Noob to noise.

T

ThrawnFile

Weaksauce
Joined
Feb 7, 2005
Messages
70
Is there some sort of list or faq reguarding higher end computer audio? Basicly I'm just a geek that likes to learn new stuff, especially when his old headphones break. Whats with the inline amps, what tech-specs are desireable for a decent headset? Basicly I know enough to know I don't know enough...

and for the life of me I couldn't find a "search forum" link...
 
Need a little more refinement on your question to be able to properly answer it. Are you wondering what causes noise and/or how to reduce it? Are you after a headphone amp and want to know what to get?
 
Well... the topic is misleading I suppose. I just want to know what to look for in a headset, why would you need an amp, what kind of gear needed in general for a decent setup. I play video games, use vent/teamspeak, watch movies, listen to music ect. Hell the last set of headphones were some huge over the ear sony's that I bought back in 2000. I guess things like bass response, no tin can highs, a decent mic, and surround sound. Overpadded over the ear cups...
 
You don't need an amp for normal headphones, as the output of the soundcard will be able to drive them. The reason you'd want an amp is better sound quality. Usually the output stage in a soundcard is just an opamp, and not all that great of one. Those are happy driving high impedance loads, but don't do so well on low impedance loads. Headphones are a low impedance load, a headphone amp is a high impedance load. Basically the amp shifts the responsibility of driving the headphones off the soundcard.

Some headphones benefit more than others. Depends on how good the headphone is, and how they are made. Generally the really low and really high (for a headphone at least) impedance phones benefit the most. A really low impedance phone, like the Ultimate Ears earbuds will put the most strain on the soundcard and thus have the worst sound (more noise, less bass, etc). A really high impedance phone, like the old Sennheiser 580s, won't stress it nearly as much, but are likely to be too quiet because the soundcard doesn't output enough voltage for them.

So it certainly isn't worthless to get an amp, but don't fret over it. If you have a good soundcard you'll often find it does a pretty good job as is, especially on phones of a middling impedance (say like 50-150 ohms roughly, which is a range a lot of phones are in).

Get phones you like first, then if you still want better sound look at an amp.

As for phones, I can't really help you as I've little experience with headset phones. Never really seen a consumer pair that appealed to me. Supposing I were going to get some, I'd probably look at a Beyerdynamic professional headset or something like it.
 
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