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Best Sound Card
- Thread starter endy0430
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- Feb 13, 2003
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Debatable. Asus and Creative both have good cards. But "best" is a matter of preference.
It pretty much boils down to budget, brand preference, and any options or features that you want/need.
It pretty much boils down to budget, brand preference, and any options or features that you want/need.
DouglasteR
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There isnt much to think here.
If you game a lot in EAX games, go for the Titanium HD (Or TOP auzentech´s)
If you listen to music more than game, then go for the TOP Xonar´s.
(Or do like me and get the Auzentech HomeTheater HD and have the best of both worlds !)
AVOID any creative card that isnt the Titanium HD.
If you game a lot in EAX games, go for the Titanium HD (Or TOP auzentech´s)
If you listen to music more than game, then go for the TOP Xonar´s.
(Or do like me and get the Auzentech HomeTheater HD and have the best of both worlds !)
AVOID any creative card that isnt the Titanium HD.
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CrazyCuz2k
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Most important link in the chain are your speakers or headphones.
onboard sound + great speakers/headphones >>>>> sound card/receiver + computer speakers
Is surround sound more important, or is imaging/range/extension on a 2 channel setup + subwoofer?
But to answer your question:
Games: Creative because of EAX
Music: Asus better DAC, switchable opamps to tailor sound to you preference depending on soundcard
Movies: if you're using headphones a sound card with dolby headphone, othewise a receiver and 5.1 speaker system
onboard sound + great speakers/headphones >>>>> sound card/receiver + computer speakers
Is surround sound more important, or is imaging/range/extension on a 2 channel setup + subwoofer?
But to answer your question:
Games: Creative because of EAX
Music: Asus better DAC, switchable opamps to tailor sound to you preference depending on soundcard
Movies: if you're using headphones a sound card with dolby headphone, othewise a receiver and 5.1 speaker system
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"Most important link in the chain are your speakers or headphones.
onboard sound + great speakers/headphones >>>>> sound card/receiver + computer speakers"
Say what? Using great speakers headphones with onboard just lets you know how BAD onboard sounds.
Otherwise yeah Asus is making the best sound cards imo. Doly Live does as good or better than eax now. I can hear people fart in games with my 558s/asus dx and dolby live > receiver > Dolby 2 channel downmix.
onboard sound + great speakers/headphones >>>>> sound card/receiver + computer speakers"
Say what? Using great speakers headphones with onboard just lets you know how BAD onboard sounds.
Otherwise yeah Asus is making the best sound cards imo. Doly Live does as good or better than eax now. I can hear people fart in games with my 558s/asus dx and dolby live > receiver > Dolby 2 channel downmix.
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Onboard sound chips are just fine at this point. In fact some of the recent ones are pretty damn good. With headphones you're better off worrying about amplification and the headphones. Most headphones need plenty of power to "come alive".
GreenGoose
[H]ard|Gawd
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The best sound card is a receiver.
Bullshit. Sorry but that is not good info. Even a $25 xonar dg is miles better than realtek or some gimped xfi onboard solution. you get so much noise, bad drivers and just flat poor sound quality with onboard still that there is no reason to recommend it unless you just don't care.
Onboard IS better but still quite far from table when $25-30 will yield far superior sonics.
Skripka
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I would only say *this* if the OP is using HDMI out. Gaming and onboard SPDIF mean you don't get surround sound out of your 5.1 speakers ...although that depends on exactly what motherboard the OP has to start with. Most don't do DTS.
In fairness, MOST soundcards have abandonware drivers. Even my $200 Essence STX has abandonware drivers that were last updated over a year ago, and even that is "recent". Most audio drivers get a beta-driver and one or two releases for each version of Windows and that is it. Unless the OP is able to use HDMI to an AVR as DAC, I would get a soundcard.
Good advice. Sound card drivers have always sucked. X-Fi needed Daniel K and Asus the unity driver fix. However, my Asus DX is running fine on the bare bones, most recent asus drivers atm. Does fine. I would not bother spending more than I did for the dx for a sound card. As you stated, best sound is from hdmi or optical out to a receiver. I just run optical out bc my dac is an older one and has no hdmi. Still, there was a difference bw onboard optical and my dx in terms of features and noise level.
LoL. My Asus DX apparently just died. So now I am running hdmi into my tv and optical out from that into my receiver. Works fine.
LoL. My Asus DX apparently just died. So now I am running hdmi into my tv and optical out from that into my receiver. Works fine.
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CrazyCuz2k
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My point was if you had a $200 budget, I would budget 75% on speakers or headphones and 25% on a soundcard. And for that matter, instead of a soundcard, I'd use the digital out to a used receiver you can get for $50 that would sound much better than the sound card driving speakers.
