[zsevgymko]

I want to buy a good quality soundcard. I don't play games at the computer for which it will be, I won't record music. I will listen the music through my headphones - k26p(32 ohms) are on the way, later I intend to buy A900(40 ohms), so it must be able to drive them well as I won't buy an amp. My budget is 70-75 $, the lesser the better of course. But I want really good sound, since I am really sick of my noisy onboard card,noisy speakers etc.

What's my best option according to you?

 

[manchau]

Quote:

Originally Posted by zsevgymko I want to buy a good quality soundcard. I don't play games at the computer for which it will be, I won't record music. I will listen the music through my headphones - k26p(32 ohms) are on the way, later I intend to buy A900(40 ohms), so it must be able to drive them well as I won't buy an amp. My budget is 70-75 $, the lesser the better of course. But I want really good sound, since I am really sick of my noisy onboard card,noisy speakers etc. What's my best option according to you?

Why you need 5.1 channel card then ?

 

[zsevgymko]

Quote:

Originally Posted by manchau Why you need 5.1 channel card then ?

I don't

These are some of the models I've read a lot about in this forum. I thought about AV710, but as far as I understood it won't drive A900 well. What's your suggestion?

 

[manchau]

Quote:

Originally Posted by zsevgymko I don't These are some of the models I've read a lot about in this forum. I thought about AV710, but as far as I understood it won't drive A900 well. What's your suggestion?

I am in same boat like you here

But I think you should buy EMU 0404 from ebay. Click here

 

[zsevgymko]

Quote:

Originally Posted by manchau I am in same boat like you here But I think you should buy EMU 0404 from ebay.

In the link you sent me, the shippment is only to USA and Canada and I am in Eastern Europe. Apart from that will the EMU 0404 drive properly A900 ? I think that M-Audio has a built-in headphone amp and EMU 0404 doesn't.

 

[sgrossklass]

I would've said that the best bet for driving headphones directly in this price region would probably be the Revo 5.1, employing two 4580s (one per channel) for this purpose - but does it really? Anyone got a decently-sized board shot of the card (you can't see much on the promo pic)?
The ESI Maya44 appears to employ at least two opamps per output (at least I'm counting 5 stereo opamps for 4 output channels) and apparently does not have output coupling caps (places for rather big ones for out 3/4 and smaller ones for out 1/2 are still visible on the layout, but apparently they went DC coupled later). Aureon Sky/Space are also DC coupled from opamp to output, but only employ one stereo opamp for both channels which doesn't quite have as much oomph (at least a 100 ohm HD590 doesn't sound as dynamic as it should, while a 600 ohm HD540 is just fine); possibly this is more related to supply buffering than anything else, I don't know (that would be fixable with a soldering iron, at least). Also you'll get noticeable thermal crosstalk between the channels with higher loads. The Hercules Fortissimo 4 should perform about as well for driving cans, it's just that it's restricted to the generic VIA drivers which are perceived to be not so great (but it does cost quite a bit less).

 

[zsevgymko]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sgrossklass I would've said that the best bet for driving headphones directly in this price region would probably be the Revo 5.1, employing two 4580s (one per channel) for this purpose - but does it really? Anyone got a decently-sized board shot of the card (you can't see much on the promo pic)?

There must be someone who actually has the Revolution 5.1 soundcard, right

Anyone? From another point of view, owners of A9000 could really get it straight. I've read all around how easy the audio technica's models are to drive and how an amp does almost nothing to their sound. Well ,easy to drive with what? What soundcards are you using?

 

[parrot5]

Quote:

Originally Posted by zsevgymko There must be someone who actually has the Revolution 5.1 soundcard, right Anyone? From another point of view, owners of A9000 could really get it straight. I've read all around how easy the audio technica's models are to drive and how an amp does almost nothing to their sound. Well ,easy to drive with what? What soundcards are you using?

I searched and found the following... hope it helps.

