Are Sound Cards Needed These days?

[BomberAF]

With modern computers are sound cards really needed, is the sound that is generated from the main board enough to suffice everyone? I would have thought that you would only need a sound card if you wanted to connect to a surround sound or create music.

 

[TwoCables]

I think that a good sound card still provides a noticeably superior audio quality for everything.

 

[fireberd]

That is a very debateable question. I have a home recording studio with some high end audio equipment and studio monitor speakers. I had a SoundBlaster Xfi model sound card installed, for PC sound, but ran into some problems with it interferring with my recording audio interface so I had to remove it. Surprisingly, the PC audio did not suffer and the RealTek audio was just as good, for my uses. Both the SoundBlaster and the in-built audio systems have S/PDIF digital audio links.

Others will argue that a separate sound card is a must.

 

[TwoCables]

Well, I've been told in spirited arguments that digital is digital and so it doesn't matter. If that's true, then it's no surprise that there was no difference. For analog though, I always notice a difference between a good sound card and even good onboard audio.

 

[fireberd]

In my case, I was referring to the Analog PC audio.

For digital, some PC's will only output two channel stereo, where others will output 5.1 audio. It depends on the hardware. If someone had a PC that only had two channel digtial output and they wanted 5.1 a separate sound card that had that capability would be needed.

 

[bobafetthotmail]

For 99% of the users, no.

For those that need to to really really serious HQ audio/video recording/editing with the rig, yes (or buy a high-end gaming board whose integrated audio stuff is pro-level already, see the Gigabyte Sniper G1 and G3 or the ASUS RoG boards).

Anyway, speakers matter much more than that nowadays.

digital is digital and so it doesn't matter

That's only for interference from the cable. If the integrated card isn't pro-level it will ad some noise to the sound. Afaik this is detectable only by benchmarking nowadays.

 

[TwoCables]

In my case, I was referring to the Analog PC audio.

For digital, some PC's will only output two channel stereo, where others will output 5.1 audio. It depends on the hardware. If someone had a PC that only had two channel digtial output and they wanted 5.1 a separate sound card that had that capability would be needed.

Which X-Fi card was it?

1. XtremeMusic
2. Xtreme Audio
3. XtremeGamer
4. Something more expensive than these

For 99% of the users, no.

For those that need to to really really serious HQ audio/video recording/editing with the rig, yes (or buy a high-end gaming board whose integrated audio stuff is pro-level already, see the Gigabyte Sniper G1 and G3 or the ASUS RoG boards).

Anyway, speakers matter much more than that nowadays.

digital is digital and so it doesn't matter

That's only for interference from the cable. If the integrated card isn't pro-level it will ad some noise to the sound. Afaik this is detectable only by benchmarking nowadays.

I respectfully disagree because I have a sound card and I prefer its audio quality over my motherboard's onboard sound, but I don't need to do "really really serious HQ audio/video recording/editing" . I just prefer and enjoy higher quality audio for everything because I notice the difference.

Yes, speakers are more important because we have better computer speakers available, but I would say that a good sound card can make a noticeable difference that many normal consumers would deeply appreciate.

 

[bobafetthotmail]

Hey I said 99% of the users above. You are one of the 1% of the users that prefer (or can hear the difference of, as hearing isn't the same for everyone) better audio cards, or your integrated audio is crappier than average for that mobo.

I assemble PCs and from experience I can say I make more people happy by spending their cash in good speakers/headphones than buying a dedicated sound card (that would require good speakers anyway). Audiophiles do exist but have always been a minority.

The point is that for bulk of consumers, the integrated sound is pretty up to the task.

Btw, all that "sound card offload the sound tasks from the CPU" is nonsense nowadays. Any quad-core will laugh at that.

 

[TwoCables]

Every time I have convinced a normal person to try a sound card, they tell me that it really is noticeably better and that they're certainly nothing close to being an audiophile (and neither am I). I haven't had one single person say that they wasted their money or that they can't hear a difference or anything like that.

In my personal experience, I would say that the reason so many people are happy with onboard audio is they haven't experienced a good sound card (and by "good, I don't mean a $200 card, or even a $150 card). I mean, I feel that it's like with anything. For example: steak. Some grocery stores actually have some very decent steak and lots of people are very happy with it and see no need to try a truly good steak from a local butcher who uses grass-fed beef because they steak they get from the grocery store is quite good in their opinion. Well of course, once they try the better steak, they have a very hard time going back because now they understand what all the fuss is about.

 

[stormy13]

As said digital is digital, and makes no difference whether onboard sound or a card. The preference here comes down to whatever features might be available on a sound card over onboard. After that it doesn't make any difference as it is then the receiver or whatever the digital connection is made to, as it is what is decoding the digital signal to analogue.

