPOS GSX 300 and the SteelSeries GameDAC. The test candidates cost between just under 20 and 175 euros. As a replacement for the Sharkoon Gaming DAC Pro S (a DAC in USB stick format), which is popular in Germany and is unfortunately no longer produced, we chose the Creative Sound Blaster Play! 4 decided.
