Onboard Sound Vs. Add in Sound Card

Hey guys, I wrote a little blog article on this subject and was wondering if what I wrote is true or am I missing/wrong about something here?

http://www.kwokinator.com/blog/20100527/why-soundcards-matter

Cheers,
deltatux

 

I'm sorry but website promotion is against forum policy.

j/k



Idk, what are you asking exactly?

Onboard still doesn't match add in soundcards if that's what you're asking, for the reasons outlined in your blog.

Plus, it doesn't matter if your speakers are $30 or $300, both the CPU use/sound quality arguments are equally important imho...

 

There is a bit more to the picture then just SNR and the better it is the better the sound. You also have to factor in dynamic range, Noise, THD..etc..

 

Really eh? The whole point of that blog is just a small introduction why people should spend even $50 for a soundcard because I know a lot of my friends don't know that soundcard makes a difference while they have like nice 5.1 setups. Since my Facebook pulls RSS feeds off my blog, I thought I'd just write a small introductory article and then have it posted on Facebook hoping my friends would read it lol. However, I wasn't sure if I was getting my point across or am I saying things wrong so I wanted to run it through Gurus here lol.

So what's this dynamic range, THD and etc? What effect does it have on sound?

deltatux

 

Also if you are primarily after SNR you're better off ditching soundcards altogether and getting a quality external DAC.

 

Actually that is not quite true, many modern soundcards easily surpass external DAC"s for SNR and other measurements.

 

my onboard sounds better then my x-fi lol. thanks to the new realtek. there making better quality now

 

The X-fi's are quite dated now and are really not the best to be had out there anyway.

 

I just removed my x-fi and I'm using the onboard just to see if there is a difference, I can't tell, maybe it's a little less punchy... but my video card is a bit cooler!!!

 

What is nowadays? I don't follow hardware anymore and if it's PCI-e I can't use it. My graphics card hogs the slot sadly. So if it's not PCI-e then what is the best for PCI? or has PCI gone the way of AGP?

 

Your speakers or headphones are also a factor.

 

I have some nice Logitech "THX" 5.1s and they sound very nice. Sound is so relative, I need to record a full range sound spectrum for each sound card and look at the graphs to see which is better.

 

Logitech are not really good speakers, they are very limited in fidelity in comparison to others. Most PC branded speakers suffer from poor quality.

 

im using RCA RT2390 500W Home Theater with 4 100watt jvc side speakers and 125 watt bic america venturi center speaker and the sub that came with system. the original speakers that came with the system where giving to my dad for his 7.1 reciever

so what do you guys think would sound better with this setup.. the card i have or the ALC889a realtek chip on my motherboard???

for a week I been using the xfi.. some things sound good. im using the dolby digital live. i notice I have to use it, becuase if I dont all I get is messed up sounds with static.

edit..I turned on the onboard sound and connect my optical cable and system installed default the default and I had instant sound. my sound system switched over to prologic II and play music and everthing fine, but I cant get the xfi to do this..

 

When using digital the card or onboard have little to do with the sound quality.
The Digital to analog conversion is done by the receiver/DAC.

 

I noticed with the realtek onboard I had less fuctions, games would not give options for surround sound on the optical. I will stick with my xfi card
I did noticed that drivers this year for realtek, things where removed like dolby digital live and dts connect. during last year realtek had these options in there drivers, for some reason they remove it

and I notice that my card outputs 32bit at 48hz

 

...and you have? you make it sound like most people have a couple of grand to fork out for speakers.

You still never answered this. http://forums.guru3d.com/showpost.php?p=3632523&postcount=490

 

You mean if I had a set of real speakers like my jbl's or infinity's hooked up to an amplifier...I'm pretty happy with these run of the mill speakers for the simple computer hehe

 

I never suggested you need a couple grand to fork out.
However, thinking you will get great sound out of a $90 plastic speaker system is wishful thinking.

 

Well, no not really there are actually a few great "PC" type speaker systems out there. If you don't want to go with the discrete amp/receiver or speakers.

A long while back, I was given a set of Logitechs and I used them for awhile. They sounded reasonable for the price but there are also lacking in many areas when compared to higher grade speakers.

Just one of the main pieces of advice given around here is, if you want to start getting true high quality sound out of your PC, you have to lose the entry level "PC" speakers.
If you are happy with the sound that is all that matters. The PC is just another line level audio device so it can be connected to pretty much any other audio component such as amplifiers and receivers.