Sound card needed to power headphones

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Emad Qidwai

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Feb 25, 2015
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Hello Everyone!

Its been more than six months since i am using my KINSTON HYPERX CLOUD CORE.
My motherboard is GIGABYTE H110M. It has an ALC887 codec.(32 ohms impedance).

Audio quality of headset is superb. But what I notice is that it suffers from very low LOWS.
I mainly play cs go. At some situations footsteps sounds are very low where as highs are very high.
Also sometimes audio starts coming from both the earcups....such that it gets hard to determine the direction of enemy.Other wise it is performing great in CS GO

So I am currently assuming it requires more power.Because on site it is clearly mentioned it requires 60ohm impedance.

PCI-E cards are very expensive in my country and i dont have a slot left for pci sound card.
On what basis shall i get a usb sound card and what shall i look in it.
Here is the sound card i was thinking of buying

https://www.amazon.in/Kotion-Each-Headset-Surround-compatible/dp/B01J49LST4

Since it has a usb port and a volume knob(my cloud core doesnt have a volume knob)..i am assuming it will provide sufficient impedance.

Also my other question is that on ASUS xonar DX sound card it is mentioned to use a headphone that requires above 80 ohm impedance. So if i buy that in future ...will it harm my headphone as it requires only 60 ohms?
Please feel free to guide me :p
Thanx in advance for your valuable feedback.
 
Solution
gamerk316
Typically, most headsets will work fine up to about 64 Ohm impedance without needing a dedicated amp to power it, but it's possible you have an exception.

If you want a soundcard with a build in amp, the cheapest option is the ASUS Xonar DG/DGX, which goes for as low as $20-30. The built in amp can go up to 150 Ohm I believe. After that, the next option is the Creative Soundblaster Z, which is a better soundcard, but costs about $99 or so. Its hard to justify soundcards beyond that price point unless you have higher end audio setups.
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skitszo

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Jul 6, 2015
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from what i've read the modern audio drivers are just as good then the sound cards.... but your situation might be different...

is there a amplifier you can get for your headset that is not a soundcard? from what i read thats most of the advantage to a soundcard is line feeds to your headphones. but i'm no expert...so....
 
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c4s2k3

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Sep 17, 2015
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Your issue with not being able to tell direction of sound easily may just be game-related. Your headset is stereo, not surround, correct?
I'm not familiar with CS:GO but some games have sound settings for stereo (2.0) vs. 2.1 (stereo +sub) vs. 5.1/7.1 (full surround). Sometimes selecting a different mode in the game settings gets you a better result. There are also similar settings in the audio control panel in Windows for whatever sound card is in your system. Matching that up to what you actually have in your headphones (if it's stereo, for example) might help.

That aside, if you really need more power, a simple headphone amplifier between your sound card and headphones should work. Keep in mind if your headphones have any kind of "combination" cable that joins the microphone and headphone cables, the amplifier needs to be wired before that combo cable.

I would not worry about minor differences in impedance (80 vs. 60). It's really not critical.
 
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Emad Qidwai

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Thanku guys for your reply.
I dont know what sort of amplifier i need.
Please suggest me some model.

Yes there are various settings in cs go...and i am currently using the setting "sterio headphone"

My headset has a splitter cable to separate the mic and headphone jack that i use before cinnecting it to my pc.
 
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gamerk316

gamerk316

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Jul 8, 2008
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Typically, most headsets will work fine up to about 64 Ohm impedance without needing a dedicated amp to power it, but it's possible you have an exception.

If you want a soundcard with a build in amp, the cheapest option is the ASUS Xonar DG/DGX, which goes for as low as $20-30. The built in amp can go up to 150 Ohm I believe. After that, the next option is the Creative Soundblaster Z, which is a better soundcard, but costs about $99 or so. Its hard to justify soundcards beyond that price point unless you have higher end audio setups.
 
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Solution
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c4s2k3

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Sep 17, 2015
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First try the headphones with (a) other games, and (b) music playing on your computer and see if they provide good sound. If they do, You may not have a problem at all. Different games simply sound different. You may also find some helpful info. in this thread:
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2075940/motherboard-audio.html

Some good advice from that discussion:
So, do I need a better soundcard or external AMP/DAC or is my onboard good enough?

That's a good question, and it depends entirely on your headphones. The test is pretty simple, if you plug your headphones into the back onboard ports and play audio through your speakers or headphones and they sound loud enough for you at a volume under 80-85% and don't have audible noise, then your headphones are well driven by your current equipment. If you have to crank the volume to max or they have buzzing, humming, or popping that drives you nuts, it's probably time to look at a good soundcard or an external AMP and DAC combo.
Click to expand...
 
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