[Aaron]

Hi. I have a pair of Sennheiser 280 Pro's and am listening through a PC. The sound quality on the PC is pretty appalling (much worse than coming off my Mac). I guess the answer is to get a headphone amp. What would people recommend for this? The source (CD-ROM) drive is obviously crap and closed headphones aren't ideal so I guess there's no point spending a fortune. Part of the appeal of Bitheads is the cross-phase thing they do to prevent listening fatigue. Anyone have any experience with them?

Thanks in advance...
Aaron

 

[SunByrne]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aaron Hi. I have a pair of Sennheiser 280 Pro's and am listening through a PC. The sound quality on the PC is pretty appalling (much worse than coming off my Mac).

A good soundcard and your PC will sound better, but the default audio out on most Macs is better than the average PC soundcard. Chaintech card for like $25 should sound better than the Mac.


Quote:

I guess the answer is to get a headphone amp.

Maybe--or maybe it's a bad soundcard.


Quote:

What would people recommend for this? The source (CD-ROM) drive is obviously crap and closed headphones aren't ideal so I guess there's no point spending a fortune.

No, and the HD280s aren't that hard to drive, either, so you should be fine with a Mint or CMOY. Or a Headsave Vibe, which seems to be getting good press and can be had for pretty reasonable money.


Oh, and welcome to Head-Fi, sorry about your wallet.

 

[Aaron]

I've realised I should have posted more specific info.

The machine doesn't belong to me. I'm doing post-grad computer animation studies so adding a sound card isn't really an option ie it's on a render network and every machine is hardware identical and our sys admin wouldn't be into altering that situation.

As it is what I hear is an awful lot of background noise (ie with nothing playing) as well as quite frequent crackling and popping. I'm playing out of iTunes and most of the files are MP3s at 320kps (a sin I know).

The level of volume I'm getting is fine as the 280s are very efficient. I guess I'm wondering about bypassing the internal D/AC and supplying a better amplification source than whatever's in the PC. I know that the Bithead models run on the USB port. Does anything else do this?

Any thoughts?

Cheers,
Aaron