Sound upgrade advice

Stiglite

n00b
Joined
Jan 9, 2019
Messages
4
Hello All, I would like to say hi to everyone as this is my first post. HardOcp has been a great resource that I have been using for about ~20 years but never posted much so I forgot my old sign on info. Anyway I'm looking for some sound advice :) I am planning on updating my PC, likely in the next year and would like to possibly work on my sound hardware sooner than later if possible. My current setup......

Asus Z97 Deluxe (Realtek ALC1150)
Logitech Z-5500 5.1 surround sound system

I have the speakers hooked up to the Realtek via optical cable DTS 5.1. The speakers are great for my needs but I can't always get 5.1 to work on all games and wouldn't mind having a little extra juice for my headset.

In the past years I had several different sound cards but they were never perfect as they had issues with not consistently working. Does a solution exist that might fulfill my needs or should I just stick to the onboard sound from my next PC builds motherboard?

file1-6.jpeg
file-18.jpeg
 
I believe this https://www.amazon.com/d/Internal-S...d=1547745074&sr=8-3&keywords=sound+blaster+zx will do the trick. Your're probably not getting 5.1 in games because youre using the optical connector opposed to the 3.5mm jacks. PC games typically dont use DD or DTS which is why you need to use the 3.5mm jacks. However, you can use the DDL (Dolby digital live) feature of the above sound card to get 5.1 out of your games with optical out.

Its important to note that DDL is not perfect as there is an innate audio delay. In most instances you will not notice it, but it is there.
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
Lots of options. You can go soundcard, which means you'll switch to using 3.5mm connections. Most 5.1 boxed systems IMO are pretty crappy as you'll wind up with tiny little fronts/center drivers, but I'm sure a Klipsch one might not be too bad. 2.1 is a good option if 5.1 isn't a requirement, then you can get some powered bookshelf or studio monitors and a muuuuuuch nicer sub than what's in a 5.1 box.

You can also just use a DAC. Then you can get a much better 5.1 setup going, like home theater level, sky's the limit.
 
Surround sound on the PC can be a real hassle. If you really love it and are willing to get it set up properly, you can get it working well, but if you don't care that much, I'd say just get a good 2.0/2.1 setup with a headphone option.
 
Back
Top