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Sound cards and which one should i get

Go to solution Solved by Matacks,

you dont need a soundcard.  Your'e motherboard is good.  However, you may notice an improvement of your sound if you pick up a reasonably priced headphone amp such as an objective 2.  You don't really need a DAC.  An amp alone should be sufficient.  The headset you're getting has an impedance rating of 150ohms.  This is low enough that your motherboards amp will have plenty of power to make them nice and loud but the ohms of the headset are still high enough that you should notice a slightly fuller sound if you were to use an amp such as the o2.

 

As the impedance rating of a headphone goes higher, it requires a higher powered of amp to drive them.  The o2 amp has more than enough power to drive 150ohm headphones and is capable of driving higher impedance headphones as well.  It can possibly drive 600 ohm headphones but this is debated.  It seems the sweet spot for the o2 amp is 250ohms or anything under 600ohms.   

 

Your motherboard also has more than enough power to drive 150ohm headphones but it may not sound quite as good as it could with an o2 or similar amp added.  I think the difference would be pretty slight.  Its up to you whether you want to use a headphone amp or not.  I think you'll be pretty good either way. :)

Hi everyone i am getting the sennheiser g4me zero headsets for Christmas at a steal of a price of $200 including tax. Right now i am rocking the asus z97-a mobo and it has crystal sound 2. I was wondering if a sound card would help. I was looking into the xonar dgx as it had a included amp. Any other suggestions though. Thankyou for the help

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you dont need a soundcard.  Your'e motherboard is good.  However, you may notice an improvement of your sound if you pick up a reasonably priced headphone amp such as an objective 2.  You don't really need a DAC.  An amp alone should be sufficient.  The headset you're getting has an impedance rating of 150ohms.  This is low enough that your motherboards amp will have plenty of power to make them nice and loud but the ohms of the headset are still high enough that you should notice a slightly fuller sound if you were to use an amp such as the o2.

 

As the impedance rating of a headphone goes higher, it requires a higher powered of amp to drive them.  The o2 amp has more than enough power to drive 150ohm headphones and is capable of driving higher impedance headphones as well.  It can possibly drive 600 ohm headphones but this is debated.  It seems the sweet spot for the o2 amp is 250ohms or anything under 600ohms.   

 

Your motherboard also has more than enough power to drive 150ohm headphones but it may not sound quite as good as it could with an o2 or similar amp added.  I think the difference would be pretty slight.  Its up to you whether you want to use a headphone amp or not.  I think you'll be pretty good either way. :)

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