Headphones from MB or from speakers difference?

[eli_singer]

Hi guys,
I have the AsRock Z87 Extreme9/ac motherboard which has the Realtek ALC1150 Audio Codec on board.
currently it's connected to my M-Audio AV40 speakers which has a headphone jack of their own which is easier to use since it's right there on the desktop.

I'm wondering if there's supposed to be any difference in sound quality when connecting my Audio-Technica ATH-M50 headphones straight to my MB jack instead of the jack i have in my speakers?
does the speakers act as an extension cord or do they drive the headphones themselves?
if there is a difference, which one is supposed to be better?

Eli

 

[GotNoRice]

The volume knob on the speaker controls the headphone volume also, yes? If so, it almost certainly has it's own amp that it's using.

You're going to be using the DAC in your realtek onboard either way. Which amp will really come down to preference. Do you have more than one analog output on your motherboard or just one? There are two kinds really, you can have a line-out or you can have an amplified output. Amplfied outputs are meant to power headphones or unpowered speakers directly while a line-out is meant to connect to something with it's own amp. You just want to try to avoid double amplification, where you have what is really an amplified headphone output on your motherboard running into your speakers which are amplifying the signal yet again. If you only have one analog output on your motherboard, and it's powerful enough to drive headphones directly, this is likely what is happening unfortunately If that is the case, just connect directly to the onboard, as it's not a case of which one is better but whether you are using one or two amps.

 

[eli_singer]

The volume knob on the speaker does control the headphone volume too.

i have this jacks from the MB: Rear Speaker / Central / Bass / Line in / Front Speaker / Microphone
my speakers go to the Line In jack.
it's actually weird that it's called Line In and not Line Out...

so it seems i don't have another jack for the headphones, i'm just not sure if it means that this Line jack is amped or not and if i should be better off connecting my cans to the speakers instead?

Eli