On board audio vs dedicated

[_ASSASSIN_]

Let me say this again, onboard can power all but a few headphones to their fullest regardless of they caps with only store power for the amplifier to use. And using the rule of thumb that anything before the amp doesn't really matter. (which techically and electrically false) Point still being that onboard is all you need and electrically soundcards do you worse then onboard.

I am so glad you are here on the Audio forum <3

[ShearMe]

The only thing I can think of which MIGHT make the bass in a Xonar card "better" is a coloring amp, or a weird impedance vs frequency (but I'm not sure if this like, real). example being Sennheiser HD558

 

Then again, I'm not entirely sure whether this actually has something to say or not, just putting it out.

 

In a headphone/speaker, where impedance rises at the resonant frequency, so does efficiency. It takes less voltage to push the driver at the resonant frequency (that little hump in the bass region of the graph), but equally more voltage to cease it's forward momentum and pull it back. The rise in impedance in the higher frequencies is just a property of AC circuits.

 

Due to a soundcard's higher output impedance, it may indeed "color" the sound of certain headphones with borderline optimal dampening factor. The bass around the resonant frequency wouldn't be affected, but sub-bass will sound loose and floppy, along with most of the mids... overall a kind of boomy sound which some people might indeed prefer. Not exactly accurate audio reproduction, however.

[mr moose]

There is a very common theme emerging where people are hearing things and applying that understanding to audio, however I can't help but wonder how many people actually understand the role of a capacitor and how it works in an amp, specifically one based on an op amp.  Many years ago there was a boutique market for high end capacitors, and if you didn't have them in your amp then your amp in all likelihood would sound like rubbish, Or so the group think went.  That myth has been debunked and capacitors have now been relegated to one of two categories, 1, those that work and 2, those that don't.  IF the circuit topology calls for an electrolytic low esr 10uF 25v 5%cap then all low esr 10uF 25v electrolytic 5% caps will act the same (Bar the broken ones of course).   In today's world of engineering better caps is generally a marketing term, not reflection of better performing caps...

 

Unless of course you think Asus use $2 caps in the xonar range and 2c caps with a high failure rate on their motherboards?

[SSL]

1. Not everyone owns a decent motherboard that has decent output levels.

2. Some boards don't have optical or all the required connectors for 5.1

3. You clearly haven't used low end boards.

 

Stop trying to defend an elitist product choice: soundcards are useful in certain circumstances.

 

Why not just buy a better motherboard to begin with? Or wait and save if that's too expensive at the moment? Spending money intelligently is not "elitist".

[EmoRarity]

I am so glad you are here on the Audio forum <3

To bad that I hate it here, though I have meet some great people and learned a lot. The day I get banned will be a burden off my shoulders. 

[Guest]

Why not just buy a better motherboard to begin with? Or wait and save if that's too expensive at the moment? Spending money intelligently is not "elitist".

Because that sometimes isn't an option. Someones not going to go spend $150 to fix something that could be fixed with a $50 purchase.

[mr moose]

Because that sometimes isn't an option. Someones not going to go spend $150 to fix something that could be fixed with a $50 purchase.

I think he meant in the initial purchase of the motherboard, rather than buy an $80 board and a $50 sound card get a $100 board that = the sound card in SQ.

 

Although to be honest you can get motherboards with well implemented ALC 892 and ALC 1150 chips for sub $100 now so I don't quite know why anyone would buy something released 3 years ago with the older ALC887's.

[soulrider95]

My motherboard has both component and optical SPDIF out, and 5.1 audio. I spent $80 on the motherboard, so that's a thing.

 

Proof:

[_ASSASSIN_]

Because that sometimes isn't an option. Someones not going to go spend $150 to fix something that could be fixed with a $50 purchase.

 

I think he meant in the initial purchase of the motherboard, rather than buy an $80 board and a $50 sound card get a $100 board that = the sound card in SQ.

 

Although to be honest you can get motherboards with well implemented ALC 892 and ALC 1150 chips for sub $100 now so I don't quite know why anyone would buy something released 3 years ago with the older ALC887's.

like @mr moose said, mobo's that have a ALC 800 chip+ are really good and are a dime a dozen

[EmoRarity]

like @mr moose said, mobo's that have a ALC 800 chip+ are really good and are a dime a dozen

As my friend soulrider pointed out. His three year old asrock board we got for $80 has those outputs. 

[TheSLSAMG]

You clearly haven't used low end boards.

Let me step in here. I have used plenty of low end motherboards/devices.

 

AsRock Z77 Pro3

Gigabyte F2A75M-HD2

ASUS A8AE-LE

A few $300 laptops

Acer C7

Samsung Series 3 Chromebook

 

And all of them are lower end. The AsRock motherboard is around $100, the Gigabyte around $60, the A8AE-LE is 10 years old and the laptops were cheap as chips. I have also had the opportunity to use an ASUS Xonar DG. I can tell you with zero doubt that using the Xonar DG instead of the onboard audio on the motherboards yielded no discernable difference in my use with the Audio-Technica ATH-M50s. I may not be the perfect example in your eyes, but I am a picky person when it comes to audio. Do I wish my ATH-M50s had a warmer, bassier sound signature? Yes, but it doesn't detract from the fact that I have noticed no difference when it comes to onboard audio.

[h264]

See, the big problem here is some of us ... veterans ... are using the common wisdom from a time when motherboards had NO audio inputs/outputs.  But then again we used to need daughterboards for hard drives, modems, network interfaces (remember THICKnet?!?), and all sorts of other stuff.  Back then you needed a LOT of different cards to build a good computer, but now it's all just built in and every bit as good.  We don't still put math processors into our motherboards, but we used to.  Soon, graphics cards will be unnecessary, and then maybe the whole concept of a daughterboard will exist only in a computer museum somewhere.  It'll be sorta sad though since CONSUMER computers will be much harder to customize (server boards will always be ... uhhh... scalable).

 

So I'm gonna take another swig of beer and remember the good old days one more time before they slip away...

[ShearMe]

See, the big problem here is some of us ... veterans ... are using the common wisdom from a time when motherboards had NO audio inputs/outputs.  But then again we used to need daughterboards for hard drives, modems, network interfaces (remember THICKnet?!?), and all sorts of other stuff.  Back then you needed a LOT of different cards to build a good computer, but now it's all just built in and every bit as good.  We don't still put math processors into our motherboards, but we used to.  Soon, graphics cards will be unnecessary, and then maybe the whole concept of a daughterboard will exist only in a computer museum somewhere.  It'll be sorta sad though since CONSUMER computers will be much harder to customize (server boards will always be ... uhhh... scalable).

 

So I'm gonna take another swig of beer and remember the good old days one more time before they slip away...

 

inb4 onboard bitcoin ASIC miners

[mr moose]

See, the big problem here is some of us ... veterans ... are using the common wisdom from a time when motherboards had NO audio inputs/outputs.  But then again we used to need daughterboards for hard drives, modems, network interfaces (remember THICKnet?!?), and all sorts of other stuff.  Back then you needed a LOT of different cards to build a good computer, but now it's all just built in and every bit as good.  We don't still put math processors into our motherboards, but we used to.  Soon, graphics cards will be unnecessary, and then maybe the whole concept of a daughterboard will exist only in a computer museum somewhere.  It'll be sorta sad though since CONSUMER computers will be much harder to customize (server boards will always be ... uhhh... scalable).

 

So I'm gonna take another swig of beer and remember the good old days one more time before they slip away...

 

Irq conflict...   I remember those days.