Sound card vs External DAC / Amp

[GTiPUG]

I'm looking at investing in a Xonar STXII when I rebuild later in the year.

Since browsing these forums, I've come across the Fiio E10k external amp. I've researched, but haven't a clue what the difference is. Surely the DAC/amp is only amplifying what the on board sound produces? Is the sound card superior?

I'd be using it with either DT770 pros or DT990.

 

[Marsman]

Onboard audio is only used if you connect to the analogue outputs, so just an amplifier. The E10K, which is a DAC (digital to analogue converter) as well, not just an amp. A DAC is essentially an external sound card for stereo output, but without all the extra features that a sound card has, such as; microphone input, 5.1/7.1 analogue output, DSP sound effects such as Dolby Headphone or SBX for positional sound using headphones.

For gaming, a sound card generally the better choice, especially if you want to make use of Dolby Headphone. Something like the E10K or similar is ideal if the user wants just stereo sound without any of the bells and whistle stuff and doesn't need microphone input.

 

[GTiPUG]

Onboard audio is only used if you connect to the analogue outputs, so just an amplifier. The E10K, which is a DAC (digital to analogue converter) as well, not just an amp. A DAC is essentially an external sound card for stereo output, but without all the extra features that a sound card has, such as; microphone input, 5.1/7.1 analogue output, DSP sound effects such as Dolby Headphone or SBX for positional sound using headphones.

For gaming, a sound card generally the better choice, especially if you want to make use of Dolby Headphone. Something like the E10K or similar is ideal if the user wants just stereo sound without any of the bells and whistle stuff and doesn't need microphone input.

Okay, cool... Thanks!

My old STX I had all of that jazz (Dolby etc) but I never used any of it as it sounded meh compared to the pure audio. I had it all disabled. Does this mean I'd prefer an external DAC?

If I want a DAC and need an amp to power 600ohm DT990s, would this do the trick http://epiphany-acoustics.co.uk/pro...lifiers/ehp-o2-portable-headphone-amplifier/?

Or could I just plug the amp straight into onboard sound and get a nice sound from the DT990s?

God, this is all so confusing!

 

[Marsman]

You may prefer SBX found on Creative cards to Dolby Headphone. The biggest dislike for DH is the echo effect that it adds. Maybe one of those comparison videos might help, because there's no point in buying a Creative sound card for SBX, if you end up not liking that either. Some just don't like this positional sound effect stuff, whatever it is. A friend of mine is like that. It's all guff to him; he prefers just plain stereo.

I think the STX II is not good value, regardless of whether the gaming audio effect stuff is wanted, or just looking at it from a sound quality point of view. Although OcUK do not have the STX in stock, it's £125, which is massively cheaper than the STX II, which does little more than add a low gain setting for IEMs and the add on 7.1 card connector that was found on the ST. Maybe extra Asus tax is included as well.

Did you get rid of the STX you had?

 

[EsaT]

My old STX I had all of that jazz (Dolby etc) but I never used any of it as it sounded meh compared to the pure audio. I had it all disabled. Does this mean I'd prefer an external DAC?

If I want a DAC and need an amp to power 600ohm DT990s, would this do the trick http://epiphany-acoustics.co.uk/pro...lifiers/ehp-o2-portable-headphone-amplifier/?

Or could I just plug the amp straight into onboard sound and get a nice sound from the DT990s?

God, this is all so confusing!

Properly mixed music indeed sounds fine with headphones using straight stereo signal.
Plain speaker mix again has awful left ear-right ear artificial feel in it, because in real world sounds from single speaker always reach also other ear and that doesn't happen with headphones.

And of course for binaural recording you need to disable all effects and processing.

But in gaming 2.0/stereo just works badly for immersion with headphones.
If you want to start from 2.0/stereo sound start at 13 minutes.

Dolby Headphone (starting 7:10) used by Xonars wasn't designed as plain binaural simulation, but as much of a simulation of acoustics of movie theaters...
Though suspect their driver got lost and they measured gothic gathedrals and public baths.
When combined with echoes in sound calculated by game's sound engine resulting overall echo is rather horrible bloating also bass.
So no wonder if you didn't like Dolby Headphone much.

That's the area were sound cards have biggest advantage over integrated Realteks.


