[egglick]

Hey guys. I'm looking to purchase a pair of Senn555's (or equally priced headphones), and I've got a bit of a dilemma. I'm concerned that my source (an Audigy2ZS) will not do these phones justice through the headphone jack on my Klipsch 5.1 Ultras.

I have an alternate connection method, and that is a Klipsch DD-5.1 decoder/preamp, which can be connected to the digital connection on my soundcard (the speakers are normally analog).

If I were to amp the output from this decoder/preamp, would I hear much improved sound on a Senn555 class headphone?? Would it be worth the extra money spent on an amp to use this connection method rather than just the headphone jack??

Keep in mind that I've only got somewhere around $200 to spend, so that only leaves about $100 for the amp. I don't know if a decent amp can be found in this pricerange.

Please post your opinions, I'd like to hear what anyone has to say.

 

[egglick]

No help here??

 

[egglick]

Nearly 60 views and nobody has anything to say?? Not a very helpful crowd, are you guys

 

[JaGWiRE]

Quote:

Originally Posted by egglick Hey guys. I'm looking to purchase a pair of Senn555's (or equally priced headphones), and I've got a bit of a dilemma. I'm concerned that my source (an Audigy2ZS) will not do these phones justice through the headphone jack on my Klipsch 5.1 Ultras. I have an alternate connection method, and that is a Klipsch DD-5.1 decoder/preamp, which can be connected to the digital connection on my soundcard (the speakers are normally analog). If I were to amp the output from this decoder/preamp, would I hear much improved sound on a Senn555 class headphone?? Would it be worth the extra money spent on an amp to use this connection method rather than just the headphone jack?? Keep in mind that I've only got somewhere around $200 to spend, so that only leaves about $100 for the amp. I don't know if a decent amp can be found in this pricerange. Please post your opinions, I'd like to hear what anyone has to say.

I've got the same question sort of. I have logitech z-5500 speakers, and a pair of 595's (well, I will tommorow.) I may possibly have in my hands later a Corda HA-1 MkII, so I am curious how that headphone jack works. I'm going to be picking up an x-fi elite pro probably too, but I heard the 1/4" jack on the breakout box isn't so good, and I am going to use all 3 output jacks on the soundcard itself for my 5.1 speakers.

 

[egglick]

Two people with a problem, nearly 100 views, and nothing. I've also got a post in the "computers as source" forum with almost 100 views, and nothing.


I guess it's time to find a different message board.

 

[tfunk408]

i don't know what kind of answer you were looking for, but the klipsch headphone out has a built-in amp. works fine for my hd201 and hd555 (SB Live soundcard).

Ive read horror stories regarding the logitech headphone out, though.

You're running it out of an Audigy sound card, which should be better than what I have. But on these forums I've read that SB soundcards aren't that good.

 

[jagorev]

I can almost guarantee that a dedicated headphone amp will sound much better than the jack on a multimedia speaker. Headphone jacks on speakers are almost always crappy.

Don't be frustrated - you probably didn't get an answer because few people here have this exact decoder/preamp equipment. On general principles, the best way to go would to be connect a headphone amp to the analog line-out on your audigy - same place where you would connect the speaker. Less things in your signal path is better - you don't need to use the Klipsch speaker or the preamp.

Decent $100 amps:

PA2v2 from www.electric-avenues.com
a X^3 from www.portaphile.com
The Epsilon from www.z-audio.com

 

[egglick]

Thanks for the responses, I was about to give up.


Anyhow, my question is less about the exact equipment I have, and more about the connection methods in general. I've heard that most soundcards only put out a couple watts through their analog connections (which is then further amplified by speakers), so I figured that this wouldn't be the best connection method. It would be a pain to constantly change connections behind the computer anyway.

I figure that the headphone jack on my Klipsch 5.1 Ultras would be "allright", but that running the digital connection on my soundcard to a decoder, and then using a headphone amp might be better.

The question is, how much better?? And will the difference be noticable with a Senn555 class headphone?? Would the decoder+amp+555 be better than say, just a 595 in the headphone jack??

 

[Blitzzz]

if your question isn't equipment specific have you tried searching? A quick search on "HD555 HD595" returned numerous threads about the same questions you have...

Having said that... the general view of this forum is that Audigy soundcards are quite poor so you will definately benefit from an amp.

 

[egglick]

Well, I think I've answered my own question. Today I hooked up my Klipsch decoder/preamp to the digital connection on my soundcard, and took a listen without an amp, and just with some old Radioshack headphones.

The first thing I noticed was that Creative's crappy proprietary digital connection will only output a stereo signal to the decoder (because it's not a Creative speaker set), but luckily that doesn't matter with headphones.

The other thing I noticed was that the sound quality and crispness improved slightly, even with the lousy headphones. I'm guessing that this would be much more noticable with decent headphones, so it looks like I'll be going the decoder+amp route (even though the preamp/decoder can crank out some volume by itself).

Now I'm just wishing that I could find a little more info on the Klipsch preamp/decoder. The documentation really says very little.

 

[auris]

don't know anything about the klipsch preamp, but i can tell that both grado sr-125's and sennheiser 590's sounded like absolute crap coming out of the little pod that contains the volume and bass control for my klipsch computer speakers. they sounded worlds better connected to the output of my Audigy 2 Value card.