I would say that the reason so many people are happy with onboard audio is they haven't experienced a good sound card (and by "good, I don't mean a $200 card, or even a $150 card).

You don't even have to spend that much. You can get a Xonar DG/DGX for less than $50 and it sounds better than most (all) onboard sound.

There is also this long ongoing thread about this very subject (started back in 2006, and still going) over at Guru3d,

Onboard Sound Vs. Add in Sound Card - Guru3D.com Forums

 

[TwoCables]

As said digital is digital, and makes no difference whether onboard sound or a card. The preference here comes down to whatever features might be available on a sound card over onboard. After that it doesn't make any difference as it is then the receiver or whatever the digital connection is made to, as it is what is decoding the digital signal to analogue.

I would say that the reason so many people are happy with onboard audio is they haven't experienced a good sound card (and by "good, I don't mean a $200 card, or even a $150 card).

You don't even have to spend that much. You can get a Xonar DG/DGX for less than $50 and it sounds better than most (all) onboard sound.

There is also this long ongoing thread about this very subject (started back in 2006, and still going) over at Guru3d,

Onboard Sound Vs. Add in Sound Card - Guru3D.com Forums

Yeah, I think I forgot to finish: it looks to me like I was going to say that a good sound card can be had for under $100 quite easily.

Onboard audio is improving, but even with the latest and best motherboard with the best onboard audio, a good sound card just can't be beat right now, especially for gaming.

 

[Wishmaster]

I think this really depends on the quality of your speakers/headphones for one.
And secondly, your hearing.

Assuming higher end equipment is being used, some will certainly notice the difference between onboard and a decent sound card. If you are one of these people, then the onboard solutions will likely sound muddy in comparison.

Others, will have a hard time telling which is which and will claim there is no difference. OR, they simply do not care as it's not important to them.


IF you know someone who has a setup, go have a listen for yourself. You'll know if it will be a upgrade worthwhile for you or not.

 

[Solarstarshines]

It truly depends on what Board you use and the Features it comes with some offer THX surround sound 7.1 analog and digital

some offer similar solutions that sound just as good as a separate card and most gamers these days play with Headphones and Depending on the Model the sound superiority will also be debated so to the average user I would say it doesn't matter unless you are really looking for those little pings and pangs your can hardly tell that are there

 

[smarteyeball]

For digital, some PC's will only output two channel stereo, where others will output 5.1 audio. It depends on the hardware. If someone had a PC that only had two channel digtial output and they wanted 5.1 a separate sound card that had that capability would be needed.

I ran out of room and had to remove my soundcard and now I'm back to 2ch stereo with certain apps and 5.1 with others.

With my sound card it was 5.1 via digital across the board. Digital wise the sound quality is comparable between onboard and dedicated. Only those who have decent/great speakers would be able to notice a difference, if any.

I'd prefer my souncard back due to features rather than quality.

Analogue for headphones, I'd give the soundcard the nod due to features rather than quality. Soundstage is similar.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
There are 3 issues here that you need to decide before this question can be answered properly.

1) Source of the original sound --if that's poor then no sound card even if it costs 1,000,000 USD will make an iota's worth of difference

2) Quality of the equipment the sound will be played on --if this is poor then same conclusion as 1) above

3) If the sound source is DIGITAL then the sound card needs to have the BEST POSSIBLE D.A.C (Digital to Analog) converter(s) in it. The Human ear can only hear sounds as a complex combination of analog SINE waves -- so the DAC needs to convert the digital stream into an accurate analog waveform. For the less "Mathematically challenged" designing this stuff accurately requires the gear to be able to handle a load of "Fourier Analysis" which is not easy to do cheaply for Hi-Fi / studio quality results.

For Analog input such as headphone output from an Ipod don't use the MIC or Sound inpu of a computer - just plug directly into the speaker system itself - otherwise you have TWO sets of Analog - Analog amplification -- which degrades the sound -- also MIC input is usually Mono. Even if it's not you want to avoid "Double amplification" anyway.

My own take on a lot of this is that if you are essentially listening to sounds either from compressed MP3 music (ITunes, Spotify etc) or even streamed Internet services then most computers (including laptops) will have an adequate enough sound card in them. Even DVD's / Blue Ray sound can be played decently on a computer with its standard sound card.

Usually the speaker systems designed for computers IMO are terrible - they are usually far to "Bassy" and "Boomy" and are really more for emphasizing sound effects in Games and movies rather than for high quality music listening so again what's the point of an expensive sound card feeding into a really horrible speaker system.

My solution is to STREAM my FLAC (uncompressed) music files or Internet Radio via a Logitech Squeezebox type server into the receiver which has Optical Input - and output that into my expensive Hi Fi set up which has things like state of the art DAC's in it and a nice set of Studio grade Mission Speakers. (There are plenty of other type of music servers around if you don't like the Logitech Squeezebox system).

