robpi
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Received my Nu Audio today. I'm very satiesfied with the RCA-Output. It sounds amazing!
But, i have to say, i'm very dissapointed with the performance of the headphone output. To drive the Beyerdynamics 80 Ohms with a volume, which the of the Onbound Sound (Realtek ALC892) can perform, i have to put the Headphone Volume to 80% and the Output Volume to 100%. With a Sony MDR-X8500 i need about 75% Headphone Volume. I thought this Card can drive headphones up to 600 Ohm. Is the card defective or is this the estimated performance? At the moment i'm sure this card can't drive a 600 Ohm or even a 250 Ohm Headphone with adequate volume.
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Cool GTX
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Re: Weak Headphone out
2019/02/22 15:19:04
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robpi
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Re: Weak Headphone out
2019/02/22 15:41:27
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Yes, had 0.1.1 and now 0.1.2.3. Also got the firmware updates. Headphone out on the back and over front output also sound exactly the same. I thougt this card gives me the option to drive even better headphones. It's a pity, RCA output ist great, but headphone out ist very poor, in matter of loudness and sound quality.
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EVGA_Lee
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Re: Weak Headphone out
2019/02/22 15:50:18
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Something isn't quite right. I can drive my 990 DT's (600ohms) without requiring full volume.
Uninstall/reinstall the drivers first. Next, I would do a full power shut-off of the system (including flipping off the power supply), reseat the audio card, reconnect the SATA power cable, and try again.
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robpi
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Re: Weak Headphone out
2019/02/23 03:25:41
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I reinstalled the driver, I removed the audio card and installed it again, all cables reconnected. Nothing changed. I still don't know, if the headphone amp of the audio card is not working correct or i don't understand the settings. Reading the manual i suggest setting the headphone volume to 13% fro a 80 ohm Headset. But this setting is way to low and i still need about 80% headset volume and 100% master volume. Can this headphone setting harm the headphone although the effective volume ist not really high.
post edited by robpi - 2019/02/23 03:28:57
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rjohnson11
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Re: Weak Headphone out
2019/02/23 03:39:43
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robpi
I reinstalled the driver, I removed the audio card and installed it again, all cables reconnected. Nothing changed.
I still don't know, if the headphone amp of the audio card is not working correct or i don't understand the settings. Reading the manual i suggest setting the headphone volume to 13% fro a 80 ohm Headset. But this setting is way to low and i still need about 80% headset volume and 100% master volume. Can this headphone setting harm the headphone although the effective volume ist not really high.
Please contact EVGA technical support directly (if you reside in the USA) as the techs aren't always available on the forums.
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robpi
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Re: Weak Headphone out
2019/02/23 03:57:36
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I'm from europe. Maybe i've to send the card back as it's not working as expected.
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Nemmera
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Re: Weak Headphone out
2019/02/23 04:23:48
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Did you remember to connect the sata power connector to the card?
My card drives my hd650s with the headphone amp thing at 50 without having to max out the volume...
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robpi
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Re: Weak Headphone out
2019/02/23 04:36:00
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The SATA Power is connected. Also, it's the only device hanging on this power cable on the BeQuiet Straight Power 11. I did a test without the sata cable, but the sound card didn't even work without the sata cable (no device errors).
Is the HD650s a 300 ohm device?
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EVGA_Lee
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Re: Weak Headphone out
2019/02/23 07:28:59
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robpi
The SATA Power is connected. Also, it's the only device hanging on this power cable on the BeQuiet Straight Power 11. I did a test without the sata cable, but the sound card didn't even work without the sata cable (no device errors).
Is the HD650s a 300 ohm device?
Yes, nominal impedance for the Senn HD650 is 300ohm.
