Computer Volume Amplifier?

[Garrick]

Question...

I'm listening to my computer audio at work with headphones. I have every single possible volume that I know of turned up to the highest point including the master volume and the wave volume, yet the music is not loud at all. The volume is turned up on any player I use (tried winamp, realplayer and wmp). I tried both the rear and front audio plugs of the pc to see if any one is better than the other and they aren't... still the volume shouldn't be this low. It isn't much louder with a few other pairs of headphones I have tried. Any way to amplify the volume somehow so I can turn these sets up? Or something else maybe causing the problem?

[toasty]

Re: Computer Volume Amplifier?

That's very odd, could just be a crappy sound card -- I know our office doesn't spend much on sound cards for the office computers. Still, even on-board sound shouldn't present that many problems. I guess one option would be to amplify the actual audio file. If you do that, though, make sure you're working on a copy, because you might distort the sound if you pump it up too loud.

Your other otpion would be to run the output through an amp, then plug your headphones into the amp. Seems like an awful lot of trouble, though.

Do you have this same problem with all audio on your work computer, or just these sets?

[toasty]

Re: Computer Volume Amplifier?

stupid question, but I'll go ahead and ask it -- I assume you've already turned up the master computer volume?

[Garrick]

Re: Computer Volume Amplifier?

all audio on my pc is low... and master computer volume is turned up all the way. i was thinking it might be a POS sound card as well. that could make a huge difference or maybe i'm just going deaf, although i doubt it.

[toasty]

Re: Computer Volume Amplifier?

Hmm, not sure what to tell you. I recently got a separate iPod stereo to listen to at work. Very cheap, like $50, but was the best money I've spent for my office in a while -- for the office, you really don't need much, since you can't boom your music anyway.

[Simon Preston]

Re: Computer Volume Amplifier?

Check the settings on your cards software panel. Most are set to line level output but it maybe that yours is set to something else. If the sound is too quite even through headphones than I don't think getting an amplifier to boost sound is the best solution as you'll probably end up with a signal with a lot of noise on it.

[diegoff]

Re: Computer Volume Amplifier?

don't plug your headphones in the line-out plug, because the impedances are different, and that is a reason for low volume.
By the way, if you're plugging the headphones in the headphones plug, then I don't know...

[beanzncheez]

Re: Computer Volume Amplifier?

Arnold... did you get this sorted?

[rbuffetta]

Re: Computer Volume Amplifier?

I use winamp and either bump up the preamp or you can get plugins (for winamp) that will do it too