This is topic Sound card output in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.
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Posted by Michael Brown (Member # 890) on 08-27-2001, 06:45 AM:
Since all of my computer use is in various computer rooms around the university i come across different types of sound cards. I am having a problem with sound on some Acer P.c's. It seems to be built in sound on the motherboard and the 3 jack sockets are marked audio out, audio in and microphone. With my headphones plugged into the Audio out jack, the volume level is very low, and thats with the master and wave output levels turned to maximum. (im listening to mp3's with Winamp/realplayer and watching trailers with quicktime.) If anyone has any suggestions I would be gratefull.
Posted by Steve Scott (Member # 630) on 08-27-2001, 02:16 PM:
The Audio out jack is designed for speakers with a higher impedance than headphones have. If you can, you should go out & get a pair of portable speakers with a headphone out jack on them. Sony makes them, as does Altec Lansing.
I've got Altec's ACS21W 21 watt powered speakers & they work great with my headphones.
Posted by Dave Macaulay (Member # 813) on 08-28-2001, 08:54 AM:
Sound cards used to have speaker amplifiers built in, so they could work with the passive speakers available then. Not BIG amplifiers, maybe 1 watt/ch.
Now this is rare. The output is now usually a line level high impedance signal, to drive amplified speakers. Passive computer speakers are uncommon now. Some cards have a low impedance line output that will give a listenable but low volume sound on headphones though, others are barely audible.
I have a Sony amplified speaker thingy I use, about the size of a deck of cards that folds open to reveal tiny speakers. Weak speakers, but it drives headphones nicely.
Posted by JC Cowles (Member # 914) on 09-03-2001, 05:01 AM:
I still run my old ISA Soundblaster 16 with built-in amp. That's all I used it for tho. The headphone jack on my Yamaha TSS-1 speakers doesn't work worth a crap. I have a Philips 5.1 soundcard for my external speakers. Tho, I really miss when they used to put amplification on the card. Now I have volume controls on my keyboard, on my taskbar, and on the external amplifier. It used to be one unified volume adjustment.