One of the most common questions on PC forums is whether a motherboard is capable of powering <X impedance> or <insert headphone here>. Almost every time, someone will suggest that high impedance headphones are harder to drive and low impedance headphones are easy to drive. Others may chime in, quoting a manufacturer’s specification that, say, […]
Myth: High Impedance Headphones Are Harder for Motherboards to Drive Read More »
AudioScienceReview has headphone measurements, many of which feature sensitivity expressed as mV required to reach 94dB. I’ve converted ASR’s sensitivity measurements, as of the current date (06 January 2022), to the more standard dB/1mW form. The formula to do this is: Sensitivity in dB/mW = 94dB – 10*log10((mV for 94dB)^2/(Impedance at 1kHz)/1000). It’s interesting to
ASR Sensitivity Conversion Read More »
In Windows 10, the increase in volume between 2/100 and 6/100 is larger than the increase between 50/100 and 100/100. Volume Control and Decibels In electronics, the maximum level is “full-scale”, denoted by “0dBFS”, or 0dB, full scale. Full scale is the loudest signal that the system can produce; for instance, at its maximum electrical
Windows Volume Control Is Wonky Read More »
The levels discussed here are probably irrelevant to any practical application. This is a silly topic, but there’s a slight chance it might help someone troubleshoot something, someday. Here is an FFT of an A-grade E1DA Cosmos ADC with nothing plugged in. The settings are unreasonable; 160 averages of 4M Length: about 2 hours of
Cosmos ADC Mains Noise Read More »
