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Soundcards. Do they actually matter?

V

ViralRazor

n00b
Joined
May 6, 2011
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50
Well as the title states above!

Firstly I have to honestly say that I don't actually have any high end DACs, amps or anything. I'm merely running some Z-2300s straight to my onboard and I've got a pair of M50s for late night gaming/music.

I'm just wondering do cheap (or even expensive soundcards) do much for sound quality wise? Or will they do anything for me? D:

I can't tell the difference between my TV output, my phone (a N8, yes I know symbian but camera ftw) and onboard (ALC 892 on a Z68 V Pro)
 
If you care or can hear the difference it'll matter.

Went from Nvidia Soundstorm (god bless) to Realtek onboard hardware, I could tell it wasn't up to the same component standards.
Added a set of studio monitors to the Realtek shit, and the onboard sound became a helluva bottleneck, I was able to get everything out of them.
Added a cheap M-Audio 2496 PCI card (far under $100) and I was able to hear music infinites better than before, footsteps in action games were perfectly audible, pedestrians in GTA4 could be heard when I went past them at top speed.

If you play games the difference will definitely matter because Realtek have a bunch of driver and hardware issues.


No idea what the ASUS boards are like but I don't expect them to be up to M-Audio or other "made for music studios" standards. It's all about the DACs. Behringer, normally infamous for mangling the audio in a bad way with all their gear, got a lucky deal on DACs that normally go for $5 each (raw factory component cost, ie a helluva expensive fine DAC) and made soundcards with it - those USB soundcards are the best sounding ones you can get for under $120.
 
a sound card can make a huge difference in sound quality and fidelity over on board. something like the asus xonar dx or dg (the latter has a headphone amp) will kill any on board audio solution and can be had for <$60
 
They can make a big difference for gaming on headphones through either Dolby Headphone or CMSS-3D. I'd say they are worth it just for that, if you intend on headphone gaming. Even the cheap Xonar DG can do Dolby Headphone, which would provide a big improvement over onboard that doesn't support it.
 
@OP You probably won't notice the difference with those speakers if you aren't too discerning, but it'd make a significant difference w/the headphones imo. ASUS has several budget card options worth checking out.
 
Any thoughts on the somewhat higher spec Realtek ALC898 based onboard sound? I know manufacturer specs are best taken with a grain of salt, but, the 110dB SNR 24-Bit, 192KHz output doesn't seem too terribly bad. On paper, at least. Contrast that with the 102dB SNR on the Creative Recon3D cards or 107dB on the new Asus Xonar DSX.
 
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I've found onboard chips to be rather "meh" sound quality wise. My big complaint is noise, they all seem to hiss. Now I will say I've only tested them with headphones, I've never run them in to an amp and speakers. However with phones I find them noisy and lacking in bass.

Pity too since Realtek drivers are quite good over all.

However, if you use them digital, then no problem. Personally that's what I'm a fan of these days, just do digital out of the computer (HDMI or S/PDIF) and have an external device handle the conversion and all that jazz.

Personally I use an Auzentech X-Fi Home Theater HD because I still play games that use EAX and OpenAL from time to time. Basically it is just an X-Fi with an HDMI output on it. Eventually I'll dump it and get HDMI from another source probably, but for now it does the trick.
 
Get a soundcard just bc they have better drivers. I use an asus dx digital out with the uniform drivers and it works great.
 
Soundcard output is FAR superior to what onboard offers. Problem is, you won't hear a huge difference on your current speaker setup...
 
Can adding a soundcard take advantage for Dolby 7.1? I just bought some Corsair Vengeance 1500 headphones and it supports 7.1
 
From what I have noticed the onboard chips seem to be susceptible to power phase change states from the motherboard. This also seems exaggerated when you overclock. In other words you can hear pops and such. A PCI/PCIe board seems to be more isolated from that stuff.

Again this is personal observation.
 
Upgrade speakers first otherwise you won't notice a difference.

Personally, I have found onboard to be terrible just for hiss/hum that I hear without even considering sound quality. I had an older X-Fi card that was better, but I could still hear a hiss all the time. Using an external DAC was the only way for me to get rid of the noise
 
It depends completely on what speakers/headphones you are using. Generally, with Logitech sets, you won't be able to perceive a noticeable difference between onboard and a discrete card.
 
copeman said:
Can adding a soundcard take advantage for Dolby 7.1? I just bought some Corsair Vengeance 1500 headphones and it supports 7.1
Click to expand...

USB headphones have their own DAC that completely bypasses your sound card.
 
Unless you have VERY shitty speakers, comparing a dedicated soundcard with onboard is chalk and cheese - for sound quality a dedicated card smokes anything onboard. Even a cheap $40 Creative card will smoke onboard.

1000
 
1000 said:
Unless you have VERY shitty speakers, comparing a dedicated soundcard with onboard is chalk and cheese - for sound quality a dedicated card smokes anything onboard. Even a cheap $40 Creative card will smoke onboard.

