[renji1337]

Is the xonar dx's 100ohm output impedance bad for my 64ohm ultrasone pro 550 headphones?
 
If so what soundcard would work better?

 

[PurpleAngel]

Plugging the 64-Ohm Ultrasone Pro 550 headphone directly into the 100-ohm Xonar DX is not really "bad".
It's just more likely to give the Pro 550s a bloated bass (louder and less detailed).
 
Just get an external headphone amplifier, with a low output impedance and plug it into the Xonar DX.
Schiit Magni, $99
PAV2V (Personal Amp 2 Version 2), around $65, sold on eBay.

 

[renji1337]

Quote:

Plugging the 64-Ohm Ultrasone Pro 550 headphone directly into the 100-ohm Xonar DX is not really "bad".
It's just more likely to give the Pro 550s a bloated bass (louder and less detailed).
 
Just get an external headphone amplifier, with a low output impedance and plug it into the Xonar DX.
Schiit Magni, $99
PAV2V (Personal Amp 2 Version 2), around $65, sold on eBay.

The Xonar DX doesn't have a true un amp'd lineout(this is what i was told), i thought external headphone amps need a un amp'd lineout
 
 
 
Also, would i retain dolby headphones for games?
 
 
Or should i sell my xonar dx and get something like a sound blaster zxr (20 ohm output or ASUS STX 10OHM output, but both headphone amps built in.
 
 
Pardon if i have anything wrong, i just learned all about home theater and i was able to get the knack of it and now im working on headphones for my gaming computer, i just learned how to use ASIO aswell for bitperfect music.
 
 
 
"According to the specifications, the card can output a maximum voltage of 2 Vrms. , and according to my tests the maximum output voltage is 1.94Vrms, with an output impedance of 100.5Ω."  i read this from another head-fi user if it helps

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

The Xonar DX doesn't have a true un amp'd lineout(this is what i was told), i thought external headphone amps need a un amp'd lineout
Also, would i retain Dolby headphones for games?
Or should i sell my Xonar DX and get something like a sound blaster ZxR (20 ohm output or ASUS STX 10OHM output, but both headphone amps built in.
Pardon if i have anything wrong, I just learned all about home theater and i was able to get the knack of it and now im working on headphones for my gaming computer, i just learned how to use ASIO aswell for bitperfect music.
"According to the specifications, the card can output a maximum voltage of 2 Vrms. , and according to my tests the maximum output voltage is 1.94Vrms, with an output impedance of 100.5Ω."  i read this from another head-fi user if it helps

The Xonar DX's green jack is a line-out jack, anything that does not have a true headphone amplifier is just a simple line-out jack, the Xonar DX's line-out jack is just the kind of analog audio signal to feed to a headphone amplifier.
Never heard of "True unamped line-out"
You will retain all the Xonar DX's Headphone Surround Sound features, with the external headphone amplifier hooked up.
 
The Schiit Magni head amp is more desirable, then ones built into sound card.
For one thing the Magni's headphone output impedance is less then 1-Ohm, so any headphone from 8-Ohms to 600-Ohms will work with it.
and you can plug the Magni into a lot of other audio sources.

 

[renji1337]

Quote:

The Xonar DX's green jack is a line-out jack, anything that does not have a true headphone amplifier is just a simple line-out jack, the Xonar DX's line-out jack is just the kind of analog audio signal to feed to a headphone amplifier.
Never heard of "True unamped line-out"
You will retain all the Xonar DX's Headphone Surround Sound features, with the external headphone amplifier hooked up.
 
The Schiit Magni head amp is more desirable, then ones built into sound card.
For one thing the Magni's headphone output impedance is less then 1-Ohm, so any headphone from 8-Ohms to 600-Ohms will work with it.
and you can plug the Magni into a lot of other audio sources.

 
thank you, does the 100 ohm output impedence of the xonar dx affect the amp? also Lets say i wanted a soundblaster z or zxr for the better quality surround software for fps games, would there be a way to bypass its built in amp?

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

Thank you, does the 100-Ohm output impedance of the Xonar DX affect the amp? also Lets say I wanted a Sound Blaster Z or ZxR for the better quality surround software for fps games, would there be a way to bypass its built in amp?

I think it's fairly normal for a line-out jack to have a high impedance, I would assume 100-Ohms is within the normal range for a line-out jack. So it is perfectly fine to plug just about any external headphone amplifier into the Xonar DX/D1
 
I would guess you could plug an external headphone amplifier into the Sound Blaster Z, Zx, ZxR line-out/front speaker jack and still use it's Headphone Surround Sound features.
 
You might look into the older Sound Blaster Titanium and Titanium HD sound card for FPS gaming, the audio processor has more built in features and the drivers might be more mature(?).

 

[renji1337]

Can i still use my asus dx's surround features with an amp?
 
 
And i'll look at a TI HD, aswell, they are cheaper
 
 
the TI HD has an output impedance of 35ohms from the headphone jack i believe. is that still okay for an amp? or does output impedances not matter for the amp.

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

Can I still use my Asus DX's surround features with an amp?
And I'll look at a TI HD, as well, they are cheaper
The TI HD has an output impedance of 35-ohms from the headphone jack i believe. is that still okay for an amp? or does output impedances not matter for the amp.

Yes, the Headphone Surround Sound features are not affected by hooking up an external amplifier, between the Xonar DX and the headphones.
 
With the Titanium HD, it's better to hook up an external headphone amplifier to the Titanium HD's RCA outputs.
The Ti-HD can send headphone surround sound thru the RCA outputs.
 
But you can hook up the external headphone amplifier to the Ti-HD's headphone jack
It's just that the RCA outputs feeds a slightly better analog audio signal.

 

[renji1337]

Quote:

Yes, the Headphone Surround Sound features are not affected by hooking up an external amplifier, between the Xonar DX and the headphones.
 
With the Titanium HD, it's better to hook up an external headphone amplifier to the Titanium HD's RCA outputs.
The Ti-HD can send headphone surround sound thru the RCA outputs.
 
But you can hook up the external headphone amplifier to the Ti-HD's headphone jack
It's just that the RCA outputs feeds a slightly better analog audio signal.

alright thank you, i'm guessing im going to stick with my xonar dx and use the 100ohm output headphone jack to rca's. anyone have experience with this?