Amp or volume? Which gives the best quality?

So if you saw my earlier thread you'll know i just got a pair of Sennheiser HD429s.

I also have an ASUS Xonar DG sound card with a built in headphone amp.

When i used my headset (Razer Carcharias) it had low sensitivity so the amp really helped. I set it to 32ohm mode since that's what the headset was, and had it on 100% volume and used the headset's volume control dial for volume.

Now i have my 429s which don't have their own volume control. They are also 32ohm so i left the amp setting on 32ohm (it has 16, 32 and 64 ohm modes). However i then have to set the volume to 25% to avoid blowing my ears off.

So my question is simple, is it better to use 32ohm amp and 25% volume since they're 32ohm headphones, or put it down to 16ohm and have the volume higher?

tl;dr: High amp low volume or low amp high volume.

Thanks for your help and sorry for the long post.

The windows volume control changes a digital signal before it hits the DAC on the soundcard. Small signals are more susceptible to noise so it wouldn't be a bad idea to have the windows volume at a moderately high level. Not maximum, because there's always the chance that the soundcard will clip the signal. An added benefit of this is that your amplifier won't have to amplify the signal as much meaning the audio signal stays more linear. This means you want to have a really good DAC on your soundcard, or externally.

Now for the impedance problem...lowering the impedance of the amp is a great way to extend the useful range of the volume slider.

So low amp high volume.

Ah, resistence; this is for many audio neophytes a confusing subject, and rightly so. "Ohm's law states that the current through a conductor between two points is directly proportional to the potential difference across the two points." In layman's terms, resistence affects the amount of current drawn. If you lower the resistence and change nothing else, you will draw more power.

The downside here is that you may overheat your amplifier if it is not rated for a particular resistence. This happens all the time in car audio, where complete idiots put four woofers down to a half-ohm load on an amplifier rated for four ohms bridged, and proceed to set it on fire, blow fuses, and otherwise cause expensive mayhem.

If you are finding that the volume is not high-enough when you are impedence matching, you can get around it by tricking the amp into thinking it is receiveing a lower impedence than it actually is - in this case 16 versus 32. This is unlikely to cause any issues given then very low wattage drawn by headphones, but be aware that running amplifiers at a lower impedence than intended can cause overheating or distortion (though in this case it seems highly unlikely).

I'd check and make sure you've got all the volume settings turned up before changing the impedence, meaning the OS volume, driver volume, application volume, and any in-line volume that might be present. Then I'd go for a workaround if absolutely necessary.

Good luck,

Boz

Windows is on maximum volume, i'm controlling everything through my sound card. It's sound fine now with the amp at 32ohm setting and the volume around 20-25%.

Thanks

Ah, resistence; this is for many audio neophytes a confusing subject, and rightly so. "Ohm's law states that the current through a conductor between two points is directly proportional to the potential difference across the two points." In layman's terms, resistence affects the amount of current drawn. If you lower the resistence and change nothing else, you will draw more power.

The downside here is that you may overheat your amplifier if it is not rated for a particular resistence. This happens all the time in car audio, where complete idiots put four woofers down to a half-ohm load on an amplifier rated for four ohms bridged, and proceed to set it on fire, blow fuses, and otherwise cause expensive mayhem.

If you are finding that the volume is not high-enough when you are impedence matching, you can get around it by tricking the amp into thinking it is receiveing a lower impedence than it actually is - in this case 16 versus 32. This is unlikely to cause any issues given then very low wattage drawn by headphones, but be aware that running amplifiers at a lower impedence than intended can cause overheating or distortion (though in this case it seems highly unlikely).

I'd check and make sure you've got all the volume settings turned up before changing the impedence, meaning the OS volume, driver volume, application volume, and any in-line volume that might be present. Then I'd go for a workaround if absolutely necessary.

Good luck,

Boz

Bozanimal

Not to steal the thread or anything, but this is a good post for myself personally. I will be buying in the future, some higher grade headphones, and a good audio interface, as well as a decent headphone amp (if the audio interface doesn't have a a good one). Though this isn't really for gaming, can still be used for it (and will be), but this is a good thing to remember when going to buy all this stuff.. Thanks for the post.

[QUOTE="Bozanimal"]

Ah, resistence; this is for many audio neophytes a confusing subject, and rightly so. "Ohm's law states that the current through a conductor between two points is directly proportional to the potential difference across the two points." In layman's terms, resistence affects the amount of current drawn. If you lower the resistence and change nothing else, you will draw more power.

The downside here is that you may overheat your amplifier if it is not rated for a particular resistence. This happens all the time in car audio, where complete idiots put four woofers down to a half-ohm load on an amplifier rated for four ohms bridged, and proceed to set it on fire, blow fuses, and otherwise cause expensive mayhem.

If you are finding that the volume is not high-enough when you are impedence matching, you can get around it by tricking the amp into thinking it is receiveing a lower impedence than it actually is - in this case 16 versus 32. This is unlikely to cause any issues given then very low wattage drawn by headphones, but be aware that running amplifiers at a lower impedence than intended can cause overheating or distortion (though in this case it seems highly unlikely).

I'd check and make sure you've got all the volume settings turned up before changing the impedence, meaning the OS volume, driver volume, application volume, and any in-line volume that might be present. Then I'd go for a workaround if absolutely necessary.

Good luck,

Boz

Lach0121

Not to steal the thread or anything, but this is a good post for myself personally. I will be buying in the future, some higher grade headphones, and a good audio interface, as well as a decent headphone amp (if the audio interface doesn't have a a good one). Though this isn't really for gaming, can still be used for it (and will be), but this is a good thing to remember when going to buy all this stuff.. Thanks for the post.

[QUOTE="Lach0121"]

[QUOTE="Bozanimal"]

Ah, resistence; this is for many audio neophytes a confusing subject, and rightly so. "Ohm's law states that the current through a conductor between two points is directly proportional to the potential difference across the two points." In layman's terms, resistence affects the amount of current drawn. If you lower the resistence and change nothing else, you will draw more power.

The downside here is that you may overheat your amplifier if it is not rated for a particular resistence. This happens all the time in car audio, where complete idiots put four woofers down to a half-ohm load on an amplifier rated for four ohms bridged, and proceed to set it on fire, blow fuses, and otherwise cause expensive mayhem.

If you are finding that the volume is not high-enough when you are impedence matching, you can get around it by tricking the amp into thinking it is receiveing a lower impedence than it actually is - in this case 16 versus 32. This is unlikely to cause any issues given then very low wattage drawn by headphones, but be aware that running amplifiers at a lower impedence than intended can cause overheating or distortion (though in this case it seems highly unlikely).

I'd check and make sure you've got all the volume settings turned up before changing the impedence, meaning the OS volume, driver volume, application volume, and any in-line volume that might be present. Then I'd go for a workaround if absolutely necessary.

Good luck,

Boz

kraken2109

Not to steal the thread or anything, but this is a good post for myself personally. I will be buying in the future, some higher grade headphones, and a good audio interface, as well as a decent headphone amp (if the audio interface doesn't have a a good one). Though this isn't really for gaming, can still be used for it (and will be), but this is a good thing to remember when going to buy all this stuff.. Thanks for the post.

I know I won't need one, but I will benefit with them. I plan on upgrading to some AKG 702s (or similar in the future) which would benefit from it even more.