600 ohm Beyers were one of the criteria in design of Objective2, so you can bet your pants it will drive them loud enought to make you deaf at fast pace.
Output capability design was basically this:
Really hearing dangerous average volume for very high dynamic range content and then some more extra for just in case.
With 250 ohm version of DT990 there's no need to turn volume knob much or use high gain mode.
Epiphany has closed business (check front page) but there's another source for O2s inside EU:
http://www.headnhifi.com/objective2

Though most sound cards would actually drive just fine 250 ohm version, like very affordably priced DT990 Pro.
Including even budget class Audigy Fx, which actually uses Realtek ALC889 as DAC (no sense to "reinvent wheel") with separate opamp as output buffer.

 

[GTiPUG]

You may prefer SBX found on Creative cards to Dolby Headphone. The biggest dislike for DH is the echo effect that it adds. Maybe one of those comparison videos might help, because there's no point in buying a Creative sound card for SBX, if you end up not liking that either. Some just don't like this positional sound effect stuff, whatever it is. A friend of mine is like that. It's all guff to him; he prefers just plain stereo.

I think the STX II is not good value, regardless of whether the gaming audio effect stuff is wanted, or just looking at it from a sound quality point of view. Although OcUK do not have the STX in stock, it's £125, which is massively cheaper than the STX II, which does little more than add a low gain setting for IEMs and the add on 7.1 card connector that was found on the ST. Maybe extra Asus tax is included as well.

Did you get rid of the STX you had?

Hm, I see what you're saying. I did get rid of the STX, yeah. It had a weird hiss/buzz whenever the mic was in use which got annoying.

Properly mixed music indeed sounds fine with headphones using straight stereo signal.
Plain speaker mix again has awful left ear-right ear artificial feel in it, because in real world sounds from single speaker always reach also other ear and that doesn't happen with headphones.

And of course for binaural recording you need to disable all effects and processing.

But in gaming 2.0/stereo just works badly for immersion with headphones.
If you want to start from 2.0/stereo sound start at 13 minutes.

Dolby Headphone (starting 7:10) used by Xonars wasn't designed as plain binaural simulation, but as much of a simulation of acoustics of movie theaters...
Though suspect their driver got lost and they measured gothic gathedrals and public baths.
When combined with echoes in sound calculated by game's sound engine resulting overall echo is rather horrible bloating also bass.
So no wonder if you didn't like Dolby Headphone much.

That's the area were sound cards have biggest advantage over integrated Realteks.


600 ohm Beyers were one of the criteria in design of Objective2, so you can bet your pants it will drive them loud enought to make you deaf at fast pace.
Output capability design was basically this:
Really hearing dangerous average volume for very high dynamic range content and then some more extra for just in case.
With 250 ohm version of DT990 there's no need to turn volume knob much or use high gain mode.
Epiphany has closed business (check front page) but there's another source for O2s inside EU:
http://www.headnhifi.com/objective2

Though most sound cards would actually drive just fine 250 ohm version, like very affordably priced DT990 Pro.
Including even budget class Audigy Fx, which actually uses Realtek ALC889 as DAC (no sense to "reinvent wheel") with separate opamp as output buffer.

I think I just about get what you're saying. So I don't need a DAC, but that Objective2 would drive the 600ohm Beyers nicely? Which gain would I need? 2.5X?

Is on board sound good enough to be amped direct?

 

[Marsman]

Some onboard is better than others. What motherboard do you have?

 

[GTiPUG]

Some onboard is better than others. What motherboard do you have?

ASUS Maximus Ranger VII. It seems decent, but it's not quite what my Xonar STXI was. Currently using Beyer DT770 80ohm.

 

[Marsman]

I think it's ALC1150. Should be decent enough with a headphone amp. That's often when onboard audio is lacking, proper amplification for headphones.

 

[GTiPUG]

I think it's ALC1150. Should be decent enough with a headphone amp. That's often when onboard audio is lacking, proper amplification for headphones.

Hm okay, interesting. In that case I think I'll go for an Objective2 and set of DT990s, shall see where it gets me. If onboard sucks I'll be upgrading mobo soonish anyway

 

[EsaT]

Currently using Beyer DT770 80ohm.

Any Realtek will drive those loud.
Actually they drive even 250 ohm DT990 quite well.
Was actually suprised when once testing them with bottom of the product barrel ALC892 in basic motherboard.
While "psychological bias" was for overall crappy sound with interference.
Though 250 ohm impedance likely helped to avoid interference, which has mostly fixed voltage...
And hence becomes weaker in relation to real signal with more signal voltage needing higher ohm headphones.

