Sennheiser Momentum over-ear low volume with Realtek ALC1150

[Christianm]

well the onboard audio is not faulty cuz my old beats studios working fine. but i'm considering to buy an AMP/DAC. i also raised this topic at Head-fi and i only got one reply in two days. one person explains

 

"Sometimes when the impedance (Ohms) of the source (motherboard on-board audio) is higher then the impedance of the headphones, the headphones have a problem with getting loud.

The 18-Ohm Momentum really seem to be designed to work off portable audio sources (smartphone, iPhone, iPod, etc), which usually have a very low output impedance, like under 10-Ohms.

(Technically, with 18-Ohm headphones, you would want a source with an output impedance of 2.25-Ohms or less (but nothing perfect).

Where as your motherboard's on-board audio output could be (wild guess) 40-Ohms or higher.

A FiiO E11K headphone amplifier ($60), has an output impedance of less then 1-Ohm

So plug the E11K into your motherboard and your headphones into the E11K.

The Sound Blaster Z headphone output has an impedance of 22.-Ohms.

 

so now i need to know which would be better? SBZ or Fiio E11k (only AMP) or Fiio E07K (AMP/DAC)? i didn't get reply there for the query so maybe here. i'm not a very technical when it comes to sound. thanks

[creatip123]

well the onboard audio is not faulty cuz my old beats studios working fine. but i'm considering to buy an AMP/DAC. i also raised this topic at Head-fi and i only got one reply in two days. one person explains

 

"Sometimes when the impedance (Ohms) of the source (motherboard on-board audio) is higher then the impedance of the headphones, the headphones have a problem with getting loud.

The 18-Ohm Momentum really seem to be designed to work off portable audio sources (smartphone, iPhone, iPod, etc), which usually have a very low output impedance, like under 10-Ohms.

(Technically, with 18-Ohm headphones, you would want a source with an output impedance of 2.25-Ohms or less (but nothing perfect).

Where as your motherboard's on-board audio output could be (wild guess) 40-Ohms or higher.

A FiiO E11K headphone amplifier ($60), has an output impedance of less then 1-Ohm

So plug the E11K into your motherboard and your headphones into the E11K.

The Sound Blaster Z headphone output has an impedance of 22.-Ohms.

 

so now i need to know which would be better? SBZ or Fiio E11k (only AMP) or Fiio E07K (AMP/DAC)? i didn't get reply there for the query so maybe here. i'm not a very technical when it comes to sound. thanks

 

 

Yes, that's one of the main reason people go with external solution, the output impedance of the onboard that's usually quite high. 

 

I've read this somewhere:

 

So we know there's a system to drive passive speaker systems, and a system to drive headphones. Onboard (and most soundcard) is stuck in the middle of the 2. They don't have enough power/current to drive passive speaker systems, but also got too high of output impedance to drive portable/mobile headphones. Onboards are meant to be used with powered speaker systems, dubbed 'multimedia speakers' in the old days. 

 

A Syba DAC would be a cheap reliable solution to your problem.

[creatip123]

 I've even heard someone say that onboard doesn't use its full potential unless it's at 100% but I'm a little sceptical towards that one LOL

 

Technically it's true. It got the potential to be louder, so unless it's set to 100% volume, it's still got the latent potential for loudness.....

[CameronUK]

I've got an E07K and really like it. 2 outputs so 2 people can experience the better quality sound.

[Lauen]

snip

the SBZ wouldn't help at all, according to the response you got, it has a 22 ohm output impedance which is absolutely horrible.

 

But the ASUS Maximus VI series (which ever it is), all have 10 ohm output impedance, this may be it. BUT: when I used my JBL J33i in-ears on my ASUS Xonar D2X which also has 10 ohm output impedance, there was next to no sound at 10-20% volume, which was the normal listening volume for me, so when I turned it up to actually get sound, the sound started crackling and shit, so I quickly plugged them out and used onboard instead (I have an ASUS Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 which has the Realtek ALC892 and 0.3 ohm output impedance) they worked just fine, but a few days later they actually broke, I assume the D2X has something to do with it because of what happened.

