Loudness Problem

[leethal1982]

I'm using Windows XP with a SB Live! soundcard and I recently purchased a pair of Sennheiser HD-570 headphones. With all the windows volume controls maxed the headphones sound low, my friend has the same setup with an Audigy card he doesnt have this problem. Is there a known loudness problem with sblive and will buying an audigy fix this for me?

 

[R2D2]

Silly question... but are you sure you're connected to the right jack?

 

[Viper GTS]

You're using a line out connection, which does not provide enough power to drive your headphones.

You will need to use a headphone amp, as to the best of my knowledge neither the Live nor Audigy have amplified ports.

Amplified ports were abandoned due to the signal quality lost & interference produced. Also, since everybody these days has powered speakers there is no need for a powerful output on the sound card.

Viper GTS

 

[Vinny N]

Yep, what Viper GTS said.

I'm only using the Sennheiser HD495s, which have half the impedance of your headphones, but I still found the line out on a soundcard insufficient.

HeadRoom seems to think that the 570s can be driven by a portable player, but I didn't even find the 495s driven by a Nomad II to have the right volume levels.

For What It's Worth, I was and still am using an SBLive. Before I had an headphone amp, cranking all the volume controls to max did make it fairly loud, but really harsh and a bit unbalanced on different frequencies.


I haven't heard of the Audigy having any particular capabilities. Does he have the Platinum version? I think the livedrive for it might have a headphone jack that could POSSIBLY be amplified. I don't know for certain.

 

[WerewolfX]

I use the livedrive headphone jack on my audigy and it does get pretty darn loud