Hi,

I'm looking for a better soundcard for my laptop, that could drive Sennheiser HD600's nicely (ie: no additional amplifier required).

The onboard sound works (in linux) but is too weak.

I have certain requirements though:
- interface: pcmcia or usb1 or usb2 (don't care)
- power: usable on the go (ie: slot- or bus-powered)
- drivers: linux natively supported

Does someone know of such a card ?

I've heard that pcmcia soundcards are not officially supported in linux, mainly because of those cards' ugly tricks to do dma. Is it true ?

Thanks !

I don't think you're going to find anything for the power requirement.

USB specs limit the amount of current that can be drawn on the bus. It's something like 500mA, which is more than enough for small devices, but when we're talking driving high impedence headphones, that's not enough.

I don't know of any PCMCIA cards nor am I that familiar with the spec enough to say that it has a similar power requirement.



*5 minutes later* I didn't notice that M-Audio DOES have a USB powered device that would fit the bill except for the apparent lack of Linux support.

Stereo-link has a device who's sole purpose is to be a USB audio port, but it's not USB powered.

Maybe you should consider HeadRoom's Airhead? It's not a sound card, but it may drive those HD600s the way you want them driven.

http://www.echoindigo.com/

If you have a laptop and care about audio, this is the card to get. Click on "reviews" to read some reviews on the card.

It's $99.00 and worth every penny.


... and as for the "HeadRoom AirHead". It's great, but the "HeadRoom Total AirHead" is the better choice since you have the HD600's. But is an extra amp really worth getting? Maybe. It depends if the Echo Indigo's amp has what it takes to power the HD600's alone. It may since it has a better amp then any other laptop soundcards, but I'm not sure at this point. Just get the Indigo first, try it out, and if you feel it doesn't push the power hungry HD600's enough then definetly get the "Total AirHead".


http://www.headphone.com/layout.php?topicI...3&subTopicID=27

Thanks to you both !

SNYder, do you know if the Indigo works in linux ? I saw mention about MacOS X and windows only.

I was going to suggest the Indigo myself, but after investigating, it looks like it's not supported under Linux yet (by the kernel or ALSA). You might try asking around.

So you mean high impedance elements imply high currents?? If there was any connection between them I would have assumed the other way around actually. Do you have any references (links, books) for this so I can learn more?

I have been using the built in soundcard on my notebook to drive my HD497 dunno if that is similar to HD600 in power requirements, but so far it sounds excellent via the speaker output on the soundcard, much better than the built in speakers.

Looking into the Echo Indigo product now...

Laters

AgentMil

Sigh...

Again, high impedance headphones don't need high output power, it's more like the opposite.

A high impedance headphone just needs a high enough output voltage to sound loud enough, but requires little current and power.

According to Ohm:

I=V/R

and

P=(V^2)/R

So if you have high R (R is around nominal impedance on speakers and headphones), you'll get low I and low P, unless output voltage is very high.

A low impedance headphone, on the other hand, requires more current capability at same voltage levels.

Having two headphones with low and high impedance and same sensitivity (sensitivity is acoustic level produced at a fixed reference output power), and a decent output device that produces a good signal and doesn't distort much at peak level voltages (such as a good soundcard), then: the low impedance one will require higher current capability, specially on signal peaks, if the card is not able to deliver it, it will distort. The high impedance one will require higher overall voltage capability, if the card is not able to deliver it it will just sound quieter overall.

I dropped them a line about Linux drivers. We'll see what comes back...

- Agent 86

http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc/

If the soundcard/chipset isn't listed there as supported, you're pretty much shit out of luck getting it to work in Linux (in most cases, anyway..). The Alsa Echo driver page lists the Indigo as currently impossible to support.