I'm about to order a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz or a Videologic SonicFury, and use the latest Santa Cruz drivers on it on WinXP Professional. First of all, given that they should be identical cards, which one do you recommend most and why (software bundle) ?
I'm also about to order a Sennheiser HD-580 or HD-600 (haven't decided yet if I will spend the extra money on the HD-600).
My plan is to connect the headphone directly to the VersaJack (no amp), configured as headphone out in the drivers (I will use multimedia keys on the keyboard to control the volume).
However, these headphones have a pretty high impedance (300 ohm), so I am wondering if the soundcard can deliver enough power for these without using a headphone amp.
Has anybody of you tried this and can comment on the soundcard volume on this setup ?
Considering the hd600 and hd580 are low sensitivity and open, santa cruz may have problems driving them to high (desired?) volume levels.
According to numerous posts at 3dss, the only difference between SC and SF is their drivers, which aren't that different anyhow:
http://www.3dsoundsurge.com/cgi-bin/wwwthr...&vc=1#Post65385 (http://www.3dsoundsurge.com/cgi-bin/wwwthreads/showthreaded.pl?Cat=&Board=Forum13&Number=65385&page=&view=&sb=&o=&vc=1#Post65385)
If it's of any help, my SB128 powers my HD570's (64 ohms) quite nicely.
Likely 128 ohms would still be double, but 300? Sounds a bit much.
--
GCP
Depending on what your looking to do....
I understand that the Santa Cruz is very good for taking in analog signal and converting to digital.
http://homepages.nildram.co.uk/~abcomp/lp-...ecord_soundcard (http://homepages.nildram.co.uk/~abcomp/lp-cdr.htm#record_soundcard)
Garf's on the track..
You need higher voltages to drive the higher impedence 'phones.. basic Ohm's law.
Regular amp outputs are designed for speakers (4-8ohm) and the lower power amps usually won't be loud enough.
You can build or buy a headphone amp.. which will raise that soundcard output to a reasonable voltage level to give you all that those Sennheisers should...
www.headwise.com (http://www.headwise.com) has some DIY projects and kits.. some, like the Chu Moy portable are available built, if you don't want to yourself..
www.headphone.com (http://www.headphone.com) has some more built ones..
www.head-fi.org (http://www.head-fi.org) has a large forum on headphone and related audio subjects.
That should get ya going..
Originally posted by JonPike
www.headwise.com has some DIY projects and kits..
I assume you mean www.headwize.com (http://www.headwize.com)... www.headwise.com is a cybersquatting page full of spam links.
Edit:[/b]
From the page
# 6/3/2002: IMPORTANT NOTICE: I may be shutting down HeadWize.com in a week or two, because I am unable to afford the hosting charges at this time. If possible, I will move the site files to the donated forums server at http://headwize.powerpill.org (http://headwize.powerpill.org). Although I own the HeadWize.com domain, I will not be able to change the DNS record to point headwize.com requests to the new server due to problems with my domain registrar. Thanks everyone for your support. I will keep you posted of developments throughout the week.
Seems even www.headwize.com (http://www.headwize.com) isn't a safe bet for that URL
Oops.. sorry for the typo! Was operating from memory..
Yep, I noticed that he's having to fall back... hope things can stay together at the new site, it's a great place for DIY'ers and a good enthusiast's forum community.. Lots of great projects are hosted there.. would hate to see it go.