muted sound on pc

[wetdevil]

I just bought some Sennheiser headphones at 70$ for my pc and every media file I play they just dont get loud. My old cheap dell speakers are pretty loud when I turn them up but these just make putsy noise. Is there a setting I missed somewhere or something? I went to control panel>audio and the volume was up as well as realplayers and WMPs. Am I missing something or shouldnt these 70$ be loud when at full volume.

I have a dell 4600 with a soundMAX soundcard also theres no volume knob on the headphones

 

[wetdevil]

anyone?

 

[VictorL]

Are they meant as PC headphones? What is the impedence rating for your headphones? Higher end HP's need a headphone amp to supply enough current since the HP's have low impedence, otherwise they're just not loud enough. Cheap HP's don't need to draw lots of current, but you don't get the same dynamic range from them.
Or make sure your MB isn't set to give a line level output, as that will also kill your volume.

 

[wetdevil]

Or make sure your MB isn't set to give a line level output, as that will also kill your volume.

How do I check the MB for line level output?