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Advantage of a sound card?

TPS_REPORT
By TPS_REPORT
in Audio
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Posted

This may sound like a dumb question to some people, but I want to know what the real advantage is to having a sound card in your system?

 

Do you get a very noticeable jump in audio quality?

 

Thank you!

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The simple answer is yes. You will notice the improvement in sound quality even when you have a cheap sound card compared to on board sound. 

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You basically get better sound quality and by quite a big margin. Music particularly sounds much better especially if you're using a decent pair of headphones. If you're an audiophile you'll definitely have a sound card in your system.

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Thanks! And is it the bass or just like the overall "richness" of the audio quality? or both?

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Thanks! And is it the bass or just like the overall "richness" of the audio quality? or both?

 

Usually sound cards will have a better DAC chip than the standard onboard audio does.  Also, they usually have more powerful amps as well.  It's usually better all around, unless the card is totally incompatible with your headphones.

 

However, all of this only really matters if you have good headphones or speakers with enough detail for any of the above to matter.  Start with good headphones/speakers and the AMP/DAC will finally matter enough to count!

 

Of course, first thing that improves audio quality is a better audio source.  Say FLAC over 192kbps MP3s.

"Pardon my French but this is just about the most ignorant blanket statement I've ever read. And though this is the internet, I'm not even exaggerating."

 

 

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Thanks for the quick responses! :) I'm off to get a sound card!

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Also worth of note is that unless you have a good pair of headphones, onboard solution doesn't seem half bad at all.

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how about the onboard audio of the MSI Z77A-GD65, its not the standard audio.

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Haven't played around with the MSI board but I'm getting the Asus p8z77-v Deluxe.

Any experience with that particular motherboard?

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It depends. With a headset, you will hear a decent difference from on board to super-low end sound card. But above that you will hear almost no difference. With a mid+ end headphone though, the difference can go from unusable to godly as you go up into the higher soundcards onto external dac/amps.

Current rig: i5 2500k & Gtx 560ti With Filco MJ1 TKL & Neutron Gtx 120gb SSD

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Also, it hasnt been mentioned already, if you buy something like a xonar STX, it looks fcking ballin' in your case, that card is so sexy, i stared at mine for 5-10 minutes when i first got it

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Also, it hasnt been mentioned already, if you buy something like a xonar STX, it looks fcking ballin' in your case, that card is so sexy, i stared at mine for 5-10 minutes when i first got it

Yeah, but what headphones do you use on it? If they are under 80 ohm's then the dg would have sounded just as good. I hate money being wasted :(

Current rig: i5 2500k & Gtx 560ti With Filco MJ1 TKL & Neutron Gtx 120gb SSD

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Yeah, but what headphones do you use on it? If they are under 80 ohm's then the dg would have sounded just as good. I hate money being wasted :(

Ive the DT770 from Beyerdynamic, 250omh version, i dno if they would sound just as good if they were below 80omhs with the dg. Im not an audiophile but if just more ohms were the strong point of the STX then it would be a fail, im pretty sure that the STX has better components and a better DAC than the dg but i might be wrong, i havent looked into it

Hey there. You are looking mighty fine today, have my virtual cookie!  :ph34r:

MY RIG: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/34911-my-setup-gold-ghetto-gg-lots-of-pictures/#entry446883

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Ive the DT770 from Beyerdynamic, 250omh version, i dno if they would sound just as good if they were below 80omhs with the dg. Im not an audiophile but if just more ohms were the strong point of the STX then it would be a fail, im pretty sure that the STX has better components and a better DAC than the dg but i might be wrong, i havent looked into it

For the dt770's, the stx is a bit over the price range you should be looking at, but that's fine, whatever :). Thank god you weren't running a headset or something off of it ^^

Current rig: i5 2500k & Gtx 560ti With Filco MJ1 TKL & Neutron Gtx 120gb SSD

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I have a Xonar d2x with PC350's and i didnt notice a huge difference at 1st which was slightly disappointing.

 

HOWEVER . . .

 

After a few months of using my soundcard with the headset i decided to test my old setup.

 

I started using my monitors speakers with the onboard sound just to hear what it was like and it was horrendous lol. I could not believe the difference in quality. There was so many small things that i was taking for granted.

 

After about an hour of watchin some youtube vids and playing a wee bit of a game i couldnt take it anymore.

 

So long story short . . . it makes a huge difference even if you are a bit sceptical at 1st.

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So I'm guessing the Corsair Vengeance 1500 headset is a no no for something like a Xonar?

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owait. the 1500 is usb so it wont be using the Xonar.

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ohhh ok! Thanks!

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So I'm guessing the Corsair Vengeance 1500 headset is a no no for something like a Xonar?

 

If you want a Xonar, get headphones with an impedance of more than 80 Ohms.  If you just want a headset, don't even bother.

"Pardon my French but this is just about the most ignorant blanket statement I've ever read. And though this is the internet, I'm not even exaggerating."

 

 

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OK! Thanks!

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This may sound like a dumb question to some people, but I want to know what the real advantage is to having a sound card in your system?

 

Do you get a very noticeable jump in audio quality?

 

Thank you!

Potential sound quality improvement as well as amplification, meaning that high impedance equipment won't be excessively quiet. You may want to consider an external solution such as the Essence One, it has the functionality of most sound cards plus more, including symmetrical upsampling and better sound quality.

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please for the love of god, get Xonar, I have had a Titanium X-Fi HD and it works AMAZING for the first 2 months, then it started to crackled, pissed me the f*ck off, I went back to my Xonar DX, not as good, but it doesn't break :)

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I'm planning to get Beyerdynamic DT 880s and an STX. Should I go with the 250Ohm version or the 600Ohm version? I am just worried about the 600Ohm version being too quiet.  Or would getting an external amp be required for a setup like this? I'd prefer not do deal with getting an amp, but I will if it really makes that much of a difference.

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I'm planning to get Beyerdynamic DT 880s and an STX. Should I go with the 250Ohm version or the 600Ohm version? I am just worried about the 600Ohm version being too quiet.  Or would getting an external amp be required for a setup like this? I'd prefer not do deal with getting an amp, but I will if it really makes that much of a difference.

 

If you can afford the 600Ohm version, get that.  More Ohms the better on the STX.  It's got wayyyy too much power for just about any headphone or earspeaker.

"Pardon my French but this is just about the most ignorant blanket statement I've ever read. And though this is the internet, I'm not even exaggerating."

 

 

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