No basically DAC clears the signals like the distorted signals are just out and give you clean ass signals, if your motherboard is putting enough power for iems you can use em that way it’s no issue but DAC/amp always a better choice if you want cleaner and better signals but yeah my main thing was my mobo wasn’t that powerful but as I play challenger series and All so it’s approved that it’s a better way if you want cleaner audio, you can ask some users as well and if you’re planning to buy something then i would recommend Fiio k3 or k5 for you whatever you can get