[simondid]

hey

so i goth a pair of Sennheiser momentum 2 headphones, which has 18 ohms impedance

i'm looking to get a creative sound blaster zx sound card which has a 20 - 22 ohms impedance as what i can find on the internet.

i'v been made aware that the headphones impedance shut minimum be 8 times higher than the output impedance.

this means that the headphone impedance for use the with creative sound blaster zx sound card as minimum shut the 8*20 = 160 ohms which sound kinda crazy to me as a large part of the headphone market is below the 160 ohms minimum can this be true??

 

[MindsMirror]

The Soundblaster Z's headphone amp is not it's strongest suit. If you are considering that card for it's other features (mic/recording input, surround output, SPDIF, DSP) then it could be a reasonable option, but as just a DAC + HP amp combo you can do better. The Z has a good Cirrus Logic stereo DAC chip, but the headphone output doesn't use it, it uses the Sound Core 3D chip. There's also the output impedance of the amp, which is why I say it's not great as a DAC + HP amp combo.

If you do need the other features of a sound card then the AE-5 might be worth a look. I don't know much about it. If you don't need anything other than a dedicated DAC + HP amp then something like the Schiit Fulla 2 or Fiio E10k might do better.

 

[simondid]

my use of the sound card is gonna use the following features headphone output, mic input, SPDIF output which is kinda the reason i'm looking for a soundcard and not an external dac amp combo as they lack some of the features is mic noise reduction and environmental noise reduction on the mic side of things. i have also been told that i might experience input lag from an external dac amp altho this shut not be a regular thing

can you recommend a sound card which has a better headphone output setup/circuit ?

 

[MindsMirror]

The SBZ is the only one I know anything about from experience. The AE-5 is Creative's new replacement for the Z series as far as I know so I would probably consider that over there Zx. Since you are using those other features I do think the Z is a good option at it's price, particularly if you plan to upgrade to a dedicated HP amp in the future. You can utilize the good DAC with an external amp if you connect it to the stereo direct output. If you don't plan on upgrading the amp, I think the AE-5 supposedly has a discrete amp circuit which is probably better than the Z's.

 

[PurpleAngel]

hey
so i goth a pair of Sennheiser momentum 2 headphones, which has 18 ohms impedance
I'm looking to get a creative sound blaster zx sound card which has a 20 - 22 ohms impedance as what i can find on the internet.
I've been made aware that the headphones impedance shut minimum be 8 times higher than the output impedance.
this means that the headphone impedance for use the with creative sound blaster zx sound card as minimum shut the 8*20 = 160 ohms which sound kinda crazy to me as a large part of the headphone market is below the 160 ohms minimum can this be true??

It's a guideline and recommendation to have the headphone's impedance to be at least 8 to 10 times the impedance of whatever source (headphone amplifier?) the headphones are plugged into.
But I will plug my 40-Ohm headphones into a headphone amplifier that has a 10-Ohm impedance and the headphone sounds fine.
Even 32-Ohm headphones still sound fairly good plugged into a 10-Ohm source.

The Sound Blaster Z & Zx headphone jack does have a 22-Ohm output impedance.
Chances are if you plugged the 18-Ohm Sennheiser Momentum 2.0 in the Z or Zx's headphone jack, at most you might get a slightly bloated (louder and less detailed) bass.

You might consider buying an Asus Xonar DX sound card and a FiiO A3 headphone amplifier.
The A3's headphone amplifier has an output impedance of less then 1-Ohm.

 

[PurpleAngel]

The Soundblaster Z's headphone amp is not it's strongest suit. If you are considering that card for it's other features (mic/recording input, surround output, SPDIF, DSP) then it could be a reasonable option, but as just a DAC + HP amp combo you can do better. The Z has a good Cirrus Logic stereo DAC chip, but the headphone output doesn't use it, it uses the Sound Core 3D chip. There's also the output impedance of the amp, which is why I say it's not great as a DAC + HP amp combo.
If you do need the other features of a sound card then the AE-5 might be worth a look. I don't know much about it. If you don't need anything other than a dedicated DAC + HP amp then something like the Schiit Fulla 2 or Fiio E10k might do better.

The Cirrus Logic CS4398 DAC chip used in the Creative Labs Sound blaster Z & Zx sound card provides the DAC function for the headphone jack and the Front Speaker jack.
While the Soundcore3D audio processor provides the DAC function for the center & sub-woofer and rear channels.

 

[BrightCandle]

I had issues with a Pair of Sennheiser HD 598's coming out of my Soundblaster Z and the onboard equivalent that came with my motherboard. Both of them produced notably muffled sounds compared to what they sounded like on other outputs. In the end I found that coming out to a Schiit magni 2 (Amp) helped quite a bit and I also noticed an improvement with a Schiit Modi 2 (DAC) on the toslink out. I used the SBX Pro surround sound effects feature so I used the card and its software for that and then let the DAC/AMP combination produce better sound. But nowadays I am using a Sennheiser GSX 1000, its DAC and AMP are equally bad with these headphones but I can't use the DAC but do use the AMP still.

So I don't know if its just Sennheiser HD 598s really do prefer an Amp or if its actually high output impendence mismatches but its definitely an improvement in my experience. I should add I had the better half blind test me to see if the difference was real and I passed the test, I could tell them apart 100% of the time in both cases.