Onboard vs dedicated sound card?

S

SelRahc

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 12, 2004
Messages
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What are your thoughts on add-on sound cards these days? I've been using built in sound in every build I have done. Im researching new surround speakers for gaming. Do you all think that its worth getting add on sound cards like a Creative X-fi or the like while I am at it? Will it sound that much better than a board running off a integrated Realtek driver?

Im not a huge audio critic, but I don't want my speakers to come back and woop my ass cause if im feeding them crap.

Your thoughts?
 
Absolutely. I can't stress it to you enough how much better your games and music will sound once you jump from on-board to dedicated. I was the same as you a few months back, but then I purchased an X-Fi Titanium and the difference was unreal. :D

You have to hear it to believe it.
 
If you spend the money on good speakers it's definitely worht investing in a good sound card. I used to always buy creative cards which are great but have switched over to Auzentech and I'm very happy with them. Most of their stuff is based off of creative x-fi chip as well.
 
On-board here, sound card's are over a bit, external devices are way the hell over there.

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The catch: good, cheap, small external solutions are usually stereo. You didn't mention whether you were going surround, so I don't know how this relates to your plans. External interfaces like EMU 0202/0404 USB are a good alternative to a sound card if you don't need additional features that they don't provide. The easiest way to get external surround decoding is a receiver, which does a great job and is also useful as an integrated+power amp if you're using passive speakers - it's just hard to fit on your desk.

And in all this - what speakers will you be using?
 
Not sure on the speakers yet. I want to get a good set for the computer... one I won't be wanting to replace anytime soon. Using Bose 2 speaker solution I got as a gift right now. Had them a few years and they have served me well... Don't think ill get Bose again tho.

I do want surround. Probably 5.1 Im taking my time researching and that could be another topic of discussion alltogether lol.
 
If you got regular PC speakers and don't care about hardware sound effects, then onboard is usually fine. Soundcards are nice if you need better sound quality to go with your expensive quality speakers, or need a lot of inputs/outputs.
 
Elledan said:
If you got regular PC speakers and don't care about hardware sound effects, then onboard is usually fine. Soundcards are nice if you need better sound quality to go with your expensive quality speakers, or need a lot of inputs/outputs.
Click to expand...

this.

if you play games or watch movies and want extra effects (like reprocessing 5.1 or 7.1 audio to headphones), then either a fancy onboard solution (some of them are starting to have Dolby Theatre built-in (my newest mainboard came with this, for example)) or a soundcard (like the Asus Xonar boards, or an X-Fi, either is ok) would be useful

but otherwise the onboard sound is probably alright for normal use
 
I bought an X-Fi and it sounds clearer and crisper compared to onboard using my JVC HARX900 headphones.
 
When my PC's PSU died, I listened to my Senn HD600 amp'ed with a little dot mkV with my 1st gen iPod nano for a few weeks. It sounded good.

When I got my PC back up and running, the audio blew me away again. I have a Prelude with an AD8620BR opamp.

That said, get a dedicated card.
 
Prelude into LD-MkV, or just the straight Prelude amp stage? iPods have varying quality, sometimes good DAC (for a portable anyway), but generally a mediocre to shit amp stage, more so in the smaller ones. So unless you used a line-out adapter...?
 
Prelude with the AD8620BR into the LDmkV.

When my PC was on the fritz, I just plugged the nano into the LDmkV from the headphone jack. It sounded better than just my HD595 plugged straight into the Nano anyways.

The point being that your source has a big impact on your sound no matter how good of headphones or speakers you have.
 
Well, much more of a factor if you already have a nice amp (LD-MkV) and nice output (HD600). If your downstream stuff is introducing a lot of the distortion and degradation, a better source won't show up in the sound.
 
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