For reference, my 2 channel system:
Logitech Squeezebox Touch -> PS Audio Digital Link III -> PS Audio C-100 Integrated Amp -> Ascend Acoustic Sierra-1's with the NrT upgrade
Home headphone setup:
iPad (iPeng) -> WooAudio WA3 -> Sennheiser HD650
Work Headphone setup
foobar -> PS Audio GCHA (USB) -> Denon AH-D5000
In my case, I spent about 50% of my budget on the headphones/speakers and 50% on electronics.
Apologies. I over reacted.
Yes a receiver is a better idea than a sound card. Analogue on board sound is what I am vehemently against using ever.
Optical onboard out is ok but still doesn't sound as good as digital out from a sound card or usb out into a dac.
HDMI receivers are still not readily available for cheap but you can do what I did and run hdmi from your gpu into the tv and optical out into the receiver.
Sound cards really are just a convenience product now a days. You are much better served getting a decent receiver or external dac.
Yes a receiver is a better idea than a sound card. Analogue on board sound is what I am vehemently against using ever.
Optical onboard out is ok but still doesn't sound as good as digital out from a sound card or usb out into a dac.
HDMI receivers are still not readily available for cheap but you can do what I did and run hdmi from your gpu into the tv and optical out into the receiver.
Sound cards really are just a convenience product now a days. You are much better served getting a decent receiver or external dac.
I pretty much completey disagree and stand by what I said. Only real thing you are to gain from a soundcard compared to a recent HD Audio onboard chip are the features. Recording quality is a completely different thing, but for playback? No focus your money into the best possible headphone + amp combination you can buy. But make sure you get a headphone that sounds good with the music genre you like... Personally I prefer headphone plugged into full size reciever because some of those USB Dac/amps are not beefy enough. But you need a headphone output with low impedance.
If you get audible "cpu noise" from your onboard you probably have a grounding issue. The motherboard is probably touching the case.
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on-board dacs are garbage, so on-board analog sound quality will be garbage, unless you're also getting a DAC with that AMP+Headphone combo, then you couldn't be more wrong.
It also varies a lot from mobo to mobo, I dunno how you can really make such a broad generalization... I do agree most of the budget should go to amp/headphones, I'd even say headphones/speakers should take precedence, but a Xonar isn't much of an expense ($25-50?) unless you're going w/budget headphones in the same price range as the card.
I splurged on a Xonar STX earlier in the year just because it seemed like a good value for a sound card + decent amp (at $150), a comparable amp by itself would've cost me about the same so...
I splurged on a Xonar STX earlier in the year just because it seemed like a good value for a sound card + decent amp (at $150), a comparable amp by itself would've cost me about the same so...
"onboard dacs are garbarge"? Lol really.. nope, your post is garbage. Post something useful. I have a lot of experience with computer audio and i hear very little difference if any at all between computer grade dacs let alone going from my laptops onboard to my nad m51. With the latter there is some difference but minor compared to what that same amount of money could do if you spend it on the other parts of the system instead.
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uh-huh
and exactly what is your "a lot of experience" with computer audio?
On-board DACs are garbage, show me one review to prove otherwise. The only time when on-board sound cards are OK is when you use a digital out to something that has a better DAC
CrazyCuz2k
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not all DAC's are created equal, but they did do a double blind test on the wolfson dac on an ipod (a decent dac) and a $2K dedicated dac, normalized the sound and no one could tell the difference. On board sound has made some leaps an bounds compared to yesteryear. And they're not going to drive high impedance headphones or tower speakers. but like hfk and I stated, compared to the difference between a logitech speakers or a say something like the audioengine A2's or A5's... I'd get the Audioengines and use onboard sound.
I am no audiophile but from John Q. Everymans POV...I am quite happy with my new Xonar DX PCIe in my living room PC pumping thru a crappy old sony amp and also crappy old bose 5.1 cubes....I replaced x-fi extreme audio that died...that xonar does not seem as loud at baseline, but sounds nice. On the other hand what everyone says about the speakers being most important is so true, when I got my beyerdynamic DT 770 pro headphones it was like a new part of my brain came alive.
My gaming rig has an x-fi platinum > yamaha amp > polk bookcase speakers and I am very happy with that too.
I think maybe x-fi platinum for gaming and xonar dx for music...I agree, non platinum x-fi too many driver issues these days, not worth it.
My gaming rig has an x-fi platinum > yamaha amp > polk bookcase speakers and I am very happy with that too.
I think maybe x-fi platinum for gaming and xonar dx for music...I agree, non platinum x-fi too many driver issues these days, not worth it.
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You're comparing Logitech speakers(which mostly use a 2" mid for both mids and highs, and a 2" mid is not going to properly give you mids or highs) , to studio monitors, even with a bad dac, the studio monitors will sound better.
