Plugging headphones into Echo Mia

[slowpogo]

I have an Echo Mia pro audio card in my PC. For listening I usually have the card's outputs going into my Yamaha receiver, and headphones plugged into that. (I occasionally use the Mia in a recording/monitoring setup as well)

Out of curiosity I plugged my Sony MDR-7506s directly into one of the 1/4" outputs on the Mia. It was only one channel, one ear, of course, but the Mia was able to put an excessive amount of volume through the headphones, even turned up only half-way in the control panel. With the volume turned down to a listenable level it sounded great.

I guess I assumed that the Mia put out a line-level signal that would not be powerful enough to drive headphones, but I was wrong. Its outputs operate at +4db, not the typical -10db.

Is there any reason I shouldn't buy or make a 1/4 stereo to dual mono adapter, and just drive the headphones directly from the Mia? Why would anyone use a headphone amp between a pro audio sound card and their headphones?

[Geek]

Those headphones have a rated impedance of 24 ohms (63 @ 1KHz). You'll likely roast your soundcard in short order by causing it to source too much current.

[slowpogo]

OK, in a way that's kind of good news (that it's not a good idea), since I was getting excited about building a PIMETA headphone amp. Now I can justify spending the $$ beyond it just being fun.