Revolution 5.1:
DAC - AK4358
ADC - AK5365
Opamps - JRC4580

Audiophile 2496:
DAC - AK4524
Opamps - 553s

Audiophile 192:
DAC - AK4358
ADC - AK538

Terratec Aureon 7.1:
DAC/ADC - WM8770 plus STAC9744
Opamps - JRC4580

ESI Juli@:
DAC - AK4358
Opamps - JRC4580

 

[zsevgymko]

Quote:

Originally Posted by parrot5 Foobar0.9 32bit KS --> M-Audio Revolution 5.1 headphone out (!! I need an amp. NOW.) --> e4c

It will help me more if you tell me why you need an amp, if you are not joking of course

Seriously, how does Revo 5.1 drive your e4c(only 29 ohms) ?

 

[parrot5]

Quote:

Originally Posted by zsevgymko It will help me more if you tell me why you need an amp, if you are not joking of course Seriously, how does Revo 5.1 drive your e4c(only 29 ohms) ?

No I am not joking at all. My e4c is only 29ohms, with a sensitivity rating of 109dB, and its isolation is good, so with the headphone out of the Revo5.1, I can only crank it up to 2.5/10 max on the volume slider, and then it gets too loud for me. As with a lot of lineouts and amps, there's quality loss at the extreme low volumes. (And this is my first-time and first-hand experience of how getting a usable volume doesn't mean it's well-driven.)

While I'm waiting for an amp, Little Dot Micro+, I'm now using the Shure volume attenuator to solve this problem some what. I have no idea what I should expect from this low-priced amp. I just hope it's better than my current experience. I guess I really should step up to, say, a total bithead soon.

So um back to topic, I guess the conclusion is that this headphone-out of Revo5.1 should be used to drive higher impedence cans, and not IEMs directly. I do not have other cans to test the headphone-out. But I'm sure there must be other users here with a non-IEM to help you out.

 

[zsevgymko]

Thanks for the reply, parrot5

Quote:

Originally Posted by parrot5 So um back to topic, I guess the conclusion is that this headphone-out of Revo5.1 should be used to drive higher impedence cans, and not IEMs directly.

Well that's fun and I am sure that it won't be able to drive headphones with really high impedence like +250. So maybe a soundcard without a built-in amp will drive better low impedence headphones, perhaps AV710 will do it ok after all, even with A900?

Quote:

Originally Posted by parrot5 I do not have other cans to test the headphone-out. But I'm sure there must be other users here with a non-IEM to help you out.

Well I hope so, anyone?

 

[sgrossklass]

To clarify, any of the cards mentioned will do a better job driving low-impedance cans than the AV-710. On the latter, the alt out (preferred because it uses a much higher-quality DAC) is driven only by the DAC itself, which was only designed to drive further amplication stages (1 kOhm min, 100 pF max) - that the AV-710 works decently with 300 ohm Senns at all speaks for the implementation of the I/V; I guess there is some resistance inline with the output on the card to keep cable capacitance away from the DAC output.

BTW, my Aureons can drive my 600 ohm HD540s to ear-splitting levels (even without turning on the "headphone amplifier", which merely increases gain), and I'm quite sure a Revo 5.1 or Fortissimo 4 or Maya44 could do the same.

 

[zsevgymko]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sgrossklass To clarify, any of the cards mentioned will do a better job driving low-impedance cans than the AV-710.

sgrossklass, thanks for your posts. I saw in your profile that your portable headphones are k26p, the ones that I'll most probably use in the next year with my home computer. So if you've tried them straight with your Aureon 5.1 soundcard and you think the sound quality was decent (I'm sure there will be no problem with the sound volume) I'll bravely assume that Aureon can also drive well A900 and hopefully stop reading like crazy posts in this forum

BTW, I already sent you this as a private message, I am starting to lose orientation

 

[parrot5]

Quote:

Originally Posted by zsevgymko Thanks for the reply, parrot5 Well that's fun and I am sure that it won't be able to drive headphones with really high impedence like +250. So maybe a soundcard without a built-in amp will drive better low impedence headphones, perhaps AV710 will do it ok after all, even with A900?

o oops by "higher impendence" I mean "higher than my e4c"

. Sorry for the confusion. I believe it will drive your 40ohm headphones ok.

 

[zsevgymko]

Quote:

Originally Posted by parrot5 o oops by "higher impendence" I mean "higher than my e4c" . Sorry for the confusion. I believe it will drive your 40ohm headphones ok.

Well it will also have to drive 32 ohm k26p. Anyway, thanks for sharing your experience, I appreciate it