Asus Xonar DX problem
Oct 3, 2013 at 5:25 AM Post #16 of 30
It seems that it only has an unamplified high impedance line level out. It might be able to drive very low impedance headphones somewhat but even they will be affected adversely by the high output impedance from the DX's output socket. Unless you have a amp/headphone amp to connect to the DX's line out I'd say you bought the wrong card for the job.

you must have missed my other post, I am getting an amp :p
And I think he/she is right, cause I was looking at a few creative cards and just about all of them had an amplifier
 
Oct 5, 2013 at 4:45 AM Post #20 of 30
  So has no one got any solutions :/ ?

 
Your card may be faulty but it is really hard to diagnose problems remotely from a forum. Have a look at this thread http://techreport.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=75773 for some ideas but if it doesn't offer any solutions I'd just return it and buy the Xonar DG or a similar spec creative card with an onboard amp. 
 
Good luck and let us know how you get on.
 
Oct 5, 2013 at 5:00 AM Post #21 of 30
   
Your card may be faulty but it is really hard to diagnose problems remotely from a forum. Have a look at this thread http://techreport.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=75773 for some ideas but if it doesn't offer any solutions I'd just return it and buy the Xonar DG or a similar spec creative card with an onboard amp. 
 
Good luck and let us know how you get on.

 
Cheers mate, I'll have a look at it
 
Oct 8, 2013 at 8:09 PM Post #22 of 30
Ok well I think I'm just going to return it. Obviously my computer has some issue with Xonar, is it worth getting creative? I've heard a lot of good things about them and a lot of bad things about them.. I dunno what to believe...
Hell, is a sound card actually needed if I get an external DAC instead?
BTW, I got my DT 990 250 Ohm pros now, which will be what I will use mainly for this setup. 
 
Oct 8, 2013 at 8:27 PM Post #23 of 30
Ok maybe I should take that back.. I tried it with the DT 990s and they sound great!! Maybe it was the V-modas after all :)
 
However, Dolby Digital Live dosent work at all..only PCM...will that be an issue?
 
Oct 8, 2013 at 9:16 PM Post #24 of 30
Also the Xonar DX will only drive the 250-Ohm DT990 headphones to no louder then just above a whisper.

Well, I got them now, and it seems to drive them fine, surprisingly enough. Does the fact that I have them plugged into the volume module/interface thingy on my Z2300's make any difference? I mean they sound pretty good, will the amp be worth it? I already got it off ebay and its on the way, but I just wanna know if I have spent my money well..
 
Oct 8, 2013 at 9:37 PM Post #25 of 30
  Well, I got them now, and it seems to drive them fine, surprisingly enough. Does the fact that I have them plugged into the volume module/interface thingy on my Z2300's make any difference? I mean they sound pretty good, will the amp be worth it? I already got it off ebay and its on the way, but I just wanna know if I have spent my money well..

If you are referring to the 3.5mm jack on the Z2300 console, then yes it matters since the speakers are now acting as an amp. I still recommend a proper headphone amp because the signal coming to the console is extremely bad; you should be hearing noise when you have your headphones plugged in but not playing any sound.
 
Oct 9, 2013 at 1:13 AM Post #26 of 30
  If you are referring to the 3.5mm jack on the Z2300 console, then yes it matters since the speakers are now acting as an amp. I still recommend a proper headphone amp because the signal coming to the console is extremely bad; you should be hearing noise when you have your headphones plugged in but not playing any sound.

 
I did expect that, but surprisingly, no! Could it be the fact that these headphones have such high impedance?
 
Oct 9, 2013 at 1:39 AM Post #27 of 30
   
I did expect that, but surprisingly, no! Could it be the fact that these headphones have such high impedance?

It could very well be, I just tried it on myHD650 which is 300 Ohm and could hardly hear the hiss. On my IEM is a different story. However now you have another problem, can you be certain that the speakers are not introducing some kind of distortion/EQ onto the sound? On my Altec Lansing speakers I can definitely tell that there is an increased amount of bass. If this does not bother you then all the better, that's some money saved until you can truly justify spending money on a headphone amp later down the track.
 
Oct 9, 2013 at 6:17 AM Post #28 of 30
  It could very well be, I just tried it on myHD650 which is 300 Ohm and could hardly hear the hiss. On my IEM is a different story. However now you have another problem, can you be certain that the speakers are not introducing some kind of distortion/EQ onto the sound? On my Altec Lansing speakers I can definitely tell that there is an increased amount of bass. If this does not bother you then all the better, that's some money saved until you can truly justify spending money on a headphone amp later down the track.

 
Hmm, well, I've got them running out of the DX, like I said, which appears to produce pretty clean sound, but I have a PA2V2 amp on the way! Just thought it was a bit odd that they were working through the volume module, didn't realise they were being amplified by the system itself
 
Oct 9, 2013 at 7:23 AM Post #29 of 30
Is it possible that you connected the V-modas to one of the surround channel jacks (that is, anything other than "front") ? Those have 22 uF output capacitors, and will remove most of the bass when driving a low impedance headphone.
 
Oct 9, 2013 at 7:32 AM Post #30 of 30
  It seems that it only has an unamplified high impedance line level out. It might be able to drive very low impedance headphones somewhat but even they will be affected adversely by the high output impedance from the DX's output socket.

 
With a very high impedance output, using low impedance headphones does not help:
 
32 Ω: max. voltage = 1.94 * 32 / (32 + 100) = 0.47 Vrms, max. power = 0.47 * 0.47 / 32 = 6.9 mW
250 Ω: max. voltage = 1.94 * 250 / (250 + 100) = 1.39 Vrms, max. power = 1.39 * 1.39 / 250 = 7.7 mW
 
So, the card actually drives 250 Ω headphones slightly better than 32 Ω ones, and the latter are more affected by the output impedance and capacitors. However, the V-modas are likely still louder than the DT990 because of their probably better efficiency.
 
The above applies to the "front channel" output. The others have only a few Ω of impedance, but with the 22 uF (as opposed to 220 on the front channels) capacitors there is bass roll-off under 200 Hz when driving 32 Ω headphones, and also much higher distortion because these outputs cannot handle low impedance loads as well.
 

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