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robpi
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Re: Weak Headphone out
2019/02/23 09:37:21
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Opened a support ticket, but didn't receive the announced confirmation mail 
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DarkTemplar
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Re: Weak Headphone out
2019/02/23 13:35:21
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Is the Impedance selected automatically or is there a switch I'm missing here? This is the best pic I could find. Obviously I uninstalled the software prior to installing my new EVGA card. :) 
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EVGA_Lee
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Re: Weak Headphone out
2019/02/23 14:03:51
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That's what it looks like in the Xonar's menu. The NU Audio card doesn't have a gain/impedance selector, since the headphone amp is controlled directly through the NU Audio software, with a separate volume control for the Headphone-Out port. For the OP, there are a couple other things to look for: 1. Dumb question to ask, but can you confirm that you're using the 6.3mm (1/4") Headphone port, correct? 2. Based on what you wrote above, is this what your software looks like in NU Audio (rough approximation of headphone volume; doesn't have to match that setting exactly), as far as the master and headphone volume?  3. Do you have the Communications Activity set to anything other than 0?  4. Have you confirmed that nothing is turned down separately in the mixer? 
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robpi
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Re: Weak Headphone out
2019/02/23 14:10:18
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@DarkTemplar: I don't know such a setting. Would be exact what i need. Ok, it's a from an other sound card. @LeeAm: Yes, this are the volume settings for the Beyerdynamics DT770 80Ohm. The Communication setting is do nothing and all Volume Controls are synchron. I use the 6,3mm on the soundcard. Tested also front audio connection and it's the same performance.
post edited by robpi - 2019/02/23 14:23:48
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EVGA_Lee
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Re: Weak Headphone out
2019/02/23 16:03:31
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I would expect Front Panel to have a different signature than the headphone out.
Let me check with our Audio team on this and see if they have some feedback before you get an RMA started.
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robpi
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Re: Weak Headphone out
2019/02/23 16:29:41
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Ok. I'll wait for your further information.
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EVGA_Lee
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Re: Weak Headphone out
2019/02/25 02:35:55
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Checked with the Audio team. We're leaning towards a hardware issue (i.e. defect), but they wanted to check one last time to make sure that the 6.3mm connection was solid, as in the adapter (if you're using one) is fully connected to the headphones and fully connected into the audio card. Most beyerdynamics have a screw-on 3.5mm-6.3mm adapter, so I'd be surprised if that wasn't connected solidly.
Either way, I would imagine you've already done that multiple times, so I would suggest continuing on with the RMA. Please let me know if you have any trouble setting up the RMA.
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robpi
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Re: Weak Headphone out
2019/02/25 09:04:59
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The headphone is solid connected. As you mentioned the beyerdynamics has a screw-on adapter. I tried also the included EVGA Adapter with the Sony headphone.
I got an answer from the german support. At the moment the don't understand the problem and think everything is ok.
Can you tell me, what's in your opinion is the reconmended headphone volume setting for the 80 ohm Beyerdynamics or a 40 ohm Sony?
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EVGA_Lee
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Re: Weak Headphone out
2019/02/25 12:21:23
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Take all of this with a grain of salt, since things can vary between one headphone to the next, even if similar. It's hard to give a precise headphone volume because the impedance is only one factor that determines what you need to power the headphones. For low-ish impedance, you should be looking somewhere between 15-30%, usually. For example, I have some audio-technica ATH-A1000Z's next to me, which are rated for 44ohm, and comfortable listening in an open-air office environment needs only a 24-27%. These are closed-backs, though, and open backs have a whole different set of problems in an open-air office environment, lol. A separate reference is that I tested a pair of Focal Elear headphones on the card, roughly 80ohm, and I think it was roughly low to mid-30's, but I cannot fully recall. I do remember my 990 DT 600ohm needed somewhere between 55%-85%, but it's also been a while since testing those, which explains the wide margin. Some factors, of course: - Master Volume/Windows is set to 100%
- Foobar volume is set to 100%
- None of the tracks I'm listening to were ripped using ReplayGain
- I wear glasses, which means that sealing is always somewhat an issue
Changing any of those factors would also affect the headphone volume level.