That interference problem is the big challenge in integrated.
There's just always digital signal and power wiring nearby in motherboards crammed full of stuff.
Sound card's circuit board is dedicated just for sound card so lot easier there.

If able to avoid that interference and circuitry is otherwise good ALC1150 can do D/A conversion well enough for accuracy of human hearing.
But if you're gaming it doesn't have binaural-simulation.

While closed design decreases size of sound stage DT770 should be for their price very good closed headphones for binaural gaming.
Did you try that video I linked?

I think I just about get what you're saying. So I don't need a DAC, but that Objective2 would drive the 600ohm Beyers nicely? Which gain would I need? 2.5X?

Needed gain also depends on voltage of source signal.
From up to 2 Vrms line signal 2.5X would be enough... to get you fast hearing damage.
Driving 250 ohm DT990 I have volume knob at 10-11 "o'clock" and in Windows volume is at 10-30%... depending on level of signal.
If recording's/source stream's signal has average high at signal scale then you need to lower volume.
Other recording can have signal very low in "scale from 0 to 100%" needing higher volume setting.

 

[GTiPUG]

Any Realtek will drive those loud.
Actually they drive even 250 ohm DT990 quite well.
Was actually suprised when once testing them with bottom of the product barrel ALC892 in basic motherboard.
While "psychological bias" was for overall crappy sound with interference.
Though 250 ohm impedance likely helped to avoid interference, which has mostly fixed voltage...
And hence becomes weaker in relation to real signal with more signal voltage needing higher ohm headphones.

That interference problem is the big challenge in integrated.
There's just always digital signal and power wiring nearby in motherboards crammed full of stuff.
Sound card's circuit board is dedicated just for sound card so lot easier there.

If able to avoid that interference and circuitry is otherwise good ALC1150 can do D/A conversion well enough for accuracy of human hearing.
But if you're gaming it doesn't have binaural-simulation.

While closed design decreases size of sound stage DT770 should be for their price very good closed headphones for binaural gaming.
Did you try that video I linked?

Needed gain also depends on voltage of source signal.
From up to 2 Vrms line signal 2.5X would be enough... to get you fast hearing damage.
Driving 250 ohm DT990 I have volume knob at 10-11 "o'clock" and in Windows volume is at 10-30%... depending on level of signal.
If recording's/source stream's signal has average high at signal scale then you need to lower volume.
Other recording can have signal very low in "scale from 0 to 100%" needing higher volume setting.

This is bloody fascinating! Okay, so Realtek will potentially drive 250 Ohm headphones well enough, but not 600 Ohm?

Yeah, I know what you mean... So if onboard will provide quality to the edge of human hearing, why do people feel the need for an external DAC? Is there any need?

The DT770s are great, they suit me fine. I can easily tell which direction people are in in games like PUBG, Siege etc. Never had an issue with that

That video really cleared things up though, yeah. My motherboard has "Sonic Radar" which seems decent, but I'm wondering if I'd see any advantage from that new Creative RGB soundcard? Would that alleviate the need for an amp?

Okay, so 2.5X will have the potential to blow even 600 Ohm headphones as well as my ear drums? Noted. I guess it's wise to leave the amp X at default then?

Thanks for explaining!

 

[Marsman]

Hm okay, interesting. In that case I think I'll go for an Objective2 and set of DT990s, shall see where it gets me. If onboard sucks I'll be upgrading mobo soonish anyway

Shame you've not got MM access. Just seen O2+ODAC pop up on there for £90.

 

[GTiPUG]

Shame you've not got MM access. Just seen O2+ODAC pop up on there for £90.

What's MM? That'd be a good deal!

Just been looking at Creative's AE-5, that seems a similarly priced alternative. Ah, decisions...

 

[Marsman]

Members market. Section of the forum where members can buy and sell. It's only available once you hit something like 1000 posts.

Yeah, there's quite a few good options, whether it be internal or external sound or a DAC/amp. Creative G5 is a good external sound card. Can also be used as just an amplifier with other devices.

 

[BS Dave]

Properly mixed music indeed sounds fine with headphones using straight stereo signal.
Plain speaker mix again has awful left ear-right ear artificial feel in it, because in real world sounds from single speaker always reach also other ear and that doesn't happen with headphones.

And of course for binaural recording you need to disable all effects and processing.

