TI Burr Brown® OPA2134 op AMP

Richard William

Richard William

Richard William

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Joined
7 May 2015
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44
Hi,

My MOBO Gigabyte Z170x gaming 7 has the on board audio with the TI Burr Brown® OPA2134 operational amplifier, is this Amp capable of running a set of headphones with an impedance of 150ohm (sennheiser PC 350)
 
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I should think so. Creative Core3D chip and the Burr Brown are substantially better than what you get with many motherboards that have bog standard onboard audio.
 
Thanks for the input I'm just starting with the audio side of things. have just been looking at some reviews for the sennheiser PC 350 they seem to be a reasonable starting point for a gaming headset. Some people are suggesting that as a beginner It would be better for me to start with say the HyperX cloud II as they come with the in line DAC with pre-set 7.1 surround built in. I have SBX Pro Studio will I be able to achieve the surround effect with the PC 350's ?

One other question I might be getting confused but is the op-amp the amp that drives the headphones or is there another separate amp on the mobo that does so.?
 
Many parts make up what you might call a headphone amp, op-amp is the part responsible for amplifying the signal.

I'm sure someone like marsman can fill you in with more details if required :p
 
I don't know that much I'm afraid when it comes to internal workings of amplifiers, other than what you've already said about op amps. :p

Rroff would be a good person to ask if the OP wants to know more about that.

Anyway; the PC350 SE, is a very good headset. I thought you might have been talking about the original PC 350 in the OP, but as you don't have that already, must be the SE; which is an improvement on the first 350.

The biggest advantage over the HyperX, is the better quality microphone. That's the only real area where the HyperX headsets could be better really. Sennheiser's microphones are very good indeed.

When it come cost, the HyperX are headsets very good value, but in the case of the Cloud II, there's no point going for that, as the Core3D chip will provide SBX, so the Cloud I is the better choice.

350SE I'm sure was £90 last time I looked a few weeks ago, and for that, I'd say they would be worth buying over the cheaper HyperX Cloud. At £110, while still pretty good, they are twice the cost of the HyperX Cloud.

If you want a quality microphone and can afford the PC350SE, then they will be a decent choice. If you're not fussed whether about the microphone quality too much, maybe it's better to save £50 odd and grab the HyperX Cloud.
 
The headphone amplifier is rated for upto 600 ohm headphones - I've not looked into it but I suspect it uses another IC for the headphone driver and the OPA2134 feeds into that.

Assuming the OPA2134 was directly driving the headphone - at loud volume levels the PC350 only require around 10-12 mW to drive them while in most audio configurations the op amp can output atleast 200mW.
 
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Trouble is, what does up to 600 Ohm, actually mean?

As we know with AKG K702 for example, Ohm rating doesn't mean a whole lot.

Creative once claimed their SB Z, could power 600 Ohm headphones, yet falls well short of doing the K702 any real justice.

Of course, none of this really matter here, because we are talking about a 150 Ohm headset, which I'm sure is quite easy to drive in comparison to the K702, despite having an Ohm rating that is more than twice as much.
 
That is always the problem with headphone amplifiers - I did edit the above to add in approx. mW figures. You'll get headphones that have low ohm but horrendous current requirements to get any kind of decent sound out of them and vice versa like the HD600 series that don't require much current but sound incredibly muddy if you don't have enough voltage swing even when the amp has the on paper power figures to support them.
 
Thank you all for the input I'm learning all the time, I think Rroff might be right I found some more info on the MOBO on line which mentioned a separate IC/Amp for the headphone jack, hope no one minds but I have another question. The OP Amp can be replaced what would be the point of doing so?
 
Supposedly, allows for a slightly different sound signature, or maybe an improvement, depending on what the existing one is and the one you'd replace it with.

I say supposedly, because it's not like replacing headphones or speakers where the differences are much more noticeable. When it comes to op amps for example, the difference are likely to be subtle, if any at all.

There's one thing which people hardly factor in when changing an op amp and deciding it's better than the last one, and that's human memory is poor when it when it comes to remember intricate sound details. That's why direct AB testing exists. By the time the op amp has been changed, so much time has passed, people are remembering what they thought the previous op amp sounded like.
 
Almost any electronics device in an analogue signal path will induce some noise and distortion into the signal and op amps are no exception - different designs and manufacturing approaches can vary how that manifests in an audio signal and hence how an op amp "sounds" plus while no means a rule more expensive op amps tend to have lower levels of noise and distortion. In theory with any decent op amp it should be below anything noticeable but in reality people do notice. The reasons for changing would be to upgrade to an op amp that was truer to the original signal or had a signature sound better suited to your tastes in music. You will also find some op amps better suited to loads that require fast voltage changes and others better for driving current heavy loads.

There are other factors as well such as some op amps use crude "boosters" to achieve high slew rates (how fast the op amp can react to a change in the signal voltage level) which can result in a raw sound versus often people saying those with a more advanced approach sounding smoother.

The OPA2134 isn't a bad choice, its designed for audio, doesn't do anything unexpected and largely produces a very accurate sound but does have the signature "burr-brown" slightly thick and lazy signature and personally I think it is a bit like a musician playing the same tune for the 1000th time - accurate but no longer involved in the music quite the same as the first few times.
 
Thanks once again for the help on op amps, decided on the Cloud II as they where on offer for £69 also as I mentioned earlier I'm totally new to the audio side and thought it would be interesting to compere the USB DAC, that comes with them, Core 3D chip and software. They arrived yesterday my first chance today to try them out have them connected through the soundcard with SBX pro studio. Tried them in game first off they are good but had to use full volume the base sounded a little "weak" if that makes sense.

Have just tried, or am listening to some streaming music now, Ohh my, have had to turn the volume down to 50% the sound is astounding I'm hearing tones in music that I have never been able to distinguish before. If this is entry level gear what does Pro level equipment sound like.

Any ideas why they sound "weaker" in games ?
 
I don't know to be honest. Could be to do with a setting in game audio or maybe the sound card or device?

One thing you could try: If you are using Windows 10, then there's built in sound EQ, which you could use to tweak the sound a bit for more lower bass. Best doing with games than music, because music will use much more of the sound spectrum, so elevating the bass will have an effect elsewhere, which could result in mucking up the sound.

Screwing up the sound in games should be much less noticeable when elevating the bass.
 
Do you have them plugged into the back or the frontpanel audio socket?

Also in the Windows sound control panel do you have it set to mute or lower volume on applications in the communications tab as this can play funny with some games.
 
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