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blargh4 t1_j6j5n0t wrote

Reply to comment by extremeelementz in Trying to understand impedance and why one headphone gets louder than the other. by extremeelementz

What makes you think that’s where the amp is?

I suspect the headphone jack’s impedance detection feature is probably too “smart” for its own good and is artificially lowering the gain to get you more range on the volume knob.

I would caution against using the line out, it’s going to distort the frequency response with the Zero’s.

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extremeelementz OP t1_j6jklo7 wrote

I’m sorry yeah I was just assuming the mobo has a slightly better output than the standard front panel jack. I’m still learning and trying to figure things out and kind of lost.

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blargh4 t1_j6jmezt wrote

Well, understanding this stuff is basically a chapter of an introductory electronics textbook, so that's understandable.

The front panel jack connects directly to the motherboard. It's intended for headphones, so that should be the right place to connect them. It's possible the rear output will also detect that it's a headphone and connect it to the appropriate amp, but I think it's likely to have the same capabilities. There are also line-level outputs, which *may* give you more voltage than the "smart" headphone jack, but they can't drive much current so I personally I doubt you'd get better results with low-impedance IEMs. These audio chips are fairly complex, they mix multiple functions for each jack, and I don't think you can easily find a spec sheet for them, so unfortunately I can only guess.

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extremeelementz OP t1_j6juft0 wrote

So wouldn’t the front headphone jack that’s plugged into the mobo with a small pin connector be less amplified compared to the sound port that’s soldered directly to the mobo on the back of the computer where the audio chip traces to?

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blargh4 t1_j6jw0c3 wrote

Nah, assuming the connectors aren't damaged/corroded, the electrical effect of that bit of extra wire is absolutely negligible at audio frequencies/headphone power levels.

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