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revollucion
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Re: Weak Headphone out
2019/02/26 10:41:22
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Good evening I would like to join this communication to share my own experience with something very similar like robpi mentioned above. I have bought Evga Nu from directly from Evga EU store. I am living in UK. my headphones are BeyerDynamic mmx 300 V.2 with 32 ohms impedance. When I installed first time my new sound card I was very surprised volume was low even with Master volume on max. (headphones connected to Headphone output) Then I realised I can put up Headphone volume too with Volume Control for Headphones' I ended on around 70-75% of volume to be able comfortable hear everything. So far soo good. Only problem was with this higher headphone output volume sometime explosion were to loud... not clear... (roar, rattle ) Weird thing is that Evga recommends in their manual this: ,,At approximately 5%, the headphone volume is set for 32ohm'' This is nowhere near mine 70-75% from above  Anyway after few days I started to play Metro Exodus where if somebody (Npc) was talking to me.. If i look directly to Npc .. Npc's voice was very low..However when I turned away and positioned my first Person view in 90' angle either way ( so my left ear or right was pointing directly to NPC ) suddenly I can hear Npc's voice clearly and loud enough. Well I was trying all possible trick to sort this out.. connecting headphones to other outputs etc etc.. AT THIS POINT I realised that LINE OUT (red, white) connectors with RCA L/R to 3.5mm adaptor sorted issue with sound in metro Exodus.. But also as robpi mentioned... I can easily run my headphones suddenly with master volume on 60-80 and with Volume Control for Headphones slider on 0 Either way I can confirm similar issue like robpi I don't know if something is wrong or not. I would like to hear from Evga probably what they think. I believe my story contribution was instructive enough for everybody 🤓
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EVGA_Lee
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Re: Weak Headphone out
2019/02/26 11:12:34
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revollucion
Good evening
I would like to join this communication to share my own experience with something very similar like robpi mentioned above.
I have bought Evga Nu from directly from Evga EU store. I am living in UK. my headphones are BeyerDynamic mmx 300 V.2 with 32 ohms impedance.
When I installed first time my new sound card I was very surprised volume was low even with Master volume on max. (headphones connected to Headphone output) Then I realised I can put up Headphone volume too with Volume Control for Headphones' I ended on around 70-75% of volume to be able comfortable hear everything. So far soo good. Only problem was with this higher headphone output volume sometime explosion were to loud... not clear... (roar, rattle )
Weird thing is that Evga recommends in their manual this: ,,At approximately 5%, the headphone volume is set for 32ohm''
This is nowhere near mine 70-75% from above
Anyway after few days I started to play Metro Exodus where if somebody (Npc) was talking to me.. If i look directly to Npc .. Npc's voice was very low..However when I turned away and positioned my first Person view in 90' angle either way ( so my left ear or right was pointing directly to NPC ) suddenly I can hear Npc's voice clearly and loud enough. Well I was trying all possible trick to sort this out.. connecting headphones to other outputs etc etc..
AT THIS POINT I realised that LINE OUT (red, white) connectors with RCA L/R to 3.5mm adaptor sorted issue with sound in metro Exodus.. But also as robpi mentioned... I can easily run my headphones suddenly with master volume on 60-80 and with Volume Control for Headphones slider on 0
Either way I can confirm similar issue like robpi
I don't know if something is wrong or not. I would like to hear from Evga probably what they think.
I believe my story contribution was instructive enough for everybody 🤓 Can you confirm that the MMX 300's are the 32ohm variant? They can be ordered as 600ohm. I only ask because it's very common to buy headphones secondhand and that might not be clear unless they are labeled. Line-out with master volume at 60-80 is probably more consistent with 32ohm than 600ohm, but it doesn't hurt to check. Also, what OS? When playing Metro, were you using any sort of Virtual Surround, like Windows Sonic / Dolby Atmos for Headphones? Was the Windows Sound configuration set to Stereo or 5.1/7.1? What was the in-game sound set to (if there are options)? From my understanding of the audio card and my own testing, that has not been my experience with a different headphone/line-out. I wonder if there may be an issue with the headphone-out port or your connection with the 6.3mm jack. If you use the EVGA 3.5mm to 6.3mm adapter instead of the beyerdynamic one, is there any difference? Shouldn't be, but it's one of the few things you can test. I would ignore the 5%/32ohm suggestion, except as a general reference, since the headphone amp works a bit differently than was originally explained. Also, the Line-out only uses the master volume, so the headphone volume slider would have no effect on the loudness.