I've tried on-board again recently when my XFI drivers went crazy, I've tried them on an Asus P6X58D premium board, Asus P67Pro board, and Gigabyte x79 UD5, (all decent / high end boards) and still, not one of these can even hold a candle to my 5 year old sound card, OR the Asus Xonar DGX.
So even though they have gotten better, they still can't compare to a cheap sound card.
Skripka
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It also depends on what you're feeding them and how bad your ears are in health and attention to detail. If you're playing back lossy 128kbps MP3 you might not notice a difference whereas FLAC will bring it out...or if you're like most teenagers these days with wrecked ear drums, well SOL.
uh-huh
and exactly what is your "a lot of experience" with computer audio?
On-board DACs are garbage, show me one review to prove otherwise. The only time when on-board sound cards are OK is when you use a digital out to something that has a better DAC
People make it sound like the difference is night and day on sound quality between any onboard codec and a ASUS or creative sound card. Such a statement is a load of puke in the real world, compared to the recent onboard codecs. That's essentially all I'm saying. Get a sound card for the features it has. You not gonna get a miraculous improvement on actual sound quality. Worrying about SQ have a look at the quality of your source files, wether your amplifier is sufficient for your speakers, speaker placement, and room acoustics (!). I just think peoples view on how to improve sound is skewed and "some people" are not really helping.
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That's because the difference is very noticeable, I have a mix of MP3s and FLACs.
I still find onboard sound to have a flat / dull / muddled sound to it.
And the reason people suggest a sound card is because a $29 sound card is probably the best upgrade you're going to make to your SQ for under $200.
You do realize that you're talking about Source and saying it's important, but you don't seem to care about the single piece of hardware that is responsible for taking your source, and changing the 1s and 0s into a format your headphones can use to turn it into sound.
On board sound can still vary a lot though... The Wolfson DAC on the iPhone is excellent, but not every random mobo/phone DAC out there is up to par with that Wolfson. Look up some of the tests comparing the EU One X vs the US One X (different DACs since one's Tegra 3 and one's S4), one's clearly superior (and it's not just due to differences in amplification). There's a lot of sub-par stuff out there still, the iPhone is actually above average when it comes to DACs and audio (relative to other players/phones).
No one's saying you have to pay big bucks for a DAC (that I've seen in this thread anyway), we're just saying it can still be a worthwhile investment if you're spending a couple hundred on speakers or headphones.
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I went from Realtek ALC850, to X-Fi XtremeMusic, to ALC885. Huge difference between the 850 and X-Fi in everything. The 885 put out comparable audio quality to the X-Fi for music, but was blatantly different in gaming.
Today's onboard is fine for general usage. If you need specific features, get a soundcard.
Today's onboard is fine for general usage. If you need specific features, get a soundcard.
You like the X-Fi better for gaming due to positional virtualization like CMSS-3D or something else? (maybe EAX for older games?) Just curious, game audio isn't generally very high quality but stuff like CMSS-3D / Dolby Headphone can really make a difference (other people loathe that kinda post processing, sorta subjective).
This.
Motherboard Realtech 892 < 889 < 898 for sound. You need good amp/speakers to hear better than these.
Specification wise I am more comfortable with 889/898 motherboard sound.
It is what I find most annoying about inexpensive and some NOT inexpensive motherboards.
Usually my budget goes to motherboard or CPU enhancement, so amp and speakers work for me.
Specification wise I am more comfortable with 889/898 motherboard sound.
It is what I find most annoying about inexpensive and some NOT inexpensive motherboards.
Usually my budget goes to motherboard or CPU enhancement, so amp and speakers work for me.
IdiotInCharge
NVIDIA SHILL
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HDMI -> Decent receiver -> Good speakers. Who cares about the sound card. If you want good sound out of cans, use a USB DAC/AMP.
Skripka
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And with the later you invariably give up Dolby so if you're wanting to game with Dolby headphone surround as well as get good music out of the same hardware system...you're sunk.
IdiotInCharge
NVIDIA SHILL
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You want software to distort your sound what?
Skripka
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In gaming, it is more immersive having even fake surround sound than blatantly obvious 2-channel. I like having the option to turn on/off.
IdiotInCharge
NVIDIA SHILL
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If the game isn't doing it, you're lying to yourself if you think Dolby is...
Hmmmm maybe. Not sold on that one yet. I find with BF3 that Dolby filters out some of the noise in the game to allow for me to hear people close to me better than without it. Yes it does sound wonky at times but for directional sound, dolby live 2 channel downmix into my headphones is fairly deadly.
Anyway, yes. Hdmi from your gpu to a good receiver is the best sound nowadays. Just has the fattest bandwidth.