[manhattanproj]

i just have some questions.

so with a sound card, say the x-fi for example, could you plug both a speaker system and a headphone into the sound card jacks? usually speaker systems have a jack for your headphones, is it better to plug the headphone into the sound card directly then? i never knew that you could plug both.

if later, you decide to buy an amp, where would you plug the amp to? just one of the usb ports? and is there an amp that will allow you to power both a headphone and a speaker system? is there an amp that will have a jack for both? or a speaker system don't really need an amp?

 

[Bones13]

Not sure if you can put speakers into a line out jack and if there is for sure a headphone out (amplified) jack on the back of your card.

Some of the creative lab cards can use the bay mounted box on the front of your computer to plug headphones into. The software can be set to mute the speakers with the headphones plugged in or not.

One option I was using before my amplifier came in was to plug my headphones into the jack on my speaker system (Klipsch 2.1) Was not bad at all.

There are several options for hooking an external amplifier up to your computer.

1) Line out from your computer to an amplifier, you need an adapter that takes the 1/8th stereo plug out to 2 RCA connectors, unless you use a "portable" type of amplifer that has 1/8th input connector already.

2) SPDIF out from the card, either Coaxial or Optical, on the back of many cards and even motherboard sound systems. This will require a DAC unit as well as an amp. SPDIF is by definition "digital" out from your computer, and the DAC unit creates an analog output for the amplifier to use.

3) USB output from the computers USB port to a DAC that has a USB input.

There are many permutations of these connections, and scads of devices that do this with various amounts of wonderfull-ness, and difficult-ness.

Search for some of the terms above on this site, all the information, more than you want for sure, and more opinions than you can shake a stick at are available, and argued/discussed here.

I have chosen to start with HD 650s, and a combined Solid State DAC/AMP unit as a base for my headphone HiFi adventure. I will be looking for a tube amp shortly, and will need to make arrangements for a separate DAC for it. I tend to listen to classical/jazz/new age stuff though, and your music, and device choices will be your own to make.

 

[j0j081]

My Audigy 2 ZS doesn't have a seperate headphone jack so I usually unplug the corresponding speaker cable and switch back and forth that way. With my old crappy headphones I use to plug them into the headphone jack on my 5.1 Logitech's but figured it kills the quality so with my new cans I stopped doing that.