[yepimonfire]

the biggest improvement is in the bass, there isnt "more" bass, just better sounding bass. it definitely does sound different, i have no idea why either. any ideas? both my AD700s and HF5s sound way different out of it versus my ipod. it sounds more "focused" then the ipod in the other frequencies, just more musical all around. the HF5s show the most difference vs the ad700s in sound improvement. 

 

[lazysleepyboi]

well first we would have to know what your soundcard is because that makes a huge difference. What generation ipod might help also

 

[yepimonfire]

nano 3rd gen
realtek onboard, not a bad soundcard at all though.

 

[TMRaven]

Might just be that it's providing more power to the headphones.

 

[yepimonfire]

well my soundcard can provide about double the power of my ipod, 25% volume on the etys is reference loud for me, about 50% on the AD700s, with the ipod, the etys use 50-60% and the ad700s use a minimum of 75%. i do know that an ipod goes into clipping at about 85% volume, so im using a pretty good amount of power on the headphones.
Quote:

Might just be that it's providing more power to the headphones.

 

 

[lazysleepyboi]

well to answer your question, it could be that your computer is supplying the headphones with a little more power. Remember, your computer is being plugged into an outlet vs the ipod which is running off battery. Soundwise, it's hard to believe that the realtek outperforms the ipod because in my setup, the opposite is true. But that's the answer to your question, direct source of power vs battery powered. If you're looking to balance things off with your ipod, just get a E7/E9 and attach it with your ipod. Many head-fi'ers seem to be doing that combo. For me, i connect my Cowon iAudio 9 with an arrow amp that power my sennheiser ie8s. Pretty awesome sound, and i'm happy with what i got 

 

[DaBomb77766]

I don't really like the realtek onboard sound cards I've used.  I've used two computers with it, and both of them have this awful buzzing/hissing noise in the background all the time, that alternates between channels and gets worse and sometimes all but disappears.  Kind of annoying.

 

[Keeper40]

realtek = yuck

 

[rymd]

Realtek onboard? What? There's no way it sounds better than an ipod. Realtek makes some of the worst soundcards I've ever heard and bass is NOT the strong point of them.

 

[yepimonfire]

i think i figured out what it was, i have the soundcard set to upsample to 192k, when i set it back at 44.1, it sounds the same as the ipod. (minus the SNR, which is pretty bad)

 

[charli3]

Not all is on the volume, generally onboard soundcards performance is poor. Why not buy a separate soundcard?