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question about auzentech prelude without headphone amp

post #1 of 9
7/20/09 at 5:16pm
Thread Starter 
Hello all,

A couple years ago I bought UE Triple-fis and they were powered fine by my sound card, but recently I decided I wanted to see what full-size headphones sounded like and got myself a HD600. After trying them out I noticed that my comfortable listening range was basically at 100% volume or close, this made me assume they were underpowered.

I noticed in the audio creation mode control panel, under the ASIO section(I used asio out of foobar), there is a level which goes up to +12db. This makes them comfortable to listen at around 50% and they appear to much sound better.

My question is, do you think this is actually doing anything or am I crazy? Is this the same as raising the volume on my music? Songs near full volume will probably start clipping?

I'm going to try to figure it out myself, but I figured I'd ask to see if any
one knew. I thought maybe I could be raising the voltage sent to the opamp or something like that without clipping



thanks

edit: after listening to many different types of music I can say this has drastically improved the sound of all of it... it takes the headphones to another level
if anyone else has a prelude and wants to try it out, that would be cool. or maybe this is common knowledge already and I missed it
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post #2 of 9
7/20/09 at 8:16pm
Well, taking 50% amplitude and then adding +12 db (which would multiply the amplitude by almost 4) will give you a lot louder than 100% volume. The +12 db is still just a digital gain increase, and anything louder than 100% should cause clipping.

Prelude is kind of weird though (actually I'd dare say most sound card drivers seem to be weird). It's hard to really say where the maximum headroom amount is, and even the 0-100 volume control does not seem to be a percentage at all (not on Vista at least).

But if you have to go to these measures to try to get a reasonable volume, an amp might be helpful.
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post #3 of 9
7/20/09 at 8:41pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rempert View Post
Prelude is kind of weird though (actually I'd dare say most sound card drivers seem to be weird). It's hard to really say where the maximum headroom amount is, and even the 0-100 volume control does not seem to be a percentage at all (not on Vista at least).
100% is maximum. Use that. If you also use EQ's or effects it may clip so keep those off.
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post #4 of 9
7/20/09 at 9:05pm
Thread Starter 
I made a 60hz wave at max amplitute(1) in audacity.

when playing it through foobar2000 asio with the prelude set to +0db it sounds like the same tone as when set to +12db, of course not as loud. I can't hear any clipping at all, when it is really apparent if I add even 1db to the source file.
I even cranked up the windows volume pretty high, past comfortable listening, in conjunction with it and noticed no flaws.

does this sound like a valid way to confirm that there is no clipping produced by the prelude db gain? I'm pretty sure it's not straining the card in any other way either, only because everything sounds better(more natrual, open, and soft).

I wish I knew exactly what it was doing, but I am pleasantly surprised. why wouldn't it ship like this?
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post #5 of 9
7/21/09 at 6:43pm
With 300 ohm headphones, I'd get a headphone amp. I used to plug my 50 ohm HD595 directly into the Prelude, and it was loud enough, but some areas in the music were weak. I've since got a little dot mk V and HD600 running off the Prelude - definitely no issues driving phones now.
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post #6 of 9
3/11/10 at 4:36am
I honestly haven't had issues driving Beyer DT770 250ohm version on the Prelude's out without an amp. It plays plenty loud under 50% volume and I am not getting any thinness in the sound.
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post #7 of 9
9/26/11 at 6:38am

How do you guys get the volume up so loud? I can listen to my ER4P comfortably at 100% volume... that's with 27Ohms.

The sound is thin too, so I'm pretty sure it's underpowered.

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post #8 of 9
9/26/11 at 9:25am

Windows:

 

Start > Settings > Control Panel > Sounds and Audio Devices

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post #9 of 9
10/2/11 at 8:34am

Um, I mentioned 100% volume, so it's all maxed out there. It's all maxed out in the mixer as well.

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