Since I use my headphones and a stero I would like to connect both of them to my PC. I was thinking about buying something like to, to avoid unplugging the not-used device:
Do you know if something like this reduces the quality of the sound?
Soundcard:
Headphones:
Yes and no....
You should be driving your stereo from the "line-out" output not the amped "headphone" output.
Headphones are low impedance while your stereo is high impedance. Putting the two in parallel on the output using a splitter will make the headphones affect the stereo's quality but the stereo won't affect the headphone's quality.
If you NEED them both to come from the same output jack then I would recommend getting a headphone amp. In this setup the splitter goes to two high-impedance inputs and the headphone amp powers the headphones instead of the soundcard's amp.
So basically, my headphones will be fine, but my stereo will experience some reduced quality? Ok thanks for the response.
And splitting the signal does not reduce the quality? If I for exampled connected two headphones that would be fine?
The quality loss may or may not be noticeable; it really depends on the accuracy of the equipment you're using.
Two headphones via a splitter? This will just double the effect. Also it can really tax the amp in your sound card which will almost definitely be noticeable in A/B testing. You're asking your sound card to drive two headphones...
Here is what I would suggest instead of the Xonar and it isn't even more money.
This thing is like a USB soundcard with headphone amp and separate line out.
Ok thanks to @eidolonFIRE an @noenken. I'll think about buying and amp or the SMSL audio. Although, to be honest I tend to the amp since I already have the Xonar.
This amp seems to be highly recommended:
I don't mind spending a little money on audio devices, because in contrast to something like a GPU they age rather well :-)
The Fiio E10K is fantastic. (I have two of them lol) But that's both the DAC and Amp built together.
If you want to use your xonar card as the DAC you will need just a pure headphone amp. FIio doesn't have a good pure headphone amp solution any more.
Uhm, yeah they do. The K5 is the successor to the E09K. On it's own it is just an amp.
I still would vote for the SMSL. Getting the DAC away from all the electrical shit that is going on inside a computer is by far the best thing to clean up audio.
Yea, but it's strangely even more expensive that the E10k. Also, unless you have an X3/X5 than there's no point in the dock on top either.
The E10K is purely USB-powered, like the SMSL. The K5 plugs into the wall and has a lot more oomph.
And to say "it has a port I don't use so it is not a pure amp"... doesn't make sense. Do you use the coax out on your E10K?
Since I'd prefer to use the Xonar DX as soundcard, I'd like to go with an amp-only solution. However, the K5 seems to be double the price of a E10K (which is an amp + dac).
Are there any other decent amp only options?
You'll have to shop around for a super cheap one.
< $75 the quality is all gonna be about the same.
Here's one that comes to mind... even though it's a fantastic piece of equipment it's prolly more expensive than what you're looking for.
It certainly looks interesting. Unfortunately, on first glance it does not appear to be available in my country. I could buy it on amazon.com, but this woulf result in additional import fees.
Another question, I used to have on a seperate bass volume on my old surround system. Do amps have this usually as well? I noticed that the e10 has one, but it is missing on many others.
Oh and thanks again :-)
As already mentioned I don't mind spending money if it improves the quality of my setup, however, I don't need the titan version of an amplifier xD
Occasionally they will have a "bass boost" which is a 3-5db low pass filter at 200hz.
But, most nice amps (read: audiophile grade) will shy away from such garbage since it just mucks up the track and most people looking for good equipment (read: audiophiles) are trying to reproduce the sound as accurately as possible.
And at that point most (if not all) internal soundcards are out. For accurate reproduction you have to bypass windows itself. So ASIO or WASAPI comes into play.
This being the slight easier situation
Well, I liked the bass on my z906 system :-)
Sadly, the Magni 2 does not seem to be available in my country. (Amazon doesn't ship it and on other sites I'd have to much import fees for my taste).
What do you think about this one?
This runs on battery. Do you need portable?
If you're just looking at an amp, this smsl should be pretty good as well.