But in gaming 2.0/stereo just works badly for immersion with headphones.
If you want to start from 2.0/stereo sound start at 13 minutes.

Dolby Headphone (starting 7:10) used by Xonars wasn't designed as plain binaural simulation, but as much of a simulation of acoustics of movie theaters...
Though suspect their driver got lost and they measured gothic gathedrals and public baths.
When combined with echoes in sound calculated by game's sound engine resulting overall echo is rather horrible bloating also bass.
So no wonder if you didn't like Dolby Headphone much.

That's the area were sound cards have biggest advantage over integrated Realteks.


600 ohm Beyers were one of the criteria in design of Objective2, so you can bet your pants it will drive them loud enought to make you deaf at fast pace.
Output capability design was basically this:
Really hearing dangerous average volume for very high dynamic range content and then some more extra for just in case.
With 250 ohm version of DT990 there's no need to turn volume knob much or use high gain mode.
Epiphany has closed business (check front page) but there's another source for O2s inside EU:
http://www.headnhifi.com/objective2

Though most sound cards would actually drive just fine 250 ohm version, like very affordably priced DT990 Pro.
Including even budget class Audigy Fx, which actually uses Realtek ALC889 as DAC (no sense to "reinvent wheel") with separate opamp as output buffer.

So we should just select headphones in game options right??

 

[EsaT]

This is bloody fascinating! Okay, so Realtek will potentially drive 250 Ohm headphones well enough, but not 600 Ohm?

That video really cleared things up though, yeah. My motherboard has "Sonic Radar" which seems decent, but I'm wondering if I'd see any advantage from that new Creative RGB soundcard? Would that alleviate the need for an amp?

Okay, so 2.5X will have the potential to blow even 600 Ohm headphones as well as my ear drums? Noted. I guess it's wise to leave the amp X at default then?

For high signal level recording/digital source standard Realtek would likely be just enough for 600 ohms most of the time...
But for higher dynamic range content where average signal level is lower at scale with shorter high spikes problems would start.
Same for simply all around low level signal.
That Windows 100% volume setting just wouldn't be enough, because you can't get signal voltage high enough/you don't have amplification.

When DAC and output are integrated there shouldn't be any possibility of signal getting clipped unless designers screwed up.
And 600 ohm load surely won't draw too much current to overload output and cause clipping through that.
Exceeding output's current/power delivering ability happens with low ohm loads.
Just like why it's inadvisable to connect 4 ohm speakers into amplifier designed for 8 ohm speakers.
(at high volume setting you can even burn amplifier)

Clipping means that if scale of signal is from 0 to 10 and starting value is say 6 and you try to amplify it by two you'll get that maximum of 10 instead of correct 12.
It can happen both in digital part of signal chain with those "numbers" in editing...
Or in analog stage: Trying to amplify say 1 V signal by three while amplifier has only 2 V as max voltage.


Headphones should endure more power than your ears can handle without hearing damage starting in short time.
With any high power output/amplifier always plug in headphones only after turning volume to low settings.
Even with that 2.5X gain with O2 at high volume setting it wouldn't take much of input signal to drive lower ohm high sensitivity headphones to jet engine sound pressure level.


That comparison video is very good for telling headphone quality.
With bad headphones sense of direction is bad and there's no "depth": Everything sounds like coming from next to ear with some sounds just more muffled than others.
DT770 should have nice depth separation, like in that first minute gun shots coming clearly farther away with suddenly those bullet ricochets very close.


I've noticed that "Sonic radar" capable to giving graphical overlay on monitor for estimated/calculated sound source direction.
Would take that as indication how good Asus keeps their algorithms and their Chinese junk gaming headsets.
I mean with proper quality headphones fed by proper signal we can tell that lot faster just by listening...


With custom output stage design (kinda like in O2) Sound BlasterX AE-5 has possibly the best headphone amplifier in sound cards.
Software just looks way more bloated than that of Sound Blaster Z serie.

And for some more audio/electric engineering:
Creative's previous high end cards and better Asus cards have TPA6120 headphone amplifier chip which has unnecessarily high "slew rate" for audio and could do radio transmitter's job.
And likely because of that had datasheet specifying 10 ohm output resistor to keep it stable:
If having badly fitting load fast circuit/amplifier chip can become unstable and start to oscillate...
As car analogy just like some drivers doing too fast and hard steering wheel movements leading to losing control of car even in perfectly straight road.

