Personal computing discussed
Moderators: renee, Captain Ned
Meadows wrote:You really shouldn't have an objection to the bolded text, unless you have an objection to using words in accordance with their appropriate definition.I would also advise you to stay away from comments like "it makes it sound warmer" or "sound gets cleaner" or things like that, because I'm interested in neither the thermometer readings you get from next to your speakers, nor how much coffee and cherry juice stains make sound "unclean", so please phrase clearly.
nerdrage wrote:Basically, the headphone output amplifier on most devices is a very cheap, low quality component. Typically, it will have a difficult time driving the higher impedance of high-quality headphones. It will still work, but the sound quality will suffer, especially the bass.
You can think of it like the difference between the speaker amplifier in your typical cheapo boombox and the amplifier in a real hi-fi amp. If you plug REAL hi-fi speakers into the boombox, it's going to sound bad because the crappy boombox amp can't handle the impedance or the current demands. It will still work, but the sound quality will suffer, and the bass will sound like crap.
A headphone amp solves this problem by presenting the crappy device's output stage with an easy to drive impedance, and then amplifying the signal with high-quality components.
mattsteg wrote:You really shouldn't have an objection to the bolded text, unless you have an objection to using words in accordance with their appropriate definition.
drsauced wrote:Since you've forbade us from expounding the auditory virtues of using an external headphone amplifier in terms of whack-o language, I'll say a good amp just might knock your socks off.
drsauced wrote:Since you've forbade us from expounding the auditory virtues of using an external headphone amplifier in terms of whack-o language, I'll say a good amp just might knock your socks off.
I wrote:All is well if people say that sound gets cleaner, clearer, more crystaline, genuine, alkaline or anything, so long as they explain it in meaningful English terms, such as talking about frequency curve deltas, altered low- or high limits, or even if the behaviour of the magnet drivers is changed. I'm not interested in grand royal adjectives, because I'm expecting them - I pretty much know that all people above entry-level audiophiles will invariably have a headphone amp as well. I'm just interested in the hows and why's.
morphine wrote:Bottom line is: if you use some good cans and/or push the volume up, your sound quality will be a lot better with a proper headphone amp.
drsauced wrote:As far as sound cards, most of them you buy nowadays have some sort of decent quality headphone amp built into it. The Asus Xonars (the Essence especially) do, as do most of the Auzentech X-Fi clones as well.
Captain Ned wrote:Time to bring back boards with audiophile pretensions, like the AOpen AX4B with its 6922 pre-amp tube and massive coupling capacitors.
just brew it! wrote:Captain Ned wrote:Time to bring back boards with audiophile pretensions, like the AOpen AX4B with its 6922 pre-amp tube and massive coupling capacitors.
The thing that really cracked me up about that one was the fact that they were still using a Realtek codec...
just brew it! wrote:Asus and DFI seem to do a reasonably good job with their onboard audio. MSI (and Gigabyte, apparently) not so much.
morphine wrote:just brew it! wrote:Asus and DFI seem to do a reasonably good job with their onboard audio. MSI (and Gigabyte, apparently) not so much.
FWIW, I kicked my Audigy 2 ZS Pro to the curb due to the Realtek implementation on my Gigabyte 965P-DS3 being more than good enough (at least better than what I got from Creative).
sluggo wrote:Personally, I think Realtek gets a mostly undeserved bad rap. Because they provide the lowest-cost solution they're often coupled with the lowest-cost, worst-case implementations, the combination of which can lead to some truly crap sound. The specs on their mainstream parts are good enough for most listening as long as the associated parts and layout are up to snuff. My DFI motherboards used Realtek codecs on their audio modules and I didn't hear any of the noise that I'm getting now on a much newer Gigabyte motherboard which uses a Realtek part with marginally better specs.
ludi wrote:I wouldn't know about their recent stuff, but the last RealTek board where I tried to use the onboard a few years ago was smearing the high frequency range in a fashion that sounded like a badly encoded mp3. That doesn't come from a bad board implementation; it comes from a bad codec implementation. I'm glad to hear they've improved since then, but IMO they earned their reputation fairly.
Also, re: your earlier comments, have you actually tested the voltage coming from a PC headphone jack? There's nothing to prevent a soundcard manufacturer from using a DC-to-DC switching converter to obtain acceptable output swing.
ludi wrote:Also, re: your earlier comments, have you actually tested the voltage coming from a PC headphone jack? There's nothing to prevent a soundcard manufacturer from using a DC-to-DC switching converter to obtain acceptable output swing.