nytmarezz
Head-Fier
- Joined
- Oct 10, 2004
- Posts
- 79
- Likes
- 10
Ok so, I'm pretty tired, I need to sleep, work tommorow, so sorry if this thread is a bit lacking in the grammer dept.
The backstory..........
I currently have some Audio-Technica ATH-A500s which I drive unamped from my Creative X-Fi in my computer. I also have some Klipsch ProMedia 5.1 Ultra speakers hooked up to it too. The problem is switching between the two.
Problem 1: The headphone out on the speaker control box is a waste of time with a lot of noise on the line as well as distortion, so I can't use that. Its not a defect as far as I can tell, just a feature added more as an afterthought thus poorly designed.
Problem 2: As of right now, when I switch from speakers to headphones, I physically get on my hands and knees and switch out the cables, then turn the X-Fi's volume down to 40% or so and switch to headphone mode. It is too much work.
My proposed solution....
Using a guide I recently read in MaximumPC, build a little internal X-Fi headphone adapter and buy an amp. This way when I turn the amp on, the X-Fi drivers should automatically detect a headphone as being plugged in and switch it to headphone mode and I can keep the volume on 100% and control the volume on the amp iteself, acting as an independent volume control just like the speaker's control box.
So my question to you is........
Given what you have read above and that some day I plan to get some new headphones which may benefit from an amp (such as some Beyer DT-770s?) what would you reccomend as a budget-as-possible amp for my needs of an external volume control?
What I have looked at..........
I noticed the PA2V2 has been reccomended more than a few times as a budget amp choice. It seems to be available cheap (around $70 shipped?) and seems to have a decent reputation here. Although it seems to be marketed as a portable amp, since it would be part of my stationary setup here, I think it can be hooked up without batteries or I could be wrong (?) from the pictures I see of it hooked up with it's power cable.
The backstory..........
I currently have some Audio-Technica ATH-A500s which I drive unamped from my Creative X-Fi in my computer. I also have some Klipsch ProMedia 5.1 Ultra speakers hooked up to it too. The problem is switching between the two.
Problem 1: The headphone out on the speaker control box is a waste of time with a lot of noise on the line as well as distortion, so I can't use that. Its not a defect as far as I can tell, just a feature added more as an afterthought thus poorly designed.
Problem 2: As of right now, when I switch from speakers to headphones, I physically get on my hands and knees and switch out the cables, then turn the X-Fi's volume down to 40% or so and switch to headphone mode. It is too much work.
My proposed solution....
Using a guide I recently read in MaximumPC, build a little internal X-Fi headphone adapter and buy an amp. This way when I turn the amp on, the X-Fi drivers should automatically detect a headphone as being plugged in and switch it to headphone mode and I can keep the volume on 100% and control the volume on the amp iteself, acting as an independent volume control just like the speaker's control box.
So my question to you is........
Given what you have read above and that some day I plan to get some new headphones which may benefit from an amp (such as some Beyer DT-770s?) what would you reccomend as a budget-as-possible amp for my needs of an external volume control?
What I have looked at..........
I noticed the PA2V2 has been reccomended more than a few times as a budget amp choice. It seems to be available cheap (around $70 shipped?) and seems to have a decent reputation here. Although it seems to be marketed as a portable amp, since it would be part of my stationary setup here, I think it can be hooked up without batteries or I could be wrong (?) from the pictures I see of it hooked up with it's power cable.
