Which is a better headphone out?

amol0010

Hi, i am using the rear out for my headphones. It is giving a better output quality than the front out. But i still want to confirm , what is a better output. Is it "route headphones to center" turned on or using the rear out for headphones a better option? What DAC is used for the subwoofer out?

Thanks for any replies given.

SBeaver

apparently the center/sub has the same bad DAC as the front speakers, so you should stick to the rear connector.

pethead

Hello ... pls read this and help me ... it has to do with the rear and headphones

Click here

popej

Creative cards have headphone amplifier on front output - green socket. One can connect headphones directly to that socket. Other outputs are driven by standard opamps or directly by DAC, probably can withsand load up to 150-600 Ohm without distortion, but low impedance headphone can be to difficult for them.

Headphone output in DSP porbably goes to LiveDrive, where there is another headphone amplifier. Connecting headphones directly to sub/center socket is not a good idea, better rearange DSP so that monitor signal goes to front output socket, which in kx driver usually is used for rear speakers.

pethead

popej...

I have SB-Live installed (SB0220 10k1 [b800])

this is an internal card woth nothing outside than this:
My Audio Card has the following INs and OUTs:

• Digital Out Jack
• Line In Jack
• Microphone In Jack
• Line Out Jack
• Rear Out Jack

dj_stick

the SB022x series uses the same DAC for all outputs. There is no difference.

popej

I don't know this card, but I would expect, that line out jack is driven by something like TDA1308 and rear out jack by 4558. The first chip is designed to drive headphones. Both can be connected to AC97 DAC, but usually rear output is connected to better DAC like TDA1330. This was the main reason for swapping outputs in kX, wasn't it?

Russ

It depends on which sb022x model you are taking about as there seems to be a few (at least) different hardware designs used with this series. I am not an expert on this, but it appears that some of the older codecs were only 4 channel codecs, and I think the extra DAC (secondary codec) was added to make it 6 channels? The STAC9758 codec is a true 6 channel codec, and the sb022x cards with this codec do not have the extra DAC. The datasheet for STAC9758 says that the Front and Rear DACs can be used to drive headphones, however the Creative documentation for these cards, state that only the front can be used to drive headphones, so if you have one of these sb022x models, I would probably use only the front for headphones, as it has the headphone amp, and there should be no difference in quality between the 3 DAC's.

pethead

so guys ... once u seem to understand the whole thing better than me ... could you tell me what connection is needed in the DSP window in order to set, say, kx out 00/01 to Front and kx out 02/03 to Rear ? check this snapshot below and u'll get what i wanna do.

1. traktor setup window snapshot
2. this is my DSP window


can you help ?

Russ

Sorry I do not understand what you want, and I am not familair with traktor. What do you mean by kx out 00/01 and kx out 02/03? Are you talking about ASIO, or do you mean the physical outputs or what? Note that kX Asio 01 and 02 are disabled on epilog with these cards. Also note that the physical outputs kX out 00/01 is the jack for the front speakers (analog), and kX out 02/03 is Digital front (from the Digital Out jack). As for the jack for your rear speakers, that depends on which sb022x model you have (it is either kX out 08/09 or kX out 0d/0e).

pethead

yes i am talking about asio ...

sounds like u gave an interesting answer ... i thought i had to set things on the dsp window .. i am checking the outs now then lets see

Russ

Ok, remember that ASIO 01/02 (outs) are disabled on epilog with these cards because it conflicts with the Center/LFE channels, I am not sure about the ASIO In's (in to kX) as I have not used them as of yet.

pethead

i have checked all the asio outs and don't work ... all cables are correctly set here. so i think i will try the digital out... pls check my dsp snapshot. does it need anything in there ??

sorry i am not so relevant with kx

Russ

Try this:
Clear DSP window and load only FXBus and Epilog.
Connect FxBus 2/3 to Epilog fL/fR
Connect FxBus 4/5 to Epilog sL/sR
Set traktor to use kXout 2/3 for front, and kx out 4/5 for rear and see what that does (playing something within traktor).

pethead

hey mr i am about to cry .. it works !!!!!! hahahahahahahhahaha

you said sL/sR ? i connected the FxBus 4/5 to epilog Analog rear L/R out8/out9

waot this really did what i wanted !!! wao .... so tell me now .... just cause i cleared everything else .. is that ok ? haha

you made me real happy u can't imagine

pethead

heh winamp has no sound now

Russ

Sorry, that is what I meant by sL/sR.
Glad I could help...
I am not an expert at recording (or using it for DJ type of setup), etc, I really have not done it at all, but the ASIO out's from ASIO host software should match up with the FxBus channels (kX Asio In's). Other plugins like xrouting and surrounder can complicate the setup. For recording you should probably only load what you need to use and nothing else, then, when you are not recording you can reinitiaize the DSP to restore the default settings or load a saved configuration, etc. You may also want to try the ProFx plugins instead of FxBus/Epilog for recording, etc (use src (multiple instances of it) plugin like you would FxBus, and kxlt like epilog).

Russ

You would use different configurations for different purposes. WinAmp probably uses FxBus 0/1, so you could connect that as well, although you would probably need surrounder, etc to get 5.1 sound from it. Just play around with the DSP and read the docs and you should be able to figure out how to set it up for whatever your purposes are, once you start to understand how everything works.

pethead

hm look what i did now ... i saved the configuration of what u told me to do and loaded again the previous .. and did same connections and worked same way ... but winamp still has no sound. went to winamp preferences output plugins >> DirectSound output and tried to change things but same no sound. i guess i am already happy with the traktor working via the external mixer i am really really happy you knew about this case. i mainly use cubase and when it has to do with kx stuff i raise my hands like ... can't understand much about kx. ... i guess there will be a way to make winamp have sound in the future but for now i can just be loading different configuration on dsp.

thank u very much mr

Russ

The problem is that you cannot connect 2 sources to the same outs of epilog at the same time (i.e. FxBus 0/1 and 2/3 to epliog fL/fR, etc), so you would need some kind of mixer to be able to do both at the same time (like MX6 to mix the signals together for you and then direct the mixed sources to epilog). It could get complicated if you want 5.1 sound from WinAmp and to use your external mixer at the same time (and again I am not an expert on this stuff, and am not exactly sure what would be the best way to set it up), and why using different configurations for different purposes is often better. Hopefully some of this info will help you to understand how kX works a little better, and with a little expermintation, etc you will be able to figure out the best way to set it up for your purposes.

pethead

yes .. well actually i have sent front and rear outs from audiocard to 2 different line-in channels on the external mixer. works amazingly. this way i avoid buying external cd players to do mixing tests at home that traktor pretends the decks and actually some djs nowadays play at clubs using laptops and that traktor software. i bought this audiocard as a cheap solution for cubase with external midi devices such as synthesizers, knowing about kx latency comparing to the creative drivers. i just never used the rear or any other out.

TravelRec.

You will see, you´ve bought just more than a cheap soulution , all your previous desires can be done inside the DSP, look to LeMury´s ProFX description on this tread: NEW: ProFx (3538) Update Incl. MX6 and AC97

pethead

well thanks very much for your help ... i will be back asking more when i get to need some help soon thank you

Rogacz

What is the philosophy of making better DAC for rear channel? Shouldn't it be HQ for front, and worse for others?

Russ

My guess would be that it was not intentionally designed that way.