Hello, hopefully the title doesn't make me sound like I'm fresh into the scene - but after several years into the audiophile hobby I came across an interesting scenario and would like some feedback in order to avoid damaging my equipment... or in order to 'spread the wealth' if this really is a good theory!
PS- I wanted to post this in the headphone amp section but the notes suggested I use the Help & Recommendations area - but feel free to let me know if you think I should move this thread to another section.
The question:Would it be advisable to connect the output of an amplified soundcard to the input of a headphone amp?
The scenario: Having already owned a Schiit Magni headphone amp + Modi DAC for 6 months, I just got a new laptop a few days ago. It's a Sager NP4658 and the feature relevant to this thread is that it has a "Sound Blaster Cinema Amplified Headphone output". Skeptical of how a soundcard would drive headphones versus a headphone amp, I let it sit on the back-burner for a few days and just finally got around to auditioning it yesterday - then I had a MAJOR What moment! Seriously man, the built in amplified soundcard on the laptop sounded better than my Schiit Magni + Modi combo... by a noticeable amount anyway.
After (at least an initial) A/B comparison playing the same part of the same song at a similar (perceived) volume with several pro-headphones (Beyer. DT 880 32 ohm, Shure SRH-940 with a cotton mod under the pads, Denon AH D750 & SoundMagic HP 100, my impressions are that the built in soundcard gave a sound that was more "direct" feeling versus the sound from my amp which was more like the sound is coming from a bit 'farther down the hallway', which is probably attributable to the fact that the path the signal travels in a soundcard is much less than that of a DAC+AMP setup. Furthermore the soundcard seemed to put out a sound that it maybe 5-10% more dynamic or "punchy", with about the same amount of additional detail in the texture of the highs.
Next I thought I'd try connecting my Magni amp directly to the amplified soundcard of my laptop (using a 3.5mm headphone to RCA left/right adapter) for a possible even better sound. Assuming a possible risk of overload to either of the paired components I only tested it for a moment, but WOW, I've gotta tell you it seemed to sound even better, with even better fine detail retrieval and perhaps better dynamics too... But that's it - no more connecting an amped output to another amp until I can get a good answer: Would this cause either the soundcard or the amp to overload - if not both of them? If so then is there some leeway; say for a matter of minutes, hours, etc. that I can get away with it before pushing it too far?
BTW, I've contacted the laptop manufacturer and they did not have the specs for the amount of ohms / watts of the amplified soundcard, but I do know the the Magni amp is rated at 1.2W RMS per channel while driving a 32 ohm headphone.
I think the concept of pairing 2 amps together is enticing - but is this revolutionary or just another science fail? Thanks all!
PS- I wanted to post this in the headphone amp section but the notes suggested I use the Help & Recommendations area - but feel free to let me know if you think I should move this thread to another section.
The question:Would it be advisable to connect the output of an amplified soundcard to the input of a headphone amp?
The scenario: Having already owned a Schiit Magni headphone amp + Modi DAC for 6 months, I just got a new laptop a few days ago. It's a Sager NP4658 and the feature relevant to this thread is that it has a "Sound Blaster Cinema Amplified Headphone output". Skeptical of how a soundcard would drive headphones versus a headphone amp, I let it sit on the back-burner for a few days and just finally got around to auditioning it yesterday - then I had a MAJOR What moment! Seriously man, the built in amplified soundcard on the laptop sounded better than my Schiit Magni + Modi combo... by a noticeable amount anyway.
After (at least an initial) A/B comparison playing the same part of the same song at a similar (perceived) volume with several pro-headphones (Beyer. DT 880 32 ohm, Shure SRH-940 with a cotton mod under the pads, Denon AH D750 & SoundMagic HP 100, my impressions are that the built in soundcard gave a sound that was more "direct" feeling versus the sound from my amp which was more like the sound is coming from a bit 'farther down the hallway', which is probably attributable to the fact that the path the signal travels in a soundcard is much less than that of a DAC+AMP setup. Furthermore the soundcard seemed to put out a sound that it maybe 5-10% more dynamic or "punchy", with about the same amount of additional detail in the texture of the highs.
Next I thought I'd try connecting my Magni amp directly to the amplified soundcard of my laptop (using a 3.5mm headphone to RCA left/right adapter) for a possible even better sound. Assuming a possible risk of overload to either of the paired components I only tested it for a moment, but WOW, I've gotta tell you it seemed to sound even better, with even better fine detail retrieval and perhaps better dynamics too... But that's it - no more connecting an amped output to another amp until I can get a good answer: Would this cause either the soundcard or the amp to overload - if not both of them? If so then is there some leeway; say for a matter of minutes, hours, etc. that I can get away with it before pushing it too far?
BTW, I've contacted the laptop manufacturer and they did not have the specs for the amount of ohms / watts of the amplified soundcard, but I do know the the Magni amp is rated at 1.2W RMS per channel while driving a 32 ohm headphone.
I think the concept of pairing 2 amps together is enticing - but is this revolutionary or just another science fail? Thanks all!