While that output impedance can prevent such instability and also limit short circuit current protecting output that's only part of it.
Problem of output impedance is that if wanting technically the best signal headphone impedance should be 8 times output impedance.
That ratio is called as damping factor and basically tells how good control voltage source has to headphone driver to keep it following signal in all sitations.
Hence why Objective2 is designed with 0,5 ohm output impedance so that it drives even the lowest impedance/ohm headphones technically perfectly.

Anyway even 250 ohm Beyers don't care about output impedance of sound cards, while not needing as high voltage as 600 ohm versions.

So if onboard will provide quality to the edge of human hearing, why do people feel the need for an external DAC? Is there any need?

I think this gentleman got it right:
"Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones."
-Bertrand Russell

And there's lots of money to be made by making people think they need £100 cables, £1000 amplifiers/DACs etc.
https://consumerist.com/2008/03/03/do-coat-hangers-sound-as-good-monster-cables/

Tom's Hardware actually did rather nice testing and again demonstarting why "audiophiles" don't accept blind testing.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/high-end-pc-audio,3733-19.html
I sank $2000 of my own money into the DAC2 HGC last December, so I subjectively wanted it to sound better than everything else. Tests have shown that it doesn't. I was surprised, but, having been personally involved in the evaluation and believing in the integrity of what we set up, I rationally accept the findings.

Of course, we're ready for the audiophile community to rise up in arms about the statement you'll read next, but it's true that neither an intermediate enthusiast nor a serious one with ~$70,000 in gear at home were able to reliably tell apart any of the four devices once we properly set up a blind test with accurate volume-matching.

 

[EsaT]

So we should just select headphones in game options right??

Game/sound source (like video player) itself could indeed do binaural simulation for 3D sound with headphones.

But we all know how much games are focused on graphics with sound aspect being pure after though or something done using "left hand".
Console ports are another thing.
Even if sound samples have high quality and sound engine itself does decent job that's not enough.
Getting proper binaural sound just doesn't happen by adding simple crossfeed to 2.0/stereo or by downmixing 5.1 to stereo.
Nowadays most games don't even have any proper audio configuration settings just defaulting to sound channel settings used by Windows.

Sound card with binaural simulation again needs game to be only able to output standard 5.1/surround sound.

 

[GTiPUG]

For high signal level recording/digital source standard Realtek would likely be just enough for 600 ohms most of the time...
But for higher dynamic range content where average signal level is lower at scale with shorter high spikes problems would start.
Same for simply all around low level signal.
That Windows 100% volume setting just wouldn't be enough, because you can't get signal voltage high enough/you don't have amplification.

When DAC and output are integrated there shouldn't be any possibility of signal getting clipped unless designers screwed up.
And 600 ohm load surely won't draw too much current to overload output and cause clipping through that.
Exceeding output's current/power delivering ability happens with low ohm loads.
Just like why it's inadvisable to connect 4 ohm speakers into amplifier designed for 8 ohm speakers.
(at high volume setting you can even burn amplifier)

Clipping means that if scale of signal is from 0 to 10 and starting value is say 6 and you try to amplify it by two you'll get that maximum of 10 instead of correct 12.
It can happen both in digital part of signal chain with those "numbers" in editing...
Or in analog stage: Trying to amplify say 1 V signal by three while amplifier has only 2 V as max voltage.


Headphones should endure more power than your ears can handle without hearing damage starting in short time.
With any high power output/amplifier always plug in headphones only after turning volume to low settings.
Even with that 2.5X gain with O2 at high volume setting it wouldn't take much of input signal to drive lower ohm high sensitivity headphones to jet engine sound pressure level.


That comparison video is very good for telling headphone quality.
With bad headphones sense of direction is bad and there's no "depth": Everything sounds like coming from next to ear with some sounds just more muffled than others.
DT770 should have nice depth separation, like in that first minute gun shots coming clearly farther away with suddenly those bullet ricochets very close.


I've noticed that "Sonic radar" capable to giving graphical overlay on monitor for estimated/calculated sound source direction.
Would take that as indication how good Asus keeps their algorithms and their Chinese junk gaming headsets.
I mean with proper quality headphones fed by proper signal we can tell that lot faster just by listening...


With custom output stage design (kinda like in O2) Sound BlasterX AE-5 has possibly the best headphone amplifier in sound cards.
Software just looks way more bloated than that of Sound Blaster Z serie.