For passable sound if I just want to play it on a computer I either use a set of Bose headphones or have a small computer Bose audio system - which sounds perfectly fine using the standard Audio found on most computers and laptops - not studio quality but good enough in most cases.

So the main issue here --is the DAC in the standard computer sound card good enough --probably YES for people used to listening to compressed MP3 music on those hideous Bud Earphones - and the rest depends on your external Speaker system.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[TwoCables]

I think this really depends on the quality of your speakers/headphones for one.
And secondly, your hearing.

Assuming higher end equipment is being used, some will certainly notice the difference between onboard and a decent sound card. If you are one of these people, then the onboard solutions will likely sound muddy in comparison.

Others, will have a hard time telling which is which and will claim there is no difference. OR, they simply do not care as it's not important to them.


IF you know someone who has a setup, go have a listen for yourself. You'll know if it will be a upgrade worthwhile for you or not.

I've never had high-end speakers, but I still notice a difference - and I'm nowhere near being an audiophile. Here are my current speakers:

ALTEC LANSING VS4121 Speakers - Newegg.com

Altec Lansing considered this system to be a "value" computer speaker system (that's what "VS" means: Value Speakers). They were $79.99 when I bought them. My previous speakers were even worse, but I even noticed a difference with those.

Still, I notice a difference and it seems like a pretty big difference to me and I think I'm more of an average user when it comes to audio. I even noticed a difference when I upgraded from the Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS to the XtremeGamer; the XtremeGamer made it sound like I upgraded to a much better speaker system. It's like I'm now finally hearing the true and full potential of my speaker system. The low end is no longer boomy, the highs are much clearer and more realistic, and just generally all of my audio is better.

It truly depends on what Board you use and the Features it comes with some offer THX surround sound 7.1 analog and digital

some offer similar solutions that sound just as good as a separate card and most gamers these days play with Headphones and Depending on the Model the sound superiority will also be debated so to the average user I would say it doesn't matter unless you are really looking for those little pings and pangs your can hardly tell that are there

I've seen people over on Overclock.net who recently bought a high-end motherboard that has some of the better onboard audio available and they say that they thought it wasn't bad until they upgraded to a decent sound card. The first thing they noticed is that, in games, the positional audio is far superior and much more realistic. Just as it was for me, they're saying that all of their audio is noticeably better. The part that sticks out to me the most is that before getting a sound card, they thought that their audio quality was more than good enough.

 

[bobafetthotmail]

Since we are discussing the matter, has anyone tried usb sound cards?

I either use a set of Bose headphones or have a small computer Bose audio system

I always keep hearing that Bose sells overpriced crap, but very few of that rumor comes from actual owners (as I don't know a lot of people that pay 90 euros for a couple earphones) is that stuff worth its price in your opinion? is it better than other stuff?

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Since we are discussing the matter, has anyone tried usb sound cards?

I either use a set of Bose headphones or have a small computer Bose audio system

I always keep hearing that Bose sells overpriced crap, but very few of that rumor comes from actual owners (as I don't know a lot of people that pay 90 euros for a couple earphones) is that stuff worth its price in your opinion? is it better than other stuff?

Bose has always had the reputation of putting out high quality sound gear but, anymore now, it's all overpriced for the quality one receives. I went to a store with the intention of buying a Bose 2.1 system for my computer a few years ago, based on the high quality audio from a friend's 2.0 system on her MAC (we have "interesting" discussions on Windows vs. MAC). When I compared the sound from the Bose with other systems, I wound up getting a Logitech 5.1 system that cost less and sounded much better (keep in mind the Logitech system had its speakers all lined up in a row instead surrounding the listener and still sounded better). It appears Bose is trying to justify their present day inflated prices on their past reputation.

 

[NullSpace]

I will throw in a note here about the Xonar DG (Though I've been having some issues with my sound in windows, see my other post). Having a good headphone amp built in is quite nice. It's allowed me to turn down the volume on the headset and thus reduce hum and buzz. That said, maybe because it's a 25-30 dollar card, the actual difference in sound quality seems pretty minor.

 

[Faladu]

Everyone? Never, but casual audio folks, including me at least with my $200 cost mobo the ALC-889 audio is very good.

I still have old sound cards mainly for the old gamepad port.

I overspent in the past on PCI sound cards, won't any more.

Beware of very cheap cards, read up on issues, I had to return one by Diamond would crash frequently, long forgotten though.

If I had to advise someone, assuming they have PCIe x1 port, I'd look for a sound card using that.
Sound cards don't seem to get rave reviews across the board, unless very expensive class, that audiophiles buy, that's all I have noticed looking at them occasionally, but not bought one in 5 years?