 

 

as creatip123 said, the Syba DAC would be a cheap and nice solution, available here and here.

[Christianm]

so I need an AMP/DAC which have less than 3 ohm output impedance? if I'm correct. what if I spend little more on Fiio E10K than is it gonna work out fine?

[Lauen]

so I need an AMP/DAC which have less than 3 ohm output impedance? if I'm correct. what if I spend little more on Fiio E10K than is it gonna work out fine?

Yes, because of the dampening factor you should have a setup with as low output impedance as possible. output impedance x 8 = minimum recommended headphone impedance. the Fiio E10K has <1 ohm output impedance if I remember correctly.

[creatip123]

Yes, because of the dampening factor you should have a setup with as low output impedance as possible. output impedance x 8 = minimum recommended headphone impedance. the Fiio E10K has <1 ohm output impedance if I remember correctly.

 

Tru: http://www.fiio.net/en/products/27/parameters

[Christianm]

thank you guys for all your support and suggestions. I'm gonna get Fiio E10K hope it wouldn't be a waste of money 'cuz I have no choice but to keep this headphones now. thanks

[Sigiler]

the SBZ wouldn't help at all, according to the response you got, it has a 22 ohm output impedance which is absolutely horrible.

 

But the ASUS Maximus VI series (which ever it is), all have 10 ohm output impedance, this may be it. BUT: when I used my JBL J33i in-ears on my ASUS Xonar D2X which also has 10 ohm output impedance, there was next to no sound at 10-20% volume, which was the normal listening volume for me, so when I turned it up to actually get sound, the sound started crackling and shit, so I quickly plugged them out and used onboard instead (I have an ASUS Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 which has the Realtek ALC892 and 0.3 ohm output impedance) they worked just fine, but a few days later they actually broke, I assume the D2X has something to do with it because of what happened.

 

 

as creatip123 said, the Syba DAC would be a cheap and nice solution, available here and here.

 

I realize this is a really old thread, but where did you find the output impedance of the ALC892? I have the exact same motherboard, and I've been looking all over for this info.  I recently got a pair of Sennheiser IE80's (16Ω) and I thought it was odd that the sound card my brother bought for me causes them to clip slightly during certain songs. It's a Sound Blaster ZXR, and I don't have the 600Ω amp switched on, which would probably damage the earphones.  Digging up what I can on the sound card, I've only found from other forums that this has around 10Ω output impedance... awful for in-ear's.  If you're right about the Realtek chip, then what is the point of a $200+ external card that doesn't work with normal headphones... I feel bad for not using it except for the optical to my receiver.

[Lauen]

I realize this is a really old thread, but where did you find the output impedance of the ALC892? I have the exact same motherboard, and I've been looking all over for this info.  

Found it on Realtek's site, in the datasheet for the ALC892. At the time of actually making these posts (a year ago) I had access to the datasheets on their site, but it seems they have made them hard to get. 

 

 

Digging up what I can on the sound card, I've only found from other forums that this has around 10Ω output impedance... awful for in-ear's.  

Yup, this is VERY common for Creative and ASUS soundcards, high output impedance, because Creative and ASUS know nothing about actual clean sound. Actual good headphone audio amplifier retail brands (that mainly do audio, and not the gaming kind) are Schiit, SMSL, Mayflower (they make O2s n stuff), JDS Labs (they make O2s n stuff), and Fiio. You can also find other good ones, like the Syba dac thing. 

 

 

If you're right about the Realtek chip, then what is the point of a $200+ external card that doesn't work with normal headphones... I feel bad for not using it except for the optical to my receiver.

The point of those is to make money for Asus and Creative. They don't really think their audio products through. Get something that is actually made for audio and not for profit. In a perfect world, everyone would listen to NWAVGUY, and make amps that are high power, low output impedance, simple and clean, with low noise floors. But instead he created the O2 amp which is a success if you manage to not listen to all the snakeoil on hifi sites.