[XGP15A-II]

Hello, I stumbled into this forum last night and read and learned many things, and I gradually became deeply concerned that my sound card (HT OMEGA Claro Plus+) does not adequately "drive" my headphones, the Audio Technica ATH-A700.

If I'm right, a sound card speaker/headphone out is good for set of headphones with 32 or less ohm impedance. My headphones are 64 ohm, so maybe I need something more, like an amplifier or something, between the sound card and the headphones. It is hard to tell. I have had these headphones plugged into this sound card for over a year. It was my first venture into "high quality" audio, so even if, all of this time, I have not been fully utilizing my headphones, I admit they still sound great to me.

Now, I know that if I plug my headphones straight into, say, my Zune mp3 player, they sound, uh, wispy, weak, you know - I suppose the way that headphones naturally sound when underpowered by their source. I had never considered that the sound of my headphones when directly plugged into my PC's sound card could also be the sound of headphones powered by too-weak a source - if to a far lesser degree than the example with the Zune mp3 player.

Do any of you have any comments or thoughts about this? Do you think I am getting worked up over nothing, or do you think there really is something to this, that I really can get more out of my headphones, if I plugged them into some sort of amplifier? If so, I guess I'll need to go to the amplifier forum and ask questions there.

 

[eneloquent]

It depends on your sound card. Other attributes to consider as well are whether your software/soundcard is manipulating your music (DSP) and the quality with which the DAC handles the digital stream.

This may wind up being steered towards the Computer Audio forum, to be honest, if your only application for your headphones is your PC - there are sound cards designed specifically to drive headphones the way a smaller SS amp would, and would be more than adequate for realizing the potential of the ATH-A700s.

 

[foaming at the ears]

I have a Claro+... and depending on the headphone, an amp makes a small or big (or anywhere in between) difference. I don't know what an amp would do for your A700.

But, if you're happy with the sound, I wouldn't get too worked about "what you're missing," lest you be prepared to lots of money to improve your sound.

 

[Necrolic]

With the low end ATs I find that an amp does NOT make a huge difference in sound like it would with a higher end headphone.

After about the A900ti it starts getting a lot of improvement with an amp.

 

[XGP15A-II]

Thanks for all of the replies!