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^I bought that Firewire Audio interface for my home studio. It also has an optical audio input. If I connect my optical audio output on my motherboard to this, could I use it as a headphone amplifier? I have a really high end pair of Audio Technica headphones.

Now I realize that this can be used as a headphone amp, what I'm asking is if it will have the audio quality benefits of a traditional headphone amplifier, as in it will produce sound better through the interface than if plugged in directly to my computer. Thanks

EDIT: I don't have it yet, so I can't test it out with my own ears

asked Jan 13 '11 at 22:13

Zlpha's gravatar image

Zlpha
4.6k5278128

edited Jan 13 '11 at 22:14


It definitely could drive the headphones better than the motherboard's integrated sound card. I'm not sure how the noise level would be though. Sound cards integrated into the motherboard are notorious for noise from the surrounding components. This may not be true for the optical interface, but the sound card may pick up the noise before the signal reaches the optical interface. In which case, the weird motherboard noise would still be in the background.

answered Jan 13 '11 at 22:37

JDHHDJ's gravatar image

JDHHDJ
2.4k173458

hmmm, yeah I think the optical port would bypass the interference but I could be wrong

(Jan 13 '11 at 23:34) Zlpha Zlpha's gravatar image
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Asked: Jan 13 '11 at 22:13

Seen: 1,529 times

Last updated: Jan 13 '11 at 23:34