Will getting a Sound Card improve my audio experience?

[rammstein420]

I have RealTek HD Audio. I am just wondering if getting a soundcard will make listening to Youtube and blu-rays better.

 

[society misfit]

Your system specs states you have a Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Pro? And may I ask, what is it you wish to improve upon?

Upgrading to a better sound card or an external source can improve your audio experience however everything within the audio chain must also be able to benefit from the change. This includes the media being played all the way to the speakers used. If your amplification is poor, or have poor speakers, then you may not see any improvements with changing your sound card. Same goes with the media. Highly compressed lossy media will not show much of an improvement in comparison to lossless media. Youtube, as great as it is for watching video’s, is not what I would call the highest of fidelity. However, blu-ray can benefit from better sounding equipment. Same can be said about lossy compressed MP3’s compared to uncompressed WAV and or lossless FLAC files.


Also within your system spec you mention a GeForce GTX 780 along with a Receiver (assuming it is an Audio/Video receiver). If your AV Receiver has HDMI, you could use the GTX video card to send PCM digital signal to the AV receiver via HDMI thus essentially turning your AV receiver into a sound card! No soundcard and or chip within the computer is needed – just a quality HDMI cable (and it does not have to be expensive!)



Failing that, you could also use the Toslink optical out (otherwise known as SPDIF) from your motherboard to your receiver. Again this will send raw PCM digital signal to your receiver thus allowing your receiver to do the processing. However, you will need the Realtek drivers for this config.


Let me know the rest of your audio system and I might be able to throw a few other idea’s your way.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Because there are so many parameters that determine what your listening experience will be—personal tastes, your hearing ability, the quality of your sound source, the acoustic where you will be listening, the quality of your speakers, the quality of your onboard sound, etc.—there is no way to accurately predict whether a sound card will benefit you. About the only way to reliably determine whether a sound card will benefit you are not is to actually try one to see how it sounds with your system. Try to get one from a vendor that has a generous return policy. I bought my sound card from a local vendor, even though it cost more, so I would have a bit more time to try out the card. I did get an improvement in sound quality in my system that was enough to justify the expense but not by much.

Onboard sound has improved quite a bit the last few years, to the point that there are less than a handful of internal sound cards that will give as significant improvement in sound quality. Even then, you have to have a pretty good sound system to take advantage of that increased quality. Also, if your sound source (CD, vinyl, etc.) is lacking, no amount of system improvement is going to sound better. Personal taste also enters into the equation; what sounds good to someone else may not sound good to you.

 

[rammstein420]

I don't see any other connections.

My receiver is built into the back of the subwoofer that came with the surround sound system. It has no HDMI connection or any other connections that I am not presently using that I can see.

Your system specs states you have a Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Pro? And may I ask, what is it you wish to improve upon?

Upgrading to a better sound card or an external source can improve your audio experience however everything within the audio chain must also be able to benefit from the change. This includes the media being played all the way to the speakers used. If your amplification is poor, or have poor speakers, then you may not see any improvements with changing your sound card. Same goes with the media. Highly compressed lossy media will not show much of an improvement in comparison to lossless media. Youtube, as great as it is for watching video’s, is not what I would call the highest of fidelity. However, blu-ray can benefit from better sounding equipment. Same can be said about lossy compressed MP3’s compared to uncompressed WAV and or lossless FLAC files.


Also within your system spec you mention a GeForce GTX 780 along with a Receiver (assuming it is an Audio/Video receiver). If your AV Receiver has HDMI, you could use the GTX video card to send PCM digital signal to the AV receiver via HDMI thus essentially turning your AV receiver into a sound card! No soundcard and or chip within the computer is needed – just a quality HDMI cable (and it does not have to be expensive!)



Failing that, you could also use the Toslink optical out (otherwise known as SPDIF) from your motherboard to your receiver. Again this will send raw PCM digital signal to your receiver thus allowing your receiver to do the processing. However, you will need the Realtek drivers for this config.


Let me know the rest of your audio system and I might be able to throw a few other idea’s your way.

 

[society misfit]

So is it safe to assume that you have your typical 5.1 computer speaker setup? If so you can disregard my answer to your other post about the best connection for I assumed you had an actual AV receiver. If you have your typical 5.1 computer speaker, I don’t think you will get any real benefit upgrading your sound card assuming you wish to continue to use your existing speakers.



Any interest in headphones? The personal audio market, ie headphones, is sprouting like a weed with many companies providing excellent quality headphones for reasonable prices. A quality headphone mated to a sound card such as the Asus Xonar Essence STX, with its built in headphone amplifier can offer an amazing audio experience. Of course this is 2 channel stereo only. But what you lose in surround sound effects (it gets mixed into 2 channel) you gain in detail and definition. But headphones are not for everyone so this is only a suggestion.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

My receiver is built into the back of the subwoofer that came with the surround sound system. It has no HDMI connection or any other connections that I am not presently using that I can see...

Can you tell us the brand and model number of your speakers?