1000
Click to expand...

I disagree. At this point the difference in pure SQ is subtle. Unless you have grounding problems with your onboard. Almost all sources money can buy in 2012 are so good they all pretty much sound the same. What really matters are the source files, speakers/headphones and the amplification IMO. I would never just plug my $200+ headphones directly into my (any) soundcard and be done with it. Even if it has a so called built in IC headphone amplifier, the sound is thin and lifeless. Rather use a reciever or full size amplifier with a beefy power supply, and use its headphone jack. If you use speakers worry A LOT more about speaker placement in relation to your position and the walls and room acoustics and get those things right before you upgrade anything. It's all about having high quality source files, good speakers, the physical setup, and abundance of power to drive your speakers to the fullest. You'll find whatever DAC you use doesnt really matter once you take care of those things first.

Just make sure you set up your soundcard right. Mute everything but the output you're using, leave software volumes at 100% and adjust with your amplifier, and enable bitperfect output if possible / disable any "enhancements" like EQs etc.
 
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I will say no. I have an Asus Xonar STX with ADH-900's and I will admit it sounds awesome. Though it won't change your life or make you awesome at gamming. It just sounds better. Unless you are super picky about sound, i wouldn't do it.
 
One thing that usually gets overlooked in these conversations is audio input, referring specifically to the quality of the mic/and or line in. For as much noise as is generated on the mobo's analog outputs, the same would apply for its inputs as well. If you're using a headset or mic with an analog output, then you'd fair much better with a sound card compared to onboard. USB headsets/mics would obviously not apply here though.

For reference, I have an HT Omega Striker, and can clearly hear a difference (though subtle) when using the mic in directly on the card compared to using my case's front panel attached to the sound card via headers, even though both inputs are routed through the card. Now imagine how much of a difference there would be if you're using the mobo's input.

It's pretty easy to spot who's using a quality headset/mic/sound card and who is not.
 
While you are correct that mic inputs vary, I find that it doesn't matter much because most people have far more serious problems. Background noise (TV, fan, children, etc) is the biggest, and incorrect levels after that. Until you are using a decent mic, have it placed very near to your mouth, and have the levels set right there is little point in worrying about input quality.
 
I'd say it depends. Some boards are more suceptible to noise and crosstalk than others. Some like the ASUS Republic of Gamers boards have better implementation of the Realtek sound than your average ASUS or Gigabyte boards do. There are differences in the DACs used in some solutions. And from board to board and brand to brand, not all are created equal in that some features technically supported by the Realtek ALC89x CODECs are licensed for a given implementation despite being technically capable of using those features. They can all do DTS or THX TruStudio, or EAX. Unfortunately not every board licenses the feature on every model.

But sound cards tend to cover the basics a bit better. For analog audio, especially when using headphones or anything without it's own power source, anything with an actual amp onboard is going to be much better than onboard audio is. Every board I've ever reviewed blows at recording too. Only the ones that include a separate sound card were any better. Some Creative implementations that had a bit more thought to them were better also, but still had some interferance compared to a dedicated, higher end sound card.

Then again if you are going to go with a digital connection to a receiver, then no. It doesn't matter a whole lot.
 
Listening to music with a good sound card sounds so much better than onboard audio.
 
Also the build quality of some onboard solutions are terrible. I just had to throw in a Audigy Platinum from before time existed to replace the onboard sound on my HTPC because of a physical malfunction in the connector itself. Probably something that could soldered relatively easy. Still very disappointing that these connector plugs are so flimsy.

And yes for sound quality it matters, surely, but mostly with non mp3 music or Blu Ray. That said I am surprised how good movies sound off Realtek, even on a $5500 amp + stereo speaker setup. Just bought an ASUS card to drive it though, havent heard it yet...
 
spaceman said:
Get a soundcard just bc they have better drivers. I use an asus dx digital out with the uniform drivers and it works great.
Click to expand...

I don't know about that.. Creative and ASUS have pretty mediocre drivers and driver support. Realtek has much more driver updates.
 
The daniel K drivers work very well for me. I went from on-board to my old x-fi xtreme gamer for this latest build (I used to have tri-sli so I couldn't use it) and the volume went up, the background hiss went down, in fact its silent now when its supposed to be, the directionality of the sound is more accurate.. ..(FYI, I used the computer for about three weeks before switching to the x-fi, I had forgotten about it). Hands down, my old dusty 2007 x-fi extreme gamer beats the socks off the realtek on my asrock extreme 4 z77I think its one of top realtek chips too.. No contest!
 
Dion said:
I don't know about that.. Creative and ASUS have pretty mediocre drivers and driver support. Realtek has much more driver updates.
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And......what does the number of driver updates have to do with the quality of the product?

But in general: Creatives official drivers stink. Use Daniel_K's or the PAX drivers over the official Creative ones.
 
gamerk2 said:
And......what does the number of driver updates have to do with the quality of the product?

But in general: Creatives official drivers stink. Use Daniel_K's or the PAX drivers over the official Creative ones.
Click to expand...

Umm...they can make getting a product to work as advertised extremely annoying. Hardware made of diamonds and fueled with unicorn blood is useless if there's no driver support for it. As an entire genre of gear, dedicated PC soundcards are the poorest maintained on the software side IMHO. All the big names suck at getting driver updates out the door, or at all.

Only Realtek does a decent job...because practically every motherboard on earth uses their gear.
 
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