Head-Fi.org › Forums › Equipment Forums › Computer Audio › Noob question of the day: What kind of effect would a bad DAC/Amp/Soundcard present
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Noob question of the day: What kind of effect would a bad DAC/Amp/Soundcard present

post #1 of 6
2/11/12 at 4:19am
Thread Starter 

Hi guys. On my desktop computer my soundcard is some kind of realtek card. I think it must have a pretty powerful amp in it as loud for me is winamp at 80% and windows at 40%. If I put it up full volume it would blow my headphones for sure... I have Beyerdynamic DT770 pro 250OHM. My question is what kind of things do you expect to hear if the amp/dac of the card isn't every good. I am getting an e17 soon so this should clear it up a bit for me. My soundcard sounds alright, but when you start to turn it up IDK it doesn't seem to great. I am using standard 3.5mm headphone jack until I get the e17 in which case I will use SPDIF. Is this in my head or not? I know that on my laptop (lenovo x220i) that the soundcard is bad (don't know what make). It doesn't go very loud and completely changes the sound of the song. So what's your experience with the sound of bad sound cards or possibly interference from other things on the motherboard?  I don't have much to compare it to as I am new to this, but I'm sure a lot of you have heard the A1 quality systems. 

Reply
post #2 of 6
2/11/12 at 5:01am

Do you hear any noise when the volume is turned up (a common problem with onboard audio) ?

There can be many reasons why the sound is not great at high (or any) volume, and it can even be a limitation of the headphones. The best way to know would be with some loopback tests with the headphone used as load (a 2 male/1 female Y-splitter would be needed for this), at the intended volume setting that is loud but does not sound good. Anyway, the E17 should fix any quality issues cause by the Realtek audio.

 

Reply
post #3 of 6
2/11/12 at 7:11am
Thread Starter 

Yes, I am pretty sure I can hear noise at loud volumes (other than the music of course). so what you mean is feed the male from the headphone to the microphone port and then do the thing where you invert the audio against the real song. If I hear noise then something is going wrong with the sound card. I would have my E17 right now if mp4nation ordered more of them. I pre-ordered it the day it came on the website and still I got knocked back to the second shipment. I think they only shipped the e17's to the people which picked the fedex shipping option. I picked the headphones with the mic to use with my phone lol. 

Reply
post #4 of 6
2/11/12 at 7:14am
Thread Starter 

By the way what's the best ratio for windows to winamp volumes. Does it make a difference? I thought of it as winamp is the source and windows is like an amplifier volume but maybe it makes no difference. I did 80% winamp and whatever volume I want to listen at windows. Am I being a noobie thinking it makes a difference? 

Reply
post #5 of 6
2/11/12 at 8:39am
Quote:
Originally Posted by ebmp19 View Post

Yes, I am pretty sure I can hear noise at loud volumes (other than the music of course).

 

I meant noise like hiss, humming, buzz, etc. even when music is not playing.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by ebmp19 View Post

so what you mean is feed the male from the headphone to the microphone port


Since you have already ordered the E17, it is probably not worth bothering with.

 

Reply
post #6 of 6
2/11/12 at 7:29pm
Thread Starter 

No, I don't hear noise when nothing is playing. I did a short time ago, but that was because the cable was ****ed and I sent them back to beyer to be repaired. 

Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Computer Audio
Head-Fi.org › Forums › Equipment Forums › Computer Audio › Noob question of the day: What kind of effect would a bad DAC/Amp/Soundcard present