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robpi
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Re: Weak Headphone out
2019/02/27 10:13:26
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I got my RMA Infos today. But at the moments it seems, that i'm not alone with the problem, that the headphone output is not so loud as expected. So i'm not sure if it's a hardware failure or a general bug in the firmware or headphone software, that can be fixes per firmware or software update.
I tried also another headphone. it's a 32 ohm AKG K512. I have to set the headphone volume to 65-70% with master volume 100%. As i can say, i can not drive any headphone even approximate with the reconmended settings.
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revollucion
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Re: Weak Headphone out
2019/02/28 08:46:59
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EVGATech_LeeM
revollucion
Good evening
I would like to join this communication to share my own experience with something very similar like robpi mentioned above.
I have bought Evga Nu from directly from Evga EU store. I am living in UK. my headphones are BeyerDynamic mmx 300 V.2 with 32 ohms impedance.
When I installed first time my new sound card I was very surprised volume was low even with Master volume on max. (headphones connected to Headphone output) Then I realised I can put up Headphone volume too with Volume Control for Headphones' I ended on around 70-75% of volume to be able comfortable hear everything. So far soo good. Only problem was with this higher headphone output volume sometime explosion were to loud... not clear... (roar, rattle )
Weird thing is that Evga recommends in their manual this: ,,At approximately 5%, the headphone volume is set for 32ohm''
This is nowhere near mine 70-75% from above
Anyway after few days I started to play Metro Exodus where if somebody (Npc) was talking to me.. If i look directly to Npc .. Npc's voice was very low..However when I turned away and positioned my first Person view in 90' angle either way ( so my left ear or right was pointing directly to NPC ) suddenly I can hear Npc's voice clearly and loud enough. Well I was trying all possible trick to sort this out.. connecting headphones to other outputs etc etc..
AT THIS POINT I realised that LINE OUT (red, white) connectors with RCA L/R to 3.5mm adaptor sorted issue with sound in metro Exodus.. But also as robpi mentioned... I can easily run my headphones suddenly with master volume on 60-80 and with Volume Control for Headphones slider on 0
Either way I can confirm similar issue like robpi
I don't know if something is wrong or not. I would like to hear from Evga probably what they think.
I believe my story contribution was instructive enough for everybody 🤓
Can you confirm that the MMX 300's are the 32ohm variant? They can be ordered as 600ohm. I only ask because it's very common to buy headphones secondhand and that might not be clear unless they are labeled. Line-out with master volume at 60-80 is probably more consistent with 32ohm than 600ohm, but it doesn't hurt to check.
Also, what OS?
When playing Metro, were you using any sort of Virtual Surround, like Windows Sonic / Dolby Atmos for Headphones? Was the Windows Sound configuration set to Stereo or 5.1/7.1? What was the in-game sound set to (if there are options)? From my understanding of the audio card and my own testing, that has not been my experience with a different headphone/line-out.
I wonder if there may be an issue with the headphone-out port or your connection with the 6.3mm jack. If you use the EVGA 3.5mm to 6.3mm adapter instead of the beyerdynamic one, is there any difference? Shouldn't be, but it's one of the few things you can test.
I would ignore the 5%/32ohm suggestion, except as a general reference, since the headphone amp works a bit differently than was originally explained. Also, the Line-out only uses the master volume, so the headphone volume slider would have no effect on the loudness.
Hi and thank you for your reply. Headphones bought brand new and it says 32 ohms on box. I am using Windows 10 64 bit. Latest driver for Evga nu and firmware is 0.28 I haven't used any virtual surround or Dolby Atmos while playing Metro Exodus. Funny you asking but When you have Evga Nu installed in your computer there is no other option in Windows Sound configuration then Stereo! adapter (3.5 to 6.3 ) they very similar and they not make any difference after testing them. Headphone Out I can not comment as I don't know if its broken or not... Perhaps you can try some 32 ohms headphones guys from Evga and compare it to our results.
