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The Audigy2 is meant to be hooked to powered speakers or ordinary low-impedance headphones, not audiophile gear. It simply does not have enough current capacity to drive the great-sounding but inefficient HD-650s. If you want to hook up your headphones directly to the sound card, you will need more efficient drivers. I use a pair of Sony MDR-F1 when playing games on my PC, with an Audigy2, no problems driving it to high volumes.
When I listen to music, however, I drive a pair of HD-650 with a Headroom portable amplifier/DAC combo from my Mac. I use a DAC rather than the built-in sound card because I don't trust the sound card to be effectively shielded from all the electromagnetic interferences bouncing around the computer case.
One thing to keep in mind is that like any amplifier, if you drive the Audigy's built in amp too far, it will start generating distortion and possibly even damage your headphones and/or sound card.
I wouldn't return the HD-650 if I were you - they are a great pair of headphones, at least if you like a natural un-exaggerated presentation for classical music. The first step would be to get a headphone amplifier to supply the juice the headphones need. Headphone amplifiers can be very cheap like a CMoy, but if you want something that will last longer, expect to pay in the $200-$300 range for a Gilmore lite, Headroom Little, Emmeline SR-71 or any of the usual suspects.
As a later step, you could upgrade to an external DAC (the Audigy2 headphone jack can be switched in software to become a SPDIF coaxial digital out port with an adapter that should have been supplied with your card). If you have a home theater with surround sound, you could hook it up to your amplifier's digital coax in port to see if you like the sound quality from the Audigy compared to your CD player's built-in DAC. The Audigy 4 has the top-rated Cirrus CS4398 DAC chips ( http://www.guru3d.com/article/sound/182/2/ ), so you might want to upgrade to another sound card instead.
| Originally Posted by Apocalypse_HD650 I don't get it brat-it's like when you have an audigy 2-its like your not even remotely in the game as far as decent audio is concerned in headfi. But when your buying your PC rig its like the only decent choice-or so it seems to be. Do you use your porta corda with the 650's and audigy 2 zs? |
The Audigy2 is meant to be hooked to powered speakers or ordinary low-impedance headphones, not audiophile gear. It simply does not have enough current capacity to drive the great-sounding but inefficient HD-650s. If you want to hook up your headphones directly to the sound card, you will need more efficient drivers. I use a pair of Sony MDR-F1 when playing games on my PC, with an Audigy2, no problems driving it to high volumes.
When I listen to music, however, I drive a pair of HD-650 with a Headroom portable amplifier/DAC combo from my Mac. I use a DAC rather than the built-in sound card because I don't trust the sound card to be effectively shielded from all the electromagnetic interferences bouncing around the computer case.
One thing to keep in mind is that like any amplifier, if you drive the Audigy's built in amp too far, it will start generating distortion and possibly even damage your headphones and/or sound card.
I wouldn't return the HD-650 if I were you - they are a great pair of headphones, at least if you like a natural un-exaggerated presentation for classical music. The first step would be to get a headphone amplifier to supply the juice the headphones need. Headphone amplifiers can be very cheap like a CMoy, but if you want something that will last longer, expect to pay in the $200-$300 range for a Gilmore lite, Headroom Little, Emmeline SR-71 or any of the usual suspects.
As a later step, you could upgrade to an external DAC (the Audigy2 headphone jack can be switched in software to become a SPDIF coaxial digital out port with an adapter that should have been supplied with your card). If you have a home theater with surround sound, you could hook it up to your amplifier's digital coax in port to see if you like the sound quality from the Audigy compared to your CD player's built-in DAC. The Audigy 4 has the top-rated Cirrus CS4398 DAC chips ( http://www.guru3d.com/article/sound/182/2/ ), so you might want to upgrade to another sound card instead.
