Headphones question

[CalsonicGTR]

I am planning on ditching my Creative 2.1 system and going with a set of Grado SR-80 headphones. I have a question though. Different sound cards will make a difference in sound quality right. I plan on going from the SB Live to an Audigy2 ZS. Will these cards significantly increase sound quality, or will I need to get one of those headphone amps for better quality?

[Strida]

The newer soundcard will do a lot for your quality, a headphone amp will make it even better, though neither are 100% needed.

[seamadan000]

the grados themselves will make a very big difference, they are a good set of cans. The upgrade in the sound card will probably be a little less noticable, as the headphones cant use the fancy multichannel processing of the newer card. The amp would be a good but expensive upgrade that would give you the most from your cans, but you will get very good sound without it. Outlaw makes a nice and affordable headphone amp that you may want to look at if you are considering that path.

[d4rr3n]

A heaphone amp is overkill IMO for those headphones. I own a pair of grado rs-1's and sennheiser hd580's and have found the many headphone amps i have tried with them to give a tiny improvement......hardly even noticeable. I doubt anyone could detect the difference if blind tested.

[youngbuck]

woops, posted as reply instead of my own thread, sorry.

[KKAT]

i have a set of the sennheiser 500s. they are a pretty good "budget" set of headphones. Only thing i don't like is that they are open air, so you can hear what is going on around you. on the flipside, it allows them to be lightweight and very comfortable. the 500s have an allaround good sound. they need some amplification for optimal sound though. i run a mini plug from my comp to a receiver. on my md(no amp.), the midrange and bass don't seem as strong. the amp. really helps in the midrange, as the bass can drown out that range.

[youngbuck]

How do you hook a headphone amp to headphones that are connected to your computer's soundcard?

Seamadan000, what model is that Outlaw headphone amp you are talking about?

-YB