what exactly is meant by amp.

[skalragg]

Might be a stupid question but I don't know much about sound equipment. Looking at the headset sticky thread , it says amp required.

What exactly is meant when referring to needing amp for headphones on a PC, ...an adapter for the cable / do soundcards act as one?

If I need a soundcard, what one does the job.. will prob get the k702

Thanks for your help

 

[Marsman]

Amp is short for amplifier. Some headphones require additional amplification, meaning the headphone socket on certain devices really doesn't provide enough power to really make the headphones sound as good as they can.

Technically, any headphone will work if plugged into a headphone socket, but there is a difference between lacklustre sound coming from the headphone and good quality sound. Some headphones are easy to drive, meaning the device they are connected to has no trouble driving them so that they sound as good as they can do. The AKG K702, Sennheiser HD650, are two examples that really need a decent amplifier to get them to sound like they should do for what they cost. Connecting them to any old headphone output, is a waste of their potential and money really.

Sound cards have better amplification for headphones than the majority of motherboards, even if they do not have have a dedicated headphone amplifier. In general, most motherboards really do not do a that great a job of driving even easy to drive headphones that well. My Sennheiser PX100's sound a bit flat and dull if I connect them to my onboard audio, and they are easy to drive and cost only £20-£30. A cheap Xonar DG/DGX sound card does a much better job and brings them to life. Even adding a headphone amp in between the headphones and the onboard audio helped immensely.

Some onboard audio codecs fare better than others and do a better job, but they are normally found on higher end boards. A Xonar DGX is cheap and can improve on onboard audio for those with pretty basic motherboards.

Some inexperience people think that driving headphones properly is all about how loud the volume is. It's more than that, it's about how good that sound quality is. My PX100's went loud enough with my onboard audio, but the quality lacked.

Whatever headphones you decide on, people can advise whether a dedicated headphone amp is needed, or if they will work great from a Xonar DGX or mid range sound card.

 

[rids57]

K702 definitely needs an amp and a pretty strong one at that.

The line level audio output from motherboards and sound cards is strong enough to power a lot of efficient, low impedance headphones and headsets. However, there are a lot of headphones that are quite inefficient and/or have high impedance inputs, the result of which is low volume and reduced sound quality. Putting a headphone amplifier into the line allows the headphone drivers to operate at their optimal voltages allowing much higher volumes and full sound quality.

Some motherboards and most sound cards now include headphone amplifiers but that doesn't mean they are all equal. The headphone amplifiers in motherboards, Xonar DG & DGX, Sound Blaster Z are fairly good quality but not powerful enough for the more difficult to drive headphones and AKG K702 fall into this category. While their impedance is fairly low at 62ohms they are notoriously inefficient and only sound their best with a decent amplifier.

I spent a few months with the K702 and Sound Blaster Z and it just wasn't up to the task of driving them all that well. Volume was a struggle and they sounded a bit thin and weedy. Upgrading to the Asus Xonar STX cured that, high volume levels were easily reached and the sound thickened up nicely too.

For a setup used purely for music an external DAC and headphone amp is the best solution but this is strictly stereo only, so you miss out on the surround sound cues you get from a sound card. Obviously this isn't a problem for music but for gaming you definitely want those features.

My personal setup is:

Sennheiser HD 650, AKG K702 (modded) and Beyerdynamic DT990 headphones
Asus Xonar Essence STX for gaming and movies
Schiit Modi (DAC) and Schiit Vali (headphone amp) for music

 

[skalragg]

K702 definitely needs an amp and a pretty strong one at that.

The line level audio output from motherboards and sound cards is strong enough to power a lot of efficient, low impedance headphones and headsets. However, there are a lot of headphones that are quite inefficient and/or have high impedance inputs, the result of which is low volume and reduced sound quality. Putting a headphone amplifier into the line allows the headphone drivers to operate at their optimal voltages allowing much higher volumes and full sound quality.

Some motherboards and most sound cards now include headphone amplifiers but that doesn't mean they are all equal. The headphone amplifiers in motherboards, Xonar DG & DGX, Sound Blaster Z are fairly good quality but not powerful enough for the more difficult to drive headphones and AKG K702 fall into this category. While their impedance is fairly low at 62ohms they are notoriously inefficient and only sound their best with a decent amplifier.

I spent a few months with the K702 and Sound Blaster Z and it just wasn't up to the task of driving them all that well. Volume was a struggle and they sounded a bit thin and weedy. Upgrading to the Asus Xonar STX cured that, high volume levels were easily reached and the sound thickened up nicely too.

For a setup used purely for music an external DAC and headphone amp is the best solution but this is strictly stereo only, so you miss out on the surround sound cues you get from a sound card. Obviously this isn't a problem for music but for gaming you definitely want those features.

My personal setup is:

Sennheiser HD 650, AKG K702 (modded) and Beyerdynamic DT990 headphones
Asus Xonar Essence STX for gaming and movies
Schiit Modi (DAC) and Schiit Vali (headphone amp) for music

thanks for the advise Marsman and rids57

what kind of sound card would work well with Sennheiser MOMENTUM

 

[rids57]

Why do you want the Sennheiser Momentum? If its a mobile headphone you want the Sennheiser Urbanite is better and for use at the PC a fully over the ear headphone would be infinitely more comfortable if using for more than an hour.

 

[TwsT]

THERE IS MOMENTUM OVER EAR TOO RIDS and IEM for that matter they are also very cheap on black friday at some places.

 

[rids57]

yes but they are a still rather small, so unless you have very small ears they may still prove uncomfortable.

The main problem though is their extremely low impedance, they are just not suitable for use with sound cards.