optical out sound card for linux?

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Sat, Jul 07, 2007 at 09:57:04AM -0400, phiscock-g851W1bGYuGnS0EtXVNi6w at public.gmane.org wrote:
> >> >
> >> > I read that with highest end head phones, they are
> >> > "extremely high impedance headphones"
> >> > and they can suck large with cheap
> >> > sound amps, and I am guessing a sound blaster
> >> > card is just that.
> 
> >  I'm curious if it's just the soundblaster (and PC sound
> >> hardware in general) which sucks, or if the headphones really draw a
> >> lot of juice.
> 
> Just to clarify, higher impedance phones would draw *less* current. Ohm's
> law: I=E/R where R in this case is an impedance.
> 
> A sound card might well have difficulty driving *low* impedance headphones.

High impedance means it requires a higher voltage to get the same amount
of sound generated.  If you can't generate that amount of voltage, then
you won't get the desired sound or you may get distorsion because the
amplifier can't keep up with the power demand.

So yes they draw less current _at a given voltage_, but that simply
means they desire a higher voltage in the first place.

--
Len Sorensen
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