[Captain Proton]

Hi, I recently bought the Sennheiser HD-598 and so far have been very impressed with these headphones. Along with that I also purchased a Creative Sound Blaster Z sound card and have the 598 plugged into its 600ohm headphone amp port which significantly improves the audio quality from on board sound, however I noticed that I have to turn the Windows system volume down to about 6% to 10% most of the time because anything more is way too loud. When plugged directly into my motherboard, 100% volume on Windows provided less volume than 8% on the sound card.
 
I read elsewhere that lowing the system volume can sometimes reduce sound quality. Would that apply for having to keep my volume so low on these headphones when plugged into my sound card?
 
Thanks for any help.

 

[PurpleAngel]

  Hi, I recently bought the Sennheiser HD-598 and so far have been very impressed with these headphones. Along with that I also purchased a Creative Sound Blaster Z sound card and have the 598 plugged into its 600-Ohm headphone amp port which significantly improves the audio quality from on board sound, however I noticed that I have to turn the Windows system volume down to about 6% to 10% most of the time because anything more is way too loud. When plugged directly into my motherboard, 100% volume on Windows provided less volume than 8% on the sound card.
 
I read elsewhere that lowing the system volume can sometimes reduce sound quality. Would that apply for having to keep my volume so low on these headphones when plugged into my sound card?.

Did you disable the motherboard's on-board audio? in the BIOS.
Has nothing really to do with your current problem, but usually it's a good idea to disable the on-board audio.
 
Your having a common issue with the SB-Z that others do, not sure if there is a "fix" for the issue.
I believe the Creative Labs volume control is tied to the Windows volume control?

 

[Captain Proton]

Yes, when I change the volume in the Creative SB-Z driver, that volume change is reflected in the Windows volume slider and that change is also reflected in the SB-Z driver as I change the volume directly through Windows.
 
I didn't realize this was a common issue with the SB-Z but will look further into it. Thanks for letting me know.
 
In general though, does lowering the volume in Windows to around 10% reduce sound quality?

 

[PurpleAngel]

  Yes, when I change the volume in the Creative SB-Z driver, that volume change is reflected in the Windows volume slider and that change is also reflected in the SB-Z driver as I change the volume directly through Windows.
 
I didn't realize this was a common issue with the SB-Z but will look further into it. Thanks for letting me know.
 
In general though, does lowering the volume in Windows to around 10% reduce sound quality?

I'm guessing(?) the "volume" control effects the SB-Z volume setting, so It might not have anything to do with any OS volume control.
So as long as the SB-Z sound card and software is installed, there may not be a separate volume control for Win OS anyway (guessing).