[LordJezo]

 
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So I have never had a decent set of headphones before and don't know how loud I can listen to things on them.  Using them unamped on my onboard audio, can I blow them out if I turn the volume up in Windows?  Or are these things designed to take at the very least whatever my PC can throw at them?
 
Using a couple year old Gigabyte motherboard with on board Realtek audio stuff.
 
It's not that I am playing them loud enough that I feel like I was front row at a concert when I take them off, but some of the files I have are a bit crappy and they sound bad on the phones, not because the 840s are bad, but because the music is garbage quality.  I hear pops and static in them that I never noticed before, will that damage them?  Almost sounds like my crappy headphones if you turn them up too loud, how those couldn't handle the sound, but these maybe are just bringing all that to light.
 
Or something.
 
(right forum this time, sorry about that)
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[Arctia]

Pretty sure you will go deaf before your headphones will blow out.
 
Keep them on your head. Anything that can blow out the headphone will blow your ears out first.

 

[ohaider]

I agree with Arctia, turn the volume down before you damage your ears.
 
You'll probably solve your problem getting some high quality mp3's or even just going lossless. When I started using lossless tracks, I turned the volume way down and I could still here everything -- about 20%. Also, the popping and static could be from the low quality tracks or some kind of interference.

 

[LordJezo]

Ok cool, thanks.  I just wanted to make sure I can't damage the head phones.  I normally have the volume set at 50% or lower, I guess I shouldn't have much of a problem them keeping these alive.