[Blizzard]

I have a nice setup at home Arcam A32/CD33 and HD650. The sound is fantastic.

But I like to listen to music at work too. I bought an used pair of Philips SBC-HP1000 phones. Sounded very good at home, doesn't lose much to HD650. But at work, driven directly from a motherboard integrated output, the sound is pure crap! And as I'm used to HiFi sound, it's very frustrating.

What would be the easiest way to improve the sound? Should I convince my employer to buy me a decent soundcard. Would that help, or would i still need a dedicated headphone amp? And if I would only buy an amp, will it help, or is the computer as a source still messing everything up? How well would a portable player handle this?

The Philips phones are quite sensitive and low impedance (32ohm I think)

So I have like 5 different options:
1. Buy a soundcard, use it as both amp and source.
2. Buy a soundcard and an amp.
3. Buy just an amp and use motherboard integrated audio circuit as source.
4. Buy an portable mp3 player and use it as both amp&source.
5. Buy an portable mp3 player for source and a dedicated amp.

Could someone comment every option how good it would be? What would be the most cost efficient way to improve the sound. The portable player would be a nice option in that way that I could take it along on trips also. I have a pair of Sennheiser PCX-200 phones, I really don't use much. But will the portable player drive my Philips phones well enough, or would i still need an amp, either portable or not.

 

[Svperstar]

Well as I type this I am at work listening to music off of onboard sound with noticable noise in the background that gets worse when you move the mouse.

However the Pocket Amp V2 from www.electric-avenues.com improves the sound quality a signifigantly, bass goes from an afterthought to having power, and the music is more detailed, very small and lightweight, carry it in my pocket, comes with a tiny 3" mini-to-mini cable so I can jack it right into my work computer.

IMO if you have a crappy source, spending crazy amounts of cash on a portable amp is a bad idea, but if you are going to be listening to music 5 days a week at work I think the $60 isn't too much to spend for better sound.

 

[gychang]

I was in the same predicament, and have decided on the above combination and the stuff is on its way.

will put up impression on the sound after it is all setup.

gychang

 

[33rpm]

Having just gotten into the headphone game recently I sympathize with this. The sound on my office machine is pure Garbage with a capital S! And it's noisy to boot. The Pocketamp2 does help quite a bit although the volume pot can be scratchy at times.

But when things get unbearable or I really want to listen to something at work, I play a CD on a vintage discman I got off Ebay for ten bucks. Compared to the office pc, that discman is high end.

And of course, on weekends I bask in my electrostatics, vinyl and SACD rig.

 

[Blizzard]

One question that puzzels me mostly is how well a sound card or a portable player works as a combined source and amp? Will it sound good enough, or do I need to buy an amp too, to get decent sound. Or would just an amp give me some improvement?

 

[33rpm]

One question I have is: Is the soundcard primarily responsible for the extraneous noises?

On my office machine there are low level crackling or gurgling sounds from time to time. Sometimes things that sound like distortion. It's mostly innocuous when playing a lot of jazz or pop and using a Pocketamp2. But with classical and very quiet jazz it can be obtrusive and irritating.

If I get a new soundcard will that be fixed?

 

[zatara]

The sound on my office laptop clicks and pops. I think it is electrical
interference from the fan on the CPU as the two are very close together.
Once I got the iMic, USB audio device with analog lineout, all of noise
problems from the power and cooling subsystems in my laptop went away.
I now use the iMic for lineout to my SR-71 amp and plan to by the new
Headroom USB micro dac to get a better lineout for my SR-71 amp.

 

[TwistedKestrel]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 33rpm One question I have is: Is the soundcard primarily responsible for the extraneous noises? On my office machine there are low level crackling or gurgling sounds from time to time. Sometimes things that sound like distortion. It's mostly innocuous when playing a lot of jazz or pop and using a Pocketamp2. But with classical and very quiet jazz it can be obtrusive and irritating. If I get a new soundcard will that be fixed?

Yup. Well, assuming your machine has a soundcard anyway. I'm willing to bet it's probably onboard sound like the original poster has mentioned. I would like to stress that you would be much better off buying a soundcard before buying a cheap amp to add on to it. Onboard sound these days is nothing more than an afterthought, because it's assumed that it's going to be routed through equally garbage $10 desktop speakers or something similar. This manifests itself as being electrically noisy, like picking up your mouse when it's moving ... among other things. It will also distort sooner as the volume goes up ... not necessarily loud, it's not the same for every motherboard, but more often that not the distortion is there at normal listening levels.

Really, getting almost any soundcard will drastically improve the sound. The cheap sound card market is somewhat limited these days due to the fact the average consumer doesn't even notice that crap they've been saddled with, but AOpen makes a respectable range of cheap cards. If it's a work computer, though, you may want to go for a good USB sound device. It'll be a lot more expensive, but it's something that you won't have to fight an IT department to get installed, and you can take it home and use it on a laptop whenever you want.

 

[33rpm]

Well my machine is supposed to have a Creative SB Live card. I doubt other cheap ones are any better.

Suggestions to get rid of the scratchiness?

Forget sound quality. Let's just get rid of the noise.

thx

 

[zatara]

I would buy a USB sound card which you could return and try that out.
You are probably getting noise from the switching power supply
in your pc.