Should You Buy A Sound Card?

Megalith

Megalith

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I personally like the idea of removing the sound component from the system altogether by using an external USB DAC, although things can get more complicated if you want surround sound.

…buying a sound card has always felt more like a gamble than an investment. At the same time, I know audio snobs with thousands in equipment and all-FLAC libraries, and I'd like to believe they aren't delusional -- surely there's something to be experienced beyond my basic setup. But I mean, just how much better can music, movies and games sound? Enough to prevent buyer's remorse?
 
Sound Cards...2015.....why not ISA slots, too.....gotta be a bunch of those HST Dual Standard modems from US Robotics that will look totally cool on your Alienware case.......
 
Put a FLAC recording up against a 320kb fixed bitrate MP3. The difference is still night and day.

Now the difference between various sound cards and onboard audio? No so obvious. Even on my 1000w surround system. I'm pretty happy with the ALC1150 chipset on my last couple motherboards.
 
I've gone onboard sound for the last 4 years or so. I'm not going back, onboard sound is more than good enough these days.
 
inb4 "audiophiles" and self-proclaimed "experts" will talk about esoteric bullcrap and their 5000 dollar usb cables.
 
In my experience, sound cards (creative cards specifically) have such bad drivers and so many compatibility issues that I can not advise anyone to buy a sound card unless their on-board sound sub-system fails (rare but it happens).
 
evilsofa said:
I thought that external USB DACs were not for PC gaming?
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I think it depends on what you mean by "not for PC gaming". When everything sounds better, that means games sound better, too. However, audio effects that depend more on hardware acceleration stuff like EAX (which isn't a great example anymore) or virtual surround, or OpenAL based stuff, aren't going to work with most USB DAC/amp situations.
 
A decent quality DAC will not perform to its full potential without high resolution music files.
 
x-fi titanium was my last sound card. Years ago now, happy with onboard.
 
I have an internal Creative Z card, but I choose to use the DAC built in to my Line-6 AmpliFi TT Guitar input/effects box. The difference in dynamic range is really quite amazing. In fact sometimes I'll switch back to the Z card late at night just because the DAC in the tt works TOO damn good.

The Z card does have a quieter no-sound background noise level though. I do hear some hiss if the gain on the TT is turned up too high.

This drives a pair of M-Audio M3-6 Monitors and a BX-12 Sub.
 
evilsofa said:
I thought that external USB DACs were not for PC gaming?
Click to expand...

They are fine for 2.1 Stereo. Surround is another story.

With the exception of the full entertainment center in the living room, I'm pretty much over surround sound/5.1 in the computer room.
 
On-board audio really has come a long way -- after moving to the X99 platform, I finally ditched having a dedicated sound card and I haven't missed it one bit. I have a good set of headphones and haven't noticed a bit of difference.
 
Advil said:
Put a FLAC recording up against a 320kb fixed bitrate MP3. The difference is still night and day.

Now the difference between various sound cards and onboard audio? No so obvious. Even on my 1000w surround system. I'm pretty happy with the ALC1150 chipset on my last couple motherboards.
Click to expand...

I laughed at night and day and 1000w.
 
TechLarry said:
I have an internal Creative Z card, but I choose to use the DAC built in to my Line-6 AmpliFi TT Guitar input/effects box. The difference in dynamic range is really quite amazing. In fact sometimes I'll switch back to the Z card late at night just because the DAC in the tt works TOO damn good.

The Z card does have a quieter no-sound background noise level though. I do hear some hiss if the gain on the TT is turned up too high.

This drives a pair of M-Audio M3-6 Monitors and a BX-12 Sub.
Click to expand...

DAC shouldn't make a difference like that unless one of them is horribly broken. Sounds like there's some equalizer action going on there.
 
Like any other items, as you use a better equipment you'll need better complements.

For example there still aren't that many motherboards, even high end, with onboard sound which support 600 ohm on the audio jack for higher grade headphones. So yes there is still a need, and a reason why external DAC units are popular.
 
I can't tell the dif between uncompressed and 320kb/s mp3 so don't care if the dif is night and day for a few golden ears. I do use an X-fi soundcard though but only because I bought it years ago. I have an EMU USB soundcard and have used just mb audio, HDMI and digital out from PC to receiver, they all sound good to my cloth ears.
 
I bought a sound card for the headphone amp and ability to toggle whether i wanted speakers or headphones.
 
Unless the onboard audio is completely terrible, I wouldn't really hear a quality difference on my modest headphones and speakers. I still do keep around a SB 5.1 card, but it's not in my main desktop anymore.
 
bitbum said:
A decent quality DAC will not perform to its full potential without high resolution music files.
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A decent high resolution music file will not perform to its full potential without high quality recording and $5000 audio cables :D
 
SparkedFire said:
I bought a sound card for the headphone amp and ability to toggle whether i wanted speakers or headphones.
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^^ This. It made a big difference for my Sennheiser headphones, wish I had done something about it years ago.
 
