Hard of hearing, On board sound doesn't cut it .

I need more volume.
My on board sound does not give me enough volume. I listen with headphones, Sennheiser EH-150, but some conversations aren't very strong.
Can I get a reasonable amp to boost the volume? Or will a cheap 5.1 audio card be an improvement?

Thanks,

Al

Asus p5ql pro
E6300@ 2.81

A card isn't really going to help matters. The issue is that the output on most soundcards isn't amplified, It's more of a line out. it's meant just to send the signal to speakers which will then get amplified.

If your case has front headphone jacks, you can hook those to your motherboard header and that will be amplified.

You can also just get a cheap old pair of speakers with a headphone jack and use that as an amplifier. Also you could just buy a headphone amp.

jivetrky, Thanks for your reply.

What do you think of the Boostaroo amp or Fiio amp?

Al

Just to close this out, I bought a SB PCI e X-Fi extreme audio. It really added the necessary volume and clairity.

Thanks for your inputs.

Al