On Wed, Jul 12, 2000 at 08:17:40AM -0400, Greg Maxwell ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote
> On Tue, 11 Jul 2000, Zia Mazhar wrote:
>
> [snip]
> > I was very happy when I upgraded to SB Live! from AWE32. The output of SB
> > Live! is very clear and clean. Also, the price isn't very high any more -
> > and they worth the money.
> [snip]
>
> I don't know about other headphone makers, but the SR80s have a very
> resitive output. The AWE32 isn't able to drive it on it's line out (and
> it's speaker out is too hot and noisy). The headphone output on a makie
> mixer works fine though. :)
That's what headphone amps are for. In general, the amps (or
pre-amps, or whatever you want to call them) in most soundcards are
pretty bad. The line out probably has a lot less noise and distortion
than the powered out. You can use a good headphone amp off the
line-out and probably get better quality music reproduction.
Even so, there's a lot of digital noise and RF running around the
inside of a PC. I wouldn't recommend a PC soundcard for any critical
listening -- unless it's not a SB Live! and has a digital out which
you use to drive an external D/A. I don't have that, so I burn CDs
with decoded MP3's and play them on my home stereo, occassionally
using the headphones from the stereo, but usually with speakers.
John
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