Maybe the newer onboard is better, but the chipset on my 2500k board sounds terrible compared to a dedicated sound card (realtek vs. a x-fi or SB-Z). Bass is horribly distorted, as are the highs. It's distractingly bad in games even with a modest 2.1 system. Explosions sound terrible. Music is even worse. I typically keep my sound relatively quiet, and it's especially noticeable at these levels.
 
Yes, good lord yes. Seriously, you put a $600 video card in a machine and then it sounds like the equivalent of someone jamming a piece of re-bar in their ear and flicking the end?

Buy. A. Sound. Card.
 
I love my Soundblaster Z. In my opinion, it sounds vastly superior to the onboard audio on my mobo. I'm no audiophile and I won't pretend to know the first thing about music, sound or any of that crap, so I might be a total dum-dum, but it makes BF4 sound pretty badass.
 
I'm not an audiophile and I stopped buying dedicated sound cards for my PC builds long ago as they always seemed to the most temperamental components in a build while delivering nothing I found of value.
 
One thing a lot of people don't consider is using one as a pre amp. If you have one that has an amplified headphone output then connect to a standard receiver, the results aren't too shabby. This is doing more than just making it louder by the way.
 
I use Supermicro workstation/server mobos that don't have integrated sound. It pains me to use the one remaining unblocked by GPU PCIe slot on a Crealive Labs Realtek card but it works stable and I'm not a sound snob so rather put the money elsewhere in the system.
 
To answer the question, no.

IMHO, proper sounds cards died with Creative killed Aureal.

I miss A3D. EAX never compared, imho.

Caveat: I haven't touched a sound card in... 7-8 years? LOL
 
aZn_plyR said:
I laughed at night and day and 1000w.
Click to expand...

Right? His "1000w surround system" when listening to 2-channel audio?

The difference between 320 Kbps MP3 and FLAC is miniscule anyway. And if you're using a PC as your source, you should be using an external DAC. Any motherboard with a digital output will do the job just fine.
 
Twisted Kidney said:
Yes, good lord yes. Seriously, you put a $600 video card in a machine and then it sounds like the equivalent of someone jamming a piece of re-bar in their ear and flicking the end?

Buy. A. Sound. Card.
Click to expand...

Hyperbole much? If you were tested in a double-blind audio test, it's extremely unlikely you'd be able to discern any difference between a decent onboard solution vs an external DAC/higher-end sound card.

There's almost as much snake oil in audio as there is with the weight-loss industry.
 
My problem is on board audio cannot provide enough bass with my headphones and if I crank the on-board bass or change audio settings, the will be a drop in audio quality. A SoundBlaster Z fix that for me.

I will look into a DAC when this card dies, but for now it's just fine for me.
 
HeadRusch said:
Sound Cards...2015.....why not ISA slots, too.....gotta be a bunch of those HST Dual Standard modems from US Robotics that will look totally cool on your Alienware case.......
Click to expand...
I have a sound card (X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro) and fairly-decent Audio-Technica ATH-M30 headphones because I care about what I listen to. I want to experience the music.

And yes: I have a large library of FLACs, from 16/44 all the way up to 24/192 and even surround-sound ones.

If you just have crappy mp3s: onboard will do. If you only Facebook: onboard will do.
 
I guess I wouldn't know the difference upgrading above Sound Blaster E1 since my entire music library is 320kbps or less MP3. i listen to mostly African, Caribbean and Reggae music which is not easy to find so I'm lucky if I can just find a basic MP3.
 
Cerulean said:
A decent high resolution music file will not perform to its full potential without high quality recording and $5000 audio cables :D
Click to expand...

You forgot vacuum tubes. There's GOTTA be a vacuum tube in there somewhere.
 
Not here to flaunt around what I have or convince anyone that a sound card "sounds better" but I have used a few motherboards with ALC1150 chipsets and compared to my ZxR, they sound too flat and hollow no matter what the motherboard manufacture says they added (Although I have not used a motherboard with onboard sound that uses a 3 party DAC like the ones from ESS, so they may make a difference.) Not a single driver issue with the ZxR (Unless I use linux, which I rarely do.) Its all up to personal preference and if the difference is enough to make you a believer, then of course you'll say a sound card or external DAC is better.

Also, not a big external DAC fan as I like everything inside the PC, nobody wants to worry about something that relates to the size of a power brick on their desktops. But if you don't mind it, all power to you.
 
if people claim onboard audio was bad, they may be using the audio connectors at the front of their case. now that connection is ultra garbage in most cases and will sound terrible, but that's a flaw in the testing method and not necessarily the result of bad internal audio.
 
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