Using heaphones with digital output

T

tryptophan

New member
Hi --

My sound card has a digital output (s/pdif) and I want to plug my headphone into it because my speakers are plugged into the analog outputs. Is there a small, cheap D/A converter that will serve that purpose?

Thanks,
Sarah
 
I have never seen anything small or cheap since spdif is usually an added feature, not something that you would get for a stand-alone. I would just get a headphone amp (behringer makes one for $20), run your outs from the soundcard into the amp then you can use it like a pseudo mixer with one channel going to your headphones and one going to your monitors. If you are using normal computer speakers you will just need a 1/8" trs to 1/4" adapter (like for headphones), if your using monitors you will need a TRS 1/4" to 2 mono 1/4" TS adapter
 
Oh I see. Thanks for the help.

My souncard has rca outputs so rather than adapt them to a headphone amp, i was hoping to just find something for the s/pdif. Oh well.
 
tryptophan said:
Oh I see. Thanks for the help.

My souncard has rca outputs so rather than adapt them to a headphone amp, i was hoping to just find something for the s/pdif. Oh well.
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The adapters at radio shack will cost $5. A standalone DA converter would be about $100, if you could find one.

You might also run into routing problems. (Can you route the same signal to both analog and digital outputs at the same time)
 
Okay, that's an interesting point of view. I guess I just don't like adapters. I searched the web, and as it turns out, a lot of people are looking for the same thing as me. I betcha it'll happen sometime soon.
 
tryptophan said:
I guess I just don't like adapters.
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You don't really have to get adapters. They make rca to 1/4 cables. I must have 3 or 4 eight channel snakes in that configuration.

They make cables in just about any configuration you can think of. I've seen xlr to rca!!!

With a DA converter, you would still have to use some sort of adapter because it would probably have two mono 1/4 outputs (left and right) and you would need to adapt it to a stereo 1/4 . (the headphone amp would solve that problem as well)
 
But I would have to split the outputs, right? Now that I think about it, I guess I don't really NEED headphone access. I just thought it would be cool to use that s/pdif plug for somethin'. Thanks for the help.
 
If you monitor or listen with h/phones that have been through a different conversion process, signal route etc as the RCA outs you might find probs with disparaity in what you hear.
Headphone amp, OR run the line out to a decent stereo amp & speakers rather than computer speakers & then you'l have the h/phone socket built in to the amp if you choose wisely.
Guess what? All those nice people were giving you the benefit of their experience with current equip & technology etc. If you'd like to wait for geosequestration & digital out headphone adaptors to become a) available & b) comercially viable you may also like to bank on Bush's Global Warming strategy for 2012?
 
rayc said:
Guess what? All those nice people were giving you the benefit of their experience with current equip & technology etc. If you'd like to wait for geosequestration & digital out headphone adaptors to become a) available & b) comercially viable you may also like to bank on Bush's Global Warming strategy for 2012?
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Uhhhhhhhhhh.... Yeah.

Anyway, what I meant is that my sound card has 2 outputs. Left rca, Right rca. Do headphone amps generally accept 2 channels of RCA inputage? That's where I'm assuming I'll have to adapt.
 
tryptophan said:
Okay, I think maybe I'm just explaining this badly. Thanks for the help, though.
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You don't need an adapter, you just need two rca to 1/4 cables. Your music store will have them.
 
What farview said.
RCAs out to a H/phone amp will work as will the same to an old stereo as explained earlier. Play around & see what you can do without spending big.
 
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