Schiit Hel 2E High Power DAC/Amp for Gaming, Music, and Communications

The Hel sounds so much better than any onboard audio i've heard on a computer. Schiit's customer service is great as well, so stop thinking about it and just buy this DAC.

It's disappointing having this issue because when it works properly it sounds amazing but this absolutely ruins my experience

I think this unit is overpriced and customer service is poor. I bought this for the PS5 audio. If you look around there are a few other products that will do the same thing for less. I bought this to take advantage of the DAC USB audio class 2. The microphone audio and headphone audio are clean, but not independent of one another. There is a separat volume and mic gain knob. When you turn up the headset volume, the mic gain is also turned up. I do not know if this is the way it is supposed to be. Also, if you are looking forward to optical input, you won’t be able to easily. I emailed the company on 04/22/2023 and today is 05/15/2023 and have no response to my questions. For this price I expect better service and there are other products that do the same thing. I’m going to keep it because the DAC is superb and the audio is clean. It’s too bad about the nonexistent service. Get better Schiit.

Quality control can be spotty, so its understandable for the bad reviews, but when you get one that works, its so good.I still recommend it.

I purchased this product direct from the manufacture and after 1-2 year it started to fail. Contacted support they require you to jump through hoops to send it back. Mine had two issues my audio starts to cut out after a little bit of playing a game, complete audio cut outs which also causes frame skipping. Tried swapping cables, power supplies and nothing works. The sometimes windows won't even recognize its connected. Tried multiple computers. The manufacture doesn't believe me and wants videos of how I'm connecting the product. They took it back one time and said nothing was wrong. Worked for about 2 days after that then again doesn't work. I have two other dacs both work fine. This company will just steal money from you and supply you with a sub par trash product that no way could be built in the usa with how poor quality they are. Overpriced paper weight.

Update 24May2023: They responded to the support ticket with some basic troubleshooting tips. We responded back today and will await their response.Update (forgot to update after their response): They offered to take a look at it under warranty if I pay to ship it to them. Here I am in March 2025 and wish I had sent it to them to have them fix it so I could sell it and be done with it.Short version: After about a month it is starting to give me nothing but static sound more and more often upon powering on my pc. Unplugging and plugging the device in seems to reset it.Long version: Bought a Hel 2E direct from Schiit. At first it was great. Connected the USB-C to my computer for USB audio and connected another USB-C to a 2.4A capable USB charger to power the Hel 2E. My computer, the monitors, the Yamaha receiver (on the surge only plugs), and the Crown amp (on the surge only plugs) are all connected to a Pure Sine Wave APC Uninterruptible Power Supply.I immediately had horrible Ground Hum. I used a ground lift plug on my PC and on my Crown XLS1002 amp (Yamaha receiver doesn't have a ground in it's plug). It seemed to help but didn't completely remove the Hum. I had to switch to optical and not use the USB-C to my pc.After about a month, now every time I turn my computer on and fire up my Yamaha receiver and my Crown amp, I hear nothing but static. I have to unplug and replug in the Hel 2E a couple times, then magically it starts working again.At first I thought it was the AMD graphics driver update I did from 23.3.2 to 23.4.1. I went into Safe mode and used a program called DDU to uninstall all AMD's software. Reinstalled 23.3.2 and it appeared to make the Hel 2E work. Next day I start my computer and the static is back. I went into safe mode and used DDU to remove AMD drivers again. Then I reinstalled 23.3.2 and it worked...until I restarted my computer again. Static again! I then removed the optical cable from the Schiit Hel 2E and plugged it directly into my Yamaha receiver and the sound was back. Plugged the Schiit Hel 2E back in and it magically started working. Now I just leave my computer on to avoid the rage inducing static sound disappointment upon starting my PC.Side note: If i turn my Crown XLS1002 on before my Yamaha receiver, I get a super massive loud pop out of my subwoofer when I power on the Yamaha (I do have a Rolls MB15b powered line level booster/cable format changer device that powers on when the Yamaha powers on and the pop could be from that). I bought the Yamaha used from some 2nd hand store. It is possible that when I turn on the Yamaha it is sending a voltage spike up the RCAs to the Schiit Hel 2E and all these problems are caused by my gear and NOT by the Schiit Hel 2E. There are alot of people reporting on Reddit about the static sound out of this Schiit Hel 2E though so who knows...

I bought this directly, not from Amazon but I would like others to be aware of the poor quality of this item. When I got it the USB-c port was installed wrong or mounted incorrectly requiring me to use a lot of force to plug in.The unit itself burned out after two months of moderate use. I wouldn't be so worried about this except others on reddit are commenting on the poor quality of this product.

If I could leave it at 0 stars and it count as a rating I would. Purchased this one month ago and am about to be on my 3rd one! Customer service is fine I guess, takes a couple days to get back to you, but this amp is garbage. I'd recommend the soundblaster G6 instead. The headset mic audio output is a little better sounding on the Hel, but that doesn't count for much when they only last 2 weeks and the money back guarantee is 15 days! Should have bought through amazon instead of Schitt's website so I could return for my money back.