Any tests measuring noise to signal ratios ?

[mindoculus]

Hi:

 

New here. I'm curious if anyone knows of any tests that can measure the noise distortion that appears off internal soundcards versus the supposed advantage gained by using an external DAC. 

 

Its become popular to trash soundcards and onboard audio because of the supposed pollution that comes from jamming so many circuits onto a motherboard, but I like to know how true that is generally and if there are tests measuring the veracity of these claims 

 

 

 

thanks, 

[EmoRarity]

Well putting on a pair of headphones and listening for any static or interference is a pretty solid and widely used test.

[EmoRarity]

Well, on my STX can`t hear any of that.

Doesen't mean that its not subject to the same electrical bombardment that onboard is....

[EmoRarity]

The Xonar Series of cards all come equipped with EMI/RFI shielding over the sensitive analog components.  This shield prevents any EMI/RFI in your case from adding interference and noise to your audio signals and eventually to your outputs.

Would only work if it was a Faraday cage (Which its not) and if it didn't have gaps and holes in it (Which is does)

[EmoRarity]

I know that the STX shield covers the most sensitive analog amplifiers circuits instead of the entire card and at the very end of the main removable EMI shield there is also a copper faraday barrier that isolates the power conditioning circuitry from the sensitive analog amplifications circuits.

Its all or nothing with EMI, putting half shield is the same as none. And they put half, and it does the nothing. The only why to truly stop EMI is distance, which is why an external solution works better then internal, because its not in the noisy environment that is a computer case.

[EmoRarity]

For me the STX works just perfect, I don`t have any problems.

My point is that its still subject to just as much EMI as onboard. So that marketing point is nothing more then BS to justify upping the price. 

[mindoculus]

Thanks for the replies. 

 

The issue is I don't hear any distortion. There is no hissing, buzzing, white or pink noise leaks of any kind.

 

Both cards and on-board audio account for this possible distortion in their noise to signal ratings, which tend

to be high enough so that no distortion is audible and the sound is clean. 

 

Solutions, of course, vary. Some are more effective than others. But are there any tests that can be done

or have been done that measure this supposed distortion ? 

[mr moose]

Hi:

 

New here. I'm curious if anyone knows of any tests that can measure the noise distortion that appears off internal soundcards versus the supposed advantage gained by using an external DAC. 

 

Its become popular to trash soundcards and onboard audio because of the supposed pollution that comes from jamming so many circuits onto a motherboard, but I like to know how true that is generally and if there are tests measuring the veracity of these claims 

 

 

 

thanks, 

 

Well, there are two ways to test these claims.  Blind testing, where the listener does not know what device he is listening to and rates the experience. Or a $10,000 D-scope that will measure to the n-th degree and show us exactly what the device is outputting. 

 

The real debate here is is onboard sound good enough,  and invariably the answer from most of us is the same: So long as it isn't broken or suffers interference then it is just as good if not better. 

 

A lot of debates seems to arise from this because people forget the caveat, that is assuming the onboard implementation "is good and there is no interference".  

 

As far as the actual chip goes, well they may as well be identical. The STI/STX/STD chip has 9dB better SNR than ALC1150,  for a human 9dB at the bottom of the signal and refers only to the noise floor as compared to the audio signal (SNR) In order to hear that difference you would have to be deluded or a liar.  given that even with top end headphones and amps most people can't detect over about 97dB the 115 of the realtek is ultimately sufficient.

[Sors]

For me is not BS, let me tell you why. With onboard at over 50-60 % volume I was able to hear white noise, with my old X-Fi Titanium I was able to hear white noise over 60% but with the STX I put it at 100% and I can`t hear white noise, nothing. (All of this without playing any sounds)

 

I am using a cheap Asus motherboard with B75 chipset, a VIA sound chip and I can't hear any kind of noise, so it doesn't really matter if is onboard or an Add on card, is just how the combination of components affect each other, with my old PC case I had a LOT of noise on the headphones, with my new case (and using all the same components than before) the sound is perfect.   So it works just as good as your STX is working for you, and it didn't cost anything more than what I paid for the motherboard.  

 

If anything I would say you had the sound cable inside your case in a bad position before, and when you plugged the STX the cable was routed on a different way that didn't affected the signal as much.

[mr moose]

I am using a cheap Asus motherboard with B75 chipset, a VIA sound chip and I can't hear any kind of noise, so it doesn't really matter if is onboard or an Add on card, is just how the combination of components affect each other, with my old PC case I had a LOT of noise on the headphones, with my new case (and using all the same components than before) the sound is perfect.   So it works just as good as your STX is working for you, and it didn't cost anything more than what I paid for the motherboard.  

 

If anything I would say you had the sound cable inside your case in a bad position before, and when you plugged the STX the cable was routed on a different way that didn't affected the signal as much.

 

 

It is possible he just get a dodgy motherboard or something like, the problem here is people who want to dismiss EVERY motherboard because they experienced one that was less than satisfactory.  

 

But I get what you are saying.