i have been wondering.

[Rx_cigerette]

what kind of a difference does a sound card make compared to on board audio is it a significant difference? The reason i ask this is because i bought a sound card today (soundblaster live! 5.1 it's old but it was $4.50) and other then different eq settings i'm not noticing much difference.

 

[defaultluser]

You spent a whole four dollars and fifty cents, and didn't see a difference? What, did you think you would get quality for that price?

The sound chipset on-board your motherboard probably cost at least that much money. The codec chip and the capacitors/resistors/amplifiers all cost something. The reality is, you can't get high-quality sound out of a sound card unless you splurge $50-100...anything less will probably make little to no difference over on-board.

In addition, what are your speakers? The sound experience you will have is only as good as the speakers you hook up. You have to have quality speakers AND a quality sound card to notice a real difference. Hell, in my book speaker upgrades should come BEFORE sound card upgrades, they make that much of a difference.

Finally, it may be that you just don't have an ear for audio. My girlfriend lacks the audio ear - she listens to music on her crap laptop built-in speakers or cheap flat-panel speakers, or her pair of Skullcandy Skullcrushers. She doesn't care, so I don't let it bother me. Perhaps you are the same

If you DO have an ear for quality audio and want an improvement, the good thing is you can get quality audio for around $200. Just pick up one of these and a pair of these.

If you'd rather start with the basics, this informative thread will be helpful.