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EVGA_Lee
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Re: Weak Headphone out
2019/02/28 11:17:54
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I mentioned in another thread that we received samples from Audeze and audio-technica. I grabbed a pair of the M70X's, which have an impedence of 35 ohms, and a sensitivity of 97 dB. Most of my better ripped tracks allow me to use a headphone volume between 26-33%, on average. There's no doubt you can push them louder up to 40% (probably 50% if the track is recorded at a low volume), but it's genuinely too high around 40% for me. This would be pretty consistent with other headphones I've tested in this impedance range, but I obviously haven't tried them all.
The thing to keep in mind is that this Headphone volume knob is more of a fine-tune option for headphones. On the one hand, it might have been a mistake to include a certain % = X ohms in the manual, but we needed to give people some reference so that they don't blow out their eardrums when first plugging everything in. With the exception of a couple people having firmware issues that prevented the headphone amp from working at all, I've not yet seen anyone have headphones that can't be driven by the card at a max headphone volume. The volume seems that it needs to be set a bit higher with you and robpi, but we haven't hit the point yet of not properly powering a set of headphones. We do have to be conscious that everyone has different sensitivity to volume, so if the Headphone Volume needs to be set higher for one or two people on a pair of headphones in the software, that may not necessarily be the case with other people. That's the tough part for us, when it comes to figuring out if there might be an issue with the audio card, or if it's just a sensitivity issue.
Regarding virtual surround, if you right-click the speaker at the bottom, there should be a Spatial option in the Windows Sound menu for Sonic and Dolby Atmos for Headphones (free trial/$15 to purchase).
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robpi
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Re: Weak Headphone out
2019/03/10 09:03:34
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I've planned to send the card in for RMA. After your last post, i'm not sure anymore. As you described the manual headphone settings should not be taken to serious. I can drive the headphones, that i own loud enough, although with high headphone volume settings. So, at the moment i can live with it. The problem is, that i'm not sure if it will also handle higher ohm headphones in the future. But i don't want invest in rma-shipping costs and lost time, if it's not needed.
In my opinion the headphone sound should be more powerful. For me it sounds better when i push up the equalizer settings (lows and highs), but i have spordically cracking noise, if i don't use the default equalizer settings. So i'm thinking about exchanging the headphone om-amp to an Burson v5i in the hope that i don't need pushed up equalizer settings. Would an exchange of the headphone om-amp also change anything concerning the headphone volume?
As the manual is not correct concerning the headphone volume settings, i have another question. Is it better to set the Headphone setting to 70% and use Master Volume up to 100% or is it more reconmended setting the Headphone Volume to 100% and the Master Volume to 20-25%. The effective Volume is the same.
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bcavnaugh
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Re: Weak Headphone out
2019/03/10 11:41:32
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alexbigs
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Re: Weak Headphone out
2019/03/27 23:39:05
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Looks like im having the same weak sauce problem. Ive got a 32 ohm set of cans on headphone setting of 80-100 % and master around 30% to hear an acceptable output.
I ordered some brand new AKG's that are 62 ohms coming in a couple days. I'll wait and test them out before i call Evga for support/rma
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alexbigs
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Re: Weak Headphone out
2019/03/28 15:11:20
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....Sounding better after the driver update
post edited by alexbigs - 2019/04/09 23:47:36
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EVGA_Lee
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Re: Weak Headphone out
2019/03/29 10:04:20
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It's generally recommended to set the master volume to 100% and then set the headphone volume to what you consider an acceptable level.
When you do that, what do you see the headphone volume at?
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alexbigs
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Re: Weak Headphone out
2019/03/30 20:10:36
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Update, so I got my New AKG K7xx and Im listening to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at 90 and 80 %. Maybe I am Deaf or this Amp doesn't work so well. I paid 249 and with tax it came out to 270. Would I do it again. I think its an excellent buy at sub 200 dollars, the audio quality is quite good and I didnt want to fuss with an external amp/dac and all the extra wires. Im finding its best to leave the headphone gain at 100 % and adjusting the master accordingly.
post edited by alexbigs - 2019/03/31 08:55:42
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