I'm trying to understand why some onboard motherboards don't have enough juice to power high end headphones. Basically I have read in a few different places that the nicer headphones should be paired with high end audio quality (makes sense) but also with a sound card that can provide enough power. Not sure if this is true or not, or if I am misunderstanding the idea, but figured I ask.
Powering Headphones
- Thread starter SirBeeker
- Start date
MJSWARLORD
Silver Level Poster
you may be interested in the following , here is a bit i have copied from my own rig review......! So that my wife can watch tv in peace i got a set of xiberia t18 gaming headphones..... to get the best sound quality , download the software and choose the 7.1 setting. You will also need to turn all the sliders down to -30db or the sound will be unbearable at level 2. Set at -30 level 12 is comfortable so you can go up or down a bit if need be. Use a short usb to connect the headphones to your pc because the usb socket in very tight and you might end up pushing the usb socket off its mount in the pc. The sound is unbelievable , using diablo 3 i turned round without realising i had done it , i thought somebody was playing drums behind me lol. I got them from amazon ...... if you want to see my full rig spec type my game breaker rig into this sites search box.
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SpyderTracks
We love you Ukraine
If you're talking about audio grade headphones, there's high impedance headphones which need extra power to get the kind of volume you'd expect from a normal set on your iphone or something.
They have lower impedance so that many of them can be plugged into the same source (for use in studios etc) without overpowering the amp.
For these, you'd either need quite a high end soundcard (I have a Komplete Audio 6 and it isn't powerful enough to drive my SRH1840's which are only 32ohm, let alone my SRH840's which are 100ohm. They still work fine, but there's no definition to the music, it's not alive like you'd expect, and the volumes too low even ramped up as high as you can go.
For this scenario, you either need a dedicated headphone amp (I've got the Schiit Lyr 2 which is powerful as hell for the price and will drive anything up to 300ohm), or quite a serious soundcard with a dedicated headphone amp built in (usually only available on higher end models).
No amount of software will be able to power high impedance phones, it's not possible, it's the hardware that has the limitation. These types of headphones sound useless in your every day headphone jack like iphone, PC etc etc. It's not until you have a dedicated source powerful enough that you'll get the most out of the headphones.
So if I was using my headphones doing some music on my mac, I'd have the mac plugged into the soundcard via usb, then an output from the soundcard to the headphone amp to drive the phones.
They have lower impedance so that many of them can be plugged into the same source (for use in studios etc) without overpowering the amp.
For these, you'd either need quite a high end soundcard (I have a Komplete Audio 6 and it isn't powerful enough to drive my SRH1840's which are only 32ohm, let alone my SRH840's which are 100ohm. They still work fine, but there's no definition to the music, it's not alive like you'd expect, and the volumes too low even ramped up as high as you can go.
For this scenario, you either need a dedicated headphone amp (I've got the Schiit Lyr 2 which is powerful as hell for the price and will drive anything up to 300ohm), or quite a serious soundcard with a dedicated headphone amp built in (usually only available on higher end models).
No amount of software will be able to power high impedance phones, it's not possible, it's the hardware that has the limitation. These types of headphones sound useless in your every day headphone jack like iphone, PC etc etc. It's not until you have a dedicated source powerful enough that you'll get the most out of the headphones.
So if I was using my headphones doing some music on my mac, I'd have the mac plugged into the soundcard via usb, then an output from the soundcard to the headphone amp to drive the phones.
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