Help choosing a soundcard

[Ruboka]

Hello,

 

can someone recommend an external or if not at least a good internal soundcard? my msi b450 gaming pro carbon ac has a supposidly good sound card integrated but i cant use the default realtec software to configure my 5.1 surround sound.They force me to use nahimic software what dont let you choose a fake surround sound option(next sentence).

Important to me is that i can listen to everything lets say my firefox browser playing music from youtube and the sound is played in a 5channel stereo setup if its not a native 5.1 sound stream.

All those creative asus and other soundcards have some 1 star reviews on amazon that are stopping me from buying one.

 

Please can anyone help me?

[FloRolf]

Honestly the Realtec should be able to handle that just fine. Maybe you should just reinstall the drivers/software or deep dive into windows settings to enable 5.1

[Ruboka]

15 minutes ago, FloRolf said:

Honestly the Realtec should be able to handle that just fine. Maybe you should just reinstall the drivers/software or deep dive into windows settings to enable 5.1

i installed everything from msi directly. sad they only let you set equalizers via nahimic software and that cant achieve my "5channel stereo surround ", that i realy want . It would be realy stupid not to be able to listen youtube music on all my speakers in surround

so i am searching for a proper soundcard so i must not use nahimic.

currently i am using Equalizer APO software combined with the Peace project, but i have to change between setups as it wont play native 5.1 surround sound signals correctly.

 

speakers are configured as 5.1 surround in windows as well. its just that nahimic is missing one feature.

[VIVO-US]

I don't think there's a soundcard out there that doesn't have 1-star reviews, so I just go for the one that seems to have the least.

 

My primary gaming PC has an Asus Xonar DS card and 5.1 speakers.  The sound from the card is fantastic, but when set to true 5.1, only surround audio files will be played through all the speakers.  Music only plays through the 2.1 stereo speakers unless I go into the Xonar program and change to simulated 5.1.  I'm not sure if other soundcards will offer better control than that or not.

 

I also have a Creative Audigy FX card in another PC.  The sound from it is also great, but the software is very limited.  I've heard their more expensive cards get you more options.

[Ruboka]

4 minutes ago, VIVO-US said:

I don't think there's a soundcard out there that doesn't have 1-star reviews, so I just go for the one that seems to have the least.

 

My primary gaming PC has an Asus Xonar DS card and 5.1 speakers.  The sound from the card is fantastic, but when set to true 5.1, only surround audio files will be played through all the speakers.  Music only plays through the 2.1 stereo speakers unless I go into the Xonar program and change to simulated 5.1.  I'm not sure if other soundcards will offer better control than that or not.

 

I also have a Creative Audigy FX card in another PC.  The sound from it is also great, but the software is very limited.  I've heard their more expensive cards get you more options.

thats weird. my old asrock z97x Killer motherboard with onboard audio did it all on its own without me needing to change sth. Just had to activate a feature that "spread" the audio, and i got surround sound from my webbrowser.

 

The ds is quite expensive here in germany. https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/531248-the-audio-boards-recommended-gear/ has the Dg linked/referenced in 5.1 soundcards.

Have you used usb soundcards? or can you write sth about usb cards(bad or good)?

 

[VIVO-US]

My card is a few years old now (PCI version), so it's definitely possible that sound software has improved since then.  I haven't tried USB sound cards, so I can't say for sure how well they do compared to internal cards.

[homeap5]

15 hours ago, VIVO-US said:

My card is a few years old now (PCI version), so it's definitely possible that sound software has improved since then.  I haven't tried USB sound cards, so I can't say for sure how well they do compared to internal cards.

If your sound card is good, there is no improvement. You can have less distortions / better reproduction, less noise level, but I assume that all of that you already have and lowering noise from almost zero to almost zero / 1.02 is not real improvement. And perfect format for sound reproduction is already made and have many years (CD).

 

So good USB cards (like Prodigy CUBE) are the same good as internal PCI/PCI-E cards. They may have better connectors, replaceable opamps etc. but there is nothing more you can do with sound - good soundcard is all you need and better mostly means marketing b***t. Like 192kHz and 32bits etc - unless you're a bat and need frequencies beyond 20kHz (and if you have special speakers designed for bats), there is no real benefit to use it.

 

My recommendation is Prodigy CUBE, but it's stereo USB card, not gaming one.

 

And good soundcard is important, but that's all - after you buy any of these hifi soundcards, you should buy good speakers, amplifier, headphones etc. THIS is important more than comparsion of which soundcard is better (but for sure buying soundcard is worth money - integrated sound is not so good in most cases).