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Headphone Amplifier Question

S

sh33p

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Sep 14, 2001
Messages
1,233
I just got a pair of Sennheiser HD 280 pros, and they don't seem to get loud enough coming out of my computers sound card. I also have a pair of logitech z680s and I was thinking of buying an optical cable to hook them to my computer and use it's headphone jack to see if I could get more power. But people have told me it won't be any different that I need a headphone amp. Can anyone point me in the right direction here? I would appreciate it, thanks.
 
Which sound card are you using, specifically? The HD 280 are low impedance, moderately-high sensitivity cans, so if you're pushing your levels to the max, odds are you should be getting eardrum-shattering volume -- at least with many sound cards.

Just as an example here, when using my HD 280 with my Prelude, connected directly to the front/headphone jack, I get "front row center" sound pressure playing back most music at around 25% on the master. At around 10% is where I find the volume to be "comfortable".

Check and make sure your Wave volume is maxed and that any applications you're using are also maxed.
 
I dunno how good the Z680 headphone out is, but generally, speakers' headphone outs suck. Also, I really don't think the HD 280 need much by way of amps. So maybe something is up with your computer's settings?
 
I'm using integrated sound from my Gigabyte S series (realtek HD audio)
I have volume maxed, winamp maxed, and wave almost maxed. It seems to make the sound to tiny at max.
 
Still seems unusual to me. All of the outputs should be pushing line level (save for the front left/front right output, which should be impedance-switching), and line level is generally more than adequate for headphones.

It's doubtful, but your HD280 may be defective in some way. Try using them with an iPod, a receiver, or anything else that has anything that resembles a headphone jack. If nothing else has any issue driving them, try the Z680's built-in amp and see if that makes any difference.
 
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