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Audigy soundcard as headphone amp?

S

shuttleboi

Senior member
I'm looking for a good headphone amp to drive the output of my iPod to my Sennheiser 595 headphones. I would rather not buy a dedicated $500+ headphone amp like those at headphone.com.

I was wondering instead if I could use a high-end soundcard like the $200 Creative Audigy 2ZS Platinum Pro as a headphone amp (this model has a PCI card and an external box with inputs and outputs). Would I be able to pass the input of my iPod directly through the Audigy, amped, to the headphone jack? If so, how is the sound quality compared to dedicated headphone amps?

Thanks for any information.
 
I don't know much of anything about headphone amps, but as far as soundcards go, if you just want to listen to the line-in through headphones, you certainly don't need a $200 soundcard. A regular audigy will do what you're talking about even. If this is for music (which I assume it is), you can do better than an audigy anyway.

I have no idea if using a soundcard as an amp is a good idea or not since my headphones don't need an amp and I never considered buying a set that would need it.

Oh, and if you're hooking up your headphones to your computer, why use the ipod anyway?

A cheap AV-710 has really nice 2 channel output.
 
Having a clean output and having enough juice to drive headphones are 2 different things. The Audigy2 is clean, and it'll drive a set of 595s, but you won't get the most out of them. I have the 580s (even higher impedence than the 595s) and they're just ok.

You could always buy a cheap cmoy based amp on ebay for $50-$100. That's what I plan to do.
 
Originally posted by: shuttleboi
I'm looking for a good headphone amp to drive the output of my iPod to my Sennheiser 595 headphones. I would rather not buy a dedicated $500+ headphone amp like those at headphone.com.

I was wondering instead if I could use a high-end soundcard like the $200 Creative Audigy 2ZS Platinum Pro as a headphone amp (this model has a PCI card and an external box with inputs and outputs). Would I be able to pass the input of my iPod directly through the Audigy, amped, to the headphone jack? If so, how is the sound quality compared to dedicated headphone amps?

Thanks for any information.
Click to expand...

Portaphile v2! 🙂
 
It has a headphone output. I don't think I'd go so far as to call it a full-fledged amp, at least one with better SQ than your standard speaker outputs.
 
What your suggesting involves a card with bad analog output and even worse ADCs, and you would be putting your sound through additional unneccesary ADC-DAC stages.
Not all dedicated headphone amps are $500+
You can get a PIMETA for under $150, and that's pretty good IMO.
 
You could always buy a cheap cmoy based amp on ebay for $50-$100. That's what I plan to do.
Click to expand...
You can get a PIMETA for under $150
Click to expand...

Thanks everyone for the info. I just googled these terms and found that they are amp designs. I found some implementations sold on ebay for about $50 or so, but they look rather ad hoc and not very professional. Do they sound as good as those $500 units sold at headroom.com?

I'm basically looking for something reliable, with AC power (not batteries), and produces excellent sound.
 
What you('re) suggesting involves a card with bad analog output and even worse ADCs
Click to expand...

Does this apply to the near-top-of-the-line Audigy 2ZS Platinum Pro sound card specifically? I would like improved sound from an amp'ed iPod as well as sound from games and music on my PC.
 
You can run the output from any good clean soundcard (like the AV-710 I mentioned) to a headphone amp.

Sound like you should get an inexpensive soundcard and a $150 or $200 real headphone amp and switch the inputs between the ipod and computer as you need them.
 
Originally posted by: shuttleboi
You could always buy a cheap cmoy based amp on ebay for $50-$100. That's what I plan to do.
Click to expand...
You can get a PIMETA for under $150
Click to expand...

Thanks everyone for the info. I just googled these terms and found that they are amp designs. I found some implementations sold on ebay for about $50 or so, but they look rather ad hoc and not very professional. Do they sound as good as those $500 units sold at headroom.com?

I'm basically looking for something reliable, with AC power (not batteries), and produces excellent sound.
Click to expand...

://headroom
http://headroom.com/
 
Originally posted by: shuttleboi
You could always buy a cheap cmoy based amp on ebay for $50-$100. That's what I plan to do.
Click to expand...
You can get a PIMETA for under $150
Click to expand...

Thanks everyone for the info. I just googled these terms and found that they are amp designs. I found some implementations sold on ebay for about $50 or so, but they look rather ad hoc and not very professional. Do they sound as good as those $500 units sold at headroom.com?

I'm basically looking for something reliable, with AC power (not batteries), and produces excellent sound.
Click to expand...

This one is AC powerd and uses the same cord as your PSU and Monitor do.
http://www.headphone.com/layout.php?topicID=3&subTopicID=27&productID=0010010050
 
Originally posted by: shuttleboi
You could always buy a cheap cmoy based amp on ebay for $50-$100. That's what I plan to do.
Click to expand...
You can get a PIMETA for under $150
Click to expand...

Thanks everyone for the info. I just googled these terms and found that they are amp designs. I found some implementations sold on ebay for about $50 or so, but they look rather ad hoc and not very professional. Do they sound as good as those $500 units sold at headroom.com?

I'm basically looking for something reliable, with AC power (not batteries), and produces excellent sound.
Click to expand...
I would look on Head Fi at the For Sale section rather than ebay. There are some good amp-builders there. These amps probably won't be as good as a $500 amp, but there are diminishing returns. I wouldn't really recommend going as low as a CMOY, but if you want one I could sell you mine.

 
One more thing, battery power has an advantage over wall-warts (cleaner power). Rechargable AAs last a long time.
 
One more thing, battery power has an advantage over wall-warts (cleaner power). Rechargable AAs last a long time.
Click to expand...

No more rechargable batteries for me!! I would rather go with AC. I already have recharging cords for my cell phone, ipod, electric shaver, digital camera, and PDA. Please, not another recharger. I refuse to buy non-rechargable batteries (bad for the environment), so it's AC or nothing if I'm going to buy a headphone amp.
 
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