And for some more audio/electric engineering:
Creative's previous high end cards and better Asus cards have TPA6120 headphone amplifier chip which has unnecessarily high "slew rate" for audio and could do radio transmitter's job.
And likely because of that had datasheet specifying 10 ohm output resistor to keep it stable:
If having badly fitting load fast circuit/amplifier chip can become unstable and start to oscillate...
As car analogy just like some drivers doing too fast and hard steering wheel movements leading to losing control of car even in perfectly straight road.

While that output impedance can prevent such instability and also limit short circuit current protecting output that's only part of it.
Problem of output impedance is that if wanting technically the best signal headphone impedance should be 8 times output impedance.
That ratio is called as damping factor and basically tells how good control voltage source has to headphone driver to keep it following signal in all sitations.
Hence why Objective2 is designed with 0,5 ohm output impedance so that it drives even the lowest impedance/ohm headphones technically perfectly.

Anyway even 250 ohm Beyers don't care about output impedance of sound cards, while not needing as high voltage as 600 ohm versions.


I think this gentleman got it right:
"Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones."
-Bertrand Russell

And there's lots of money to be made by making people think they need £100 cables, £1000 amplifiers/DACs etc.
https://consumerist.com/2008/03/03/do-coat-hangers-sound-as-good-monster-cables/

Tom's Hardware actually did rather nice testing and again demonstarting why "audiophiles" don't accept blind testing.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/high-end-pc-audio,3733-19.html
I sank $2000 of my own money into the DAC2 HGC last December, so I subjectively wanted it to sound better than everything else. Tests have shown that it doesn't. I was surprised, but, having been personally involved in the evaluation and believing in the integrity of what we set up, I rationally accept the findings.

Of course, we're ready for the audiophile community to rise up in arms about the statement you'll read next, but it's true that neither an intermediate enthusiast nor a serious one with ~$70,000 in gear at home were able to reliably tell apart any of the four devices once we properly set up a blind test with accurate volume-matching.

Man... Think I underestimated the complexity of all this.

When I watch the video I definitely hear clear distinction in where the sound is coming from, which is a start I guess. I just really want to get to that next level in music/game clarity and get the most out of my FLACs.

So, in conclusion, if you wanted an all in one good DAC/Amp for the 600ohm DT990s, would you go for Onboard/Objective2 or Creative AE5? The reviews of the AE5 are particularly good, so I'm tempted by that "all in one" solution. Another guy on here also wrote a review and said it's an outstanding card which makes it fairly attractive.

The £100 cable thing doesn't surprise me, I always wondered who was buying those £50 Monster HDMI cables

 

[EsaT]

So, in conclusion, if you wanted an all in one good DAC/Amp for the 600ohm DT990s, would you go for Onboard/Objective2 or Creative AE5? The reviews of the AE5 are particularly good, so I'm tempted by that "all in one" solution. Another guy on here also wrote a review and said it's an outstanding card which makes it fairly attractive.

DAC is what it says on the tin: Digital to Analog Converter.
(something what sound cards have had always because human ear doesn't understand ones and zeroes)
But they can't take that 5.1/surround sound from game (or video player) and do binaural simulation for headphones.
So they're at level of integrated Realteks in that area.

Windows 10 has now some headphone mode, but few Youtube videos I've found make it sound like some average downmixing.
And Microsoft's track record in advancing PC gaming since first X-Box isn't exactly stellar...

AE-5 is definitely quite complete package.
Also Creative doesn't kill driver support in five years like Asus (Phoebus got discontinued in barely five years) so it will likely have Windows drivers even past ten years from now.
From SB Z serie only really expensive top model ZxR had strong output with TPA6120.
And before that Creative's cards didn't have such strong headphone amplifiers.

But there's nothing preventing separating sound card from driving headphones with separate amplifier.
Myself have currently (second hand) ZxR as signal source and Objective2 for driving headphones properly.
Was actually looking for way to connect two possibly different headphones to PC. (don't have speakers)
Quick reading of engineering aspect made all usual multi-output headphone amps look very questionable with output impedances way over sound cards.
And audio maker amplifiers have good price tag already at basic level... for one output.
So bought two Objective2 DIY kits and assembled them.


And £100 cable is actually cheap...
https://arstechnica.com/staff/2015/...-10000-ethernet-cable-apparently-makes-sense/