TL;DR: just get the Apple dongle or some other well-reviewed dongle (with physical volume control) and see if it gets your headphones loud enough. Your Realtek ALC1200/etc. from the motherboard will probably just drive the headphones just fine too.

Hello, try the cheaper headphones first before you get the HD6xx/etc. Some people talk of the Sennheiser veil or vocals part, so note that fact.

People really like the Sennheiser HD 560S for gaming instead of the HD 600 series.

For budget headphones over $100, see here for more info: https://www.reddit.com/r/HeadphoneAdvice/comments/11ak45m/what_are_the_best_overall_headphones_in_2023/j9sk0c0/

Oh and Amazon also offers financing for certain popular (Sennheiser) headphones (legit free, no interest rates/etc.), over 5 months or 12 months, and so on. It'll depend on your account history with them though, as in you will probably get that offer if you buy a lot from Amazon and don't return as much items.

Anyway, some people always just use the $10 Apple dongle/etc. with headphones. But you'll probably want a well-reviewed dongle (~$30-100) with physical volume control in order to have more volume variation (this is really helpful with background static/buzzing/hissing/etc.).

For the ~$10 Apple dongle, just note the reduced power if it's the EU version, or the apps needed on Android to bypass Android's DAC/etc. system in order to get the best capabilities.

Some people will say those cheap dongles are not enough and then the next progress would then be to get the usual $100 stacks/options of amps/DACs/etc. from JDS Labs, Topping, Schiit, etc.

But tbh, you'll probably have better value by just going with wired IEMs and gaming.

More info on headphones/IEMs and PC gaming: https://www.reddit.com/r/HeadphoneAdvice/comments/1151ezm/looking_for_1st_real_pair_of_headphones_mostly/j8zm0q8/

The $50 Truthear x crinacle Zero is the one that some people really like right now for gaming. Though yes you can just be fine with the $20 7Hz Salnotes Zero, etc.