compuer audio question

I have a gigabyte z97 sli mobo and the onboard audio blows am I missing something? I have an external sound card from creative which suits me just fine but is there anything I could do to improve the onboard? I hear all theses people say that onboard audio is fine....on what earth do they live on?

Onboard audio quality can vary wildly based on your motherboard, case, power supply, and a dozen other factors that can generate electronic noise. So in some instances, it's pretty darn good, and in others, it can suck.

There's not much that can be done to improve it once your system is built. You can build a system with good onboard audio in mind though, by picking a good motherboard with an isolated ground/power plane for the audio, a good, well shielded case, and a quality PSU.

Also remember everyone's ears are different. So some people are perfectly fine with music on a $20 MP3 player with $5 earbuds, and other people apparently aren't happy with their music unless it's played on original vinyl with a $10k amplifier with $5k headphones.

p3sty said:

I hear all theses people say that onboard audio is fine....on what earth do they live on?

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The problem here is the assumption that everyone's experience with onboard sound is the same as yours.

EchoWars said:

The problem here is the assumption that everyone's experience with onboard sound is the same as yours.

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Yep some motherboards use the same Creative chip like newer creative soundcards

p3sty said:

I have a gigabyte z97 sli mobo and the onboard audio blows am I missing something? I have an external sound card from creative which suits me just fine but is there anything I could do to improve the onboard? I hear all theses people say that onboard audio is fine....on what earth do they live on?

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If it sucks, thats what it is.
Be thankful you can tell the difference because there is another world of enjoyment that the others cant experience (or havent yet).

I gave up with PC soundcards and use external DACs.
Different league.
But you need good partnering equipment to make best use.

p3sty said:

I have a gigabyte z97 sli mobo and the onboard audio blows am I missing something? I have an external sound card from creative which suits me just fine but is there anything I could do to improve the onboard? I hear all theses people say that onboard audio is fine....on what earth do they live on?

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Some of them may have crap speakers/headphones or just never have heard the difference. However a big factor can simply be how good the motherboard audio is. While nearly all boards use one of just a few chips (usually a Realtek HD audio chip) at the core, there's a lot of variability in the hardware the put in after that. If they just hook that in to a crap opamp with no filtering or anything and call it good you can have noisy, bad sound. However if they implement a good audio design, it can sound just fine.

Like my ASUS X99 Deluxe board has a pretty good audio output on it. I can plug headphones in to it and be happy with the result overall. However my Dell at work has a complete garbage output, you don't even need to play anything to hear issues: It hisses quite badly. Both are Realtek onboard chips, just one has some decent supporting hardware.

In general if you care about sound quality I recommend finding a good soundcard you like. Personally I usually look at the pro soundcards that hook up via USB. Get something you are happy with the sound and specs of and then you don't need to worry, if you get a new computer or motherboard, you just move the soundcard over and you are good. You don't have to hunt around for motherboards that meet your needs and hope you are happy with them.

p3sty said:

I have a gigabyte z97 sli mobo and the onboard audio blows am I missing something? I have an external sound card from creative which suits me just fine but is there anything I could do to improve the onboard?

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What differences have you noticed? "The audio blows" could mean just about anything.

People have wildly varying definitions of 'good audio.' My problem with onboard sound has always been the digital noise and hiss, audible at even moderate volumes. Some don't hear these issues, or are not bothered by them. If your audio is bothering you, move on to a quality sound card, external audio interface, or DAC. If not, onward!

p3sty said:

I have a gigabyte z97 sli mobo and the onboard audio blows am I missing something? I have an external sound card from creative which suits me just fine but is there anything I could do to improve the onboard? I hear all theses people say that onboard audio is fine....on what earth do they live on?

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Missing descriptive adjectives on what you mean by "audio blows."

pippenainteasy said:

Missing descriptive adjectives on what you mean by "audio blows."

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Means it sounds like it coming from a pringles can no matter what I do to adjust it...it goes form shit to progressively worse shit.<====descriptive enough for ya?

p3sty said:

Means it sounds like it coming from a pringles can no matter what I do to adjust it...it goes form shit to progressively worse shit.<====descriptive enough for ya?

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Then you most likely have problems somewhere else than in the actual motherboard audio. At least I have never witnessed any onboard audio that would sound that bad unless something else (ground loop, wire broken etc) was in play.

I agree... something in your chain (cables, speakers, etc.), unless the motherboard itself is defective. 'Bad' onboard audio is typically the nit-picky stuff, not usually tin-can audio.

Well it has to be something in my case if I plug a creative usb Omni external card then all the sound is awesome if i use onboard back to shit again.

p3sty said:

Well it has to be something in my case if I plug a creative usb Omni external card then all the sound is awesome if i use onboard back to shit again.

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Do you use the same cable / hardware to plug them both?

Also, you might want to check that you're plugging into the correct L-R jacks.

I said onboard audio is fine when used as a digital transport to an external DAC. Would be a waste of money to put in a soundcard just for that purpose unless the onboard has an EMI issue. Which may well be fixed by using optical.

But, there are a few onboard soundcards just as good as 3rd party soundcards. If you get bad audio with onboard it is usually an EMI issue and not the sound chip itself.

I compared my Realtek HD onboard to my Creative X-Fi XtremeMusic and never heard a difference except explosions where more robust in BF3.

I am not using the X-Fi now because it doesn't have optical so use my onboard optical out to a Wolfson DAC.

you have tons of options. pc community likes to use internal sound cards and the audio community likes external sound cards. depends on your uses but I'd recommend an external with a separate or combo amp.