Mac OS 9 Lives

Digital Audio Workstation & MIDI => Audio & MIDI Hardware => Topic started by: Ashlander on November 20, 2024, 03:26:56 AM

Title: Solid Sound Card for High Impedance Headphones
Post by: Ashlander on November 20, 2024, 03:26:56 AM

Hey folks,

Looking for an internal sound card for OS 9 that could give enough juice to something like a Sennheiser HD600.

Any suggestions are very welcome. Thank you :))

Title: Re: Solid Sound Card for High Impedance Headphones
Post by: smilesdavis on November 20, 2024, 06:20:43 AM

a headphone amp on a pci card?

Title: Re: Solid Sound Card for High Impedance Headphones
Post by: Ashlander on November 20, 2024, 07:30:12 AM

Quote from: smilesdavis on November 20, 2024, 06:20:43 AM

a headphone amp on a pci card?

Yeah. I know next to nothing in this respect so I'm not really aware of what to expect with OS 9-era gear. I know PCI headphone amps/DACs do exist like the Asus Xonar Essence ST but obviously that is a much newer card.

Is there an equivalent of something like that for OS 9?

Title: Re: Solid Sound Card for High Impedance Headphones
Post by: smilesdavis on November 20, 2024, 08:08:21 AM

The Sennheiser HD 600 headphones have an impedance of 300 ohms. They require a decent headphone amplifier to reach their full potential, especially for high-quality audio playback.

https://archiv.rme-audio.de/old/digi96/digi96pr.htm
https://archiv.rme-audio.de/download/968pe.pdf

The RME Digi96/8 PRO has a headphone output impedance of approximately 30 ohms. This means it works best with lower-impedance headphones (e.g., 32–80 ohms), but it can still drive higher-impedance models like the Sennheiser HD 600 (300 ohms)—though not optimally. Using an external headphone amplifier would be ideal for high-impedance headphones.

i.e. SPL Phonitor 3