Can the MSI BIG BANG MARSHALL B3 mobo power the DT990 250omh headset ? This is what I found

[PaddyFR]

Hello everyone, first ever post here

So I have an "old" mobo which is the MSI BIG BANG MARSHALL B3 (2011), at the time it was a beast and today still runs quite well. 

 

I bought the DT 990 250 omh version and I'm wondering if I need an amp to power these. I'm really not sure, after searching the internet for a couple hours and watching vids / reading forums the answers are not conclusive although I learned a ton about DACs and Amps which is cool !

 

The mobo itself advertises high quality sound components, and I managed to find the audio chipset name which is a Realtek ALC892. Here is the manual of the chipset: https://www.hardwaresecrets.com/datasheets/ALC892-CG_DataSheet_1.3.pdf In the manual it states page 74 output impedance is 200 omh. So i'm wondering if this will be enough ? Do I have to purchase a soundcard / external amp ?

Also I have a follow-up question : do mobos exists which natively output enough omhs to power the DT990 ? (thinking of upgrading soon because I can't fit a new gen CPU in my 9 year old mobo)

Thank you all  

[The Flying Sloth]

1 hour ago, PaddyFR said:

The mobo itself advertises high quality sound components, and I managed to find the audio chipset name which is a Realtek ALC892. Here is the manual of the chipset: https://www.hardwaresecrets.com/datasheets/ALC892-CG_DataSheet_1.3.pdf In the manual it states page 74 output impedance is 200 omh. So i'm wondering if this will be enough ? Do I have to purchase a soundcard / external amp ?

Also I have a follow-up question : do mobos exists which natively output enough omhs to power the DT990 ? (thinking of upgrading soon because I can't fit a new gen CPU in my 9 year old mobo)

1, Difficult question, ohm ratings don't necessarily reflect power required to drive headphones, I would guess they could power them somewhat but an amp is probably advisable.
2, Intel is prettymuch obsolete at this point, make sure that upgrade is team red  
3, No motherboard I am aware of (besides perhaps the AOpen AX4B-533) would power headphones like that to the same level as a dedicated amp.

I'm much better informed on the topic of inputs rather than outputs so I'm more than happy to be corrected but those are my best guesses.

Sloth

[an actual squirrel]

I mean, you have the headphones and the motherboard, so you could tell us. If you find yourself often at 100% volume and wishing you could go higher, then you will know that you needed a headphone amp.

 

You generally want output impedance to be as low as possible. You will see that for all the good headphone amps, the output impedance will be under 2 ohms. But also, the motherboard may have different output impedance than the spec listed for the realtek chip since the board may have additional stuff following the chip. So that's not a good guide since there can be so much variation depending on the implementation.

[rice guru]

Plug it in and see if it's loud enough if it's loud enough your good my guy

[PaddyFR]

UPDATE : So I just received the DT990s and when I plug it in my front panel mobo the sound input seems to be fine. When I put the music at 100% it's quite loud, not loud enough to cause immediate pain, but far loud enough for me I think. Seems all good then !

I use to play / listen to music with a pair of Bose QC35 II and the DT990 seem to sound better, but so far I can't hear the outstanding difference. Maybe I'm going deaf  EDIT : After doing more testing I can hear much more "depth" and more "punch" from the DT990, god dayum.

Thank you for the output, so to conclude it seems that my MOBO can in fact power the Beyerdynamic DT990.

I just also noticed that I can hear myself when I type, this didn't use to be the case. That is very weird indeed lol. I'm MX Cherry Browns but plan to switch to Red in the future, this'll probably help in the future.

PS : I plugged in the DT990s into my phone (One Plus 6) and the sound at max volume is loud enough, very interesting !

[rice guru]

53 minutes ago, PaddyFR said:

UPDATE : So I just received the DT990s and when I plug it in my front panel mobo the sound input seems to be fine. When I put the music at 100% it's quite loud, not loud enough to cause immediate pain, but far loud enough for me I think. Seems all good then !

I use to play / listen to music with a pair of Bose QC35 II and the DT990 seem to sound better, but so far I can't hear the outstanding difference. Maybe I'm going deaf  EDIT : After doing more testing I can hear much more "depth" and more "punch" from the DT990, god dayum.

Thank you for the output, so to conclude it seems that my MOBO can in fact power the Beyerdynamic DT990.

I just also noticed that I can hear myself when I type, this didn't use to be the case. That is very weird indeed lol. I'm MX Cherry Browns but plan to switch to Red in the future, this'll probably help in the future.

PS : I plugged in the DT990s into my phone (One Plus 6) and the sound at max volume is loud enough, very interesting !

I would reccomend plugging ng it to your motherboard directly over front panel

[an actual squirrel]

Also, try using connector retasking to select headphones and see if that makes things louder.

[PaddyFR]

3 hours ago, rice guru said:

I would reccomend plugging ng it to your motherboard directly over front panel

I tried doing one then the other, repeating and playing the same passage again and again and couldn't tell any difference, both were as loud as the other. I looked at my audio chipset manual and it says that the front panel jack is amplified.

[PaddyFR]

2 hours ago, an actual squirrel said:

Also, try using connector retasking to select headphones and see if that makes things louder.

 

I did this already but you are correct, it does put sound louder  

 

 

[PaddyFR]

I opened Overwatch and noticed that I have to put the volume of the game to 100 and windows volume to 80 to be able to hear comfortably... Before I was at in game volume 50 and windows volume 50 approximately !