ASUS Xonar DS Volume quiet

[chaosrapture]

PC Specs:
Mobo: Asus P5Q deluxe
CPU: Q9550 @ 3.4Ghz
RAM: 4GB DDR2
GPU: HIS 6950
OS: Windows 7 pro 64bit
I have disabled the on-board sound in the BIOS.

Hey guys.

I just purchased a Xonar DS and installed it today with the latest drivers available on the ASUS website however I am having problems configuring the card properly.

It appears no matter how I configure the card (turning volume to 100% on all programs, changing speaker set up etc) I cant seem to get the volume up to a high level.

One thing I noticed while testing a few songs was that 30% volume on windows media player was exactly the same as 100% volume and there was no change at all after turning the volume control past 30%.

It is worth mentioning that my on-board sound was capable of reaching double if not more volume than the sound card is producing .

Is there something wrong with the card? or am I being a complete novice and forgetting to do something?.

Many thanks in advance

 

[chaosrapture]

Just plugged my 5.1 speaker system into the card and it appears to be performing much better than my headset however i switched back to onboard sound and my headset was performing at 100% again.

Is this sound card built for speakers only or is it something else?

 

[chaosrapture]

I have a Siberia Neckband at the moment and im a little worried because I purchased this sound card to get the most out of a Roccat Kave headset which I will be buying shortly. The kave is supposed to have solid 5.1 but will the problems still be the same on that headset?.

 

[gamerk316]

Whats the headset? Depending on its impeadance, it simply might not be getting enough juice...[I find that unlikely, but its possible...]

 

[chaosrapture]

Steelseries Siberia Neckband buddy

 

[gamerk316]

Time for a physics lesson!

The output power [IE: Volume] of a headset is dependent on three things:

1: Voltage of the output device
2: Current of the output device
3: Impedance [resistance] of the input device [in this case, the headset]

The formula for power is:

Power = Voltage * Current

In addition:

Voltage = Current * Impedance

As a result, there are two ways to drive headphones to high power outputs:

A: Low Voltage, High Current, Low Impedance
B: High Voltage, Low Current, High Impedance

Due to power concerns, your standard 3.5mm output jacks are the first of the two approaches, using a high current but low voltage draw, and thus not capable of properly driving devices with large impedance.

Your headset has an impedance rating of 40 Ohms, which is significantly more then the <5 Ohms that most 3.5mm devices are rated at. I'm guessing that DS uses a lower voltage output then the standard onboard audio outputs, and thus can't drive the headphones to the same level of volume. [I can't find this info online, though you could query ASUS tech support...]. This is my best guess on the volume differences, though I really can't imagine there would be a significant difference in output volume between the DS and Onboard...

Also, one of the tabs of the ASUS control panel has a seperate paine that deals with output balence. On my Xense, this was only set to ~80% for both the left and right channels, so if thats the case, you can up those to 100%, which should help a little bit.

In any case, this is situation where the ASUS Xonar DG, which comes with a powered headphone amp [basically, increasing the voltage and thus raising the volume] is a better option then the ASUS Xonar DS.

 

[chaosrapture]

so basically im stuffed lol 🙁.

My mate has the same soundcard I have however and he seems to get really loud sound out of his PC350's which uses "150ohm" apparently 😵