Promedia Headphone jack quality?

C

CoolD

Weaksauce
Joined
May 5, 2003
Messages
116
Whats the best way to hook headphones up to a computer?

I have Promedia 5.1's with the headphone jack on the control pod, but would I get better sound going directly to my computer? And is that jack 'amplified' or should I still be looking into getting a headphone amp?

EDIT: Forgot to mention the type of headphones, brand new HD 497's due to the high volume of recommendations they get from the people here.
 
i would just use the computer headphones port (if you got one). more components between the sound card and your headphones might not exactly lose quality but it wont certainly gain any.
 
the jack should be amplified, and as to its quality, ive never used anything above $20 headphones in it so i cant say, but i would think that the best quality would come from plugging directly into the sound card
 
The integrated promedia headphone amp is very good for an integrated multimedia speaker headphone amp.

Depending on the efficiency of your headphones,plugging into the sound card may be slightly better (potentially less noise) overall.



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FanZ said:
more components between the sound card and your headphones might not exactly lose quality but it wont certainly gain any.
Click to expand...

So I should never use my headphone amp again then?
 
I thought that in that case, you were effectively replacing a bargain opamp stage with a more expensive aftermarket stage. At work, I have the integrated SoundMax volume turned almost entirely down, and control volume on my headamp.
 
well, all an amp does is amplify the signal (suprise suprise), but we're not talking about volume, but quality.. its two different things
 
When cranked to high volumes, cheap amps distort the quality. Is that clear enough for you? Intergrated audio has cheap amps.
 
he never said integrated. if the headphone is going directly from the source of sound, then minimal quality would be lost than going through more components. I still stand by what I said: quality loses as more components are between the source and the output.

if he has an amp in between, if its better than his sound card's software adjust, then maybe it'll sound a BIT better, but even if there is a little bit of distortion in his sound processing, it'll be amplified by the amp as well. The nominal volume for most settings are 75-85%. I believe that the Windows mixer at those levels is more than enough for any headphone usage.

and no, you weren't being clear enough, it took about 3 rereads to understand what you're saying.. and don't try to act like an know-it-all with "Is that clear enough" kind of statements implying that you are so superior. Maybe we're just not as smart as you.
 
FanZ said:
well, all an amp does is amplify the signal (suprise suprise), but we're not talking about volume, but quality.. its two different things
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Kinda reminds me of the person that once told me all cables do is allow electricity to flow from one point to the next..... thus high quality cables have no effect.
Some of us know better. ;)
Every amp I have ever heard colors the sound, lowers the noise floor, and they also provide you with that blue led which drives you nuts. :)
 
well, high-end cables do have an effect, the thicker the wires that go from a receiver to the speaker should provide better sound by lessening background noise and giving the speaker enough 'juice' by being thicker than the coils inside the speaker.

i'm using a receiver as an amp, and it just sounds more clearer (does that word even exist?), by wiring the headphone from the revo port rather than the receiver port. It would always give a background zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz when going from the receiver. the connection cable between the computer and the receiver is as best as i can get it, so if there is a signal leak, i cant do anything more about it..

but yes, all cable do is allow electricity to flow from one point to another. :p but my LED is RED! RED! RED!
 
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